How to Travel the World for (Almost) Free Using Miles and Points
Do you want to learn how to travel the world using miles and points?
Today, I’m sharing an exciting interview with Megan, an expert in travel credit card rewards who has mastered the art of using miles and points to see the world for less. Megan has traveled to incredible destinations like the Maldives, Europe, and even taken a Mediterranean cruise—saving tens of thousands of dollars along the way.
Megan’s passion for travel started in her twenties, and she quickly learned how miles and points could make her dream trips a reality, even on a budget. Now, as part of Daily Drop (founded by the very popular travel YouTubers Kara and Nate), a site dedicated to helping others maximize their rewards, Megan teaches miles and points strategies through classes and a podcast.
In today’s interview, questions answered include:
- How did Megan save money on trips like the Maldives and Europe?
- What are the best credit cards for beginners looking to earn points?
- How can someone maximize points without overspending or getting into debt?
- What mistakes should beginners avoid when starting with travel rewards?
- What are some popular destinations you can easily visit using miles and points?
Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your travel rewards to the next level, Megan’s tips and experiences will inspire you to start planning your next trip today!
If you want to learn how to book your next trip for almost free, the Daily Drop newsletter is a great resource. It’s a free newsletter that teaches you how to earn and redeem miles and points, find cheap flights, and travel smarter—all in just a few minutes a day. Click here to join over 1 million readers and start saving on your travels today!
How to Travel the World for (Almost) Free Using Miles and PointsIf you’re ready to start traveling with miles and points, picking the right credit card is the first step. The right card can help you earn points faster and save money on your trips. Click here to take a look at the Best Travel Rewards Cards to find the best cards for earning travel rewards.
1. Tell me your story. Who are you, and what makes you an expert when it comes to travel miles and points?Hi! I’m Megan and I became obsessed with travel in 2015 when I finally took my first international trip in my twenties. I knew I needed to make more travel happen but my fresh out of college budget wasn’t so sure.
That’s when I came across the world of miles and points. I started, where many people begin testing miles and points, through booking a few trips using the credit card travel portal. But when I met a couple in an airport lounge who were also traveling the world using miles and points I started to learn how to make my points go even further using transfer points and since then I’ve saved tens of thousands of dollars in travel.
It’s allowed me to see areas of the world that I once only had on my Pinterest boards and learning alongside other travelers has been my favorite way to learn and become an expert in traveling using points.
Since immersing myself in the world of travel rewards I landed a job at Daily Drop, a media company all about maximizing miles and points. Now I get to teach people the strategies that continue to help me to travel the world through our community spaces allowing other people to understand the benefit of learning together. I also teach all of our miles and points 101 classes, and co-host our podcast alongside our Head Writer, Mike.
The miles and points world is always changing so I immerse myself in it daily and continue to learn as I go. Mostly through Daily Drop because our writing team makes it so simple to learn but I lean on our community spaces a lot too!
2. What are the best trips you’ve taken due to miles and points? How much money did you spend?I went to the Maldives in 2017 and spent less than $300 on the entire trip, including flights, hotels, food, excursions… everything!
This year I did a two-month trip to Europe my flights there and back cost about $200 in taxes and fees. For this trip, I mixed point stays at hotels with a few housesits and for the entire 2 months, I spent less than $1,000 on accommodation.
In 2023 I took a Mediterranean cruise with Virgin Voyages for $0.00. Since it was a cruise, all food was included and I took advantage of that. We went to Athens, Greece, Split, Croatia, Dubrovnik, Croatia, Kotor, Montenegro, and Crete, Greece. To be fair we did have to book a flight to get to the cruise. We were already in the UK so we grabbed a cheap EasyJet flight over to Greece which cost about $300 roundtrip. Overall for a seven-night cruise and visiting three new countries $300 is not bad at all!
3. Can you share your first experience using miles or points to book a trip? How did it feel?My first experience using miles and points to book a trip was to The Maldives, I started out setting a high bar for points trips to come. I booked through the travel portal that most travel credit cards offer you, however, after learning all that I know about miles and points now I know that this generally isn’t the best value or use of your points.
At the time it was incredibly worth it to me as a 20-something who had only ever been to Mexico and Central America.
I definitely thought The Maldives was somewhere I would be able to go on a honeymoon or for retirement, so while it wasn’t the best use of my points, I will never regret that trip. it is still one of my all-time favorite miles and points memories.
4. How would you define “earning miles and points” for someone completely new to the concept?I would define earning miles and points as using your everyday spend to earn rewards that you can use for travel.
5. What are some of the best types of credit cards for beginners looking to earn points?I think the best type of credit cards for beginners to look at are cards that are going to allow you to earn flexible travel points.
For example, if you have a Delta credit card, this seems like the correct route to go because it is travel focused. However, this is what is called a “co-branded card” (it’s a bank + travel company partnership) and your points are then locked into only being used with Delta.
Versus if you have an American Express® Gold Card, now you can use your points with Delta but you could also use them with Virgin Atlantic, Air France, KLM, Air Canada, Hilton, and several other travel partners.
So you want to look for cards that earn flexible travel points, therefore you’re not restricted to using those points in only one way.
At Daily Drop, we keep our Top Cards Page up to date with the best offers. You’ll definitely find co-branded cards on there when there’s an awesome offer because there’s space for these in your wallet as you grow your miles and points skills! This page can help you filter out what offers are too good to miss at the time you’re looking for a new card.
6. What should someone think about before signing up for their first rewards credit card?Well, the very first thing someone should think about is; can I be responsible with my credit cards? Earning points while racking up debt is extremely counterproductive. You can only maximize travel rewards on cards if you’re paying off your card balance in full.
If that sounds like something you can manage, then I think the three most important questions someone can ask would be:
- What airlines do I fly often?
- What airlines does my home airport serve?
- Is there a trip that I have in mind that makes it make sense to earn a specific type of points?
We have a free resource called the Transfer Partner Cheat Sheet that shows you instantly what kind of points you should be earning based on the airlines and hotels you want to earn with.
7. How do sign-up offers work, and how can beginners take advantage of them?Sign-up offers are one of the easiest ways to quickly earn a huge lump sum of points that may not otherwise be accessible by everyday spending.
Basically, if you’re new to the world of credit card points, a sign-up offer is an incentive the banks offer for you to join them.
Sometimes these offers are elevated, giving you even more points.
It’s generally attached to a minimum spend in a certain time frame. Oftentimes it is enough to cover your entire trip or to land you a business class seat if that’s something you have been dreaming about!
8. Are there any common mistakes beginners make when trying to earn miles and points?I always like to think of beginning “mistakes” more as lessons when it comes to miles and points. Generally, even when you make a “mistake” with miles and points there is a trip at the end of it.
That being said, here are some things to look out for:
- Not learning how to use Transfer Partners.
Transfer Partners are essentially specific travel partners that allow you to transfer points from bank to airline or bank to hotel. These points generally give you more value than if you book in a portal.
When you book in a portal your points are fixed at typically something like 1 cent per point. Whereas if you transfer out you can land deals that are 2 cent per point all the way up to 17 cents per point and beyond. So now suddenly your points go even further.
For example, if you were looking at a $500 flight in a portal and the value in that portal was 1 cent per point then you would need 50,000 points for that flight. However, if that same flight is available directly with the airline for 20,000 points, you’re now getting 2.5 cents per point and you have 30,000 more points to use at a later date than if you had gone through the portal. - Not taking the first step.
There can certainly be a lot to learn in the world of miles and points but the best way to learn it is taking it one step at a time and starting with earning.
A lot of people can get caught up with what’s the best card, or am I doing this the right way? The truth is there are so many “right ways” to do this you just have to find the strategy that works for you and not be afraid to begin earning. It all starts with earning.
This one’s easy because it is the number one rule in the miles and points world you are only putting on your cards what you’re already spending.
You always want to match a sign-up offer with either your every day spend or a large purchase you have coming up.
For example, if a sign-up offer gets you 90,000 points (just to give you an idea of how far 90,000 points can go, I booked 2 business class seats to Europe for 89,000 points) after spending $4,000 in 90 days the question becomes – Do you already spend about $1,333 each month ($4,000/3)? Or do you have a large bill coming up that you’re already paying?
Sometimes people will look at things like whether they can pay certain bills in bulk, like paying their full year of insurance upfront.
When it comes to a large expense a great example of this and a way that people earn tons of points is if you’re planning a wedding or another event. As someone who just did this and earned hundreds of thousands of points, I can tell you it’s totally worth it.
Let’s say you’re going on a group trip. You could be the one to put the accommodation on your card and everyone sends you money.
There are so many ways to get creative with hitting your minimum spend without getting into trouble!
10. How important is it to pay off your credit card balance in full when earning rewards?It is the most important rule. Sometimes I feel like I sound like a broken record with the amount of times I say this one but it really is so counterproductive if you’re earning points and not paying off your balance.
11. What are some misconceptions about earning miles and points that you’d like to clear up?This is a fun question I would say my top three are:
- Credit cards are bad – There is absolutely a way to do this responsibly as I’ve mentioned before. There is also a way to have multiple credit cards while still maintaining a perfect credit score.
- You have to travel all the time in order to get the benefits – You can really maximize on travel no matter what your travel style is! Since you are maximizing on your everyday spend, you don’t have to travel at all in order to earn tons of points!
- That miles and points equal free travel — The truth is there are times it is free but you are still going to come up against some unavoidable fees, especially airline taxes and fees. But often even if it’s not free you’re saving 80%… 90%… or more on a trip.
- You can get into all of the airport lounges – A big perk that often gets talked about in the credit card reward space is accessing airport lounges. Oftentimes premium travel cards include lounge access. What this does not mean is that you can enter every lounge in every airport. It’s important to set up your expectations correctly for this perk.
12. What are some popular destinations people can easily travel to using points and miles? Can you give some examples of trips people can take and how many points it may cost them?
Wow, we could be here forever with this one! Our Daily Drop Community has wins shared inside almost every single day. Our head writer Mike travels full-time almost exclusively using miles and points. So, honestly, your possibilities are endless but just for the sake of giving a few examples here are some of my favorites that I’ve seen in our community.
- Chicago, USA to Edinburgh, Scotland business class for 69,000 points
- Seattle, USA to Dubai, UAE business class for 95,000 points
- New York, USA to Madrid business class for 34,000 points
- Chicago, USA to Amsterdam, Netherlands business class for 56,000 points
- Tokyo, Japan to Los Angeles, USA business class for 50,000 points
- Toronto, Canada to Florence, Italy business class for 50,000 points
- Michigan, USA to Hawaii, USA for 20,000 points
Outside of taking it slow and one step at a time, earn points first. I do think Daily Drop has some of the best tools out there in the miles and point space! Everyone on our team implements what we teach and we try to keep it all as simple as possible for you to learn. Here are 3 ways we can help:
- Definitely sign up for the Daily Drop newsletter, 5x a week we keep you up to date on the world of miles and points along with teaching you how to earn and redeem along the way! (Oh and it’s free!)
- Find some travel buddies you can learn alongside! It’s always fun to share deals and tips with each other!
Try out Daily Drop Pro for free here, this gives you access to cash flight deals and also will give you five searches on the free plan so you can experiment with finding trips using points that work for you!
Do you use rewards credit cards to travel the world for (almost) free using miles and points? What other questions do you have?
Recommended reading:
- How To Take A 10 Day Trip To Hawaii For $22.40 – Flights & Accommodations Included
- How To Save Enough Money For Long-Term Travel
- 25 Best Travel Jobs To Make Money Traveling The World
- How To Start a Travel Blog and Make Money
- How To Save Money On Hotels And Go On More Vacations
- How We Travel Full-Time On $1,400 Per Month
- How I Make $280,000 Each Year Working Just 20 Hours A Week
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