It’s through Refer-A-Friend bonuses.
Many cards will give you bonus points for referring a friend who signs up for the same card. I try to max out these friend referrals each year because they give you tens of thousands of extra points.
Not all cards have refer-a-friend bonuses & not all cards that do have the same bonus. And, on top of that, the various cards often change the bonuses.
Here are some examples (I’m going to focus on Chase cards here but other carriers will have them as well):
- Chase Sapphire Preferred Card - 15,000 bonus points for each friend who signs up with a maximum of 75,000 per year. If you get 5 friends to sign up & receive the 75,000 points, that’s equal to approximately $1,500 in free travel (~2 cents per Chase point).
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Cards - 20,000 bonus points for each friend who signs up with a maximum of 100,000 per year. Southwest points are worth approximately 1.5 cents per point. So, if you get 5 friends to sign up & earn the 100,000 points, that’s $1,500 in Southwest rewards.
- United Mileage Plus Cards - 10,000 bonus points for each friend who signs up with a maximum of 100,000 per year. At a 1.3 cent value per point for United points, the 100,000 points would give you $1,300 in United rewards.
- World of Hyatt Cards - 5,000 bonus points for each friend who signs up with a maximum of 25,000 per year. At a 1.9 cent value per point for Hyatt points, the 25,000 points would give you $475 in Hyatt rewards.
- Marriott Bonvoy Cards - 40,000 bonus points for each friend who signs up with a maximum of 200,000 per year. At a 0.8 cent value per point for Marriott points, the 200,000 points would give you $1,600 in Marriott rewards.
- Chase Ink Business Cards - 20,000 bonus points for each friend who signs up with a maximum of 100,000 per year. At ~2 cents per Chase point, that’s $2,000 in free travel booked through the Chase portal or through their partners.
*Note: I've included a referral link to each of the cards above which will earn us some extra points for referring you. Then you can do the same with your friends/family.
I love that you can get an extra free vacation each year just by maximizing your refer-a-friend options with your current cards.
It’s time to start planning your next trip!
