Travel hacking has become a very important part of our lives. It is the reason why we are able to take great vacations without having to make dramatic changes to our lifestyle. Without travel hacking, we would not be able to take the kinds of vacations that we do. This section of my blog is devoted to how we are earning and spending points and miles in order to enhance our lifestyle.
Travel is important to me. I personally believe that travel broadens perspectives. It alters viewpoints by exposing people to new cultures and lifestyles. I believe it is especially important for children and young adults to gain these perspectives early in life. I also believe that the world would be a better place if we all got to know each other a little better.
Travel Hacking In Theory is Easy
The concept of travel hacking is fairly easy. People use a variety of methods, mostly credit card spending and credit card signup bonuses, to earn a bunch of points and miles. Then they redeem those points and miles for hotels and flights when they are on vacation.
While there are other ways to travel hack, such as sitting through timeshare presentations, the points and miles hobby is how we choose to do it. It has worked very well for us, and we are happy with our lives, even though it does add complexity to our lives.
Travel Hacking is Actually Complicated
While points and miles might seem fairly easy, the problem with them is that virtually every airline and hotel has its own points currency. Banks also have their own currencies, which can sometimes be transferred to the airline and hotel point currencies, but not all. On top of that, those banks will only transfer those points to certain programs, and each bank has different partnerships.
When you add in the complexities of peak vs off-peak pricing and limited availability, this can all seem like it’s not worth it. Trust me, though, it is.
Helping Future Travel Hackers
My goal with this page is to help those people who want to travel, especially those with kids, learn how to use points and miles to enhance their travels. I want to try to simplify these concepts so that you don’t make some of the mistakes that we made when we were starting out. Travel hacking is complicated, and there are a lot of great resources out there, but my aim here is to help the beginner get a foothold into travel hacking and get their family out there on vacations.
This section has three pages that are devoted to helping people learn about travel hacking:
- Points Checks – This page explains how we earn and use our points, month by month. I also give explanations as to the strategies that we were using each month, so that you understand why we did certain things at that time.
- Points Bookings – This page is devoted to a more in-depth look at what trips we booked and why we booked them the way we did.
- Points and Miles Strategies – This page contains information about points programs, including information on hotel programs, airline Programs, and transferable points programs.
Newby to Expert Traveler 