Fly For Free to Caribbean Islands Like Bonaire? Really?
Yes, you can fly for free, or almost. The airline tickets we bought for Bonaire were valued at $1800, round trip for the two of us. We only paid $40 in taxes. How? By signing up for a miles card. It was that easy. Here is what we did.
IMPORTANT: Don't do what we describe below if you don't pay off your credit card in full every month. We never buy anything on debt (except our house), ever!!! If we don't have the money for it, we don't buy it. If you leave a balance on these types of miles cards, the interest rates charged will be very high. How to fly for free to Bonaire & any other location you want? Easy. Sign up for a miles credit card. The offers they are giving away right now are simply amazing. We thought this was too good to be true, but it ended up being very simple and great. Where do you want to fly? Do you go there often? Figure out what airline works the best for you to that location. For the Caribbean, American Airlines has a lot of routes. But since we knew we were going to Bonaire, and Continental Airlines flies out of Tucson, we chose them. Check out what offers the different airlines have on their websites. Most companies are now offering 25,000 miles just for signing up. A typical flight to the Caribbean takes 35,000 miles (off peak). A domestic U.S. flight takes around 25,000. But here is how we got an additional 10,000 miles each. First, sign up for the Continental.com OnePass Frequent Flyer Program. It is free. Once you have signed up you can then access offers for their Chase Continental World miles card. And now you are offered 30,000 miles for signing up and an additional 5,000 for an added card user. So we both signed up for separate Chase Continental World miles cards, through the Continental One Pass account. That gave us 30,000 miles each. But then we also added each other as an add card user for 5,000 miles additional each. That was a free ticket to Bonaire for each of us. After making one small purchase on our cards the miles posted to our accounts within about a month of starting the process. And we bought our Bonaire tickets shortly after. Plus we get our first checked bag free (that savings alone will pay for the annual $85 fee on the card). There are other perks included. If we buy one business class ticket, we get a free one with it. We also get free presidents club passes every year (not sure about the value of that). And to build miles we charge all of our daily expenses to just one of these cards (so that we build miles up easier) and pay it off every month. We have already been doing that for years with another rewards credit card, so that is no change. With the miles card we get one mile for every dollar spent. And double miles for Continental Airlines tickets we purchase on Continental.com. We also earn up to 10 miles per dollar spent when making purchases online at certain retailers. We even pay regular household bills like our trash bill on the card. To redeem the miles, all we did was go to Continental's website, and click "Make Reward Reservation". Then you just search for your flight, and book it with your miles. Some dates and times take more miles than others. But we had no real problem booking our flight for free. That's it. It was surprisingly easy to fly for free to Bonaire. It may have been the easiest $1800 I have ever made (or didn't need to make). But remember, don't spend what you don't have. We make money off credit cards, not the other way around.
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