Any ideas on how to get Free Plane Tickets?

[fiorgodx]

I know Tim suggests paying for your product with an airline issued credit card which will give you flier miles and eventually free plane tickets. Does anyone have any other ideas on how to get free airfare? Assume that I'm not in the business of selling products. I welcome business related ideas and non-business related. Thanks

[Marcie]

This is not a different idea, but you might want to read Tim's blog post that gives more info about credit cards:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/01/03/how-to-piggyback-and-recycle-credit-card-points/

[kamakiri]

Here is a suggestion that isn`t 100%, but it does work. The last time I tried it I got a free hotel room and a free round trip ticket anywhere in the US.

Basically with a small amount of footwork, you can easily determine which flights will be overbooked by travel agencies. Any time you fly, get on one. When they are overbooked, the airlines will ask people to give up their seats in return for various things from drink tickets to free tickets.

This system is not 100%, but if you have a less than firm schedule, it is free money. I go to Japan twice a year, and always keep that flexibility in the 2-3 days around my flights. Many people will give up their seats when the offer is made, so be aware of that as well. Just stay near the counter sop you can be the first in line when they make the announcement.

[travelhead]

Northwest Airlines has a great rewards system called WORLDPERKS:

http://www.nwa.com/freqfly/

In fact, I've gotten about 4 absolutely free flights from them over the years.

What you do is basically sign up for their personal credit card, and business credit card. This alone gets you something like 15,000 points. I didn't use the cards and simply canceled them.

Next, they give away points for some stupid things, like 3,000 for signing up for their email list. Also, they give a lot of points for things like getting a DSL line.

I was actually able to get a free round trip ticket from Miami to Barcelona by having existing points and then doing what I mentioned above.

If you want to fly from the USA to any of the 50 states, it's super easy to get a free ticket. Also, if you want to fly from USA to central america or nothern south america, it's relatively easy.

Here's some more info.. Under "Standard Offers' go to 'credit cards', etc..

http://www.nwa.com/worldperks/earn/partnercenter/

(the link for credit cards seems to be down right now).

[mascij]

check out some of the app o rama's at fatwallet.com in the finance forums.

people do app or rama's for two reasons, getting a ton of credit cards so they can take advantage of large credit lines for profit, and also to reap the bonuses from certain cards.

applying for cards will hurt your credit, but if you do them all at once, the impact isn't much different from 1 card or 100 cards. there's lots of websites that offer links to credit cards based on their bonuses, just search for the ones that offer free tickets. sometimes there's a cost associated, like $40, but that isn't bad considering the free flight. it's easy to do an app o rama, get 5 free round trip tickets and just keep the cards open. having a large percentage of your total credit line open will improve your credit and open more doors for these great offers down the road.

i live in the bay area but just moved here from boston a couple months ago, so I travel back home often. I just did a bunch of apps to get CC's w/ free tickets and snagged points through AMEX for a free flight, used southwest's card to get a free flight, and opened a jetblue card for a free flight.

I know tim discourages cards where the benefits are limited to one airline, but the jetblue one is awesome for me because I fly the same flights all the time between BOS and SJC. the benefits are insane, you get 6 points per flight from SJC to BOS or vice versa.....you get double points for booking online, and another set of 6 points for using the jet blue credit card. so it's like 18 points PER leg, 36 per trip....100 points = free flight, so 3 flights and you get a free one, ontop of the free flight i got for just signing up.

i can also keep the miles from my employer when i travel, so I have a perpetual source of free flights.

check around for really good deals on regular items. when I see a great deal on an item in the ~$1000 range, I try to buy it on my credit card to sell it on ebay or craigslist. If it's a good deal I'll make $100-$200 and then I also get the points for purchasing it on my credit card. If you can't sell it, just return to the store, it's a great way to earn points, total legal, and it gives the occasional income as well. I just snagged a great deal on some Dell laptops I saw on a bargain site, so I ebayed 'em for $200 over orignal price, plus collected all the credit card points. It's win-win. So I guess if you aren't in sales, maybe you should just do it on the side, even if the profits are small, it'll at least give you significant rewards.

[italian_job]

signing up for airlines credit cards just to get their airline points and then immediately CANCEL is really low on your side.

Are you really that desperate that you need to screw up people?

Tim talks about USING credit cards FAIRLY, not to rip off airline companies as you do.


What goes around comes around...

[mascij]

signing up for airlines credit cards just to get their airline points and then immediately CANCEL is really low on your side.

Are you really that desperate that you need to screw up people?

Tim talks about USING credit cards FAIRLY, not to rip off airline companies as you do.


What goes around comes around...

I never said that you should cancel them....

"it's easy to do an app o rama, get 5 free round trip tickets and just keep the cards open. having a large percentage of your total credit line open will improve your credit and open more doors for these great offers down the road."


having large credit lines open is GOOD for your credit and will ensure that more of these offers come your way. If you don't first develope good credit, the opportunities that Tim described will NEVER come your way. Having a diversified amount of CC at your disposal makes you more eligible for the offers that he described in his blog post.

I'm not talking about exploiting anyone or taking advantage, it's just capitalizing on the offers out there. Plus, getting free tickets as part of a promo offer is more legitimate that some of the techniques he describe in the blog post. Purchasing 10's of thousands of dollars worth of prepaid debits and cycling them into 10's of thousands of dollars worth of bank checks? Seriously....

[kamakiri]

This came across DIGG this morning and is exactly what I was talking about.

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/03/free-airline-vouchers-by-reserving.html

It also gave some pretty good tips on how to actually do it.

[badhank]

signing up for airlines credit cards just to get their airline points and then immediately CANCEL is really low on your side.

Are you really that desperate that you need to screw up people?

Tim talks about USING credit cards FAIRLY, not to rip off airline companies as you do.


What goes around comes around...

I see ur point, but in all fairness i have been jerked around a bit by some airline b4, stayed 3 days (bags checked, no change of clothes) in a hotel being rushed to the airport 2x a day to get ur hopes up. The barely covered anything for anyone.

I will definitely use this information to jerk them around a little, after all, its legal.

And yes, i know its a rule there to protect you, not to b taken advantage of...
BUT...
had the rules not have been there, you would b SOL, no1 would hear ur complaint let alone spend a thin red dime. have u ever heard the saying "do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but do it first" kinda like that, but they cant do something they would b doin anyways.

[kamakiri]

signing up for airlines credit cards just to get their airline points and then immediately CANCEL is really low on your side.

Are you really that desperate that you need to screw up people?

Tim talks about USING credit cards FAIRLY, not to rip off airline companies as you do.


What goes around comes around...

I didn't notice this post earlier, but though I should jump in. The bottom line here is that with or without your 'free tickets' those planes are are going to fly anyway. The schedules are set. Barring an accident or problem, they are already a sunk cost for the airlines.

You get 20,000 miles for a card. Is that going to get you anything for free? Nope. You still need to spend money with them to get a free ticket to anywhere decent. Canceling the card is counterproductive. Using it for your daily needs will get you more in miles for free than canceling it anyway.

[mascij]

I didn't notice this post earlier, but though I should jump in. The bottom line here is that with or without your 'free tickets' those planes are are going to fly anyway. The schedules are set. Barring an accident or problem, they are already a sunk cost for the airlines.

You get 20,000 miles for a card. Is that going to get you anything for free? Nope. You still need to spend money with them to get a free ticket to anywhere decent. Canceling the card is counterproductive. Using it for your daily needs will get you more in miles for free than canceling it anyway.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. I've recieved almost half a dozen FREE full round trip tickets in the past year from CC offers. Sounds like you don't know what to look for. I never said cancel the cards, I said to consolidate the credit line onto an existing card.

Open a card w/ a free ticket promo, buy something with that card to satisfy the requirements to get the free miles, and then call to consolidate the credit line onto an existing card through the same creditor.

Naturally you have to do your homework to make sure you can achieve this, but it gives you a free round trip ticket w/o the impact of cancel the credit card. Like I said, you can do this with several cards at once so you aren't hurting you credit w/ 10 inquires, instead it'll go through as 1 inquiry.