How To Get Cheap Flights Using Travel Credit Cards – Travel Hack #1
For anyone who slow travels on the cheap, air transportation is a major expense that needs to be managed. Thankfully travel hacks exist to reduce these costs significantly, and one of my favorites is using travel credit cards to score cheap flights.
Using this hack we purchased 2 one-way non-stop tickets to Guatemala City from JFK airport for $11.20 total or $5.60 per ticket.
This is probably cheaper on a per-ticket basis than the typical person spent on gas commuting to work today.
Interested?
The purpose of this travel hack is to use travel credit card signup bonuses to get cheap flights. All you have to do is pay your normal living expenses and make normal purchases using that travel credit card. Done properly, there is no downside to this aside from paying the annual credit card fee.
This is a lengthy post, so grab a coffee and let’s get started.
Here is the breakdown of the process:
- Figure Out Where and When You Want to Travel.
- Sign-up for a Frequent Flyer Miles Account and Pretend to Book a Ticket to Determine Costs.
- Identify the Travel Credit Card(s) that Will Meet Your Points Needs.
- Sign-up for the Credit Card(s) that Will Meet Your Needs.
- Transfer Your Credit Card Points to the Frequent Flyer Account of the Airline That Meets Your Needs.
- Purchase Tickets With Frequent Flyer Points.
- Done!
Let’s now work through these steps, so you can see how this all works!
1. Figure Out Where and When You Want To Travel
Example: Tokyo, Japan from April 24 to May 6, 2023.
Japan – the land of sushi, manga, sumo, anime, temples, ninjas, and Godzilla. Who wouldn’t want to visit? Let’s plan a trip.
Because Connecticut is somewhat near New York City with lots of exotic departing flight options, we are willing to drive the extra hour to the airports there. This is compared to Bradley International Airport which serves Hartford, Connecticut. Feel free to try your local airport, but in this example, I am trying to minimize layovers.
2. Sign-up for a Frequent Flyer Miles Account and Pretend to Book a Ticket to Determine Costs
We’re fans of using the United Airlines website to book the majority of our cheap airline tickets. This is for two reasons:
- United Airlines is part of the Star Alliance group of member airlines. Meaning that frequent flyer points within a United Airlines account can be applied to ANY member airline within the United Airlines system. This is a big deal.
- The United Airlines booking system makes it easy to apply United points toward ANY flight offered by a Star Alliance member.
So more often than not we book using the United Airlines booking page but rarely fly on United Airlines airplanes.
Signing up for their frequent flyer miles program (MileagePlus) and pretending to book a ticket is easy. Go to www.united.com and you’ll see the following page, noting the areas I circled in red:
This is actually a good opportunity to sign up for a free United Airlines MileagePlus account. Click on the SIGN IN link, then click on the JOIN NOW button and fill out the information to get an account.
When that is done, click ADVANCED SEARCH in the lower-left side of the screen. You’ll be taken to a page that looks like this:
Note the information I entered for a round-trip flight for 1 person from New York to Tokyo. Make sure the MILES button is selected.
Further down the page, you’ll see the following:
Note the information I entered, making sure the ALL STAR ALLIANCE AIRLINES button is selected. This is critical. Now press the FIND FLIGHTS button.
You’ll then see a page that looks like this:
Listed here is a series of flights departing JFK Airport on April 24, 2023. Notice the cost in MileagePlus points to purchase the flight, as well as any additional fees in dollars.
I like the circled option. This outbound leg of the trip to Narita Airport is 38.5K points on Nippon Airways in Economy class with a $5.60 fee.
Pretty cheap and a direct flight! Now pick up your jaw off the floor and press SELECT for that flight.
After pressing SELECT, another list of flight options will appear for your return flight to JFK on May 6, 2023:
Of the two flights available, I like the circled one. Nonstop economy class on Nippon Airways, from Haneda Airport to JFK, for 35K points plus a $45.57 fee.
So the total cost for the entire round-trip flight is 73.5K points + $51.17 in fees.
Seeing as round-trip flights from New York City to Tokyo typically exceed $1,000, I’d say we did pretty well. And 73K points for a round-trip flight of this length is a really good deal.
You’re welcome.
So now that you know how many points you need, you have to find a travel credit card that will allow you to get those points. On to the next step!
3. Identify the Travel Credit Card(s) that Will Meet Your Points Needs
For anything United Airlines-based, Chase Bank travel credit cards are usually good choices.
But one of the very best for beginner travel hackers is the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. The catch is that you need a good credit rating (750+) to apply and be accepted. As of this writing, there is a 60,000 Chase Unlimited Rewards point sign-up bonus if you spend $4000 within 3 months of being accepted. Note that there is a $95 annual fee, which is well worth it if you travel.
One of the reasons that this card is so valuable is that it gives you the ability to transfer your Chase Unlimited Rewards points to many partner airlines, including your United Airlines MileagePlus account.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is excellent for many other reasons, including:
- No international transaction fees.
- Primary car rental insurance coverage.
- 3x Chase Unlimited Rewards points per dollar spent at restaurants.
- 2x Chase Unlimited Rewards points per dollar spent on travel expenses (ex. tolls, bus tickets, airline tickets, etc.).
- Many more benefits, all of which deserve their own post. Really, every travel hacker should have this card.
Because you earn a minimum of 1 Chase Unlimited Rewards point per dollar spent on the card, you are guaranteed to have at least 64,000 Chase Unlimited Rewards Points when you meet the signup bonus spending requirement.
But you are still short 10,500 points!
The best way to make up this difference is to sign up for a second card, the Chase Freedom Unlimited card, which pairs wonderfully with the Sapphire Preferred card.
You should do this AFTER you have earned the Sapphire Preferred card signup bonus.
The Freedom Unlimited card is great to pair with the Sapphire Preferred card because:
- You earn a 20,000 Unlimited Reward point signup bonus (worth $200) if you spend $500 on the card within 3 months of having your application accepted
- No annual fee
- 3x points per dollar spent at restaurants
- 3x points per dollar spent on drugstore purchases
- ALL other purchases earn 1.5x points per dollar spent
- You can transfer your Freedom Unlimited Unlimited Reward points to your Sapphire Preferred card to reap the travel benefits of that card!
So the Freedom Unlimited card is actually a better card for earning Unlimited Reward points on normal purchases than the Sapphire Preferred card, but you NEED the Sapphire Preferred card because it allows you to transfer Unlimited Reward points to partner airlines.
The Freedom Unlimited card DOES NOT do this. For this reason, most travel hackers have BOTH of these cards in their arsenal.
4. Sign-up for the Credit Card(s) that Will Meet Your Needs
If you are copying my United Airlines example, use this referral link to sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. We’ll get a few thousand points as a kickback if you sign up for these cards through the links provided…thanks in advance!
Once you have the card, charge every life expense you can on it to earn the sign-up bonus.
This may take several months. For a couple, pretty much living a normal life with normal expenses will cause you to reach the spending goal to receive the bonus points for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card (~$1,333/month for 3 months).
Always pay off the entire statement balance each month to avoid interest charges. Accumulating debt to get cheap tickets is counterproductive and should be avoided.
Remember, you are still short 10,500 points, so you’ll still need to sign up for the Chase Freedom Unlimited card AFTER you have earned the Sapphire Preferred bonus.
To sign up for the Freedom Unlimited card, feel free to use this referral link, and make sure you spend $500 on the card within 3 months. Again, we get a few thousand points as a kickback. But if you have found our advice useful the points will help us sustain our travels. Much appreciated!
Keep in mind that you don’t HAVE to sign up for both cards if you aren’t deadset on the Japan itinerary described above! Just find a different destination that costs no more than 60,000 MileagePlus points to travel.
5. Transfer Your Credit Card Points to the Frequent Flyer Account of the Airline That Meets Your Needs
Now that we have 80,000+ points to spend, we need to transfer enough Chase Unlimited Rewards points to our United Airlines MileagePlus account to cover the tickets. Links to do this are found on your personal Chase Sapphire Preferred card account page which was created when you were approved for the card. Point transfers take only a couple of moments for them to show up in your MileagePlus account.
And remember, if you aren’t interested in transferring Ultimate Rewards points to United Airlines, there are many other transfer partners to choose from.
6. Purchase Your Tickets With Frequent Flyer Points
Repeat step 2 above, except this time complete the transaction.
When it comes to booking flights using points, I advise booking as early as possible (tickets become available ~ 1 year in advance) because there are only a limited number of seats set aside for points users. The good point deals sell out quickly, leaving the slackers with the dregs.
7. Done!
Happy travels to Japan!
Cheap Flights Wrap-Up
We’ve covered a lot of important stuff in this post, but the dividends of mastering this process are huge.
I used this same method to score 2 one-way flights from New York to Guatemala City for 39,000 total MileagePlus points + $11.20 in fees. I hope this inspires you to start planning your own cheap flight itinerary!
And this is only the most basic form of credit card travel hacking.
We did not go into the subjects of credit card churning to build up your bank of points, coordinating with your significant other to double your point accumulation potential, or any of the other tactics to score cheap flights.
For example, in our next travel hack post, I’ll explain how we booked 6 one-way international flights for a total cost of $315 and 69.5K MileagePlus points. Amazingly, two of those flights are business class and two of those flights cost 0 points!
Do you have any questions about the process? Ask in the comments section below! And don’t hesitate to share this post with anyone who might find this information useful.
Thanks for reading!
