Travel for Free?

This is the third post of a series on travel for free. I mentioned in Facebook video that I was thinking about going to Chicago next for quick getaway during the week of Good Friday. Since I get that Friday as holiday off from my job, I am looking to make it 4 day weekend. For this trip, I may stay with family and not need to have hotel accommodations, but I’m going to show you how you can do a similar trip for 4 days or so to Chicago 3 months from now July 4th week. Unless you are sitting on a healthy stash of loyalty points right at this moment, you’ll need to build them up, and in this case expedite so as the price doesn’t go up. I happen to have 793,779 points and miles, so I have some more immediate options.

“Travel For Free to Washington DC”
“Travel For Free to Miami”

Credit Score Implications

It stills applies, how you can do for free if you have good to excellent credit. A good to excellent credit score for the purpose of this blog is in the range 710 – 850. This demonstrates that it pays to have good credit because it comes with perks if you know what to do. If you don’t know your credit score and want to find out for free, click on the banner for Credit Sesame above this blog post.

I am still taking on only domestic travel for now largely due to the fact I can’t get away from work for a long period of time until 2018. Although, I will be planning how I can use award travel for cruises which my cousin wants my wife and I go on with them to Alaska and one to Europe. Initial checks seems to confirm that we can use Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) for this and my wife has 100,000(UR) coming soon and another 80,000 (UR) once she receives the Chase Ink Business Preferred.

One thing in common you will see on a lot of the domestic travel is me suggesting you use the Chase Sapphire Preferred and/or Reserve and Chase Ink Business Preferred credit cards. I mentioned in my blog, How To Improve My Credit Score, if you have good credit and you are not maximizing award travel, you are leaving money on the table. Below will demonstrate that fact.

I also want to dispel any myth you might have about this strategy ruining your credit score, because last year I signed up for 18 credit cards, both business and personal, and my credit score is still 800+ as of March 21th. So, just do it, no more excuses!

My Credit Score
Chi-Town Here We Come

My wife and I both have family in Chicago, so we may stay with them, but I really love going to Chicago especially when it not real cold because people really get out and go to the parks after being cooped up all winter. It is really beautiful there, despite the gun violence, and I want to go back to this pizza spot my big cousin Ray took us to. We will see what other attractions, nightlife, and nice places there are to eat. There will be more for cities like Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, etc. that I will show how to achieve for free in later post. The time frame I used for this example is July 3rd – 6th, for 3 nights.

So, I am looking from Houston for this example to MWD and this can vary for you, but this just gives you a rough idea of the cost. This is also flight wise geared for one person (if a couple both apply for the Chase Sapphire, but get points on one before doing for other). If you get started right away, then this should give ample time for you the accumulate the points needed. I will show you the retail cost of the trip as well, if you hadn’t used award travel points/miles, and this will be your savings by leveraging that good credit. The trip is leaving out on Southwest and for accommodations rooms at the Hotel Chicago – An Autograph Collection Hotel for 3 nights.

Retail cost for the flight and hotel for this trip is below:

Flight

Departure
6:35am – 9:00 am – $262.90 (round-trip price)

Return
9:10 pm – 11:45 pm

Hotel

Hotel Chicago – An Autograph Collection Hotel
July 3rd – 6th – $152 per night

Total retail cost – $720.79

A trip to Chicago has been the cheapest of the series yet for only $720, but this was only for 3 nights and assuming you just had points on one Chase credit card to use; nonetheless, you see the opportunity is there! Let me show you.

The Strategy

I tell you all about how to meet minimum spend in the below blog post, so follow the instructions for any credit card you may apply for:

How to Meet Credit Card Minimum Spend on Chase Sapphire Preferred

For this trip, you are going to apply for 1 credit card to cover the whole trip. It is:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred – 50,000 Ultimate Rewards after $4,000 spent in 3 months $95 annual fee waived the first year

You can apply using link on the card name above.

If you get started before the end of this month you can have the points by June (preferably in May if you use the service Plastiq and enter Promo code 397303 pay your rent/mortgage 2 months in a row and put all your normal spend on the Sapphire card during that time as well) and be setup for fabulous trip to Chi-town in July.

Below I show the cost in points/miles for the same itinerary:

Flight

Southwest – 15,705 Rapid Rewards

Hotel

Hotel Chicago – An Autograph Collection Hotel
July 3rd – 6th – 36,632 Ultimate Rewards points

We have followed the instructions in How to Meet Credit Card Minimum Spend on Chase Sapphire Preferred, so once we have achieved the points/miles for the signup bonus, we are going to transfer 15,705 points from Chase Ultimate Rewards to our Southwest Rapid Rewards account(open an account if you don’t have one) to pay for the flight. We are also going book the Hotel Chicago – An Autograph Collection Hotel on Chase Ultimate Rewards for 36,632 points from Ultimate Rewards to pay for the 3 nights. That is the 52,632 points, 50,000 bonus from Chase Sapphire Preferred + 4,000 received from spend covers it, with points to spare. So, there you have it, $720.79 saved, 3 nights in Chicago during week of 4th of July holiday.

Conclusion

What are you waiting for?

Check out my Affiliate and Referral links here for products in services to help with investment, credit, cashback, and award travel. Also you can find more of my blog post on Start Here.