Fly Free for Life!

One of the principles I want to explore in this post is figuring out creative ways to reduce expenses.

Reducing expenses without diminishing your lifestyle is a great way to increase your overall quality of life because it will lead to working less. Last year, during the peak travel months of the year (September through February) I spent almost $2000 on flights. This year I intend to do roughly the same number of flights but not spend any money.

This is possible by taking advantage of frequent flyer programs.

In this article I will go over a ways to maximize your benefit from frequent flyer programs.

1. Always earn miles when you travel for business. For business trips, it is important to have a preferred carrier. Even if you cannot fly your preferred carrier you can often use the miles you earn on your preferred carrier. For instance, Delta and Northwest miles can easily be credited onto Continental at check in time.

2. Take advantage of frequent flyer bonuses. For instance, last year, 3 flights between Thanksgiving and Christmas earned a free flight on American and United. Even if you only fly two for business, by sneaking in a quick short haul flight (like LAX to SFO) you can get a free flight anywhere in the country.

Flyertalk (http://www.flyertalk.com/) is a good resource for this. Make sure you check the airline specific forum for bonuses on every business flight you book.

For example, by reading the forums you would discover this link which gives you 8 rapid rewards points for free by creating a new rapid rewards account.(https://www.southwest.com/rrenroll/sfo/)

3. Credit card bonuses are an easy way to earn free flights, although they do take time. Both United, American, and Southwest, among others, earn you a free flight by just applying and being approved for their credit cards. In addition, you can have both a business and personal account to double up on the bonuses. Apply for a Mastercard, Visa & Amex to further increase your bonuses.

Follow the links below for a quick few free flights.

United personal (25,000 miles)http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webcgi/webserve.cgi?partner_dir_name=united_signature_25k_afw&page=cont&mkid=6VMTb.

United business (25,000 miles)http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webcgi/webserve.cgi?partner_dir_name=united_bizcard_25k_afw&page=cont&mkid=6VMTc.

Southwest personal (16 RR=1 flight)http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webcgi/webserve.cgi?partner_dir_name=southwest_airlines_fly_e16&page=cont&mkid=6V8Rd.

Southwest business (16 RR=1 flight)http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webcgi/webserve.cgi?partner_dir_name=southwest_airlines_bizcard_fly_e16&page=cont&mkid=6V8Re.

Citibank American (25,000 miles for each of Platinum Mastercard, Mastercard and Amex)http://citi.bridgetrack.com/USC/07/AA/multi/Oct/Lead/25KBM/default.htm?promoCode=away6&app=UNSOL&sc=4XNBPBM7&m=X6FPZYYW74W&langId=EN&siteId=CB&B=A&BTData=C02117E726E617F59524341B7A5A4A9A5959D9B83FDF8FEE3FACBCCF14E173&BT_TRF=336651&ProspectID=9778D563BC19492C9A39C639665FD6C24.

4. Use American Express membership rewards to top off accounts. You can get a quick 25,000 reward points by applying for a business gold card and you earn points with purchases. These points are transferable to a variety of airlines such as Continental, Southwest and others. The transfers take effect almost instantly and allow you to quickly the extra 1000 miles into your account to make the Continental account you have with 24,000 miles good for a free flight.

5. Use transfer partners. A little known fact is most airline miles are transferable between each other. Webflyer (http://www.webflyer.com/) keeps a list of a variety of transfer opportunities--for instance you can transfer 10,000 Continental miles into 10,000 Midway Airline miles by funneling your miles through Amtrak. Often however, your miles do get devalued during transfer.

By using these strategies you can easily and on a recurring basis book free flights. There are always new offers and new promotions to take advantage of. Over time, this will save you thousands of dollars, which, over a lifetime and with some interest, can easily become a lot of money.

-Wageslave