{"id":942,"date":"2016-03-10T07:00:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/?p=942"},"modified":"2016-03-10T04:32:12","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T09:32:12","slug":"free-flights-to-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/free-flights-to-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Flights to Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, a co-worker told me he’s planning to visit family in Europe in 18-24 months.\u00a0 We had previously discussed credit card rewards, so he was interested in reducing his costs for the flights.\u00a0 His lodging expenses will be covered since he’s staying with family.\u00a0 He is taking his wife and two kids with him, so he needs a lot of miles in order to get free flights (minus any taxes he would have to pay).\u00a0 With that background in mind, I advised him to accumulate miles via credit card rewards following the path explained below.\u00a0 This plan requires that he and his wife each sign up for the credit cards described to ensure they can collect enough miles for all four people in the traveling party.<\/p>\n

The easiest path to accumulating enough airline miles through credit card sign ups is through United Mileage Plus miles.\u00a0 There are a number of credit cards that will earn you either United miles or points that you can transfer into United miles.\u00a0 All of these cards are available through Chase.\u00a0 The only wrinkle in the plan is the new Chase policy of only approving you for a new Chase card if you have had less than 5 new credit card sign ups in the past 24 months.\u00a0 For people just starting out on the credit card churning path, this policy shouldn’t be a problem.\u00a0 For those of us that have been at it a while, that is almost an insurmountable obstacle.\u00a0 We try to sign up for a new card every three months, so we could not execute the strategy that I laid out for him.<\/p>\n

Traveling from the mainland United States to Europe will cost 60,000 miles for one round trip Saver Award in economy.\u00a0 One business class round trip Saver Award will cost 115,000 miles.\u00a0 This means economy tickets will cost 240,000 miles for a family of four while four business class tickets would cost 460,000 miles.\u00a0 Once my friend saw these numbers, he was happy to fly in economy class.<\/p>\n

\"united\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The first card to sign up for is the United MileagePlus Explorer card<\/a>, but only when the bonus is at 50,000 miles for $3,000 minimum spend within the first three months .\u00a0 This card will also give you an additional 5,000 miles if you add an additional authorized user to your account and that person makes a single purchase.\u00a0\u00a0 The United MileagePlus Explorer card does have a $95 annual fee, but it is waived for the first year.\u00a0 Not only are miles important for getting free tickets, but the card comes with added perks which will be beneficial for travel.\u00a0 The first additional benefit is that this card will provide one free bag each for you and a guest traveling on the same reservation.\u00a0 This counts for award tickets as well as regular fares.\u00a0 The second perk is the most important: the United MileagePlus Explorer card opens up additional Saver Award tickets for the card holder.\u00a0 A flight may have just two Saver Award tickets for MileagePlus members, but might have additional availability for Explorer cardholders.\u00a0 I’ve often searched for flights before signing in to see no award availability at the Saver level.\u00a0 Once I sign into my account which is linked to my MileagePlus Explorer card, multiple award availability was displayed.<\/p>\n

After earning 58,0000 miles (50,000 bonus, 5,000 for adding an authorized user, plus 3,000 miles for the minimum spend) per adult for the Explorer card, it’s time to shift to a different award currency.\u00a0 You will want to start earning Chase Ultimate Reward points.\u00a0 I haven’t discussed these in great detail yet, but suffice it to say that these can be directly transferred at a 1-to-1 ratio into United MileagePlus award miles.\u00a0 Chase offers a few cards that will let you earn lots of Ultimate Reward points.<\/p>\n

\"freedom\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The second card to sign up for, and one that can provide Ultimate Reward points, is the Chase Freedom Card.\u00a0 The Freedom card will give you 15,000 Ultimate Reward points (with one caveat as described below) for $500 minimum spending within the first three months.\u00a0 This card will also give you an additional 2,500 points if you add an additional authorized user and they make a single purchase.\u00a0\u00a0 These points can be cashed out if you would like ($150 for the signup bonus plus $25 for the authorized user bonus), but they are much more valuable when transferred to United miles.\u00a0 The caveat is that you can’t transfer the Ultimate Reward points without the third card, which is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (or the Chase Business Ink card).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Chase Freedom Card doesn’t have an annual fee, plus it will give you a different bonus category each quarter.\u00a0 Spending in the selected bonus category will get you 5 Ultimate Reward points for each dollar spent in that quarter.\u00a0 Anything outside the category will earn you 1 Ultimate Reward point.\u00a0 The spending categories are often very useful, ranging from gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores, and home improvement stores, to online commerce sites like Amazon.com.\u00a0 We can often find Target gift cards or Disney gift cards in stores that fit into those categories.<\/p>\n

\"sapphire_preferred_card\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The third card to sign up for is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card<\/a>, but only when the bonus is 50,000 Ultimate Reward points for $4,000 minimum spend over within the first three months.\u00a0 This card will also give you an additional 5,000 Ultimate Reward points if you add an additional authorized user and they make a single purchase.\u00a0 The main perk of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is that you can transfer the Ultimate Reward points from the Chase Freedom into your Chase Sapphire Preferred Ultimate Reward account, then into your United Mileage Plus account.\u00a0 The card has a $95 annual fee that is waived the first year.\u00a0 The card does earn 2 Ultimate Reward points for travel and dining purchases, and 1 Ultimate Reward point for everything else.<\/p>\n

Here is how the earnings break out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nBase Earning<\/td>\nAuthorized User<\/td>\nMiles from Spend<\/td>\nTotal<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer Card<\/td>\n50,000<\/td>\n5,000<\/td>\n3,000<\/td>\n58,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chase Freedom Card<\/td>\n15,000<\/td>\n2,500<\/td>\n500<\/td>\n18,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chase Sapphire Preferred Card<\/td>\n50,000<\/td>\n5,000<\/td>\n4000<\/td>\n59,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n135,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

If my coworker and his wire both obtain these three cards and earn points as described above, they will each have enough for two round trip Economy Saver Award tickets (giving them the four tickets they need).\u00a0 Luckily, my co-worker has the time necessary to get each of these cards and work through the minimum spend in order to get all of the sign up bonuses.\u00a0 They also have the luxury of having a fairly open planning window for their trip, so they can specifically look for a time when there are plenty of Saver Award tickets available.<\/p>\n

This is one example of a suggested approach to accumulate miles and points to get free airline tickets.\u00a0 Pick out one that works best for you and your traveling party and get started!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, a co-worker told me he’s planning to visit family in Europe in 18-24 months.\u00a0 We had previously discussed credit Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,15,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-credit-cards","category-flight-cost","category-travel-cost","no-post-thumbnail","no-read-more-tag","no-sticky","use-excerpt","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":280,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/the-united-mileageplus-explorer-card\/","url_meta":{"origin":942,"position":0},"title":"The United MileagePlus Explorer card","author":"Joseph","date":"October 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"One way we keep our vacation costs down is to leverage frequent flyer miles to get free flights to our destinations.\u00a0 The cost of the flight to your vacation can comprise a large portion of your overall budget -- why not have that cost covered for you? 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One of our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Credit Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Credit Cards","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/credit-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"united","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/united-1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":330,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/citibank-american-airlines-card\/","url_meta":{"origin":942,"position":2},"title":"Citibank American Airlines Card","author":"Joseph","date":"November 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"We've talked before about keeping your travel costs down by using credit card sign up bonuses for free flights.\u00a0 With this strategy, you can reap the benefits of a $500 flight per person and a free flight.\u00a0 The problem we've seen is that credit card companies want to hand out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Credit Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Credit Cards","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/credit-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"citi-aadvantage-platinum","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/citi-aadvantage-platinum.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/citi-aadvantage-platinum.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/citi-aadvantage-platinum.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/citi-aadvantage-platinum.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":22,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/cheap-flight-options-disneyworld\/","url_meta":{"origin":942,"position":3},"title":"Cheap Flight Options (DisneyWorld)","author":"Joseph","date":"May 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Flying is a quick and easy way to get to see the mouse.\u00a0 Flying into Orlando airport is the most common approach. Most major hubs have daily flights into Orlando (MCO) and the prices tend to be competitive with so many choices. Since we live in the Washington DC area,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flight Cost"","block_context":{"text":"Flight Cost","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/travel-cost\/flight-cost\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1273,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/upcoming-card-selection\/","url_meta":{"origin":942,"position":4},"title":"Upcoming Card Selection","author":"Joseph","date":"August 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"With the recent draw down in our hotel and airline accounts, we need a plan to replenish them.\u00a0 We have our travel plans set until December of 2017, so we have time to build our supply back up.\u00a0 We plan to continue spending on the credit cards we have right\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Credit Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Credit Cards","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/credit-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":297,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/planning-a-trip-to-hawaii-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":942,"position":5},"title":"Planning a trip to Hawaii – Part 1","author":"Joseph","date":"November 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Planning 1 | Planning 2 | Planning 3 | Travel | Disneyland\u00a0 (Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4) | Arrival | Surfing | Aulani | Excursion | Hyatt This will be a three part discussion on planning a future trip. 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