After reaching out to all sorts of media, Calgary’s Breakfast Television invited me on their show for an early morning introduction to travel hacking. It was a really interesting experience to be on TV and it went really well. The only unfortunate thing was that BTCalgary forgot to mention Canadian Free Flyers so no one probably knew where to find me. It was fun though and hopefully people are inspired to start using points for their travels.

Five Tips to Get Started with Travel Hacking in Canada

Have a Dream Trip in Mind: All the frequent flyer miles in the world won’t matter if you don’t use them. By having a destination in mind, it helps you to focus on what types of miles to earn and when to use them. It also keeps you motivated!

Get a Travel-Related Credit Card: You’ll want to earn miles that can actually get you to where you want to go. Some of the best are Aeroplan, American Express Rewards, and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.

Maximize Everyday Spending: Move as much of your everyday spending over to the travel credit cards. If you’re going to be spending money, you might as well be earning miles!

Double-Dip: Double dip as much as possible. For example, Esso accepts Aeroplan. When filling up at Esso, use both your travel rewards credit card and your Aeroplan card for double the points.

Keep Track of Your Points: The simplest way to do this is with an Excel file. However, you can also use an app like Award Wallet, which tracks everything for you. Points only expire when they are inactive for one year or more (depending on the program) so as long as you’re always earning miles, you don’t have to worry about the expiration. However, you’ll still want to keep track so that you know when you have enough miles to book your dream trip!

For more information on my home city, visit Things to Do in Calgary!

Happy Travels,

Matt