For the constant traveler, there are many ways to get free airline tickets, either from the airlines themselves, credit card companies, air miles clubs and by carrying some important packages to their destinations. The job of the air carrier is simply to take a package from a company and hand deliver it to it’s intended recipient, in another city or country. Many companies employ air carriers to deliver packages by hand, as the cost of the airfare is cheaper than an expedited courier, like UPS, to deliver the package. However, the down side to this is that you do not get to choose your destination. Check out www.carrier.org for more information on becoming an air carrier.
Major credit cards offer their own version of air miles clubs. Open an account, spend at least $2,000 to $3,000 in a couple of months, paying it back in full at month’s end (you do not want to have a balance for this to work properly). For opening the account, you will get a predetermined number of free air miles, from 1,000 to 10,000. With the added 1 air mile for every $20 spent, after spending $5,000, you would have 250 air miles, on top of your account opening bonus miles, giving you upwards of 10,250 free air miles. That should be good enough to go to Cuba from Canada, or Canada from the Southern States.
The best thing to do with the credit cards that you use for air miles is to cancel them after you have used your first air vacation. It was the bonus miles that you were accredited with for opening the account that made the trip possible, and as long as there is no small print saying that you need to keep the credit card active for a certain amount of time, in order to not have to repay the credit card company for the free airline tickets that you received from them. After you have used one credit card’s free airline tickets, start using a different credit card for your purchases, until you have enough air miles to get you to your next desired location.
Join as many air miles clubs as you can, and use their cards wherever they are accepted. Most stores and major restaurants offer air miles, but to specific providers. Over the period of a few years, at 1 air mile for every $20 spent, you will accumulate enough air miles for free round-trip air tickets, but maybe not across the ocean. A free trip to Grandma’s house, to a ski resort you have always wanted to visit, or to any number of sites that lie within the number of air miles that you have on any one of your cards.
Many air miles cards offer the ability to transfer credits obtained from other stores and credit cards, air miles cards and other means of obtaining bonus credits, like the Sears Club Points or Zellers bonus points. Arrange to have your credits from all of the stores, cards and other means onto the air miles card that offers this bonus, and watch you air miles account rise monthly, bringing your free airline tickets closer and closer.
Enjoy your free airline tickets, and, if lucky enough, your free lodgings too.
