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This is the first post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.
I’m revising and updating my Free First Class Next Month series for beginners, which I first ran in March 2012.
Frequent flyer miles have allowed me to visit over 30 countries at the age of 26, with another 15 countries planned for the next few months. I pay less for these trips than you probably did for your last vacation, and I’m usually flying in business or first class.
And this isn’t those slightly wider seats at the front of the plane you see as you board your flight to Cleveland. International First Class means your own fully flat bed in your own enclosed suite while being waited on and served fine foods and wine.
I’m not writing this to brag. I’m writing because my techniques are very easy to repeat. For instance, Rookie Alli went from having no frequent flyer miles to flying in a fully flat bed in just four months.
Luxury is attainable with frequent flyer miles, and it usually costs far less than a paid ticket. I just booked 20 hours worth of flights in Cathay Pacific First Class for miles plus $40 out of pocket. Do you have $40?
I know for many people luxury travel is not the goal. They just want to get their family on vacation or to visit grandparents, and they don’t have the money in the budget for these trips. These techniques can also help a family travel for peanuts. I recently described how a family of four could fly to Europe for only $274 total!
What’s the catch? You’ll have to learn a few things and open the right credit cards.
The learning curve for miles enthusiasts can be steep, and I hope this series flattens that curve. The series is for total beginners to get a base in the essentials about earning and redeeming miles.
In this series, I’m going to be showing you the tricks that experts use to fly in first class anywhere in the world for pennies. By next month, you’ll be a pro at earning frequent flier miles for doing things you already do and redeeming them for dream first-class vacations you thought you could never afford.
United Global First, about to stretch out in my seven foot bed.
In addition to frequent flier miles, I’ll be teaching you about how to find incredibly cheap cash fares and hotels, so that you’ve got a full arsenal of ways to travel cheap or free.
If you have two minutes a day, you can enjoy Free First Class Next Month! Bookmark this page, and check back tomorrow when we take the first step to Free First Class Next Month. (Or better yet, enter your email in the top left of this page, and you’ll get one email per day with that day’s posts.)
Forward those emails to your friends, so they can also learn and become your travel companions.
For those who can’t wait until tomorrow, here is a link to every post in the last series.. This series will follow roughly the same topics.
Free First Class Next Month: Table of Contents
- An Updated Guide to Free Travel with Miles and Points
- Signing Up For Travel Loyalty Programs
- Sign Up for Award Wallet
- Check Your Credit Score
- Putting All Your Spending on Credit Cards
- Bluebird
- Double Credit Card Miles with Business Cards
- Best Practices for Your First App-o-Rama
- Best Current Credit Card Offers
- An Easy Way to Meet Multiple Minimum Spends at Once
- Transferable Points Program Basics
- Category Bonuses
- Other Credit Card Benefits
- Cancelling Cards
- Keeping Miles Active with Dining Programs
- Shopping Portals
- You Can Earn Miles Doing Anything
- Airline Hubs and Alliances
- Searching United.com to Redeem United and US Airways Miles
- Searching AA.com to Redeem American Airlines Miles
- Searching BA.com to Redeem American Airlines Miles
- Using Qantas.com to Redeem American Airlines Miles
- Using Delta.com to Redeem Delta Miles
- Using Expert Flyer to Redeem Delta Miles
- Planning Awards with Wikipedia and Kayak
- Using Seat Guru to Pick the Best Award
- Using the Great Circle Mapper
- Using the FlyerTalk Mileage Run Deals Forum to Find Cheap Flights and Mistake Fares
- Using ITA Matrix to Find Cheap Flights and Fuel Surcharge Info
- Status
- Cheapskate Lodging with Hotel Promos, Hostels, airbnb, and CouchSurfing
- Name Your Own Price on Priceline to Save Hundreds on Hotels (Part 1)
- Name Your Own Price on Priceline to Save Hundreds on Hotels (Part 2)
- Using the MileValue Calculator
- The End
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With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
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She does have nice shoes but in First class my Redwings work boots look cool too ..
is it possible to highlight the changes that you are making to the series.. I don’t want to read through all of them all over again and wonder what part have you changed..
If you’ve read a previous version, the changes won’t be big enough to warrant a full re-read. The main changes will be a few additional posts covering topics that I’ve covered before extensively but hadn’t added to this series yet.
[…] is the third post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader […]
Oh ok.. also here’a a suggestion.. why don’t you do an entire section on credit card churn.. there isn’t much info about this topic out there..
[…] is the seventh post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader […]
I consider myself slightly advanced with the entire travel hacking arena and even then I managed to gain several very good tips and understandings from your Free First Class Next Month 4.0 series. Thank you! I enjoy your style of explaining and choice of content.
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[…] Milevalue seems to have a really thorough overview on booking award tickets. I didn’t read all the articles, but skimming over them he seems to cover some good stuff. See the link. […]
[…] even have the most comprehensive series for beginners right here that I plan to update for 2014, starting […]
[…] is the fifth post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader […]
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