Chronicles in Credit Card Hacking for Travel (1): Where & How To Begin

I’ve always been intimidated to start credit card hacking. There are often annual fees, and also, in my family, we try our hardest to avoid debt. Which is why we ONLY use ONE credit card at a time so it’s easy to pay off each month without accruing interest.

It seemed complicated and a bit of a culture with an in-crowd language.

I also hesitated because when you open a credit card, you often have to spend a certain amount of money before you earn the points.

I was never sure if we’d meet the amount with normal spending and didn’t want to artificially spend in a way that would defeat the purpose of using credit cards to SAVE money!

But after passing up TWO rounds of an elevated sign on bonus and realizing there WOULD have been plenty of opportunities to spend (including utility bills and those that were unforeseen), today (Dec 2025), I finally decided to see what all the hype was about.

I also had the opportunity of being coached by a friend who successfully hacked the system to spend a month in Taiwan with flights and hotels for free that would have cost them over $10,000! 🤯

My Path

Credit card hacking can get complex. Some argue it’s best to plan your trip first, then find out what plan makes the most sense to earn points towards specific flight airlines and hotels for best optimization.

If you don’t have the capacity to think too much about it like me, check out my simple path to just start earning that will quickly land you a free trip!

Chase points are the most prized for their ability to be transferred to various airlines and hotels. So this is a great card to start with. More on that later in another post.

Disclaimer: Do not, I repeat, DO NOT get into credit card hacking if you cannot pay off your credit card each month. Thank you for your attention to this very important detail.

1. Start Here: Open The Chase Sapphire Preferred

Not to be confused with the Chase Sapphire Reserve that had a higher sign up bonus of 125,000 points. The Chase Sapphire Reserve has an $795 annual fee compared to the Chase Sapphire Preferred, which has a $95 annual fee.

Plus, you can only pick one or the other since they’re considered in the same family. So choose wisely!

2. Spend $5,000 in Three Months To Earn Sign Up Bonus

To get the sign-on bonus, you must spend a certain amount. Usually the sign up bonus is 60k points for spending $5k. A few times a year they elevate it to 75k points.

If you luck out on timing, great. However, I wouldn’t necessarily wait for this promotion though because you loose out on time. Plus, you get points for spending, so just because you could have had a higher sign on bonus, doesn’t mean you wouldn’t rack up more points starting sooner. Just like with investing, time in the credit card hacking game is better than timing the game!

5 Tips on Getting Started

1. Call in to request getting your card expedited to you in the mail so you don’t have to wait a week to make a purchase. However, you can begin using it in your digital wallet immediately. You just won’t have your full credit card numbers available if needed.

2. Immediately, set your payment to be automatic and reoccurring to avoid any interest.

3. Be sure to take advantage of the $50 hotel credit! You must go in manually to select this reward. It is not automatic.

4. Book travel plans through the Chase app to earn 5x points!

5. Select offers on a regular basis. These are like coupons you need to opt into. If you’re a Cincinnati local and Brink runner, be sure to take advantage of the Garcia 5% cash back offer to receive up to $100 cash back!

My Observations

Justifying Annual Fee

After using the $50 hotel credit, this helped justify the $95 annual fee in my mind, reducing it to $45.

I don’t do Door Dash, but if I used their $120 promotional offer for a free dash pass, that would more than cancel out the annual fee altogether.

So how many points did I accrue?

After opening my first CC in December during an elevated reward season, by February, I was able to meet the sign on bonus thanks to the holiday spending season and transferring any possible bills. I managed to rack up a whopping 85,930 points in 2 months including points earned from spending. BUT…

…I learned these points are not immediately accessible and may take 2 months to access!

Good to know for trip planning purposes!

Next Steps

I then began my next leg of the CC hacking journey by referring my spouse in hopes of receiving the 15,000 point referral bonus. Plus, any points hubby earned could be rolled over for my own personal use!

Click here to learn how to refer.

At this point, I looked up a plane ticket to Bali in the United Airlines app. Learning I could get a one way ticket for 60k points… I marked a trip on the calendar for that following September and talked a few friends into joining. I only needed to earn 120k points! Bali, here we come!

CC Hacking Resources

Podcast: Katie’s Travel Tricks: Points For Normal People

Podcast: All the Hacks Points and Miles in 2026: What’s New, What’s Dying & What’s Next with Brian M

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