Allow Yourself Enough Time When Planning Your Free Trip
It is astounding how many travel loyalty points and airline frequent flyer miles credit card issuers are giving away as welcome bonuses these days. You can earn enough miles for a free flight in a single welcome bonus.
While these points and miles are free, once the initial spend requirements (if any) are met, you still need to plan ahead to take full advantage of that free trip. The reason for this is that the process can take some time. Time for what? I’m glad you asked.
You need to allow enough time for accumulating miles and points as well as allowing enough time to find availability for the free flights and hotel rooms you’ll want to book.
Before You Start
Before you jump into the process of applying for credit cards to earn miles and points you need to first be clear on your trip details. Knowing where you want to go, how many people are traveling, the level of accommodation you want, and what class of airline service or hotel rooms you want to reserve will determine how many points you need to accumulate.
For example, if you’re a solo traveler just looking to earn a free flight across the USA to visit friends and family, you can accomplish that fairly easily with a single card’s welcome bonus. If you’re looking to book free flights and hotel rooms for the whole family, you’re in for a much larger accumulation of miles and points.
Looking at the loyalty miles/points redemption charts for airlines and hotels can give you an idea of how many points and miles your desired trip will require.
Once you have a general idea of how many points you’ll need, you can determine which credit card Welcome Bonuses will award you the points you need to accomplish your goal.
Allow Time to Accumulate Points
As a general rule of thumb, three months is required to get the welcome bonus from credit card issuers. This assumes you’ll need to allow enough time for the application approval (often immediate), card arrival, fulfillment of minimum spend requirement, payment of minimum spend, points being awarded, and points being credited to your loyalty account.
Many of these steps, like application and approval, are immediate with some banks when applying online. For example, Chase will often approve an application within seconds of hitting the “submit” button.
The longer part of the process is meeting the minimum spend requirement. In most cases travel credit cards have a minimum spend requirement that must be satisfied within the first three months of approval for the card.
Some banks only require a single purchase and payment of the annual fee in order to award the welcome bonus. Most credit card issuers however have a required minimum spend of up to $4,000 in the first three months. Once the minimum spend is satisfied the welcome bonus is awarded.
Don’t Get Caught in Their Trap
The minimum spend is something you need to pay close attention to. It could be a non-issue or a trap. Don’t fall for it. Make sure you’re paying attention to these two things.
First, don’t Spend more than normal. If the minimum spend requirement on the card exceeds what you would normally be spending in a three-month period, skip it and move on to another card that fits your financial behavior.
For example, if you normally put $1,500 of spending on cards in three months, don’t get a card that requires you to spend $5,000 in three months.
Second, don’t pay interest. Under no circumstances should you spend on these cards with the intention to pay the cards off over time, thus acquiring interest charges. For your free trip to really be free, you MUST pay off your balance in full and never pay interest on any card you apply for.
The travel benefits will quickly melt away if you end up paying interest on an account balance.
This is What the Bank is Hoping For
The banks are hoping you will spend more than normal to meet the minimum spend and then pay interest on the balance over time. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN.
Always find a card with a spending requirement that fits within your budget and pay the card off in full every month.
Final Words on Allowing Enough Time to Accumulate Miles
All of these steps can take over three months if you’re utilizing the full 90 days to meet the minimum spend requirement, or a few weeks if you can meet the minimum spend quickly.
If you need points from multiple cards, you must factor this into your planning. For example, if you need Welcome Bonuses from two different cards, and you need the full 90 days to meet the minimum spend requirement for each, the whole process could take over half a year just to accumulate the points you need. So, plan carefully and allow yourself enough time.
Time for Advanced Planning and Booking
When booking free hotel rooms and flights, the sooner in advance you can book your award travel, the better, usually. Peak season in popular travel destinations could require booking months and months in advance.
Many airlines will post award availability up to 12 months in advance. Booking this far in advance is not necessary but it will definitely give you the best selection of the often limited, free seats and rooms they make available.
If you’re planning to take a trip to a popular destination during the summer break, you can’t book soon enough. There are always exceptions where tickets pop up close to your travel date, but you don’t want to risk last-minute booking unless you fit into that category of travelers who are flexible on dates and destinations.
Award availability also depends on class of service and number of people you’re traveling with. Are you a solo traveler looking for a coach ticket? You’ll have the easiest time finding a seat.
Are you a family of four flying coach? You should also be ok, as long as you plan ahead.
Conclusion
Free flights or accommodations are definitely within reach with a simple credit card welcome bonus or two. But make sure you are allowing enough time in advance of your desired trip to take all of the steps necessary to make it a reality.