Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
4
Getting the Right Credit Card
Travel credit cards are crucial to reducing your travel costs and making life easier. These credit cards
can get you free stuff and cheap flights, help you save on exchange rates, avoid fees, and make you
money. There are many travel credit cards out there that offer different kinds of rewards, from general points
programs to branded hotel and airline cards. I think they are great if you use them right (and pay off your bal-
ance at the end of each month). They are better than cash, especially when you can get so many rewards and
freebies from them.
No matter how long your trip is, you should have a special credit card for when you travel. Travel credit
cards offer too many benefits to pass up. With bonuses, I've accumulated probably over a million points. Here
are just
some
of the goodies I've earned:
More than 400,000 American Airlines miles
More than 120,000 United Airlines miles
More than 100,000 British Airways miles
More than 50,000 Virgin Atlantic miles
Four free nights at the Marriott
Citibank points for two free flights to Europe and $300 USD cash
Hilton Honors Gold membership and 60,000 Hilton Honors points
A free first-class ticket from London to Hong Kong
Dozens of free hotel rooms at the W Hotel
That's just for starters. I've been travel hacking for so long that the list of things I've earned could fill a
whole topic.
All these points have translated to free first-class flights, free nights at hotels, free upgrades, and free
money. And it didn't take me years to accumulate them either. I received a lot of points through sign-up bo-
nuses and special offers that allowed me to get lots of points within only a few months.
You're probably thinking that while all those points sound good, you don't want to hurt your credit rating
by opening so many credit cards, or pay fees on multiple cards. So let's discuss that first.
First, all the credit cards I've ever gotten have waived the yearly fee in their introductory offer. When it
comes time to renew the cards and pay the fee, I simply cancel the credit card to avoid the fee. Additionally,
