Perhaps one of the easiest, and often most forgotten way to fly for little to nothing is to use miles accumulated through credit card rewards.
If you are planning on flying to another destination in the near, or even distant future, then you have certainly looked for ways to save on your flight. The cost of flying has increased over the years, making it tough for larger families, and even individuals, to fly. While there was once a time when it was possible to secure a fairly cheap flight through various means, it has now become a bit more of a challenge. However, as credit card companies look to secure more members, they have started to offer lucrative deals on airline miles through different types of rewards programs.
The credit crunch and falling economy has led some individuals to cancel credit cards, or simply, stop using them. However, that may not be the wisest decision, particularly if you are looking to fly in the near future. In order to attain and retain customers, various credit card companies have teamed up with airlines to offer miles as rewards. Not only could you earn miles with each purchase that you make, but you could also receive a substantial amount as a bonus for signing up for a credit card.
Two of the better airline miles credit card rewards programs below to Continental with the OnePass program through Chase, and AAdvantage, with the American Airlines program through CitiBank. Each one offers customer an opportunity at securing not only a coach class ticket for free, but also first and business class tickets. Furthermore, they offer some of the best signup bonuses that essentially guarantee a free flight somewhere in the world.
As a testament to the opportunities offered by these programs, my wife and I recently booked a trip for the two of us, our son, and her father to the Dominican Republic, flying first class. While an international round trip ticket would have normally cost us about two thousand dollars, our total cost before taxes for a round trip ticket for this international flight was free thanks to credit card rewards. How we did it was very simple, and can be done by anybody with a decent credit score.
The first thing we did was watch closely for credit card sign up bonus offers from either the OnePass or AAdvantage programs. While one could rely simply on the letters that come in the mail every other day, a better option is to use the Internet as a resource. There are many websites and forums dedicated to finding the best sign up deals for credit card airline rewards. After finding the right deal, both my wife and I signed up for two different credit cards each, which included an international round trip first class ticket as a sign up bonus.
Many people may argue that the process of booking a flight using credit card reward miles can be a hassle, the truth is that as long as you are booking a flight a decent amount of time in advance, you can secure a free flight before taxes to anywhere in the world. Whether you are flying from or to Atlanta, or any other city, state, or country, there are many ways to score a free, or highly discounted flight through the usage of one’s credit card.