Travel Hacking: How to get free flights with ultimate rewards

As I have mentioned before, my favorite key to travel hacking for free flights and reduced travel is the Chase Ultimate Rewards Program.  Below is a recommendation of the best credit card options.  They all compliment each other, but you do not need one of each to use Ultimate Rewards to earn free flights.  As long as you have one card that has an annual fee, Chase allows you transfer to their travel partners and use their chase travel portal.  Without the annual fee cards, they are just considered a cash back card.

Joni and I use two cards as our preferred credit card choices for the majority of our travel and to help us earn free flights. They are the Chase Ink Business Plus (Chase Ink Preferred is the new version) and our Chase Freedom Unlimited cards.  I have included referral links if anyone is interested as they will give you free points. Either we or a friend of ours will get referral points if you use these links throughout the article. If you are looking to get a new credit card to help with travel hacking we would appreciate your support and help all of us earn free flights.

This is the card that Joni and I use the most.  We have one of the older styles that has a higher point value that is no longer on the market.  This is the new version that we would be using if that other one was not available. I have friends and family that have any kind of small business.

One of the biggest benefits is that you receive three points per dollar spent on travel, shipping, internet, cable bills, cell phone, and social media advertising. In addition you earn one point per dollar on all other purchases.  Now days almost everyone has a cell phone bill or a cable or satellite TV bill.  For a couple friends, that have to ship out items such as leggings or purses, this could be a huge money maker for them.  Another benefit is if you pay for your cell phone and cell bill with this card, it offers you protection against theft or damage.  If your phone gets run over by a cement truck?  It’s covered!

Keep in mind, 3 ultimate reward points is a minimum of 3.75 cents in travel and could be up to 7 cents depending on the travel partner.  Another one of the benefits I use often is that it provides additional car rental insurance.  I often rent cars on my trips to Las Vegas which are considered business trips due to my sports collection side business. This gives primary car rental insurance instead of having to use my personal auto policy or the expensive car insurance the rental companies sell.

Keep in mind 80,000 ultimate rewards points is equivalent to $800 in immediate cash back when the points post.  $1,000 in travel through Chase travel, this is enough for almost two round trip tickets to Hawaii from Chicago (45,000 points each through United depending on the days). If Hawaii isn’t your thing, how about five round trip tickets to Cancun from Chicago on Southwest Airlines? Yep! Free flights! Keep in mind, this card does have a $95.00 annual fee.  For us, this is a keeper for years to come! Here is where you can apply for the Chase Ink Preferred Card.

This is our second Chase card that Joni and I use.  This one is a ‘no brainer’ card for us to use.  A lot of cards say, “you get 2 points for this, or 3 points for that”.  This is our, ummm, I am having a brain fart and don’t know what to use card.  This one always gets you 1.5 points on every purchase.  As cash back its 1.5 cents per dollar, towards travel its 1.875 cents per dollar, or 1.5 miles/points in other travel programs such as Southwest Airlines, United or Hyatt (my favorite transfer partners).

The sign up bonus using my link for the Chase Freedom Unlimited card allows you to get $150 in cash back (15,000 points) if you spend $500 in three months.  This is a no annual fee card, so there is no cost to having this account.  This one has little risk so if you are just starting out and trying to figure out this Travel Hacking and how to earn free flights… this is a good choice.

One of the cards we are considering and would be getting possibly in the future is the Chase Freedom card.  Chase does have a limitation of only accepting applications from people who have signed up for five cards or less in 24 months.  Since I had to experiment with what were the best cards when I first started out, I can’t apply for this card quite yet due to this limitation. After waiting the 2 years, this will be one of the next ones I will be applying for.  One of the benefits of this card is the rotating categories.  Every quarter you get a specific category where will allow you 5 cents (5 ultimate rewards points) per dollar on purchases up to $1500 and 1 cent (1 ultimate rewards point) per dollar on all other purchases.  Some of the categories they have used over the last couple years are Amazon, gas, groceries, and Walmart purchases.  This is a quick way people get their point totals to add up for travel.  After all if Walmart is the category for the quarter then, $100 in Walmart grocery purchases is 500 points towards travel and free flights.

The sign up bonus allows you to get $150 in cash back (15,000 points) if you spend $500 in three months.  This is a no annual fee card, so there is no cost to having this account. If you would link the Chase Freedom Unlimited card this link will help a friend who pays for travel as she works her way to the 2020 Para-Olympics in Tokyo for Taekwondo.

If you are not eligible for the Chase Ink Preferred card due to not having a small business, this might be the card for you.  If you want the ability to transfer points to partners or to use credits towards Chase Travel portal then you need to use of of these next two options. Each card has different level of benefits.  The biggest difference is determining if the annual fee difference between the two is makes one a better choice over the other.

Chase Sapphire Preferred gives you 2 points per dollar on travel and restaurants and 1 point per dollar on all other purchases.  Joni and I go out to eat often so this would be a good way for us to earn points if we did not have the Chase Ink card instead.  The auto insurance for car rentals just like on the Chase Ink card is a perk of this card.  This card will give you 1.25 cents credit per point in the Chase Travel Portal.  The annual fee is $95.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve gives you 3 points per dollar on travel and restaurants and 1 point per dollar on all other purchases. This card includes a $300 travel credit each year which can equal free flights!  This card gives you 1.5 cents credit per point in the Chase Travel Portal.  Keep in mind that the annual fee is $450 a year.  But if you travel a lot each year, the $300 travel credit each year technically drops the card down to $150.  At that point you have to determine if the benefits of the better redemption through Chase Travel, the extra points per dollar on travel and restaurants make up the difference.  There are some other benefits like lounge access at airports and a $100 credit towards Global Entry (TSA Pre-Check) that may make it worth the difference.  We have two friends who use this card. One travels a lot of taekwondo and other is hoping to be traveling all over soon!

Chase bank has been a large part of my key to free flights, or nearly free travel over the last two years.  Our round-trip airfare for three to Hawaii which we got basically for free, was due to the sign up bonus and a couple months of spending on the card.  Joni and Cheyenne’s hotel for the week at taekwondo nationals this past summer was covered by making normal purchases on these cards.  Multiple trips to Vegas and Cancun are all due to transfers from these cards to Southwest Airlines.  For the person just starting out, this is the biggest recommendation I could give.  Get to know Chase as they have so many of the greatest opportunities.

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