Questions and Answers

I’ve done extensive reading through all the travel hacking blogs and I’ve done a lot of research with credit cards including reading all the terms & conditions.

I’m still stumped on how to amass the needed points/credit to get flights. For example, my girlfriend and I want to go to Hawaii from San Francisco (70,000 miles on Hawaiian Airlines per person). From what I see it takes at least 3 credit cards that piece together the 70,000 and then annual fees kick in which end up totalling not much less than the ticket.

So I looked for cards without annual fees but most of them seem to only offer travel reimbursement and never the full ticket amount.

Thanks in advance for any advice and/or suggestions.

These posts may be of help:

[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/10/06/redeeming-miles-to-hawaii-can-be-tough/[/URL]

[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/08/26/miles-hawaii-first-class/[/URL]

Try to find cards with a large bonus and where the annual fee is waived the first year. If you both apply for these cards, you’ll be starting with a healthy balance.

Personally, I would probably pay for a trip to Hawaii out of pocket and use a cashback card to offset the cost.

Hey NS85, and welcome!

I agree with [USER=29]@David W[/USER] — with a twist. For travel between the West Coast and Hawaii I would pick up an Alaska Visa. That gives you a companion certificate which let’s you buy one ticket at regular price, and get the other one for $99+tax.

This is perfect for flights to Hawaii (especially if you can fly out of Oak or SJC). Tickets are generally around $400, but there are sometimes killer sales, and Alaska offers a price match guarantee, so if the fare drops after you’ve ticketed you can get a credit back as well.

Award space to Hawaii is miserable, and Hawaiian requires a lot of miles, so I wouldn’t go that route if avoidable.