Last time, we talked about "leverage" with the airlines when it comes to getting what you want. Sometimes, though, that simply isn't good enough. The fares still are too high, or the travel providers simply are not listening.
It's time to call in the "travel hackers." These are folks who have a passion for travel. And they're especially passionate about traveling for free. Remember the fellow in California who bought up cases and cases of pudding to accrue American Airlines miles? Called the "Pudding Guy," David Phillips collected more than 1,200,000 miles through a promotion with Healthy Choice. Now, he and his family will fly nearly free for years.
Chris Guillebeau believes in sharing the secrets of "travel hacking" with travelers around the world. He recently published an online guide, called "Frequent Flyer Master," where he details some of the best schemes to get lots of frequent flyer miles.
He knows what he's talking about, too. By his own calculations, he logs about 100,000 air miles a year.
"Because frequent flyer programs favor the airlines from the beginning, it's only fair to do everything you can to earn as much mileage as you can and also be able to easily redeem your mileage for great travel awards," he writes. I agree.
Guillebeau details many bargains available to travelers to earn miles, including banking with Ameritrade (earn up to 25,000 miles with a $50,000 deposit) and financing with Lending Tree (earn 3,000 miles per $10,000 of home purchase or sale price).
But then he starts to get creative. For example, Guillebeau really likes the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card. "There's a 20 percent bonus on transferred points to almost any airline," he writes. "That means when you transfer 20,000 points to an airline for an award, they add an additional 25,000 miles."
The Starwood group includes Westin, Sheraton and W hotels, among others. So with the card you can combine miles and points, staying at nice hotels for $40-$60 per night. "There are a lot of other benefits," he adds. "This card is recognized as the number-one card for both air fare and hotel awards," he writes.
In addition to the Starwood Amex card, there are a bunch of other reward cards out there, including the Bank of America/Alaska Airlines Visa card.
Recently, Guillebeau and I discussed the latest British Airways offer in conjunction with Chase Bank. The card costs $75 per year, and you get 50,000 British Airways miles when you make your first purchase.
(Here is the link: http://www.mychasecreditcards.com/britishairways/hp_postpin )
After spending $2,000 in three months, you receive an additional 50,000 miles -- for a total of 100,000 miles. That's enough for two tickets from Alaska to "Zone 1" cities in Europe: London, Frankfurt, Paris and a couple of others. Through their partnership with Alaska Airlines, British Airways will let you fly Alaska to the nearest BA gateway -- usually Seattle.
If you spend more than $30,000 in one year with the card, you'll receive a free companion pass on British Airways. Now -- the companion pass is good only on British, which means you'll have to pay your way to Seattle to get the big bird. Still -- it's a great deal.
Important: the "fees and taxes" on these free tickets amount to more than $300 each, according to Penny Lampl with USTravel in Kodiak. "It can be as much as $410 roundtrip," she said. So be prepared. Still--it's a great deal to get a lot of miles. There are other benefits to the card, such as being able to "batch" miles between households. That means if a husband and wife each got a card and each spent $2,000 in three months, they would have more than 200,000 bonus miles on British Airways.
The new breed of travel hackers go beyond just getting a great deal: they truly love to travel. Guillebeau is on a quest to visit every country in the world ("One hundred and nineteen down, with just over 70 to go!"). So his publications offer hands-on advice on getting good deals on "round the world" itineraries, using the big airline alliances of One World (American and British), Star Alliance (United, USAir and Continental) and Sky Team (Delta, Air France). Also, "Circle Pacific" passes can save you big money traveling around New Zealand and Australia.
There are many tricks to the trade, but Guillebeau details quite a few of them, as well as providing valuable resources to make your own plans--and earn your own miles.
Online resources:
Frequent Flyer Master. This is the link to Chris Guillabeau's new publication. http://frequentflyermaster.com/
Frugal Travel Guy. A former mortgage banker, Richard Ingersoll has a keen eye for good frequent flyer deals. http://frugaltravelguy.blogspot.com/
View from the Wing. This is one of several travel blogs in the "Boarding Area" family that I like http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/
Scott McMurren is an Anchorage-based travel marketing consultant who has lived in Alaska for three decades, spending much of that time traveling the far-flung corners of the state. Visit his website at www.alaskatravelgram.com.