How You Can Earn $800 Towards Your Next Vacation

 

I get it, sometimes annual fees are scary. Even though this trip to Belfast in Northern Ireland was almost FREE, people like to point out that I do pay several hundred dollars a year in annual fees. 

And a lot of times, the cards that give you the highest bonuses also have big annual fees. Cards like my favorites: 

• the Capital One Venture X offering a bonus right now of 90,000 points with an annual fee of $395 
• the Chase Sapphire Reserve offering a bonus right now of 60,000 points with an annual fee of $550

But right now, you can get $800 cash back on two of my all time NO annual fee credit card favorites.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited and Freedom Flex. Let me tell you the difference between these two and why they are a great go to card to have in your wallet. 

Chase Freedom Unlimited: Earn $200 cash back on a $500 minimum spend. No annual fee. Earn 5x Chase Ultimate Reward points on gas and grocery purchases for the first year up to $12,000. That's another $600. And then you earn 1.5% cash back on all other purchases. 

Chase Freedom Flex: Earn $200 cash back on a $500 minimum spend. No annual fee. Earn 5x Chase Ultimate Reward points on gas and grocery purchases for the first year up to $12,000. That's another $600. And earn 5x points on rotating bonus categories quarterly like Paypal, Amazon and more. 

Besides no annual fee, you can also combine these points onto your Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve card for more value. Amazing! 

If you want more support getting started, join the second cohort of my Travel Coaching program! You get my 5 module course (the videos are short, don't worry), a custom tracker, a personal review, 1:1 coaching session with me and then group coaching sessions for life. I'm limiting this cohort to just 10 people, so hurry! 

How You Can Get $900 In FREE Travel Right Now

 

One of the secrets of the points and miles game is buried in referrals. Many credit cards offer refer a friend links that benefit the person making the referral. That person may get anywhere from 10,000-40,000 bonus points. 

Makes sense. 

That person is introducing a new product to their friend, so they get rewarded. 

But right now, Capital One is offering a bonus for the person making the referral AND for the person who was referred. 

The person making the referral will get 20,000 bonus points and the person who was referred will get 15,000 bonus points. 

So if you can use a referral link, your bonus right now for the Capital One Venture X is 90,000 bonus points or approximately $900. Wow! 

If you don't use a referral link, you will only get a 75,000 bonus. 

You can find your Capital One referral link in your account under the "I want to..." section. 

Remember you can also refer your partner! So if you open the card using for example my referral link, then you can refer your partner using your own link which will net you an extra 20,000 bonus points and your partner 15,000 bonus points. Yay! That's a bonus of approximately $350. 

Chase also offers referral links. The best way to find yours is to use the general Chase Refer A Friend website. Enter your last name, zip code and last four digits of your credit card to find your link. Every card offers different referral bonuses. 

 

Want The Southwest Companion Pass for 2024-25? Do This Right Now

 

The Southwest Companion Pass is one of the best perks in travel! It's BOGO travel for up to two years for you and a companion. Did you hear me? BOGO on any Southwest flight anywhere Southwest flies. Costa Rica, yep. Belize, yep. No blackout dates. No blackout flights. All you do is pay the $5.60 for taxes. Amazing! 

I have had the Southwest Companion Pass for the past 6 years and it has saved me thousands of dollars. I have traveled to Cuba, Washington DC, Boston, New York City, Florida and a number of college visits, trips, family events and more and taken my companion with me for FREE.

You can even change your companion three times in a calendar year and your companion can be your spouse, child, sibling, cousin, friend, neighbor or whoever you want.  

It's Time To Earn The Southwest Companion Pass

The way to earn the Southwest Companion Pass is to rack up 135,000 Southwest points in one calendar year. Once you do that, you earn the pass for the remainder of that year PLUS the following year. 

If you time it right, you could have the pass for almost two years. But that's a lot of points! How do you earn so many points? You could fly, but that would be very time consuming and expensive. You could shop through portals and that would help, but again, very expensive. 

The way to max out the two years is by opening Southwest credit cards. If you open a personal credit card and the bonus is 50,000 points and you open a business credit card and the bonus is 80,000 points then your total is 130,000 points plus 6,000 for the minimum spend and bam, you earn a companion pass. Follow me?

You can click here to see how we do this. And we are going to map out the strategy here and I hope you will come along with me on this journey. 

Want The Southwest Companion Pass for 2024-25? Do This Right Now 

Let's look at what you need to do month by month:

October 

• Cancel your personal Southwest credit card* 
• If you have both business Southwest credit cards, you will need to cancel at least one of them. 

*You can only hold one personal Southwest credit card at a time and you have to wait at least 30 days to apply for a new personal Southwest credit card. So in order to plan it right, you will need to cancel your Southwest personal credit card this month. I know it can be tough, but it has to be done. 

Also you want to confirm that it's been at least 24 months since you earned a bonus on a Southwest personal credit card because you can only earn this bonus once every two years. 

You are allowed to hold both business cards at the same time so if you only have one, you are good to go, but if you have both, you need to cancel at least one of them. 

I recommend waiting 30 days before you apply for the Southwest credit card again. 

November 

• Apply for your new personal credit card (you have 3 months to reach the minimum spend, but you can do it faster)
• Apply for your new business credit card (you have 3 months to reach the minimum spend, but you can do it faster)
• You can start using the cards immediately, but DO NOT reach the minimum spend before the statement closes in December or to be extra safe Jan. 1. 
• This is the biggest mistake people make and it could cost you a whole year of the companion pass because you earn the pass for the current year and the following year. If your bonus posts before your December statement closes or Jan. 1st then it counts for this year instead of next year. Ouch! 

December 

• Find out your statement close date on both cards
• DO NOT reach the minimum spend before the statement closes otherwise your points will count towards the current calendar year and not next year
• To be extra safe, hit the minimum spend after Jan. 1st 

January

• The goal is to meet your minimum spend as close to Jan 1st as possible, but AFTER your December statement closes. 
• Once you reach the minimum spend, your bonus points will deposit into your account 
• The deposit will trigger the earning of the Southwest Companion Pass 

And bam, BOGO travel for the next two years! Woohoo! 

Want The Southwest Companion Pass for 2024-25? Do This Right Now 

If you decide to come along with me on this journey or if this post helps you, please consider using my referral links to apply for your Southwest credit cards. Same bonus for you, but I also get a few points for referring you. 

The Priority credit card is my favorite! Even though it has a higher minimum spend at $149, it comes with a $75 Southwest credit. The credit can be used to offset the $5.60 fee charged on every ticket and it is applied automatically by the credit card as a statement credit. 

The Priority also includes 4 upgraded boardings which help if you forget to check in and get in that dreaded C boarding group. 

Now if this sounds great to you, but you would like me to personally walk you through earning the pass step by step, join the second cohort of my new Travel Coaching Program. It just opened and there are only 10 spots available. Don't wait, enroll now. 

Registration is Open For The Second Cohort of my new Travel Coaching Program

 

Wish you could travel for FREE? You can. I am launching the second cohort of my Travel Coaching Program right now. There are only 10 spots available so don't wait. Click here to sign up!

I'm setting the price low since it's only the second cohort and I still need your feedback. But this cohort will sell out very quickly.

Check out some of the feedback from the first cohort:

"Stephanie Antin of Almost Free Family Travel has been so helpful in saving my family $1,000’s of dollars in travel costs.  I was also able to save on domestic travel by following her tips on how to make the most of your Southwest card to get a Companion Pass. If you love to travel Stephanie Antin and her Almost Free Family Travel blog is a “must have”!!
-Dena from San Diego

"I just want to take a moment to thank you for helping me plan my recent trip to Europe. Taking the time to clearly explain different credit card options, and giving me useful tips on using the miles and points was invaluable. In the end, I was able to use the points earned to cover airfare for all four of us to Iceland, The Netherlands, and Spain. I am now working on our upcoming summer vacation to Hawaii and plan to use points to cover not only airfare, but also most of our hotel rooms. I could not have done it without you!

Debbie from Riverside

In this program, you get the following:

• 3 video modules that cover basics of points and miles 
• 2 bonus modules with real life examples of redemptions 
• custom points and miles tracker 
• audit of your points, miles, credit cards
• 1:1 live strategy session with me
• group coaching sessions forever 

If you want to travel for FREE or if you are thinking about earning the Southwest Companion Pass for 2024-25, you need to be part of this new cohort. We will go step by step together to earn the pass. There are only 10 spots available, so don't wait. 

I Just Got A Trip To Tahiti For FREE, How You Can Do It Too

 

Is this your idea of a dream vacation? It's mine that's for sure. Laying on the deck of an overwater bungalow drinking a fancy cocktail with an umbrella, yep. Or snorkeling in crystal blue water among schools of colorful fish, yep.

Well, I just booked this trip for my family of 5 and so far, it's cost me $140. Yep. So far, we have flights for all 5 of us and two nights in overwater bungalows on the island of Moorea. If I had paid for flights and this hotel, it would have cost me over $10,000. And I'm not done yet. 

Wish you could travel for FREE? You can. I am launching the second cohort of my Travel Coaching Program right now. There are only 10 spots available so don't wait. Click here to sign up!

I'm setting the price low since it's only the second cohort and I still need your feedback. But this cohort will sell out very quickly.

Check out some of the feedback from the first cohort:

"The videos were a reinforcement of what I've been reading all these years on your blog. The Zoom appointment was where I actually saw how it works for my situation." - Tonya

"I recommend you to everyone I run into that wants to travel more" - Deborah

In this program, you get the following:

• 3 video modules that cover basics of points and miles 
• 2 bonus modules with real life examples of redemptions 
• custom points and miles tracker 
• audit of your points, miles, credit cards
• 1:1 live strategy session with me
• group coaching sessions forever 

If you want to travel for FREE or if you are thinking about earning the Southwest Companion Pass for 2024-25, you need to be part of this new cohort. We will go step by step together to earn the pass. There are only 10 spots available, so don't wait. 

Chase Ink No Annual Fee Card Offers Big Bonus

 

Woohoo! Chase just upped the offer on its no annual fee business cash card to 90,000 bonus Chase Ultimate Reward points when you spend $6,000 in the first three months. 90,000 points are worth approximately $900, but can be worth much more if you combine them onto another card. 

This is a great offer IF you already have or can also apply for a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve or Chase Ink Business Preferred credit card. Why? Because the Ink Cash card does not allow you to take advantage of all the ways to use your Chase Ultimate Rewards on travel. 

But you can transfer your 90,000 points to another card that does offer the travel opportunities like the travel portal and transferring points to airlines and hotels. Make sense?

The Ink Business cash card also earns 5x points at office supply stores, streaming services, internet, cable and phone. 

Capital One Venture X New 90,000 Point Bonus Offer

 

Capital One released this very quiet 90,000 bonus offer for the same $4,000 minimum spend. It was discovered by our friends at Doctor of Credit so who knows how long it will stick around. 

Capital One Venture X comes with a $300 annual travel credit plus $100 Global Entry credit and Capital One and Priority Pass Lounge access. You also get a 10,000 point bonus on your anniversary. All of this balances out the $395 annual fee. 

I like Capital One because the points are so flexible. You can transfer them to dozens of airlines and hotels plus you can use them to erase travel purchases and to buy travel in the portal. Though sometimes you need to be careful when booking through the portal. 

You earn 2 points per dollar on everything so it's a great everyday card. The 90,000 bonus offer is equal to $900 in travel. 

You are only eligible for a Capital One bonus every 48 months so if you have had this card before, be sure to check the date that you got the bonus. And if you or your partner have a Capital One Venture X card, it may make more sense to refer the other person to the regular offer to get the referral bonus which is worth 25,000 points.