I’ve realized that many people just get overwhelmed with travel hacking because it seems like just too much to keep track of. We created the Travel Hacking College to help you learn the ins and outs of travel hacking in a simple, easy to understand format. Nevertheless, I’ve still heard some feedback from people that it’s all just too much. Thus, I thought I’d provide a guide for how to handle all of this information and how to start up your journey. Please let us know if this step-by-step guide is helpful.
Step 1
If you’re reading this, you’ve already begun the first step which is to read the travel hacking courses. I realize that it can be a lot to all take in so you should start off with the 101 and 201 courses. This will give you the basic foundation of what travel hacking is all about, what credit cards you are going to start with and why. Please note that this is a marathon, not a sprint. Too many people want to rush right into things and just start applying for all sorts of credit cards without any type of basic understanding of what they’re doing.
After you’ve read through all of the 101 and 201 courses in order, go back and read up again on the subjects you didn’t really pick up on. Everyone learns differently. Some people need to read the same thing 10 times while others can just read it once. Do what works for you. But after you read all of this you should understand the basics of travel hacking such as 1) what is travel hacking, 2) why sign up bonuses are important, 3) why earnings rates are important, 4) why redemption rates are important and 5) why Ultimate Rewards are better than airline miles. If you don’t understand those concepts, please don’t hesitate to ask in our Facebook group. Moving on when you don’t understand those concepts is going to throw everything off for you.
Step 2
You might think that this is the step where you should apply for a credit card but you’d be wrong. Depending on your free time, several of these steps can all be accomplished in a day. For others, it could take much longer. Work at your own pace. But regardless of your time frame, the next step should be to examine your own situation. Is travel hacking right for you? While I don’t think this is difficult, it might be for some people. It’s going to require you to put the time in. If it was that easy everyone would do it. Are you really going to put the time and attention into this? Again, it doesn’t require a ton of work but a lot of people don’t even have the time to read our courses and that doesn’t take long at all. You can read them all in an evening but a lot of people don’t have the time to do this after several months of starting. If life is too busy for you right now, maybe you should come back to this at another time.
You also need to look at your personal situation. Do you have a lot of credit card debt? You should probably pay that down and get your finances in order first. Can you trust yourself with credit cards? If not, maybe this isn’t right for you. Is your credit really bad? It might be better to work on that first and come back to this. You don’t need a perfect credit score but if your score is bad, this probably isn’t the right thing for you at the moment.
Step 3
We’re still not ready to get a credit card yet. I think you have to jump to the end at this point. Even if you don’t know the first thing about how to redeem points, you at least know the goal here is to redeem points for free travel. You should determine exactly what you are looking to do here. Is your goal a dream vacation? What will it take to book that? You can look all of that up without even having a credit card. After reading the 101 and 201 courses, you should know what credit cards you’ll want to sign up for, what your sign up bonuses will be and at least a rough idea of how many points you’ll have to earn through spending to reach that goal. This goal can change of course but you should at least start off knowing where you’re going before you start on your way there. Otherwise you’re just wandering aimlessly.
Step 4
Still more prep work. Do you have a spouse or partner? Talk to them about this. Are they ready to join you or will they just allow you to handle this for them? Maybe they want no part of it? It’s important to figure this out because two-player mode has a ton of advantages. If they will do this with your or just allow you to handle it for them, you’ll want to read through the 202 level courses.
Step 5
Ok, you read through everything, you asked questions, spoke to your spouse/partner and you have a goal. Now it’s time to apply for a card. Read through the Chase Trifecta articles to determine which one of those cards is the best one to start with. You should know what card you are getting, what card your partner/spouse will get and then what cards you’ll both get next and when.
Step 6
While you wait for your shiny new credit card, use this time to go through your current situation. What credit cards do you have now? Should you keep them or use your new card(s). In my opinion, this is the most difficult part for many people because they have already convinced themselves that their previous credit cards made sense for one reason or another. You have to let all of that go and accept the fact that your old credit cards are probably the wrong ones to use moving forward. I see way too many people hanging on to their Amazon card, United Airlines card, Costco Card, etc.
Your first card might not eliminate all of these cards but overtime, all of your spending should be earning the same points currency. Stop with the cash back and don’t try to earn different points currencies at the same time. That’s a more advanced topic. Focus on Chase for at least your first year.
Step 7
Go through all of your spending and I mean all of your spending. Every single expense should be put on a credit card as long as there are no fees for doing so. You might not have thought about paying your utility bills with a credit card but sometimes you can with no or very little fees. You may have over a dozen apps with credit cards stored for purchases. You have to go through all of these as you get new credit cards. Every single dollar you spend should be maximized to earn the most amount of points possible.
Related to this, you should also plan out how you’ll earn that sign up bonus. Sketch all that out so that you are not scrambling at the last minute to try to meet that bonus.
Step 8
Your credit card arrives in the mail and you’re ready to get started. It’s important to get organized here. Keep a spreadsheet so you know exactly when your card was approved (usually the day you applied). Make sure you know when your payment date is. Set a reminder. You don’t want to forget because then you’ll pay fees and interest which makes all of this pointless.
Step 9
At this point, you should have a basic understanding of how this works, what you are doing and why. I suggest you now go through and read the rest of our travel hacking college courses. This will help round out your knowledge and understanding of travel hacking.
Step 10
By now you should have read everything and you have met the sign-up bonus for your first card. It’s now time to apply for your second Chase card. Once you get it, you have to go through steps 7 and 8 again. If you don’t have a lot of spending, all of your spending should go on this new card to make sure you meet the sign-up bonus (usually only necessary for a Sapphire). Once you’ve met that bonus or if you don’t need to put all of your spending on once card to do that, it is time to make sure that you use the cards the right way. For example, your Chase Sapphire card should be used for everything to do with travel and restaurants (including Starbucks, Dunkin, fast food apps, etc) while you’re Freedom card should be used just about everywhere else.
Next steps
This will just get you started. The travel hacking college will guide you from here. Move at your own pace and if you have questions, ask! That’s why we also have the Simple Travel Hacks Facebook group.