Travel Hacking 101 | Hacker News Reader

Travel Hacking 101

viatravelers.com

25 pointsjustborn23 comments

I feel some of this is basically unethical. The cards should stop proffering points bribes, and people with no intent of using the card as a cash vehicle gaming the points are making it harder for longterm card users, because they are eroding the value designed into the card as a real financial vehicle, not a points-hound game.

I totally get why people do this, but this is not a good model for how to live, which sustains, and is equitable with everyone else. There is an implicit "laugh at the ordinary joes" tone to this kind of behaviour.

"...just become a travel writer, get schwag for free" Please: writing is a skill. If you don't have good things to say about travel, and are doing it for the skim, you're not adding value to the travel writing business.

Maybe I'm over sensitive or grumpy today. I think this is bad karma.

A lot of it sounds like a huge case of false economy anyway unless they're buying stuff to resell or something.

> Chase Ink Business Preferred: Will offer you 80,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the first three months. That is worth $1,000 of travel.

I don't have a US perspective, but someone who spends $1600 a month after rent in the UK is either financially suicidal or well off enough that they probably aren't fucking around with this sort of nonsense, they'll just pay for the holiday.

> Yeah, see, I don't spend $5K in three months.

I do. And that makes the $1000 free money for zero effort (signing up for a new credit card in the US really is zero effort if your credit rating speaks for itself). It's just another way that rich people profit by virtue of nothing else other than being rich.

Well, it's not exactly free money, it's free travel. If you can sell it, it's free money.

If you were going to do it anyway, then yeah, by not spending the money you come out ahead.

I guess I don't really live that sort of lifestyle. If you gave me $1K in flights I'd have no use for it (which I think comes hand in hand with not paying the $5K in the first place - consumption is expensive).

If you could buy shares on a credit card I suppose it could make sense.

When I was younger, I signed up to a bunch of accounts in the UK that paid benefits. You could get 10 quid a month from Halifax, multiplied by three. Possibly six, I don't remember now.

That actually was free money. There's still stuff like that around, but being a software developer is better paid. And more interesting.

> Well, it's not exactly free money, it's free travel

It's free money even if you don't travel. 80,000 chase points is also worth $800 cash directly. They just boost it %25 if you use it for travel through their portal (I suspect that you don't get the best fares through their portal though, so that boost seems like it might be a wash).

> You could get 10 quid a month from Halifax

The city?

> but being a software developer is better paid

Unless you make $700-$900 (subtracting the $95 annual fee) per minute (the amount of time it takes to sign up) while working, working really isn't better per amount of time spent.

Oh, you can sell it? Well, now we're talking.

For a relevant time comparison you should subtract the research time, mind. Those accounts were worth about $1K a year to me back then, but the amount of time I spent trying to figure out new "hacks" was no longer worth it once I had a job.

If you already know about it and aren't hanging about on the equivalent of coupon forums, yeah, it takes 1 min, you'd be a fool not to.

Yeah, in the realm of rewards cards in the US there are cash-back cards, miles cards, and points cards. Cash-back cards just give you a redemption on whatever you owe them for the next statement (you effectively pay $98 or $99 when you spend $100). Miles cards give you per-dollar-spent frequent flyer miles for a specific airline or group of airlines usually plus a sign-up bonus like mentioned here. Points cards are like miles cards, except the points are more flexible and can be converted either to airline miles or to gift cards or to statement credits.

As for the time spent researching. These days it basically non-existent. If you google "best rewards credit card 2019" you'll find half a dozen sites all with similar recommendations all telling you basically "Get this one, then in a few months get this one, then get this one, then close them and start over in a year. Don't do anything fancy, just spend enough to cash in the sign-up bonus and then switch to the next."

>> You could get 10 quid a month from Halifax

> The city?

The bank. They were literally giving you money to have a bank account back in… 2008?. I took advantage of the offer at the time, but they’ve been phasing it out.

> I don't have a US perspective, but someone who spends $1600 a month after rent in the UK is either financially suicidal or well off enough that they probably aren't fucking around with this sort of nonsense, they'll just pay for the holiday.

$1600 / month after rent is $19k / year. Add another $1500 / month for rent, and you're at $37k / year, hardly an insane amount for someone to be spending in the US.

$37k/year is over 60% of gross median household income in the US. It is absolutely insane to be spending that fraction of income if you're including only disposable income, food, and gas in that amount.

You don't have to spend that much every three months, you just have to have whatever you wouldn't normally spend in three months of the $5,000 in less-frequent expenditures (e.g., major car maintenance, durable goods purchases, etc.) that you can arrange to happen in the first three months you have the card.

Depends where you live. Spending $2k a month after rent in the bay area is common, especially if you are two. $800/month in groceries, $200 gas/person, 2-3 dates (or restaurants with friends), utilities ($200+), Insurances ($200+)...

There are a lots of benefits from using wisely these cards without overthinking.

The individual in the article pretty clearly doesn’t care about the impact of “at scale” behavior of this type or the impact that would have on others, read: people with integrity

I remember a few years ago seeing the writer of https://thesizzle.com.au pop up in a forum asking for anywhere online where he could make small (sub $1 transactions ideally cent transactions.

I had a hunch it'd be for something to do with points.

Then this story popped up a little while later:

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/nab-shuts-down...

Has anyone made this stuff work in a country outside the US?

I've done a bit of research into this in NZ, where it seems to be a lot harder to grind points (e.g. FlyBuys / Airpoints).

I've been trying it in Asia with Cathay Pacific's Asia miles. I don't really do card churning, although I've opened a few cards just to get the sign up bonus. I only have two credit cards that give me a good cash to points ratio, and I try to use them to make the best out of it. For example, one I mostly use when spending money abroad, just because I get a better ratio on foreign transactions. While the other one I use for all my daily transactions, I hardly ever use cash, and all my payments are linked to this card. I sometimes also take advantage of some of the restaurants deals they offer. It also helps that I use my own credit card when making expenses while on business trips, this has probably earned me a significant amount of points.

All in all, I've been able to redeem a few flights, and upgrade a couple of long-haul flights. I'm not that obsessed with it tho.

There's an Aussie site on point hacking etc https://www.pointhacks.com.au/

all of this sounds exhausting and doesn't highlight how little you would have to value your own time to do at the scale the author suggests

> I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to over 12+ countries...

c'mon. you must know how many countries you've traveled to. just look in your passport or something.

I found this one amusing, but for different reasons.

I've been fortunate enough to travel to over 12 countries too, we call it Europe. Stick your thumb out at the side of the road, you'll be there in no time. ;)

12+ sounds much cooler (to the audience I assume) than 13.

That's modern copywriting exploiting human nature.

> just look in your passport or something.

I've been to at least 9 countries without even taking my passport with me. This is how EU citizens do.

My passport has only got stamps for America and Kenya. I’ve also been to Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, and Germany when I was young enough to be travelling on my parents’ passports. Even as an adult, travel within the EU[1] doesn’t require me to get an entry stamp, and travel within the Schengen area[2] doesn’t even need me to be carrying my passport.

I might have forgotten some of the nations I’ve visited.

[1] adding Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Poland, France, Finland, and Luxemburg to my list.

[2] I cycled from Hoek van Holland to Baden (Switzerland), making at least five border crossings, two of which were only signposted, two of which were not even signposted, and the fifth was an unstaffed customs inspection post in Basel.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com