Are We Leaving Free Money On The Table When Traveling?

Sep 27, 2018 @ 9:18 AM

This is a question I find myself asking a lot lately. I am not one prone to envy because luckily, there are very few things that l like that are out of my economical reach. Nonetheless, more often than not lately, I have been asking myself that very question. This makes me wonder if there are others with the same inquiring minds. Let me try and explain why l think we just might be, and I am looking into input from you.

are we leaving money on the table while traveling rooftop view
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The roof top view of the hotel, complete with a bar!

Leaving free money on the table whilst traveling? Guilty!

Most of the long time readers of this blog might remember that it actually started out as a finance blog and quickly shifted over to travel related posts. The major reason being that l realized that l didn’t want to write just about money saving and early retirement stuff. I also didn’t feel comfortable discussing our net worth. I have admiration for people who do, but it just wasn’t my thing. That being said, I love watching upward ticks of net worth because..well..yeah.. I am a nosy bugger! :-).

This post came about because l kept seeing more and more bloggers, especially FI (Financially Independent) or Early Retirement (ER) writers talk about how they manage to take all these trips for little or no money using airline frequent flyer miles and points. In the old days, you had a credit card or two and earned points when you use the card for eligible purchases. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but l kind of remember something like you spend $2 and earn an airline mile. You had to spend quite a bit, but if you did, you could trade your miles for free flights. 30,000 points for instance would get you a one way ticket within the U.S. My points on my Amex kept adding up, and truthfully l never paid much attention to it. I  finally did while researching a flight for Federico’s family. The ticket prices were through the roof and I was looking for ways to save money. Lo and behold, I had accumulated enough points to fly them from Rome to Houston for their first ever trip to the U.S. We were so happy to make their life long dream come true and not end up out of a crap load of money.

leaving free money on the table while traveling
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My in-laws checking out hats at the Galleria. He died not too long after this, so dream fulfilled.

Our last up close event of seeing points being used was when we spent the weekend in Florence, Italy. We met up with our wonderful friends who were visiting from the U.S. They used their frequent flyer miles to stay at this jaw dropping, beautiful hotel while we stayed at some horrible studio apartment. The suite was big enough to sleep 10 people comfortably. I noticed the price on the way out, €1200 a night!!!!

leaving money on the table fed with florence view
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Their view of the Duomo, while we had a view of the street from a cold basement studio..yikes! Their trip was funded with frequent flyer miles.

Reading some of the blogs nowadays, I keep seeing the words Travel Hacking.  My first thought was that it was something illegal, like a scam, hacking into the Pentagon files or something equally nefarious. I looked it up and saw that lately, hacking is actually a smart thing. Travel Hacking is defined as the art of collecting frequent flyer miles in order to earn free travel. It seems that there is indeed a whole set of skills needed in order to succeed. I think the main one for sure is financial responsibility. From reading, you definitely need to be on top of your game and pay off your total balance due on a monthly basis before racking up interest charges which will of course eat into any perks that you might earn. I’ve seen people talk about spreadsheets and stuff like on J. Money’s site to keep track. That sounds way too much work for me to do. I like and have been reading Justin’s blog for a long time (use the first link to find his blog) because he seems to have mastered it marvelously and has traveled extensively by travel hacking.

leaving money on the table san gimignano view
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View from San Gimignano. We took them there the frugal way. By bus which was a new experience for them. He wanted to order a private car 😉

We travel on a budget luxury basis. I do my research and try to find us the best deals as l hate throwing money out the window. This is why l wonder if we are indeed leaving money on the table when we travel. We fund our trips with treasured savings. We also closed our credit cards when we moved. In Europe, cash is still king. Credit cards carry really high interest rates, so I’m not sure it’s something that would work here. Travel hacking seems to me like a good way to save money while traveling. Just being able to upgrade from economy to business class or use an airline lounge during a layover sounds awesome, and it kind of stings when you see some toffee nosed git talk about flying first class or staying at a five star hotel for free on a backpacker budget. ;-). I love it, and l want some of that!

I don’t claim to know much about travel hacking, but take a look at any article about it, and you’ll see what l mean. If you want to find out about which cards give you the best travel bang for your buck and save a bit of moolah, be my guest. I am writing this to see if anyone in or outside the U.S has had any success travel hacking. Were you able to get new credit cards after you moved out of the country? I mean, we have no recent job history and l doubt if they would accept “professional travelers” as jobs 🙂 . I want to make sure we are taking advantage of every possible loophole available :-).

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Have you ever used frequent flyer miles accumulating credit cards or are you leaving free money on the table as well? If you have, what have you used your miles on?

 

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46 thoughts on “Are We Leaving Free Money On The Table When Traveling?”

  1. I am guilty of leaving free money on the table. I have a card accumulating points as I type. But I don’t know the password to log on and figure it all out. So many thing, places, companies, people vying for our attention. I find it hard to keep it all organized and straight. And like you word so well, there’s not much I’m wanting or needing for. I make do and am happy. I figure if I’m not, it’s me that’s the problem and not what I have and don’t have. But, it does seem a SHAME to neglect what I’ve earned and could easily use if I’d just take 30 extra minutes to figure it all out. I mean, it’s literally just sitting there!—Terri

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  2. This is a great post. I know for a long time I was leaving money on the table. Not taking advantage of rewards and all do that. Thanks for reminding us that it’s okay to save while splurging on a awesome vacation!

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    • Thanks Andrea. I am guessing the banks and credit card companies know there are more of us than the hackers so there is profit to be made still. I kind of wish there was a way to get into it. Check yours out.. I mean it’s already earned. Redeem it for a pen even ;-).

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    • Yep..haha! We like to travel on a budget, but get the biggest bang for the buck :-). I do tend to do a lot of research to accomplish it. I just wish l could figure out a way to do miles as well.

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  3. Great question and, like you, I’ve been trying to figure out the magic key without all the hard work! Our credit card accumulates air miles slowly and we should have enough now for our next visit back to the US (should we ever want to return before the end of this administration!) And then there’s that sticky point of having to spend a lot to get those points … While we like and appreciate nice places and airline upgrades, some of the fun of travel is trying to find more for less. BTW, gorgeous photo of the view from San Gimignano. Going by bus works for me!

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    • There has to be a way. Unfortunately, I think it’s only possible if you’re in the States or had the hindsight to have gotten the cards before leaving. It’s just too complicated now which is such a shame as l would really like to take advantage of the perks. The only consolation is that we tend to just pay cash for what we need and so no credit card debt. In Europe as you know, there are still so many things that you can’t pay for on credit, so it may not accumulate as much. I will keep researching though, just in case :-). Our friends were so surprised, it was priceless. It rained on the way back and the bus was late…but they have a different story to tell instead of all comfy ones..haha!

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  4. I have a chase sapphire preferred card. I love it. I’ve used it to purchase flights and I have used the points to cash out or just pay the card itself. There are times when I do forget to use it, and then I am wasting my own money.

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    • It was nice using Federico’s points to pay off his balance. Looking back, I wish we had opened some lines of credit strictly for getting miles. It’s too late now it seems :-(. Good for you! Get those miles and perks!!!

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    • It’s easy to do isn’t it? Your mind set is that it would be difficult to redeem them, and it used to be that way. You had to fly on days when the temperature was below 7 and the humidity less than 2% and other ridiculous restrictions. I think they are a bit easier now, so try and use them :-).

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    • Most definitely. It’s not worth it to accrue miles, but pay a higher interest rate and lose money in the end. I think a lot of people don’t grasp that. You definitely have to be disciplined. That being said, l don’t think l would want to get to the point of doing spreadsheets just to keep track ;-).

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    • I can imagine how much more expensive it would be with a big family. So glad you’re able to get some points to help pay for things. Good for you for taking advantage of your travel miles. I really wish l’d planned ahead and kept some cards.

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  5. ‘Nice post KemKem!

    Sadly, I too leave money on the table. At the time I was doing my Masters, I was flying in and out of the UK every 6 weeks and that was when I started using my Miles & More card, but at some point, it became cheaper to fly with Easyjet sooo. And I accummulated quite a few points anyway, but I let them go ‘cos I didn’t have the time to fly anywhere else, and I didn’t know what to do with them…!

    Flyer Miles don’t really work in Europe, and certainly, having too many credit cards in Germany is a No No, and will even get you blacklisted! Individual credit rating is taken very seriously here, and sadly, cash is king.

    I prefer to save using department store cards instead, so I have a card for the French Dept Store, and a couple of luxury clothing stores…Let’s just put it this way, when Fashion Week comes along, I don’t let the side down and I have never paid more than €150 for a fancy designer dress!

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    • Thanks for confirming what l already suspected. It will work nicely in the U.S, but forget about it in Europe! Damn ;-). A little hindsight would have helped. I started thinking about asking because l saw someone mention a Barclay rewards card in the U.S and since they were a European bank thought they might have something like that here. I can imagine how tough getting a credit card is here, plus the interest rates are insane. I kind of like how cash is king though, you don’t bury yourself in debt. Oooh.. I can imagine what sort of damage you do at Fashion week. Thank God we never go anywhere like that. Federico would definitely do damage as a clothes horse :-).

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  6. I really wish accumulating airmiles here wasn’t so hard. As someone said, cash is king but you’d still be shocked at the amount of credit card debt people owe- crazy interest rates and all! I still get a major kick out of finally being able to pay mine off a couple of years ago. Sayonara & never again lol!
    We have travelled more in the last 4-5 years but still haven’t quite got the hang of travel hacking as you call it. Like you, I research, research and then research some more to get the best deals. With that said I am not into suffer head; I still like a degree of comfort.
    The backpacking, hostel, shared bathroom life is for the birds:-D! Or teens who are gross anyway & don’t care lol

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    • I was hoping, just hoping that maybe because l saw the Barclay ad where they were literally throwing money at people, like 400 dollars plus a bunch of miles to get the credit card, l was hoping they would have the same in Europe..haha. You guys have confirmed what l sort of knew…bah! You’re right though, I couldn’t do the backpack, shared bath thing. I didn’t even do it when l was young, I’m not about to start now :-). Good for you for paying off the debt. It’s a load off, isn’t it? We only have a smallish mortgage and that’s it so l am thrilled. Yep..we will keep researching and researching.

      Reply
  7. Guilty as charged 🙂

    We’re going to Europe for 9 weeks this summer. I think we’ll end up spending around $10,000 for a family of 5 for the whole trip. Maybe a bit more if we dine out more frequently than I’m expecting.

    Travel hacks involved: 300,000 United points slowly accumulated over a few years. Bought a ton of airbnb gift cards at 20% off. Then researched the heck out of sweet but cheap airbnb apartments that will be comfortable for our family. Then booked tons of train and bus tix months ahead of time to get the best deals. So far all the tickets have been 40-70 euros total between two major cities (for the five of us!).

    We aren’t doing it on a shoestring budget completely. Throwing in a few weeks of rental cars, several pricey admission tickets to cool places (caves, ice caves, castles, El Alhambra, etc), and even a first class train upgrade in Germany (access to 1st class lounges = free snacks, sandwiches, beer, soda, hot chocolate and coffees = cheaper than buying breakfast, lunch and dinner for 5 🙂 ).

    We signed up for the Chase Sapphire Reserve which will earn us each 100,000 more points that can transfer to United (2/3’s the way to another round trip ticket to Europe x5 🙂 ) but also get us the Priority Pass Select card. That gets us access to all the airport lounges on our flights to/from Europe and around Europe. So we’ll get a free meal on either end of our flight (or at least some snacks, fruit, and beer/cocktails to keep us from starving till we leave pricey airport meal options for “real” food in the city).

    So that’s how we’re hacking it. Some credit card points, lots of cash outlay but on discounted stuff. I like that “luxury budget” travel idea you mentioned, as we do that (sometimes).

    Reply
    • Thanks for letting us know just how you did it Justin :-). It’s great to use those points. Good mention on the airbnb gift cards. I had no idea you could get them at a discount. I have to look into that because even though credit cards are not a thing in Europe, we definitely should be able to get those. Every little bit helps. I think what also helps is the fact that you think ahead and purchase. I end up getting bitten in the butt as l wait so long and pay full price. We pay more than that from Seville to Valencia each time because l get the tickets 2 days before. I will definitely try and plan ahead. Your itinerary and budget sounds awesome. It definitely sounds like a luxurious trip. Thinking back, we probably shouldn’t have closed all those accounts ;-). Someday we’ll meet up and l can hit the Mrs. up for lessons on that delicious looking soup of hers :-).

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  8. We agree entirely about the challenge of keeping track of many cards, points, passwords etc and have pretty much settled on three cards that we have had since we were in Canada. We pay for everything we possibly can on credit card but as you say it is more difficult in Europe. That being said rail, bus, hotels and many restaurants can be purchased by credit card which gives us pretty good reward miles. So far in 5 years we haven’t had a monthly balance to pay off so we’re happy with our style. We can count on regular free hotel nights and buses too. The CapitalOne Aspire card is really simple and you can apply it directly to any travel related expense. So we do agree, no constantly getting new cards and spending more than we normally would for the miles. Plus it is much more complicated without a home base. Great article!

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    • You guys were smart to keep some cards to help with airline miles. had we thought about that, we probably would have left at least one open. Now, it’s impossible to get one and definitely not one in Europe..haha! The points certainly add up, especially when it’s for things that you need anyway. How nice to be able to able to have free nights. Yeah..anything that requires me to have some sort of spreadsheet is a no-no.. :-).

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    • Thanks Agness. It kind of sucked when we realized that we were indeed leaving money on the table, but more importantly..it’s too late to rectify for us :-(. Hopefully, it can help others.

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  9. I have used my points for travel. The points were used to buy flights, and most recently a hotel stay. Great write up

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    • Nice! I really wish l had thought about that part before we left. The urge to pay off all debt and be credit free overrode the points (but we didn’t think of that). It would be nice to have points since we fly a lot and use if for perks like upgrades and hotel stays like you. Live and learn :-).

      Reply

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