Any travel hackers in this room?🌴💳✈️

jikajika·Sep 15, 2021

Posted in:All Things Remote Travel Lifestyle

I'm becoming more & more OBSESSED with travel hacking as I learn more about it through Clubhouse Rooms. There are a few experts in the field that are FINALLY going to create online courses so us newbies can learn more strategies on how to make our moo-la-lah work for us as we hop scotch around the globe.

And even though there are YouTube channels that talk about this stuff, they seem to skim the surface. And I'm looking for STRAT👏🏾E👏🏾GY!

Like, I learned - since I have a Delta Card - that I can use a lot less points on an airfaire, if I go through one of Delta's hubs, than if I do a straight flight to or from my normal airport.

So Virginia (my homebase) --> Atlanta (a Delta Hub) --> Florence, Italy (final destination)

can be half the price than if I went from Virginia straight to Italy.

Or so I'm told.

But that's excellent information I will keep in the forefront of my mind when booking ANY travel.

I was listening to Ramit Sethi & Tim Ferriss talk about everything from prenups to travel tips (it's a REALLY GOOD conversation) and they were giving tips about "making requests to hotel services" to "how to become a VIP guest at a restaurant".

I thought it was fascinating.

Anyone else travel hacking in here? 😃

ShannonM·Sep 16, 2021

https://nomadlist.com is great site for nomad workers. Lets u know safety rating (for woman and racial politics) , cost of living, housing , where the good internet is lol all that. Also where people hang out. I havent been on in a while but found it useful.

jikajika·Sep 19, 2021

Ooooh! Thanks for this reference! I'll definitely check it out!

meganduero·Sep 16, 2021

Two things! First, follow @maxmilespoints on IG - he gives near-daily advice on getting the most travel perks out of certain credit cards, best times to book, how to find flights on the cheap, etc. And second, sign up for Scott's Cheap Flights - the site lets you put in your home city and then sends you updates on maaaajorly discounted flights all over the world.Happy travels!

jikajika·Sep 19, 2021

Just started following Max on IG. I like his IG strategy & am already saving some of his advice for later. And I LOVE Scott's Cheap Flights!!It's a shame that I never really got to take advantage of the BITCHIN' deals they find - but soon. In the name of Janelle Monae! - soon...😝🤘🏾

KristineWagner·Sep 16, 2021

Yep, I've been travel hacking for a few years by getting credit cards with the best bonuses, meeting the minimum spend, then using the points for travel! The key thing to remember is to pay your balance in full every month to avoid paying interest and to keep track of when you open and close each card. Some banks like Chase have a rule that you can't be approved if you have opened 5 cards in the last 24 months. I usually close the cards before I incur the annual fee and I've had nothing but smooth sailing so far. Round trip to South America on miles, free TSA precheck and global entry, access to United lounges - all very nice perks.

jikajika·Sep 19, 2021

I never thought about closing a CC, just because financial advisors have always warned me against it. How has that affected your Credit Score? Any hits to it? If so, can I assume that it's temporary?

KristineWagner·Sep 19, 2021

If you travel hack with credit cards and never close them, eventually you'd end up having dozens of cards, which I don't think is a good idea. I think closing an account does give you a temporary small hit, but not much because new accounts don't make up that much of your score (compared to old accounts). And part of the negative impact is that it lowers your overall credit ratio (as in, how much credit you use vs. how much is available to you, if you close a card you have $7k or however much the credit line was less to your name), but if you open a new card the ratio goes back up, or you can request a limit increase on one of your permanent cards to smooth out the bump. But no overall my credit is very good, so I haven't had any issues with closing accounts.

jikajika·Sep 20, 2021

There's one CC I'll close that has a tiny limit on it, and that I don't use anymore. So it shouldn't effect my score much.Thanks for your insight!

CourtneyS·Sep 23, 2021

I recently heard about while listening to the Darknet Diaries podcast in the 2nd half: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/84/ I didn't realize that people can make a whole job out of it!

jikajika·Sep 23, 2021

Oh yeah! If you go on Clubhouse and check out some of their travel hacking rooms, there are people who make 6-7 figures helping others figure out how to get the most bang for their buck using their points. I was in a room last week, and some of their strategies blew my mind!The stuff on YouTube is the fluff. The topical stuff. They dig in, in these CH rooms. Thankfully, one of the guys who runs a CH room is going to make a VERY DETAILED course (I think to be released in October?) on everything he knows about travel hacking, CC points, deals, etc.From what I've heard, it takes years to learn all these strategies & hacks, so the course should give us newbies some solid footing, you know?

r606·Oct 02, 2021

Hi @jikajika! Check out www.the48dots.com. It lets travelers swap homes so that they don’t have to pay for accommodations!