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Captivating view of Santorini's famous blue-domed buildings under a vibrant sky.

Stunning aerial view of tropical water villas and beaches in the Maldives, showcasing turquoise waters and lush islands.

Scenic view of Chureito Pagoda with snow-capped Mount Fuji under a cloudy sky in Fujinomiya, Japan.

Beautiful Venice Grand Canal view with Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute in daylight, perfect for travel and architecture theme.

Capture the majestic Uluru rock formation glowing under the sunset. A natural wonder in Australia's Outback.

Iconic Burj Al Arab overlooking the pristine Dubai beach, perfect for travel and leisure.

Stunning low angle view of the Eiffel Tower against a bright blue sky in Paris.

Experience the serene beauty of Moraine Lake with turquoise waters and majestic mountains.

Elegant Dutch architecture featuring classic canal houses in Amsterdam.

Charming puffin standing on lush green cliff, showcasing Iceland's wildlife.

Stunning aerial shot of the colorful Great Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park.

AWARD TRAVEL BASICS

How to travel mostly free & learn to earn & redeem points like a PRO.

People always wonder how I travel so much and often fly business class. Some friends have wondered if I have a secret trust fund. Nope! I just know how to earn lots of points and miles. I have also learned how to stretch my points and miles further by redeeming them for the best value and taking advantage of deals , transfer bonuses and airline and hotel transfer partners. How you redeem your points is equally important as earning them. We all spend money. You might as well be earning points & miles for the money you are going to spend anyway. Some people think you have to travel a lot to earn a lot of points. That’s not true. There are many ways to earn what we call pajama points. That’s when you earn points from the comfort of your own home in your PJ’s.

One of the ways I earn points is by taking advantage of lucrative credit card welcome bonuses. The process is simple : 1. You get a credit card with a good welcome bonus. 2. You meet the minimum spend requirement in the allotted time. 3. You get the welcome bonus. After you have had a card for a year you reevaluate to see if it is worth it to you to keep the card. I currently have 23 credit cards. I’ve gotten these in about 5 years. I know it sounds like a lot of cards but many of them are business credit cards and many have no annual fee or a low annual fee with perks that make it easy to justify the annual fee. Perks might include a free night certificate, airport lounge access, elite status or free TSA precheck which I would pay for anyway. If you have a business, even a small business, you can qualify for business credit cards which can be very lucrative. If you ever need to find my credit card links you can find them in the menu at the top of this page.

Another way I earn points is really paying attention to bonus categories on my credit cards and spending on the card that earns the most for that category. For example I will put grocery spend on a card that earns 4x instead of a card that earns 1x. If I spent $10,000 a year at the grocery store that would give me $40,000 points instead of $10,000 points. I also earn points and miles by doing the majority of my shopping online and using airline shopping portals or Rakuten. Rakuten is advertised as a cash back shopping portal but if you have an American Express card that earns Membership Rewards points then you can set your earnings to MR points instead of cash back which is much more lucrative. I signed up for a new checking account through Rakuten and earned 10,000 points. You can often find one way flights from New York to London in economy for 6000 miles plus $73 in taxes and fees. Scan down this page to see testimonials about trips people have booked with points and miles.

Follow me here on my blog and on Instagram and Facebook to learn more about credit cards, points and miles and award travel. Feel free to get in touch anytime for a free credit card consultation. The easiest way to get in touch to send me a DM on Instagram or Facebook. Instagram is my main platform. If you aren’t a social media person then you can email me at [email protected]. Happy traveling 🙂

Vibrant portrait of a woman with short red hair holding a red card, smiling indoors.

GET IN TOUCH!

Free Credit Card Consultations

Feel free to get in touch anytime for a free credit card consultation. The easiest way to get in touch is to send me a DM on Instagram or Facebook @mostlyfreetravel. Instagram is my main platform. If you aren’t a social media person then you can email me at [email protected].

SEE MY CONTACT INFO at the bottom of this page

Testimonials

Unforgettable honeymoon

Thanks to Holly explaining that we could transfer our points to Hyatt, we were able to book 5 nights at the Park Hyatt in the Maldives. We never imagined we could afford a honeymoon that nice!

Suzanne and Jim

Thanks to Holly I’ve gotten multiple business credit cards with large welcome bonuses.

I never realized that I could qualify for business credit cards with a small business like mine. Some of the business cards are very lucrative with no annual fee!

Lucille M.

I’m so bougie now!

Holly explained how I could use all of the credits on the Amex Platinum card so I felt comfortable getting it even though the annual fee is high. Now I breeze through airport security thanks to the Clear and TSA benefit and I sip on free drinks and eat delicious food for FREE in fancy airport lounges. Travel days are so much more relaxing than they use to be.

Emily R.

Awesome family trip to London

My wife and I each got 1 credit card with a $95 annual fee and earned enough points from the welcome bonus to fly our family of 4 roundtrip in economy to London during the middle of the summer to celebrate our twins turning 16. This saved us about $3000! None of us had been to Europe before and it wouldn’t have been possible without credit card points. This was the trip of a lifetime and I know our kids will always remember it.

Jeremy S.

Getting 14 people into airport lounges

I was debating between different premium credit cards and Holly helped me realize that the Venture X would be best for me because of the 4 free authorized user cards. We have a large family and often travel together. We have been able to get all 14 of us into airport lounges for free! This has saved us so much money on airport food and drinks.

Juan L.

Girls trip to Costa Rica

Me and my best girlfriends from college have always wanted to go to Costa Rica and Holly helped us make it happen. She explained which cards to get and how we could transfer our points to book the Andaz Papagayo which would have been $1200 a night! We stayed there for free, even the 12% resort fee was waived since we booked with points.

Leslie, Julie, Melissa & Toni