Chase credit cards are the cornerstone of travel hacking. Simply put, they have some of the best cards, best sign up bonuses and the best rewards program. They also have a strict limit in the amount of cards you can open within a specific time (called 5/24 which you can read more about here). If you’re just starting out, your travel hacking journey should start with Chase.
As you start to get into this hobby you might be tempted by those credit card mailers that you’ve been throwing out all of these years. Unless they say Chase on them, you can ignore them for now. Remember, travel hacking involves having a strategy and a plan so if you allow slick marketing to take you off of that plan, you’re not gonna have the success you’re looking for. Same goes with those in-flight offers for credit cards. They sound good but again, they should not be part of your plan yet.
This process is going to start out with you getting the Chase trifecta which is 3 different Chase credit cards. We’ll discuss those cards in detail in this post and why the 5/24 rule is so important to understand in this post. Simply put, if you don’t do things the right way, you could find yourself without the proper cards. All of the Chase trifecta cards will earn Ultimate Rewards points. You may see a card advertised as “$200 cash back” but that’s really another way of them saying that you are getting 20,000 points. What’s even better is that you are going to do things the right way so those 20,000 could easily be worth $400.
Speaking of points, Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program is recognized by many as the best in the industry. While there’s always going to be some people that favor a different rewards program, the vast majority of people in the travel hacking community will tell you that Ultimate Rewards is the gold standard. Travel hacking is a two-pronged strategy. You want to 1) earn as many points as possible for spending as little as possible and then you want to 2) get the most amount of value out of those points. Ultimate Rewards allows you to easily do this.
If you have a spouse, partner or someone else close to you that you’ll be regularly traveling with, you can earn a lot more miles using “two player mode”. We’ll discuss what this is and how it works. You’ll need to know what to do after you have the Chase trifecta under your belt since you’ll have two “slots” open in your 5/24 journey. By the time you are done with this entire process, you should have enough points for a nice trip like a week in Tokyo all for just about free!
Only once you have understood all of these concepts and filled out your 5/24 slots should you think about venturing outside of Chase. A lot will depend on how much time and effort that you want to put into this. Some people have over 20 credit cards active at any one time. They use a spreadsheet to keep track of everything and have points across several ecosystems. Other people are content with 3 to 6 credit cards generally staying with Ultimate Rewards. That’s a personal decision but if you’re just starting out, it’s not one you have to make now. For now, let’s learn about the Chase trifecta.
Once you’ve earned all of these points and you’re ready to do something with them, you want to have a great rewards program and Chase has the best in the business according to most people. That’s because you have to many options. Remember, we are focusing on Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program instead of an airline mile program because of it’s flexibility. If you earn 50,000 United miles, you can book a flight with United and not much else. If you earn 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points (which you can do by spending less than you would trying to earn those miles) you can then transfer those points to any of these companies:
Chase airline partners:
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France (Flying Blue)
- British Airways Executive Club
- Emirates Skywards
- Iberia Plus
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
- United MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Chase hotel partners:
- IHG One Rewards
- Marriott Bonvoy
- World of Hyatt
So that’s three domestic airlines and three of the biggest hotel programs. In other words, you are not locked in. If you have 200,000 points and you want to book a trip, you can take one flight on Jet Blue, stay 2 days at a Hyatt, 2 days at a Marriott and 2 days at a Kimpton. You can then fly home on United. All of that would be close to free. You’d just have to pay a few dollars in booking fees for the flights. I’m not saying that all of that may be the best use of points but it is an example of how powerful Ultimate Rewards points can be.
While other rewards programs are pretty good and are definitely worth pursuing at some point, nothing beats Chase and with the 5/24 rule, you’ll want to devote your focus to Chase until you are further down the road. The 201 courses will help you get through the Chase Trifecta. After that, we’ll discuss the other cards you should get.