As Pat Got a Free Business Class ticket (and you can also get one!)

As Pat Got a Free Business Class ticket (and you can also get one!) -

Last month, my friend Pat came with a problem to me, he wanted to fly Cathay Pacific Business Class round trip from the US to attend a conference in the Philippines. He had only a few frequent flyer miles and was all like "travel hacking, what?"

He needed help

In the words of Barney Stinson. "! Challenge Accepted"

I had two months to get Pat 110,000 miles that he needs.

I wrote about free business class travel before, but as with everything in travel, methods and tricks that might work in the past, now do not work, especially when it comes to the airlines. They change their rules all the time.

As you know, I am an avid travel hacking, because I hate flying coach. For me there is nothing worse than in coach is on a 10-hour flight - and if I can avoid it, I will. If you are in the air, as much as I am, you want comfort.

So for business- and first-class tickets, have a lie-flat bed that I earn points to upgrade or to pay off, and enjoy a bit of luxury before in my $ 10 per night dorm room to stay. (Yes, I'm a bundle of contradictions. I'm a twin.)

Pat was a simple test subject since he spends every month a boatload of money on his business and great merit. I used all this to his advantage:

Because Cathay part of the Oneworld alliance, its US partner American Airlines, and so we worked on him American AAdvantage miles to get ,

First he signed up, a 30,000-point sign-up bonus offered if he issued in 0 days, $ 1,000 USD for an American Airlines Citi card.

Second, he signed for the above business version of the same card with the same business. ( Note . You do not need a business to get a business card I as the sole owner have to register for these cards and to interest the credit card companies never seemed ..)

Thirdly, I made him a Starwood American Express open card that offers 25,000 Starwood points if you spend $ 5,000 USD in 0 days. He then changed the points on American Airlines. Since Starwood You are 20% transfer bonus to 20,000 points at the end of 35,000 points (30,000 from the bonus, 5000 from the expenditure) have been transferred to its AAdvantage account.

Pat all minimum spending requirements met with his regular expenses. It was money, he would spend anyway. (Spend particularly easy never to meet one of these expenditure requirements!)

is After it was all said and done, Pat had 97,000 frequent flier miles.

But how to get the last 13,000 miles? There were a few ways to do this:

Pat could "fake" have his expenses (which he would have to meet the output requirements can do). He would have sent $ 1000 per month over Amazon Payments to his wife without any fees and then they could have redeemed the money to their bank account.

Or he might have gone bought tickets in a CVS and with his credit cards Vanilla Reload, then loaded, the balance on his American Express Bluebird account (maximum of $ 5,000 per month), and then used the money to pay off his credit card balance.

he also online shopping portals could earn 3-4 miles per dollar spent (Christmas is coming!), Which means instead of spending of USD $ 13,000 he would have had only $ 3.0 to 4.300 USD to spend.

its cost of doing business and shopping online used In the end, Pat, to get those last few miles (he told me that he found the minimum expenditure to time consuming fake).

Within a month, Pat had 110,000 miles he needed, and I converted to hack someone else traveling (score !!!). He's already set to earn miles for a family trip to Hawaii!

"That sounds great, Matt, but I do not want to open three credit cards, nor do I spend so much money! Is there another way?"

Good question! What if you do not want to open three credit cards? What can one not so heavily dependent on credit

I'll tell you

But first this point:. You should have at least one credit card rewards, because credit cards are open to the best way to start to jump the balance, and if you put money to go a card, you might as well get points for it. I mean, I bet you have at least one card already, right? Why not free ride from him? Use your daily spending points to win for the trip, even if you are not traveling until next year!

In addition, you get a great sign-up bonus. Card My American AAdvantage gave me 40,000 miles just for joining. This is a free round-trip domestic ticket or miles that I can use to upgrade. United Airlines you get 30,000 miles for subscribing. Lufthansa offers 50,000 miles sign up bonus now!

I because of the miles it gets to charge everything to me. I'm like Ryan Bingham of Up in the Air -. I do not spend money without miles of it to earn

Non-Credit Card Ways to Earn Miles

But what can you do to earn miles, which does not require credit card? Here are a few possibilities:

Shop with a preferred partner of the airline - All major airlines have spent a preferred partner shopping where you get 3-20 points per dollar. If I'll go anyway shopping, I might as well do it online and spent four points per dollar than one I would have deserved when I went to the store. Buy online, to avoid crowds, to get more points, fly faster

to find a good site, the shopping portal offers the best deals is Evreward

Use your family. . - My parents fly maybe once a year. My sister might fly twice. You do not really need or use their miles, so they give it to me. Use my parents to buy my credit card all of their cards, and when they fly, they transfer their miles to my account. There is a small fee for the transfer, but it is worth the extra miles. After last year visited Israel, the miles they completed both earned in my American Airlines account

Subscribe to Newsletter up -. I for all airline newsletter as well as those to sign up for their credit cards, so I can up-to-date on special fares, promotions and deals remain. Many of the best deals in the world sent only via a newsletter, and if you do not sign, you will never know. Recently, I got triple miles for purchases on my Citi American AAdvantage card through a notification email sent

Polls company -. Every little bit counts. And sign up for surveys, like Facebook pages and more many companies offer 250-1,000 points. I always take in those stupid online providers often offer because they add up over time. Airlines Send this usually via their newsletters, but I also company on Twitter and Facebook just follow to ensure that I was not a little miss

Stay up-to-date on bonus offers . - Be sure to check repeatedly for bonus offers on airline websites. Many brands, especially airlines offer bonus offers on selected routes, fare classes and dates. By flying in these times, you can maximize your miles for future repayments. You can stay in the Resources section of this blog listed on the newsletter or following some of the sites up-to-date.

Airlines love when people earn actually fly their miles, and they treat those who do with extra special treatment. But they make it so easy to collect frequent flyer miles that it is stupid to not take in the situation, as long as it takes. Business class is no longer out of reach, even for the rare flier.

Even if you only fly once or twice a year, why not a month in a few extra hours to make sure that when you are flying in the way Pat fly!

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