Oh yeah it’s time for another giveaway! To celebrate Points With a Crew being the featured blog on Boarding Area this week, I’ll be giving away a $50 Amazon gift card!
There’s 2 ways to win!
1) Leave a comment on this post with your favorite travel hacking tip
2) Sign up for our daily email. It goes out once a day and has the top travel posts for the day. No spam ever! If you don’t have time to be scouring every travel blog all day every day, this is s a great way to make sure you don’t miss out! Everyone who signs up for the newsletter between now and 11:59 p.m. EDT on Sunday evening will also receive an entry (so you can get 2 entries if you do both).
As a side note, as I write this post, I am sitting at 957 followers on Twitter. If I get up to 1000 followers by the end of this week, I will give away another gift card (this one a $25). So if you’re not following me yet, well why the heck not?!!? Now’s a great time to do and maximize your chances of winning!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Put shower cap over shoes so they don’t get your clothes dirty.
travel obsession is when you know it :about free
Always google discount codes before booking anything.
Great giveaway! My favorite is diversifying the cards I churn–one for hotels, one for flights, and another that has more flexibility.
always travel with power adapters for converting to overseas plugs
reading all of the travel blogs daily!
Love that you can use credit cards to help get hotel and airline status.
Check car rental rates closer to the time of departure as last minute deals might be available.
Hammer the sign-up bonus’s and get organized.
Rolling clothes rather than folding them for more room in a suitecase!
Do plenty of research ahead of time, but never discount the opinion of the locals!
Reading travel blogs and subscribing to theflightdeal.com!
Pack dirty shoes in a shower cap.
Always ask the hotel for a razor/shaving cream if they don’t put one in the room. They almost always have them.
check boarding area often.
Pack most necklaces by sliding the chain through a large straw. Keeps them from tangling.
Make sure to use price match guarantees when booking hotels
(EDITING PREVIOUS COMMENT) I follow blogs (via RSS) local to the place I’ll be traveling to keep updated about news/events that might not otherwise be widely known.
Google’s flight search tool to see find the cheapest flights
Paying my crazy winter power bill with a new credit card. I will have spent $1000 on power bill since January of this year. I’m ready for spring!
Offer to pay first when traveling w/ families/friends. This way, you can potentially receive some points, and your pals don’t have to worry about the expenses until after the trip!
Check out the gym even if you are not working out to get bottled water or refill your own water bottles.
Pack foldable shoes and boots and pieces that mix and match effortlessly! 🙂
Book flight award travel 11 months out or whenever the schedule opens up for the best availability
If you have any type of hotel status, always ask at check-in if nicer rooms may be available. You never know what you might get!
Before you leave on your trip, download an app like Wi-Fi Finder which offers an offline database of free public wifi hotspots.
Always book the full refundable rate at the SPG hotel AFTER you get approved for the best rate guarantee so you can change/cancel if you need to!
Low Price Guarantee
Being shameless about asking for room upgrades.
Travel tip when traveling with little kids: triangular crayons. They won’t roll off airplane tray tables.
Hidden city ticketing
I keep all the free shower caps. When I first check into my room I take it and wrap it around the remote cuz it’s the dirtiest thing you touch. Then I bring the other remaining shower caps home to use on my self when I’m conditioning my hair with coconut oil! I just watch tv while I’m getting my hair conditioned
Global entry and TSA Pre
Using miles/points earning shopping portals for online purchases. Free miles for something I am doing anyway.
Pack everything in one carry-on suitcase and bag; you gain so much more flexibility in your travels when you have less to tote.
And if want to bring something back that cannot go in your carry-on bags, pack a smaller crushable bag and (using your free check-in bag benefit from a good credit card) check a bag on the return flight when you care less about it being delayed.
Asking if they have any complimentary upgrades available.
Called airline customer service for better seats when all good seats seem to be taken online. It worked yesterday – I got a window seat instead of aisle seat in a full flight!
Check rental car rates often
Making sure to take advantage of best price guarantees when booking hotels! Thanks for the giveaway!
If im flying domestic I will never check my bag. Not only does that save on baggage fees but I can get out of the airport instead of wasting time waiting for my bag to come out of the carousel. For intl flights I always tie a bright pom Pom ribbon on my checked bags because there are a ton of black suitcases on that carousel. Can’t mistake your bag for mine
Always pack a change of clothes and your prescription medication in your carry on just in case your luggage gets lost.
Email the hotel in advance if it’s a special occasion, like an anniversary.
Carry a neck brace or a sling with you…board early every time *hides*
Use autoslash to save on car rentals
Asking for complimentary upgrades.
I like taking an extra battery for my phone when I travel. It’s been helpful on more than one occasion.
Read the Flyertalk Forums every day, as much as you can.
Booking one way awards instead of round trip with AA miles to save on fuel surcharges!
HUCA!
You might be surprised how often this works.
I like the shopping portals for miles, and zalyn.com for car rental discounts.
At one time it was the open jaw when flying delta. Unfortunately that has ended….
When traveling put your clothes in a space saver bag,with a vacuum take the air out the bag and then you’ll have more room to put your shoes. ..
Sign up for every free point opportunity, every free offer, and every contest. It takes very little time and hey, someone has to win, right?
Use Feedly or another RSS aggregator to keep an eye on All the Blogs so you don’t miss a useful strategy!
always carry an empty (water) bottle that has a filter, such as brita…. never have to buy over priced bottled water at the airport
Using iberia avios site to find low level availability and calling AAdvantage to book low saaver business class award with no phone booking fee. Iberia award flights can’t be seen or booked on the AAdvantage site.
Always allow extra time to get to the airport and between flights, if possible.
Kiva for manufacturing spend!
Refill your empty water bottle after passing security instead of buying something to drink. Headphones and devices with your music, audio books…. can make a trip much more pleasant.
Leveraging credit card sign up bonus.
Sign up for loyalty programs.
Hotel Hustle has helped me out. The site keeps checking to see if an award room has opened up, which saves big money.
Use a spreadsheet to keep track of your CC turns (I’ll gladly share mine if anyone is interested).
I would carry empty water bottle and my Sapphire card
We time opening new churn on cc with extra bonus miles when we have a huge planned expense. Of course, we pay our balance immediately so we don’t have to pay interest.
Get a amex club access
I roll all my t-shirts and pants, it’s such a huge time saver.
email subscriber-groogruxking40 at gmail dot com
I stock up on Visa gift cards at Staples when they offer rebates to offset the activation fees using my Ink Plus card for 5x the points. Then I load them to my BB account at Walmart and use money to pay for things I cannot charge on a credit card like the babysitter and Mother’s Day Out.
I then use my UR points to transfer to BA Avios. Since my home airport is DFW I can get enough points to get to the beach in Mexico in just a few months!
Bring a backpacker’s backpack even if you aren’t “backpacking.” It forces you to streamline your items and is so much easier to travel around with.
the most obvious, but best: sign up bonuses
Sign-up bonuses. Keep track of everything in an Excel spreadsheet.
On a side note, I would love to see your recommendations and tips for booking hotel with reward points that accommodate more than four people.
taking advantage of Best Rate Guarantees to get prices knocked off your room rate- or even a free night if you play your cards right!
Look up the right hotel that suits me. 🙂
Love using shopping portals to score some easy points!
rolling all my clothes in my luggage when packing… no more wrinkles!
My favorite travel tip is to bring your own snacks on the airplane. I’m an email subscriber. Thanks for the chance!
Break up the flights if its cheaper, for example from Vegas to Cali to Washington instead of from Vegas to Washington.
10,000 miles for some Delta one way domestic trips. why not?
I can’t really think of anything except to check Yelp on places you are staying to get an idea where you want to stay/eat/visit beforehand. Saves time.
Get yourself a travel router / plug converter combo. Got one from amazon that allows me to plug in my devices and share the one wifi connection with all my gadgets
Applying for credit cards!
Check the reviews on travel advisor for details about your hotel.
Couchsurfing! Cannot beat free lodging and hospitality.
My favorite traveling hack is the one you expedite the security process by wearing a jacket and stuffing the pockets with all your stuff, then place it in the bin with your shoes.
A family of four can travel in style on Amtrak for 25,000 points instead of 100,000 on an airline. Plus lots of great downtime family bonding.
I put all my bottles in ziploc bags so no accidents.
A great tip is to use belts to line collars to keep them crispy. Works really well.
As of now, my best tip is following PointsWithACrew on Twitter.
Avios for shorthaul
Get your spouse hooked onto the miles & points game, while you travel free based on his/her hacking efforts.
putting an aa awards ticket on hold, just before expiration tweaking it just a bit, re-put it on hold, repeat repeat!
I love sites like BetterBidding to take out some of the guesswork if you are going to use Hotwire or Priceline
I always book the max mile distance route, even it means flying from LAX to MSP to SFO to HNL!
Buy all your clothes on vacation. You get to shop while you travel. I mean this as way to travel with nothing when you fly (except a suit or something dressy if you need it). You can travel for months this way. Mail your stuff home to yourself or junk it.
I love to travel! And I could use the Amazon GC to get some new headphones for trains and planes!
USB in the TV for my phone
I wish I had a tip… but I am still hoping to start traveling. It is in the works. 🙂
Never let airline miles expire.
jslbrown2009(at)aol(dot)com
Rolling my clothes > folding and packing a 1Above as it beats the energy drinks
I carry extra water bottle with me if I have room because those are often more expensive when I’m traveling overseas.
My favorite travel hack is to bring an empty water bottle through security to fill up in the airport
My favorite hack is to keep you belt rolled up in your shirt’s collar to keep it stiff.
My best resource for travel hacking is making friends within our frequent flyer community. Be social, meet people in person, learn tricks that may not be posted on the boards.
I’m not sure it’s hacking, but I like to leave room in my luggage for the goodies I know I’ll be bringing home for souvenirs for myself and my loved ones, and I also use more ziploc baggies during a trip than I normally would all year in the kitchen. it keeps everything clean and in place, and they have tons of sizes!
Sign your kids up for FF programs too then transfer the points to yourself.
I love travling.
Target Redcard had to be the easiest way to build points fast.
Use twitter to contact airlines/hotels because you can get a response a lot quicker.
Avios baby, sweet avios!
reading travel blogs and research
reading your blog!
cancel serve then immediately reapply to reset load limit
As much as possible, don’t use miles on airlines that pass on fuel surcharges.
Woo Woo!
Travel in economy on cheaper fares, rack up miles, redeem for expensive long premium fares! Chase the fare not the destination 😉
Always use online shopping portals when possible!
love your blog. Love bb, rb to get miles and points for free travel.
My favorite is using credit cards to gain status and collect miles.
I’ve really got the hang of using portals for everything–really EVERYTHING–I buy online, as it’s great free money. The one thing I’ve learned is it really pays to read the fine print, and as the sites that sometimes show up having the highest cash back rates on say Cashbackmonitor, on closer look, are lower than sites farther down on the list. Thanks for great giveaways!
REDbird outside of AR & NC
@Anita so glad you didn’t put on the shower cap for the same reason. Otherwise travel tip would’ve been “don’t touch Anita” :-p
Carry money and credit cards in different locations so that if you get pick pocketed they only get one thing. Leave extra credit cards in hotel safe. NEVER carry everything in one place!!!!!