Many people mistakenly think that I pay retail price for all my travels across the globe. Those assumptions couldn’t be any further from the truth. Although I pay for some flights and hotel accommodations, the fact is…. I often don’t pay much of anything other than the taxes and fees for many flights that I’ve taken around the world.
I’ve been traveling internationally for over 25 years and I’m on my third United States passport, as each are valid for a ten-year period. Having said that, I’ve been to six (6) continents and close to sixty (60) countries while visiting some of these countries many times.
The way that I’ve been able to do this is through Airline and Hotel Reward Programs. It just makes so much sense to be able to maximize your everyday spend to accumulate points and miles on credit cards that are transferable to multiple airline partners so that I can fly wherever I chose to go without paying outrages retail prices.
Now, by no means am I condoning rushing out and getting a bunch of credit cards and running up your credit that you cannot pay back. However, I am suggesting for anyone interested in living their travel dream across the globe and accelerating the process, to look at your own situation and see the value and benefits the right credit cards with transferable travel points and miles benefits provides for you and your travel and life goals.
This is what allows me to travel and live my life in travel freedom and the nomadic lifestyle that I love as a global citizen. Points and Miles travel using the proper credit cards, strategies, earnings multipliers, and redemption multipliers allows me to not only purchase flights with little or no money, but also allows me to book them in First / Business Class in the premium cabin which is a total game-changer from traveling in economy class. The same applies for hotels or short/long-term accommodation at hotels and resorts around the world.
This and various other strategies and techniques coupled with credit card Points and Miles, and Airline or Hotel Loyalty Programs, are non-traditional and unconventional methods of traveling and living across the globe. This is one of the reasons I’m “The Unorthodox Nomad”.
It is important to understand that these credit cards and reward programs are perfectly legal and the way I and many others used them with other strategies and principles are also 100% legal, legitimate and are not risky, shady practices by any means. In fact, this is what many of us have been doing over the years, especially in the corporate space where you can accumulate points and miles when traveling for work. Executives have been doing this for many decades which is how the rich or wealthy remain rich and wealth…by not spending their own money for travel and luxury when they didn’t have to, therefore keeping their money in their pockets while enjoying a life of travel, luxury and living, leveraging the travel and spend from business travel and other personal expenses.
The thing is…you don’t have to be a corporate executive to do this to live this lifestyle. Once upon a time, information regarding these programs and strategies was not as widespread as it has become in recent years, so now is the time for anyone who has the mindset and willingness to take action to do so to live their best life in travel…even luxury travel.
So, hopefully you can see how the strategy of not only using credit cards, but the right credit cards can add significant value to your life building your travel wealth and lifestyle to enjoy now and not at the traditionally taught retirement age that many have aspired to and were taught or conveyed to them and the masses.
I encourage all of you who travel or are thinking about traveling to sign-up to multiple airline and hotel and resort loyalty programs that make sense for your travels and finding the “right” credit card that allows you to earn many points per dollar spend to accumulate your points and miles travel account at an accelerated rate. Another key component is ensuring that the points and miles accumulated are with credit cards that have a partner program for you to transfer those points directly to your airline or hotel loyalty program.
Many credit cards or co-branded credit cards, even those from airlines and hotels often try to box you in to only using the points and miles for their airline or hotels, or their portals which usually has a very high redemption rate and therefore significantly loses value to your credit card spend and points versus using high-valued multiplier points and miles cards that are transferable to many rewards or loyalty programs.
I am currently registered to over 30 airline loyalty reward programs and just a handful of hotel loyalty programs.
To begin your journey of accumulating and using points and miles, begin by:
1. Signing up to airlines, airline alliance loyalty programs and hotel loyalty programs. Get this done and out of the way as it can be tedious to do when doing quite a few of them. You want to be ready to use these loyalty programs and don’t want to wait until the last minute. Some programs may not allow you to sign-up immediately and transfer points. This is why it is better to do this step immediately while doing the next steps.
2. ALWAYS ensure that your loyalty program number is on your reservation and ticket by logging into your account and creating your reservation from your loyalty program profile. Double-check your reservation and ticket to ensure that you will receive the specified points or miles.
3. Find the best credit cards (typically non-branded) with the best travel benefits and perks through accumulation and redemption. This would be bank / credit card companies with products that provide anywhere from 2x-7x or more for different categories of spend (ie. Travel, Restaurants, Groceries, Gas etc.). Don’t get sucked into the vortex by being enticed by the sign-up bonus only. You definitely want to capitalize on the sign-up bonus, however you want to ensure that you receive the best interest rate, annual fee and overall benefits and not just the one-time bonus after spending a specific amount of credit in the first few months. My top picks for personal travel credit cards to start are:
a. Chase Sapphire Preferred - (* An annual fee of $95.00)
b. Chase Sapphire Reserve - (* A high annual fee of $550.00)
c. American Express Gold – (* An annual fee of $250.00)
d. American Express Platinum – (* An annual fee of $695.00)
e. Capital One Venture X – (* A high annual fee of $395.00)
f. Capital One Venture – (* An annual fee of $95.00)
*The annual fees listed are the cost at the time of writing this article. It is important to investigate the current fees, interests rates and all benefits and perks that come with the card before applying.
4. After applying and receiving your credit card. Be sure to only spend what you can afford to meet your sign-up bonuses and offer to pay for tickets, concerts, meals, trips and more when going out with others and have them pay you directly to meet your sign-up bonus spend.
5. Be certain to link your airline and hotel loyal rewards programs to your credit card accounts immediately so you will be ready to transfer immediately when you find the right value-based redemption for your flight or accommodations.
6. Always look for opportunities to accumulate, accelerate, and grow your travel points and rewards through various other programs and services. These will assist you in getting points and miles closer to your next travel experience. Use programs such as:
a. Rakuten (Use my affiliate link and we both get rewarded – www.rakuten.com/R/RODNEY8326 )
b. My Points (Use my affiliate link and we both get rewarded - https://www.mypoints.com?rb=138909014 )
The next step is to get additional strategies, techniques and coaching that will accelerate and grow you points and miles so that you can travel frequently, and or in luxury. Look for the opportunities for my coaching, courses and other content that will assist in building your travel wealth. It’s time to LEVEL-UP!
I can’t wait to see you excel and join me in The Renaissance Revolution for A Borderless Life. Hopefully, I'll see you in First / Business Class on a long-haul international flight.
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