There was a great guest post on Budgets are Sexy the other day about travel hacking that really got my wheels spinning. I’ve read about this practice before of racking up miles on rewards credit cards and then turning them into awesome “free” trips, but I’ve always been too afraid to try it myself. Would I qualify for a worthwhile card? Would applying hurt my credit score?
Seeing Family, Saving Cash= Win/Win
As the saying goes, you never know until you try. We’ve been thinking about taking a trip back to Europe in late summer to visit family. We’ll only have been gone a little over a year, but it’s important to us that we go whenever we can.
Unfortunately, tickets for our family of 3 are going to run upwards of $3,000. Â That’s no small chunk of change, especially when you’re living on a budget!
It would be incredible if we could get even part of the trip covered with rewards points. We belong to Lufthansa’s Miles and More, but it takes a ton of economy flight segments to earn anything substantial. A credit card seems like the best way to go.
 Which Card?
I currently have one rewards card, which is where we put most of our monthly spending. We pay it off in full every month, and I don’t plan on carrying a balance and paying interest (yuck!)
Unfortunately, I don’t think the current card is going to earn us enough to get the kind of travel credit that we need, so I’m going to do some more research and then apply for the best option. Hopefully I’ll have a positive update to share in a few months!
Have you ever tried travel hacking? Â Where would you go with a “free” trip?
*image credit:Â arztsamui