The Informer: Card Tricks Every Traveler Should Know

Wendy Perrin reveals winning strategies for scoring hotel rooms, flights, and travel perks without spending an extra dime.

It's easier than ever to snag free trips by using your credit cards, but only if you know the rules of the game.

Are you using the same old credit cards you've had for years? If so, you may be missing out on benefits that could shave literally thousands of dollars off the cost of your next trip. In their efforts to win new customers, credit card companies are piling on the miles that they offer to new cardholders—sometimes enough for a first-class ticket to Hawaii or a business-class ticket to Europe. Some cards save you from long airport lines, provide extra legroom on the plane, give you airport-lounge access, or knock off the three-percent surcharge on overseas purchases. Now there's even a hotel card that crowns you with top-tier status—and the free upgrades, breakfasts, and executive-floor lounge access that comes with it—based solely on the amount you spend as opposed to how often you stay.

"The benefits long cherished by the most frequent travelers are being replicated in the credit card world," says mileage expert Randy Petersen, founder of and "Nowadays, you don't need to be a high-flier racking up miles to get these perks; you just need to be a high spender." That's why if you charge a lot but are not keeping up with the new offers, you're likely losing out.

What's in my wallet at the moment? Two cards that together solve most of my travel problems. One is the Starwood American Express card ($65 per year), because it provides flexibility and value: It lets me redeem my points on 30 different airlines, it gives me mileage-award seats on most of those carriers for fewer miles than the airlines themselves require, and it allows me to use the points for stays at any Starwood hotel or resort—which includes Luxury Collection, Sheraton, St. Regis, and Westin properties—with no blackout dates. The other card is the Continental Presidential Plus MasterCard ($395 per year), because it ups my travel comfort: It provides access to almost 250 Star Alliance lounges worldwide, bumps me into the premium-class check-in and security lines, allows me to board the plane first, and gets my luggage delivered to the carousel first. It means waived luggage fees for me and my travel companions. It gets me hotel perks—free daily breakfast for two, early check-in and late checkout, and an upgrade if available—at 700 luxury hotels worldwide. And it earns miles fast—including an unlimited number that count toward elite frequent-flier status—thanks in part to the double miles I get (usually eight to ten miles per dollar spent) when buying from stores in Continental's online shopping portal. These miles can be redeemed for free flights on any of the 27 airlines in the Star Alliance, and I'm always able to find round-trip domestic coach tickets for just 25,000 miles. The card is expected to retain most of its benefits once United and Continental merge, since United offers a similar card.

Also in my wallet are cards that I'm using, just temporarily, to pump up my mileage balance: In January, Citi introduced three American AAdvantage credit cards, each providing 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on the card within the first six months of membership. There was little to lose—the $85 annual fee was waived for the first year—so I signed up for two cards (one personal, one for a small business) and my husband signed up for one. We charged $12,000, collected our 225,000 bonus miles, and will drop the cards before having to pay a fee. Then in April, we each got a British Airways Visa Signature card: The two $95 annual fees seemed a small price to pay for the 100,000 miles we'd each earn by spending $2,500 on the card in the first three months. After collecting our 200,000 bonus miles, we'll drop the cards. (Keep in mind that opening a new card can temporarily depress your credit score by a few points.)

Determining the spending strategies that will work best for you depends largely on where and how you travel. But here are some of the rewards you'll reap (and tips on how to get them) if you play your cards right. . . .

1.) Stay at hotels for free (and get other valuable perks). Don't overlook hotel credit cards: The free nights, upgrades, and other benefits they offer might, in the end, save you more money than an airline card. Hotels have a lot more inventory to give away than airlines do, which means your points stretch farther and you'll have an easier time redeeming them. Additionally, some new hotel cards include significant money-saving perks: Hyatt's Visa card gives you two free nights (including at pricey Andaz and Park Hyatt properties), and Hilton's Surpass card from American Express offers discounted airport-club-lounge access worldwide. "Points in the Starwood program are worth a ton of money to me," says Petersen, who regularly uses its cash-and-points redemption option. "I can get a $500 room for either $60 (plus 4,000 points) or $90 (plus 4,800 points), depending on the season and availability. That means a point is worth about ten cents." Compare that with the typical valuation of an airline mile at about 1.5 cents.

*The current record for most frequent-flier miles held by an individual is 113 million—enough for 1,400 first-class round-trip flights from New York to Australia.

2.) Get VIP treatment at airport lounges almost everywhere. The American Express Platinum card ($450 per year) gives you access to more than 600 airport club lounges worldwide but not to United clubs or, after September, Continental clubs. To use American and Delta lounges, you need to be flying that airline on that day, though you can use US Airways' lounges at any time. By contrast, my treasured Continental's Presidential Plus MasterCard has much more liberal benefits and admits you to 246 Continental, United, US Airways, and other Star Alliance lounges at any time (though the other lounges do require that you be flying a Star Alliance carrier on the day you gain access). It's not a credit card per se, but a Priority Pass card ($399 per year) also allows you access to 600 airport lounges worldwide. For less-frequent international travelers, Priority Pass offers a low-cost, pay-per-visit membership, as well ($99 per year plus $27 per person per visit). The new Hilton Surpass AmEx card gives you the same Priority Pass pay-per-visit membership for just $75 per year—a savings of $24.

3.) Get a room upgrade every time you check into a hotel. If hotel perks are your priority, you might not need a new credit card—just the right hotel loyalty program. There's a new one being offered by Leading Hotels of the World—a collection of 450 iconic, landmark properties in 80 countries—that can potentially save you a mint, even if you spend only a few nights each year in its member properties. For an annual fee of $100, you get free breakfast for two daily, free Internet access, early check-in and late checkout, preferred status for room upgrades, and a free night for every five stays. Leading Hotels of the World also has a $1,200-a-year program that provides guaranteed upgrades at the time of booking and unlimited access to Priority Pass's 600 airport club lounges in more than 100 countries. Whether these benefits pay off depends on how often you stay at Leading Hotels properties, of course, as well as how often you fly internationally in the coach cabin (since business- class tickets typically get you airport-club-lounge access anyway).

4.) Save hundreds of dollars on overseas purchases. You may not realize it but most credit cards tack on a foreign-transaction fee of three percent every time you use them to make a charge overseas. That might not sound like much, but depending on how much you spend on hotels and in restaurants and stores, this fee can easily add hundreds of dollars to the cost of a trip. For many years, savvy travelers wanting to escape these additional charges carried a Capital One card that they used solely for overseas travel. Now, however, dodging this fee is easier than ever: There are seven Chase-issued travel rewards cards that don't charge foreign-transaction fees (see "Play Your Cards Right"). The AmEx Platinum and Centurion cards recently eliminated these fees too.

5.) Nab free business-class seats faster and more often. If your goal is to fly in business class, don't carry a bank card that's not affiliated with an airline. The advantage of a non-airline-affiliated bank credit card such as a Capital One card is that it's easy to redeem your miles for coach tickets because they're not subject to the blackout dates or capacity controls imposed by most airline-affiliated cards. The disadvantage? It will take a lot longer to earn the mileage required for business-class seats because the number of miles you need is determined by the cost of the ticket. Let's say you want a business-class ticket that would normally cost $4,000. With an airline credit card, you could get that ticket for 100,000 miles, and with a Starwood AmEx card, it would take a mere 80,000 miles. With a non-airline bank card, however, you'd need 400,000 miles—that means that even if you had a double-miles card, you'd still need to spend $200,000 to earn that ticket.

*There are currently some 10 trillion miles in circulation, about 100 times the number of stars in the Milky Way.

6.) Rack up miles and points at warp speed. Some cards are more rewarding than others for certain purchases. For instance, one of your cards might be better for paying hotel bills because it gives double or triple points for hotel stays, whereas another card is more advantageous for renting cars because it provides primary collision-damage coverage. One card might be best for shopping in stores overseas, since it charges no foreign-currency transaction fees, whereas another card is better for shopping at home online, since it awards eight to ten miles per dollar when you click to your favorite stores from the affiliated airline's shopping portal. The problem is, it's tough to remember which card to use—particularly when you're trying to unwind on vacation. The solution: Create a list and keep it in your wallet.

7.) Earn bonuses of 50,000 miles or more again and again. "I didn't think I'd see the day when a 25,000-mile bonus is viewed as pedestrian," says Petersen. "But 25,000 miles is so yesterday." Sign-up bonuses of 50,000 miles or more are the reason so many people are switching cards or adding new ones to their wallet. "It reminds me of the days of long-distance telephone wars," says Petersen, "where MCI was battling Sprint and people would go out and change long-distance carriers as often as they changed clothes." Credit card bonus-miles offers are one of the easiest and least expensive ways to rack up a lot of miles fast. You'll find online links to the most lucrative offers on sites like,, and (click on "Top Deals") and on the blogs Frugal Travel Guy and View from the Wing.

8.) Never be conned into paying big bucks for a "free" ticket. Don't sign up for a credit card to earn bonus miles unless they'll be easy—and not costly—to use. British Airways miles, for instance, are pricey to redeem because of the airline's fuel surcharges and taxes (a British Airways business-class seat to London, bought with miles, can cost $700)—unless you redeem them on a partner such as American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, or LAN. My husband and I signed up for cards that earn British Airways miles only because we plan to use them on partner airlines that don't levy costly surcharges and have good award-seat availability. According to Leff, the lowest redemption costs, in general, are on Continental and United. You'll likely pay big surcharges if you transfer AmEx points to British Airways, use Aeroplan miles on Air Canada, or redeem Delta miles on several of its partners (excluding Air France). The highest mileage-redemption fees are imposed by Asian and European frequent-flier programs (with the exception of SAS Eurobonus).

*In 2010, Americans earned $48 billion worth of frequent-flier miles, hotel rewards, and other loyalty program points—roughly equal to Sri Lanka's GDP.

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