Save on airfare by adding a car rental!

It is often cheaper per person to buy a vacation package (including flight and car or flight and hotel) than to purchase flights alone.  FrequentMiler gives the details:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentmiler/2011/10/17/save-on-airfare-by-booking-a-vacation-package/

Save hundreds of dollars via off-airport car rentals

When looking for good deals on car rentals, don't limit your search to just those found at the airport.  Instead, make sure to include off-airport car rental companies in your search.  At times, you will save hundreds of dollars through this approach.  Click the link below for more information.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentmiler/2011/10/17/save-with-near-airport-car-rentals/

Earn Hundreds of Thousands of Miles via Credit card churning

Simply by signing up for credit cards that offer huge sign-on bonuses, you can easily earnhundreds of thousands of points and miles each year.  Credit card churning involves signing up for a new set of credit cards every 90 days or so (each wave of signups is called a "churn").  Usually, the annual fee for such cards is waved in the first year.  At the end of the year, when you get a bill for the annual fee, simply call up to cancel.

Frugal Travel Guy explains churning here: http://www.fatwallet.com/blog/credit-card-churning-for-free-travel/

And, here are just a few sites that list the best current credit card deals:

• http://thepointsguy.com/top-deals/
• http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2011/rewards-credit-cards-bonuses-worth-300-500-and-more/

Redeem miles for last minute travel

Usually its a good idea to book flights well in advance, but sometimes the unexpected happens and you need to fly now.  If you find yourself in that situation, it's worth looking into using your miles for that flight.  A funny thing happens as you get closer and closer in time to a flight:  airlines raise prices to astronomical levels, but they also often free up award space such that it is possible to get those last minute flights at the lowest redemption rates possible.  For more, see posts from FrequentMiler and ThePointsGuy:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentmiler/2011/09/28/use-airline-miles-for-last-minute-travel/

http://thepointsguy.com/2011/04/using-points-and-miles-for-last-minute-travel-and-emergencies/

Earn more signup bonuses via business credit cards

Even if you don't own a business, you can sign up for business credit cards and earn more signup bonuses.  For example, the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card is available in two flavors: personal and business.  You can sign up for both and earn sign-up bonuses for each of them.  When signing up for business cards, simply use your own name for the Company Name and leave the Federal Tax ID blank.

Bump the Bonus

Credit card companies regularly run promotions with bigger and better sign-up bonuses than before.  If you already have the credit card offering the bonus, you may think you are out of luck because you won't be allowed to sign up for the card as a new cardholder.  However, travel hackers have found that, in those situations, credit card companies will often extend the bonus to you simply for asking.  The FrugalTravelGuy explains how to "bump the bonus":

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=212002225487038

Help us find the best hacks

Help us make this site better!  If you know of great travel hacks that are missing from this site, let us know!  Comment below:

Find Cheap Flights

There are many options for finding cheap flights.  Gary Steiger lists many of them:

http://home.earthlink.net/~pgary/TravelFrame.html

Improved Hotel Internet

Wireless internet connections in hotels can be frustratingly slow, and sometimes frustratingly expensive.  By traveling with a pocket sized wireless router, you can often improve the situation greatly:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentmiler/2011/10/09/better-hotel-internet/

What to do when your credit card app is denied

Credit card sign-up bonuses are a fantastic way to earn hundreds of thousands of miles and points every year.  With those miles and points you can fly free and stay free nearly anywhere in the world.  Unfortunately, though, as you sign up for more and more credit cards you will find your applications are often denied.  Fortunately, it is usually very easy to fix that by simply calling the credit card company's reconsideration line.  Million Mile Secrets gives the full scoop:

http://millionmilesecrets.com/2011/08/15/credit-card-reconsideration/

Fly business class to Europe for only 68000 miles!

Milecards shows how you can convert American Express Membership Rewards points and/or Starwood Points to ANA miles.  ANA charges only 68,000 miles for business class travel for flights between 7K and 9K miles round trip.

http://milecards.com/2339/shh-68000-miles-for-business-class-to-europe-on-united-us-airways-more/

25,000 US Airways miles for $82

This is a limited time deal!  Mommy Points shows how to rack up 25,000 miles in the US Airways Grand Slam promotion while spending less than $82!

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/mommypoints/2011/10/10/81-68-for-25000-milesfree-domestic-round-trip-ticket-us-airways-grand-slam/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Buy Priority Club points for .6 cents each

View from the Wing shows how to buy Priority Club points at a fantastically low rate simply by reserving and canceling "cash and points" rooms.  This fantastic hack means that you can "buy" hotel reservations for as low as $30 (including tax).  Even at the high end, it can be a fantastic value.  I recently stayed at the Hotel Intercontinental in London for 40,000 points per night.  The room would have cost $700 per night otherwise, but you can use this trick to stay for only $240 per night!

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/2009/06/16/using-priority-club-cash-and-points-option-for-discounted-points-purchase/

Use the two browser trick to get up to 150,000 AA miles

Million Mile Secrets lists three credit cards with 50,000 American Airlines miles sign-up bonuses.  Technically, you shouldn't be allowed to get all three, but this post details the famous "two browser trick" for securing all three:  http://millionmilesecrets.com/2011/10/11/citi-aadvantage-50000/

How to easily meet credit card spend thresholds

Credit cards often offer incredible sign-up bonuses, but those bonuses often come with a catch: you need to meet a spend threshold in order to earn the bonuses.  If you find it difficult to meet these thresholds through ordinary spending, consider these hacks:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentmiler/2011/09/25/how-to-meet-credit-card-spend-thresholds-without-breaking-a-sweat/

http://millionmilesecrets.com/2011/07/20/40-powerful-ways-to-complete-your-credit-card-minimum-spending-requirements/

http://millionmilesecrets.com/2011/07/07/fast-track-your-credit-card-sign-up-bonus-with-amazon-payments/

How to buy points and miles for less than a penny

With most airline and hotel programs, the value of points and miles is significantly more than 1 penny each.  For example, I recently redeemed only 3000 points to book a Sheraton Hotel room that would have otherwise cost $300.  In that case, each point was worth 10 cents!  If you want to take advantage of great deals like these, consider buying points and miles via this hack: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentmiler/2011/09/28/how-to-buy-points-and-miles-for-less-than-a-penny/

Spend your way to Elite Status

Usually people earns airline elite status by flying a lot, and they earn hotel elite status by booking many stays.  ThePointsGuy, though, shows that if you are a big spender, you can achieve elite status on several airlines and hotels simply by charging to the right credit cards: http://thepointsguy.com/2011/10/sunday-reader-question-how-can-you-spend-your-way-to-elite-status/

How to get bumped

Getting bumped from a flight sounds unpleasant, but if you're willing to put up with a bit of waiting around and other inconveniences, it can lead to big rewards.  Read Ben Schappig's tips and tricks: http://travelsort.com/blog/free-flights-and-upgrades-10-tips-for-getting-bumped

Obtain elite status via status matching

Ben Schlappig describes the in and outs of getting airline and hotel elite status by requesting status matches.  For example, if you have elite status on one airline, it may be possible for you to "status match" to get elite status on another airline: http://travelsort.com/blog/how-to-get-an-airline-or-hotel-status-match

How to minimize or avoid airline ticketing fees

When you book award travel, your flights are supposed to be free, right?  Unfortunately, many airlines charge ticketing fees when you redeem miles for flights.  Ben Schlappig details the policies of various airlines and shows how, sometimes, you can reduce or eliminate ticketing fees:

http://travelsort.com/blog/comparing-airline-award-ticketing-fees-and-how-to-avoid-them

Also, see this post from Million Mile Secrets for avoiding American Airlines award redemption fees:

http://millionmilesecrets.com/2011/10/04/how-to-avoid-paying-late-award-ticketing-fees-on-american-airlines/

How to find airline award space

Once you accumulate lots of airline miles, you will likely find that using those miles isn't as easy as it sounds.  Ben Schlappig gives tips and tricks for how to get the best award seats at the least miles:

Five tips and tricks: http://travelsort.com/blog/five-tips-for-booking-award-tickets

American Airlines and other OneWorld airlines: http://travelsort.com/blog/how-to-find-oneworld-award-space

United Airlines, US Airways, and other Star Alliance airlines: http://travelsort.com/blog/how-to-find-star-alliance-award-space

Delta: http://travelsort.com/blog/how-to-find-skyteam-award-space

Around the world trips: http://travelsort.com/blog/tips-for-planning-complex-awards-with-multiple-destinations

Put Award Travel on Hold

When booking award travel it is often a good idea to put your itinerary on hold before actually spending your hard won airline miles.  Unfortunately, not all airlines are equal in how this works or what they allow. For example, American Airlines allows you to put your itinerary on hold for 5 days, whereas British Airways doesn't allow a hold at all.  Read this post to get the full scoop.
http://travelsort.com/blog/comparing-airline-award-ticket-hold-policies

Maximizing airline awards via stopovers, transfers, and open-jaw ticketing

Did you know that when you book award travel, you can make your points go further, much further, by taking advantage of loose airline rules concerning stopovers, transfers, and open-jaws?  When redeeming miles, it is often possible to visit multiple cities, or even book multiple trips for the same number of miles as a single ticket.

Ben Schlappig covers this topic here: http://travelsort.com/blog/maximizing-the-value-of-your-award-ticket-with-stopovers-and-open-jaws

Also, thePointsGuy covers this topic in depth for multiple airlines:

American Airlines: http://thepointsguy.com/2011/06/maximizing-stopovers-transfers-and-open-jaw-ticketing-on-american-airlines-awards/

United Airlines: http://thepointsguy.com/2011/07/maximizing-stopovers-transfers-and-open-jaw-ticketing-on-us-airways-awards-2/

Delta: http://thepointsguy.com/2011/06/maximizing-stopovers-transfers-and-open-jaw-ticketing-on-delta-awards/


US Airways: http://thepointsguy.com/2011/06/maximizing-stopovers-transfers-and-open-jaw-ticketing-on-us-airways-awards/