No, I am definitely not suggesting you pay for business class on credit cards and go into debt. Please don’t do that as it is not worth it. However, credit card rewards and bonuses are a ticket to luxurious travel on a budget.
Readers, friends and family often say things like ‘I wish I flew as much as you and Matt so I can collect miles like you.’ The truth is we don’t travel like we used to, and most of our miles/points come from credit card spending and signing bonuses. For example, our anniversary trip flights to Thailand and Tel Aviv were paid with miles that few were acquired with travel history. Let me show you how.
Disclaimer
Out and Abroad is not providing any financial advice in this post and we are not responsible for any personal decisions or purchases. We are just providing a framework on how to collect miles. It is highly recommended that credit card purchases are paid off at the end of each billing cycle to ensure you are not paying high interest. We assure you credit card points are not worth the high interest. I am purposely not providing links to these credit cards as I would rather y’all truly consider your needs and goals before signing up for a credit card as your credit history will be pulled lowering your credit score. It isn’t worth the referral bonus to me without you truly considering it. You can google and find these cards.[i]
Flights to Thailand
In a previous post I discussed how we transferred 150,000 Capital One Points to Cathay Pacific to redeem our 2 business class flights to Bangkok on Japan Airlines. We have the Capital One Venture X Card. The card is 375 dollars a year, but provides 300 dollars in statement credits each year for travel, lounge access and a host of other perks making the 375 fee easily worth it. It also comes with a one time 75,000 signup bonus which if you cash in is worth 750 dollars in the Capital One Travel Portal. However, you will get more bang for your buck if you use your Capital One points by transferring them to an airline partner, but nice to know that the sign up bonus pays for the credit card fee for two years alone.
As I said we booked 2 business class seats to Thailand with 150,000 Capital Ones points so we were half way there just with the initial bonus. Otherwise you receive 10 points per dollar spent on hotels/rental cars through their travel portal and 2 points per one dollar spent on all purchases on the card and within 6 months we purchased our way to the other 75,000 points. We now had enough Cathay Pacific miles without ever flying Cathay Pacific to fly to the other side of the world in business class.
Flights to Tel Aviv
The flight time between Bangkok and Tel Aviv is about 7 hours or in other words a flight to Europe from the east coast of the United States. We booked our Etihad Flights using American Airlines miles as they are partners. American Airlines miles are typically acquired by flying American Airlines (😉), or you can just sign up for one of their credit cards. It cost us 80,000 AA miles for our two business class seats.
Two months ago I signed up for the American Airlines Aviator card through Barclays. I was flying home from a business trip and the flight attendant went on the mic and announced a promotion that anyone who signed up for the card on the flight would get 75,000 AA miles with any single purchase on the card.[ii] Literally a cup of coffee charged to the Aviator card would net me 75,000 miles. Even though I wasn’t really looking for a new credit card, I got excited because I already had quite a few AA miles and this would top them off. I signed up and Matt made fun of me, and now he gets to go to Tel Aviv in style. I should leave him home and bring Peanut 😊.
The card does have a 95 dollar annual fee, but that’s fine as I will cancel it before it hits next year. It comes with some decent perks if you fly American frequently, otherwise take the bonus, spend it, and cancel the card. The way I see it I purchased 75,000 miles for 95 bucks. Go on AA.com website and see how much 75,000 miles would cost if you just tried to by them…😱! Anyway the 75,000 miles came in, I had 5,000 miles already and we booked!
Lessons Learned
If you do the math, I paid less than 500 dollars in credit card fees for 4 business class tickets around the world worth approximately 15,000 dollars if I paid for the same seats outright. That is quite a bargain. Not to mention the Capital One Card’s additional benefits easily pays for their fee and the Aviator card was only 95 dollars and while the benefits are meh, I’ll cancel it before paying it again.
Besides 5,000 AA miles I already had, none of the additional miles were acquired by previous travel. Anyone can do this, but it requires a strategy and careful planning. I cannot stress enough if you plan on using credit cards to acquire miles please please please pay them off each billing statement as the interest is a killer.
What do you think? Am I crazy?
Bon Voyage,
Andrew
[i] If you are dying to apply for these cards due to this post, feel free to message me separately and I can provide a referral link, but I would like you to think about it first! Referral link would net us a few additional miles but rather y’all think about it first.
[ii] Unfortunately, this promotion has expired but currently you can get 65,000miles with the annual fee being waived the first year. Grab those miles and cancel the card and you get them for free! Don’t worry promotion come and go, but keep your eyes open for a good one like I got with the Aviator card.
Out And Abroad 
2 thoughts on “Anniversary Vacation Booking Lesson #1: Using Credit Cards to Travel Luxuriously on a Budget”