Kristyn Meyer is on a journey to make herself the best human she can be. These posts are a reflection of that. She welcomes your support via reading and through commissioned affiliate links within her posts! Please subscribe to her email list to stay up to date on all of her shenanigans! (psst… there’s a free gift involved)

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Does the Art of Travel Hacking Make a Significant Difference?

When I made the decision that 2023 was going to be our travel year, I knew that to take the trips that I wanted; I would need to find a creative way to pay for them. Travel, in general, is expensive. Taking international trips as a family of four was going to be astronomical.

I have always been a person that searches for a deal. Throughout the years, I have dabbled in extreme couponing to stock up on groceries for a lower cost. This practice was helpful during the pandemic when we were unsure what would be available or what would happen financially.

On social media, I kept seeing videos that talked about travel hacking. I knew it involved credit cards and airline miles, but that was where my knowledge ended.

To learn more about the practice, I took to Reddit. In the past year, I have spent a considerable amount of time on the forum. However, my first week of reading through all the travel jargon was confusing as all get out. There are acronyms upon acronyms that you have to decipher in order to understand the process and the different award programs.

How I Got Started With Travel Hacking

Once I felt like I had a basic level of understanding, I started researching the various travel credit cards and comparing them with the benefits I sought. I first obtained the Capital One Venture X card. There are a lot of perks that come with this one, including automatic trip protection. However, I primarily wanted it to get the spend-up bonus.

Once you spend a certain amount within a designated period (decided by the credit card company), you will receive a bulk amount of points, which can be converted to airline miles, hotel nights, or even gift cards.

You will often see opportunities to earn 70,000 or more points once you reach the level of spending. The extent of what you can get for those miles will depend on what deals are going on and where you want to go.

My Next Card

After I got the Capital One, I decided to try for an American Express card. I ended up getting approved for the Platinum, which has an abundance of benefits, including $15 per month to use on Uber Eats.

With the bonus miles that I got from both cards, I could purchase four round-trip air tickets to Montreal and Paris. The only extra cost I was responsible for was the taxes for the trips.

Additionally, some cards allow you to have an elevated status with other programs. We got a Gold membership with a few different hotel chains and be part of the President’s Circle with Hertz just for having the credit card.

As we got more points on the card, we could use them for other components of our trips. Regarding our Montreal vacation, we used a combination of points and cash to get our hotel for a low price. In Italy, we could use points for the hotel on our first stop in Milan.

We continued to use the cards on everyday purchases to rebuild our points. When we decided to book our cruise for 2024, we knew that we would need to purchase one-way tickets because our departure and arrival ports were in different locations. Also, the cruise originates in Dubai, so we have a hike to get there.

Just by putting our everyday spending on the cards and paying it off at the end of the month, we were able to purchase our return flights (six return flights in total because my in-laws are also going) for just the price of taxes.

While they aren’t my favorite airlines, I have noticed that the best deals come from the Air France and KLM families. Because of this, my next card is the Air France Bank of America travel card. While there aren’t a lot of extra benefits with this one, the spend-up bonus is significant at 70,000 points.

Does This Decrease Your Credit Score?

This question is always at the top of people’s minds. It’s the travel-hacking equivalent of the infamous homeschooling query: “Aren’t you worried about your kids getting enough socialization?”

The answer is that it hasn’t hampered my credit score at all. Instead, it has boosted it substantially. Because having additional cards increases my overall credit limit and decreases my credit utilization score, my scores have done nothing but benefit from opening multiple new cards.

I once watched a TikTok from another travel hacker with over 20 credit cards. To start, I can’t even think of 20 cards one would use for this purpose, but that’s beside the point. Even with 20 cards under her belt, her credit score was over 800. She made sure to alternate using the cards to keep them utilized routinely and paid them off in full each month.

The Goal of Travel Hacking

The overall reason for introducing travel hacking into your life is to be able to go on vacations for a lower cost than what you would typically pay out of pocket. Many people settle for the price tag they see when they initially search for a flight or hotel room. However, you don’t have to settle for that.

I still have a lot to learn, and I will outline many more details about this practice in future posts. My reason for this post is because so many people ask me about travel hacking and how we finance the crazy trips that we have been on and have planned.

I am the first to admit that we have gone on some incredible vacations and have even more amazing ones in the pipeline. I will also tell everyone who asks that there is no way we would be able to afford these trips without travel hacking. The cost savings is overwhelming. We are making our dreams come true through benefits offered through travel credit cards, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.