How to get free nights in hotels?

Many people would like to travel, but it results out of their budget. While it doesn’t have to be expensive, it is still often difficult to afford for some people. Anything that helps to save some money on traveling is great.

Favourite travel resources:

Booking.com for searching best prices on accommodation.
Discover Cars is a great website as they search both local and international car hire services, so you can choose the best deal for yourself. Make sure though, that the company has a good reputation and reviews.
Get Your Guide is my place to go for searching and booking tours and excursions, especially when I travel solo.
World Nomads travel insurance. I like them because they have quite extensive coverage of different activities.
Jack’s Flight Club is a service that can save you hundreds of dollars on flights, it works especially well in Europe.
Trivago where you can search and save on hotels.
Go City is a perfect site for booking bucket list experiences and attractions all in one to avoid paying for multiple tickets. Easy and saves money.
Trip Advisor– amazing for good quality recommendations.
Skyscanner is a perfect website for searching flight routes and comparing prices.

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Frequent flyer points

How is it possible that the more you spend the more you get? Traveling can be expensive, but there are ways to travel cheaper. Many airlines offer memberships that include some benefits, so if you pay for a flight anyway, why not take advantage of every possibility to get something in return? I have been very skeptical about it, there’s nothing ever for free, right? Well, and probably isn’t in this case either, but at least you can get some benefits for paying for flights…and even shopping.

I am a member of Flying Blue group, to which Air France, amongst others, belongs. I never paid much attention to it though, since I mainly travelled around Europe where there are many budget airlines, which don’t belong to any group, but are so cheap to fly with.

Then I signed up for Iberia membership card. Iberia belongs to One World group and whenever I fly with any of the members, I get points (Avios). How useful it can be I only realized while traveling in South America. Whenever you go in this continent, you are very likely to travel with LAN (they seem to monopolize most of the airports), also a member of One World.

Recently I signed up for Life Miles, which you collect while traveling with any airline that belongs to Star Alliance group. Currently, the most points I get from Qatar Airways, which is a great company to get points from are there frequent flyer.

If you to their websites you can see all the benefits they offer. To me, it looks a bit like a pile of useless stuff and you can get lost a bit. I had tried in the past to book flights using points and they most of the time were as expensive or even more expensive than paying with cash alone as they combine points and cash. So I wouldn’t recommend buying flights with points unless you have enough to pay for the whole flight. I have found though that the points can be exchanged for other things than flights and I found it most useful to pay in full with points for:

hotels
cinema tickets

But you can also exchange the point for:

meals
flights
shopping

If you have a membership card, you can find all the hotels via your account. In some destinations, it is possible to choose from many hotels, but at times there are none. There is also a list of all member airlines and other partners such as shop brands, where you can collect your points while shopping or pay with them.

How to find cheap flights

Most of the time, the costliest part of traveling tends to be the airfare. Despite a recent decrease in transatlantic flight prices, they can still significantly impact any travel expense.

Whether you’re a budget solo traveler or dream of taking your family somewhere far away, finding an affordable flight deal can significantly influence the success of your trip. Ultimately, when flights are excessively pricey, it often leads to postponing the entire trip – a scenario I’ve witnessed repeatedly.

Airlines have flight deals every day, but it might be overwhelming to find them. If you know where to look, you can get pretty cheap flights. I start every search on Skyscanner.

Another great way to find cheap flights is by signing up for Jack’s Flight Club. There is a free membership option that sends you offers of special deals twice a week. If you choose the paid subscription, you’ll get tons of really amazing deals weekly.

How much are the points worth?

For example, a flight from Madrid to Santiago de Chile gives you 6661 Avios (points from Iberia Airlines) and; flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires 213 Avios.

Flight with Copa Airlines (Star Alliance) from Cartagena de Indias to Panama City gave me 330 Life Miles.

Now let’s see what you can get for points.

I have exchanged 11100 Avios for one night in Radisson Royal in Cali in Colombia, hotel of a high standard with breakfast, a swimming pool and spa included.

For 12000 Avios three nights in Buenos Aires in Cyan Hotel with a beautiful view of the historical Recoleta. I couldn’t ask for a better location. Those 4 nights being paid by Avios only saved me around $ 400. Not bad, ha?

That’s not all. Sometimes you can use your points to pay for restaurants or for shopping. For example, you can use your Life Miles to pay in Mango, Ripley, Esprit, Carolina Herrera, and Coach, to name a few. This, however, does not apply in every shop as only some countries participate. I would advise you to ask beforehand.

So, it would be worth checking up: Star Alliance, One World, Flying Blue. Remember to ask for points every time you check in for your flight as later it gets a bit complicated. Check the airlines that belong to those groups as you get points while traveling with any member or even shopping in some shops.

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