Tis’ about to be the season of giving, which in other words, translates to the time of year where you spend way too much money on gifts. The holiday spirit is a wonderful thing, yet when the time comes around to pay the holiday bills it’s easy to lose. Wouldn’t a free flight somewhere nice help bring on a second wind of holiday cheer? Here’s the most overlooked way to get serious rewards for your holiday spending, credit card or not!
Even if you don’t have a credit card, and even if you’ve never ever flown before- you can earn a free flight and collect airline frequent flyer miles. How? Because the internet is about money and rewards. All your favorite online stores pay money to the people that send you their way. When you click a link, whoever sends you makes money. Airlines have jumped in on this game- so if you click over to your favorite online stores from an airline website, they get paid- and they kick you back miles in exchange.
For reasons beyond obvious, every store wants your business, especially this time of year. Your favorite stores raise the commission they give to the airlines, so the airlines kick in extra miles to incentivize you. Best part? You get the same exact prices, as always. It’s not at all uncommon this time of year for top stores to offer up to 25 points per dollar spent. For reference, free one way flights in many parts of the world can start at just 4,500 miles one way. Round trip flights in the U.S. can start at just 15,000 points and 25,000 points could get you one way in first class. So, a $1000 laptop purchase could have major benefits.
Many of the top airlines have online shopping portals, where you earn your miles just for going to their site first and using their links to visit your favorite online brands like H&M, Nike, Apple, Zara, Macy’s, Selfridges, Best Buy and so forth. Simply check out your preferred airline’s shopping links here: British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines, Delta, United, Southwest, Virgin America, Jet Blue, Alaska, Aeroplan, Air New Zealand and start earning like crazy. The best deals should come around in the next couple weeks. So look out for the miles per dollar to start jumping. If you have a rewards earning credit card, you’ll earn points on top of these points.
It’s not at all unreasonable to truly earn a free flight, if you use this technique for all your holiday shopping. Plus, you don’t have to leave the house to do it! Once you have your miles, you can start learning about the best ways to use them, all the cool tricks that are possible if you keep earning more and all sorts of good stuff. Miles really make travel as close to free as possible, and after all that holiday generosity- you definitely deserve an amazing vacation. Enjoy.
