Travel Hacking Series | Free Flights

Oh, you savvy traveler, you! It's time to ditch those old cash bookings and join the points game. With a little know-how and patience, you can use your hard-earned miles and points to book flights and score some really, really sweet deals. Let's dive into the world of award travel.

Step 1: Get yourself some points

First things first, you need some points to play the game. The good news is that there are a million ways to earn them. The fastest way is to sign up for credit cards with bonus offers. You can also book hotels or even shop online through points portals like Chase’s. Just make sure to pay off those credit cards on time, because nothing kills the thrill of free travel like high interest fees.

Step 2: Know your airline alliances

Before you start dreaming about sipping champagne in first class, you need to know which airlines are in which alliances. There are three major ones: Star Alliance, Oneworld, and SkyTeam. This matters because it determines which airlines you can book with your points. For example, if you have United miles, you can book flights on any Star Alliance airline, like Lufthansa or Singapore Airlines. It's like a big happy family, except instead of awkward Thanksgiving dinners, you get free flights.

Step 3: Search for award availability

Now the fun part begins. You need to search for award availability, which is essentially finding flights that you can book with your points. This can be a bit of a scavenger hunt, but don't give up. Use airline websites, like United.com or BritishAirways.com, to search for award flights. Remember when searching for availability, to search within each alliance. Be flexible with your dates and be open to different routes. Remember, you're playing the long game here.

Step 4: Book your flight

Once you find an award flight that works for you, it's time to book it. Follow the prompts on the airline's website to book your flight using your points. Make sure to double-check the dates and times, and pay attention to any fees or taxes you might need to pay. Pro tip: if you have elite status with the airline, you might be able to waive some of those pesky fees.

Step 5: Celebrate!

Congratulations, you just booked a flight using your points! Crack open that bottle of wine (or LaCroix, if that's your jam). You just saved yourself a ton of money and opened up a world of possibilities for future travel.

In conclusion, booking flights with award travel and points can be a bit of a process, but it's worth it in the end. Be patient, be flexible, and don't be afraid to ask for help from points-savvy friends or online forums like flyertalk. And most importantly, don't forget to have fun and enjoy the journey. Happy travels!

PS: More details on leveraging airline alliances

If you want to hack flights even further, take advantage of the fact that airlines work with other airlines through alliances. An alliance is a group of airlines that decide to partner up and cross sell each other’s flights, making it possible to travel around the entire world. For instance, United is in the same alliance as Turkish Airlines, Air China, and Lufthansa. Say you want to fly from New York to San Francisco in business class. Here’s where having cards from different credit card companies is powerful. Like I mentioned, you can transfer Chase points to United Airlines, and their business class goes for 65,000 points. However, on Turkish, they offer the same flight for even less. Capital One allows you to transfer to Turkish Airlines, so instead of transferring Chase to United, I’d just transfer to Turkish from Capital One.