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Using Reward Miles to Travel Europe for Free.
https://www.johnnyfd.com/2014/07/using-reward-miles-to-travel-europe-for.html
I do things a bit differently than most people who "hack" credit card reward miles. I only use apply for one credit card at a time instead of 6-10, and I don't use tricks or gimmicks such as Vanilla reload, Bluebird or anything else to spend enough to pay for the reward minimum. Manufactured spending is a thing of the past, here's how to do it for real.
The reason why I don't do any of that is because I don't want to destroy my credit, and there are easier ways to rack up a TON of reward miles. Also, I'm really forgetful and I can barely remember to pay one credit card verses having to remember to pay six different ones. Credit card companies are smart, they bank on you forgetting to pay and forgetting or being too lazy to cancel.
I just spend the last four months in Europe from June 15th - September 15th and even though I flew business class there and back as well as stayed at some really nice hotels, I hardly spent a dime on travel as it was all covered by my reward miles. In fact I just redeemed over half a million miles last week, which gave me a $5,503.40 statement credit on my account!
Even though I recently sold my main dropshipping store for $60,000 which allowed me to take this four month vacation I'm still earning enough points through my other store and from miles I've saved up to have allowed me this freedom.
Step 1. Sign up for ONE credit card with great rewards or if you really want, sign up for 2 but don't go crazy signing up for 10 cards at once.
I used to use Capital One Venture and now I use Barclay Arrival. (more on that later)
Step 2. Use the card for all your personal and business expenses (how to start an online business even if you're broke), unlock the initial 40,000 bonus miles by spending $3,000 on the card within the first 90 days. (without using manufactured spend)
Step 3. Rack up a ton more reward miles running your drop shipping store or other online business and using your rewards card to pay for orders. (more on that later)
I've only been using my new Barclaycard for a few months and already racked up 198,476 bonus miles on the card. On February 11th I redeemed 187,510 miles on my Capital One Venture card and have racked up more than that since then.
Want an example?
See this post here: $1,875.10 in free travel.
Step 4. Redeem your miles for anything travel related which in my case included a One way Business Class Flight on Norwegian Air to Berlin, Germany as well as a bunch of hotel bookings.
Total value: $1,882.00 towards my trip to Europe this summer for free.
The reason why I switched from the Venture card to Barclay Arrival is now I get an extra 10% back in miles every time I redeem, so in this case instead of being left with 10,276 miles in my account, I now have 29,000.
Step 5. Enjoy Europe for free, and Repeat every 4 months in a different country.
The reason why I don't do any of that is because I don't want to destroy my credit, and there are easier ways to rack up a TON of reward miles. Also, I'm really forgetful and I can barely remember to pay one credit card verses having to remember to pay six different ones. Credit card companies are smart, they bank on you forgetting to pay and forgetting or being too lazy to cancel.
Updated for 2016:
I just spend the last four months in Europe from June 15th - September 15th and even though I flew business class there and back as well as stayed at some really nice hotels, I hardly spent a dime on travel as it was all covered by my reward miles. In fact I just redeemed over half a million miles last week, which gave me a $5,503.40 statement credit on my account!
Even though I recently sold my main dropshipping store for $60,000 which allowed me to take this four month vacation I'm still earning enough points through my other store and from miles I've saved up to have allowed me this freedom.
How to Hack Reward Miles
Step 1. Sign up for ONE credit card with great rewards or if you really want, sign up for 2 but don't go crazy signing up for 10 cards at once.
I used to use Capital One Venture and now I use Barclay Arrival. (more on that later)
Step 3. Rack up a ton more reward miles running your drop shipping store or other online business and using your rewards card to pay for orders. (more on that later)
I've only been using my new Barclaycard for a few months and already racked up 198,476 bonus miles on the card. On February 11th I redeemed 187,510 miles on my Capital One Venture card and have racked up more than that since then.
Want an example?
See this post here: $1,875.10 in free travel.
How to Redeem and Travel
Step 4. Redeem your miles for anything travel related which in my case included a One way Business Class Flight on Norwegian Air to Berlin, Germany as well as a bunch of hotel bookings.
Total value: $1,882.00 towards my trip to Europe this summer for free.
The reason why I switched from the Venture card to Barclay Arrival is now I get an extra 10% back in miles every time I redeem, so in this case instead of being left with 10,276 miles in my account, I now have 29,000.
Step 5. Enjoy Europe for free, and Repeat every 4 months in a different country.
From my mentor himself:
For those who don't know, I signed up for Anton's course on how to set up an online store a little over a year ago. He taught me, Chris, Derek, Ben, Michael and a hundreds of other people how to set up a profitable online business. We've all made enough money to travel to Thailand and instead of working at Burger King where some of us might have ended up managing we're all making enough to be able to really enjoy life while growing a real business.
For me, I'm fortunate enough now have the freedom of both time and money to be able to take a month off to sight see across Europe, and best of all, because I get so many reward points from the business, I get to do it for free.
To find out more or to sign up for Anton's drop shipping course, visit AntonMethod.com
It's the reason I've been able to earn millions of miles throughout the years and continue to do so.
How we joined the Entrepreneur Army.
Listen to the episode 42 of the Travel Like a Boss Podcast here. Where I sit down with Michael Coglan from Hawaii and ask him how he's managed to make enough money online to move himself, his girlfriend and his 1 year old baby out to Thailand.
Best wishes to everyone who dreams of traveling. Make it a reality. It all starts with putting in the work and committing to building a real business.
Warm Regards,
Johnny
So you're using this one card for both business and personal? I've always heard that the better school of thought is that you should have a separate business card for tax purposes.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely better to use a separate card for business and personal you're right. But the great thing about owning your own business, especially a location independent one is having a lot of things qualify as a business expense, especially travel. I still use a separate credit card for things like groceries which clearly aren't business expenses, but for most things such as going to dinner with other entrepreneurs are almost always business related. Or when I fly to Europe I'll be networking and meeting with potential suppliers, etc =)
DeleteHey Johnny. I hear Thailand attracts many low life of the West. People you wouldn't dream of socializing in your own country. What is your experience on that? Sorry, this is a little off topic.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the older western men are like that. I'm sure there are some great guys, a but a lot of guys 45+ are creepy and have terrible social skills. The young entrepreneur crowd however is completely different. It's a new generation.
DeleteHave you tried the Chase Sapphire Preferred?
ReplyDeleteBoth the Arrival and the Venture are MUCH better than the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Compare the terms yourself.
DeleteJohnny,
ReplyDeleteI used to used to be like you and used a cap one card and pay myself back for flights at a rate of 1 cent per mile until a travel savvy friend set me straight! I now use a chase sapphire card (personal) and a chase ink bold (b card). You get 2x points for dining/travel on saphhire and 5x Points for stuff like office supplies/internet/ cell phone on the ink. Points add up real quick. The real values is not paying yourself back at 1 cent a mile...but rather transferring the miles to Chase travel partners. For example you might pay $1500 for a NYC-BKK flight in coach costing you 150,000 pts. I would transfer the points to united and use 120,000 for a B- class tixx which prob costs in the $6-8,000 range and would cost you 6-800,000 Points. I would seriously check it out... Just sayin
Hey thanks for the heads up. I already get 2x points on everything with the Arrival card. There is however value in what you're saying with the 5x point offers for things like office suppliers/internet/cell phone, etc but in reality that's never more than $100 a month in those niche items. The hassle of converting points to miles is a pain in the ass, I'd rather just have it be cash. Cash is king. Points/miles give too many ways to trick yourself into thinking you are getting a good deal when you're really not.
DeleteMaybe you need to check here for some tips that you may need to use in the college. Good luck
ReplyDeleteTraveling Europe for free, hm, that sounds nice. Guys, I wanted to ask u to recommend for me writing service where I can pay someone to do my assignment in UK cause I have to make an assignment really fast guys. So if u know smth, pls write to me!
ReplyDelete