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There was a time when we believed “fancy” travel was something other people did.

You know… the people sitting in business class sipping champagne while we walked past them with our neck pillows and economy boarding passes wondering what kind of trust fund situation they had going on. “Must be nice” we uttered from time to time… no envy, just jealousy. 

Aspirational trips felt like something you saved years for. Something reserved for people with “real money.” 

Ironically, in 2020 when travel came to a halt, I discovered something that completely changed the trajectory of our lives: The world is far more accessible than most people realize.

Not because travel suddenly became cheap, but because there’s an entire system hiding in plain sight that most people never learn how to use.

That system is called travel hacking.

And no, it’s not a scam. It’s not shady. It’s not one of those internet side hustles involving crypto bros and Lamborghinis.

It’s simply learning how to use points, miles, loyalty programs, and credit card rewards strategically so you can travel better, farther, and more often without destroying your finances in the process.

For us, it became one of the biggest tools that helped us design the life we actually wanted. Traveling is something I am passionate about, and I did not want to stop doing it while we were working on saving for retirement, so that motivation to find a way to do it more for less, send me into rabbit holes of research and discoveries. 

Because here’s the thing nobody tells you (unless, like me, you are looking for it): You do not have to be ultra wealthy to travel richly. You just need to stop playing the game the way most people do.

For years, we used debit cards for almost everything because we thought that was the “responsible” thing to do. Meanwhile, we were unknowingly leaving thousands of dollars in free travel on the table every single year.

Flights.
Hotels.
Airport lounges.
Upgrades.
Free bags.
Entire vacations.

Gone.

Then one day we started paying attention to people who were flying across the world for taxes and fees while staying in luxury hotels almost entirely on points.

At first, I thought there had to be a catch. My skepticism radar was constantly on, waiting for the “gotcha”, but to my surprise, there wasn’t. All there was was strategy.

Today, travel hacking is one of the reasons Josh and I have been able to build a lifestyle centered around experiences instead of things. We can proudly say we visited 5 continents before we turned 50 (our main goal!) and we have been to over 30 countries.

We’ve flown internationally in business class for less than what most people pay for economy.

We’ve stayed in luxurious hotels in Europe that we would have never paid cash for.

We’ve learned that luxury is often less about income and more about information.

One of the craziest moments for me was realizing that the same flight someone next to us paid $3,000 for… we booked almost entirely with points earned from buying groceries, paying bills, and living our normal life.

That’s the part people misunderstand. Travel hacking is not about spending more money, if anything, it makes us more intentional with money. In fact, travel hacking only works if you’re disciplined. We’ve seen people go deep into a hole for the sake of “free travel”. Just don’t.

We never buy things we can’t afford.
We never carry credit card debt.
We never chase points recklessly.

The entire strategy falls apart the second you start paying interest, that’s why I always tell people this is not about “gaming the system,” it’s about understanding the system and using it responsibly. And honestly, once you understand it, you start seeing opportunities everywhere.

Suddenly your regular life begins funding your future experiences.

Your grocery bill becomes a flight to Europe.
Your phone bill becomes a hotel stay in Asia.
Your business expenses become airport lounge access and upgrades that make long travel days feel humane again.

One of our favorite redemptions was a trip to Egypt and Italy where we flew business class overseas and stayed in a luxury hotel for nearly free. The total value of the trip was several thousand dollars, and we paid less than what most people spend on a weekend getaway.

That still blows my mind.

And before someone says, “Well, you probably have a million cards and spreadsheets and chaos…”, but if you are organized, it’s much simpler than people think.

Most beginners only need one good starter card and a basic understanding of transferable points.

That’s it.

When people ask where to start, I usually tell them not to overcomplicate it.

Start with your travel goals.

Do you dream about Europe?
Do you want to visit family more often?
Would you love to take one incredible vacation every year without financial stress hanging over you the entire time?

Then build your strategy around that. You always plan a year in advance. If you are thinking of traveling to Paris this summer in business class, you are 9 months too late. You have to accrue the points, and then redeem for a trip about 10-11 months after that. For example, our 2024 earnings paid for the flights and hotels in 2025 and 2026. This year’s earnings will pay for 2027 trips, and so on.

So what card should you get first?

One of the biggest beginner mistakes to avoid is signing up for random cards without a plan. Points are not all created equal. Some are incredibly flexible and valuable. Others… not so much.

We personally love cards that allow points transfers to airline and hotel partners because flexibility is where the real magic happens.

Our favorite cards, and cards that we have kept in our wallet are the American Express Platinum card, which annual fee can be hard to swallow but which perks and benefits outweigh the cost, and the Chase Sapphire Preferred, which gives you point multipliers in many categories. Those “point currencies” transfer to many partners and you can easily do a couple of awesome vacations with the sign-up bonuses alone. If you use my links, I get a referral bonus and you get your welcome bonus once you meet the minimum requirements. For any Amex card, use this link, and if you want to give the Chase Shappire a shot, this is the link.

And yes, welcome bonuses are absolutely the fastest way to accelerate things, but then we use the cards we get strategically for day to day expenses that easily multiplies 2, 3, 4, 5x without doing anything else. A $1,000 a month grocery spend, becomes 48,000 Amex points a year, which can buy you 2 round trips to London in economy. Not too shabby.

That sounds fake until you experience it yourself. Then suddenly you’re the person sharing your bangers and mash dinner on Instagram,  wondering why more people don’t know about this.

Make travel hacking work for you, not the other way around

The funny thing is that travel hacking didn’t just change how we travel. It changed how we think.

It made us realize that many of the things society labels as “luxury” are actually accessible with the right knowledge and priorities, and maybe that’s part of why this lifestyle resonates with us so deeply because our version of wealth was never about flashy cars or giant houses.

It was always about freedom.

Freedom to explore.
Freedom to say yes to experiences.
Freedom to wake up in a different country and feel fully alive.
Freedom to spend money on memories instead of status symbols.

Travel hacking simply became one more tool that helped us get there.

And the best part is that you do not need to wait until retirement to start.

You don’t need a massive income.
You don’t need to travel full time.
You don’t need to be an “expert.”

You just need curiosity, intentionality, and the willingness to learn a completely different way of approaching travel.

This post is really just the beginning because we have SO much to share on this topic.

In future posts, we’ll break down:
how we choose our cards,
how we book award flights,
the biggest mistakes beginners make,
our current wallet setup,
and the exact strategies we use to travel the world for a fraction of the price.

Because once you understand this world, it’s honestly hard to go back.

And if there’s one thing we’ve learned through all of this, it’s this:

You don’t have to be rich to live a rich life. Sometimes you just need a better map.

— Gloria & Josh