I’m looking for some help with travel hacks, specifically air miles. My good friend is getting married in April 2021 and she lives in Georgia, I’m in California so I know the air fair is going to be pricey. (I’m also going to be in the wedding and know costs will be high.) I’m looking to get a credit card so I can save on my travel, in the long run I mostly use SouthWest air lines because of my location and was wondering if you had any advice on how their points work. Is it 1000 points per 100 miles ? An example would be great. Or if you have any other suggestions regarding travel in a budget friendly way.
I know that my mom has a Southwest credit card and racks up lots of points on it by putting just about everything she can on the card. Southwest seems to be a good airline, but one of the things I don’t like about them is their lack of assigned seating.
I’d also recommend playing with your dates and times to see where you can find the best rate.
Watch out for credit card miles rewards programs, which often end up costing people more money in the long run. The Pennyhoarder just had an article about this: Credit card rewards.
We started using a Southwest Visa for any bills that will accept it for payment and stay on track with total by not rolling over balance and writing the amount out of our checkbook as we normally would. We also use it for most online shopping or large purchases and again pay the bill out of our checking right away to not carry a balance.
It’s definitely good to have a healthy dose of caution when contemplating travel hacking. As a travel hacker, however, I think it can be extremely valuable if done correctly.
To put it short, travel hacking is getting points (either airline or credit card points) that you use towards travel. The most lucrative way to do this is by signing up for credit cards with larger signup bonuses. I’ve been able to travel for free or a lot cheaper doing this. But the word of caution: if you don’t pay off your balance in full every month, travel hacking is not for you.
That said, there are a lot of great Southwest credit cards with signup bonuses that should completely cover your trip to Georgia, depending on dates. Generally, 1 mile is 1 point. But that doesn’t translate to $1. Thepointsguy and others have written about how much various credit cards’ points are worth. I would recommend looking into getting a credit card, as a signup bonus is the only easy way to get a free roundtrip ticket from one coast to the other. You can do other things, like online shopping via an airlines online shopping portal, to get points. But these don’t add up very quickly.
Also, if you’re worried about your credit score going down because of signing up for a new credit card, don’t be. Since beginning to travel hack, my credit score has only improved, thanks largely to my credit utilization rate going down. Another word to the wise, credit card companies generally want to see a score of at least 700 to approve you for the more lucrative travel credit cards. Hope this helps! If you have any more questions, I would search on sites like thepointsguy because they have all the answers.
