How to Use Travel Rewards Cards to Score Free Vacations

If you’re looking for ways to take a vacation for free (and who isn’t?), you can do that with the use of travel rewards cards. Those are credit cards that offer you benefits in the form of travel discounts when you use them.

Here are a few ways that you can use rewards cards to score free vacations.

Frequent Flier Miles

Some cards offer promotions that give you as many as 40 miles per dollar spent. If you decide to pay bills and make significant purchases with that credit card (make sure you pay off the balance every month, though, or you’ll be spending extra money on interest), then you stand to rake in the miles with your credit card. If you rake in enough miles, that’s free travel for you and your family.

Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses

Some credit card companies don’t even wait for you to spend money. They offer sign up bonuses just for accepting their credit card. In some cases, you can earn as much as 100,000 miles on a specific airline by just saying “yes” to a credit card offer. That’s an opportunity that’s a little too good to resist.

Keep in mind, though, that if you accept additional credit, your credit score may be affected. However, if you’re keeping your debt utilization rate low, it shouldn’t move more than a few points either way. It’s worth noting, though, that this strategy of using credit cards for travelers really works best for people who have excellent credit.

Get Bumped

Want free airfare to anywhere in the continental United States? Get bumped.

Here’s how it works. You show up for your flight and it happens to be overbooked. The passenger service agent working at the desk will often use the loudspeaker to announce that he or she is giving away a free ticket to anywhere in the continental United States to someone who is willing to give up a seat. You give up your seat, the other person gets on the flight, and you get a free ticket anywhere. Plus, the airline will reschedule your original flight as well. Everybody wins.

If you’re feeling really brave, you can wait when the agent calls for the free ticket. If nobody claims it, the agent will sometimes “up the ante” and offer two free tickets or some other additional incentive.

Remember, the idea here is to do this in connection with your already free flight that you earned with your rewards card. That way, you’re getting another free flight on top of the free flight you already have. In other words, you’re cleaning up so you’ll have plenty of money left over to tip taxi drivers and hotel staff.

Complain

If you’ve been treated to poor customer service, even at an airline where you earned a flight for free, then you should complain to the management. Sometimes, you’ll find that you get offered free additional miles or some other incentive to stay with the company.

Yes, it’s possible to take a vacation for free. Pay attention to credit card offers, use your credit cards to earn as many flight miles as you can, and practice a little shrewd consumerism. Soon, you’ll be going to your favorite resort on somebody else’s dime.