I have spent most of my life preocupied with trying to plan my next trip. In fact, I am certain that the thoughts that are regularly taking up most of the bandwidth in my head; the ones that have followed me around for most of my adult life- revolve around what adventure lies ahead and how I can make it my reality.

As we all know, life happens and inevitably there are seasons where making travel a reality becomes harder. I would say that is a season I am currently living in. Having a family, working full time and raising two small humans tends to blur the horizon a bit. Time and money become more scarce and travel is the first thing to go. While obstacles will always remain, I will never accept that travel is not a part of this season of our lives. And for that reason, I have started to master the budget aspect of travel. And this my friends, is a lovely concept that most have heard of, fewer have put into practice: travel hacking. 

Travel hacking: 

Travel hacking involves working within the existing rules set up by airlines, credit cards, and hotels, and using them to your advantage to earn free travel including flights, lodging, and other upgrades – I googled this and it is spot on. 

Want to stay up to date with our points and get travel tips to your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter below! 

So earlier this year, I put the above to the test and I was massively successful. I was able to fly with my husband on a long-haul asian flight round trip in BUSINESS CLASS! Yes, we flew for 30+ hrs (wish it was longer) from NYC to Tokyo, Japan on Cathay Pacific Airlines and 20+ hrs (again, wish it was longer) from Seoul, South Korea to Washington DC on United Polaris. Included in this experience we visited 5 premium airport lounges and enjoyed free food, drinks, lounge chairs, showers -all while taking inventory on the other seemingly elite- looking people wondering if they were there for almost free too!

Here is a quick list of what I have been able to do in 2023 on miles/points

-$400- Round trip as a family of four (DC to PARIS) 

-$500- Round trip Business class for two (DC to TOKYO) 

-$400- One way trip to Jamaica (FL to JAMAICA)

The dollar amount is taxes and fees only*

First, many months before booking anything, we opened up 2 different credit cards each: Capital One Venture X and Chase Sapphire Preferred. (More on why these cards another time). We did this separately. Once I acquired by Cap One card and spent the minimum spend, I referred my husband and he applied on his own. Repeat this process for the Chase card and we had 120,000 Chase points and 130,000 Cap One points. 

After knowing where and how many points we had, I used my CC apps to see what travel partners (airlines) each bank listed. I found that Cathay Pacific- a major asian airline- partners with Capital One and therefore knew I could transfer those points to Cathay and book us one way to Japan. I went onto the Cathay flight and found a one way trip for 2 within our points budget.

But before securing that, I looked at Chase to see which airlines accepted Chase Ultimate Rewards to make sure we had a plan to get back home-and behold- I found a flight on United from Seoul to Washington DC.

I could hardly believe that I was about to secure this itinerary with only having to pay for taxes and airline fees making the grand total for this trip $499.70! 

Fast forward 9 months later and we experienced the trip of a lifetime and I am forever grateful for the travel hacking that made this possible!