Tentmaking Tips

And you know how no one ever takes it?

Well, it probably won’t surprise you, but I always do!

Why?

Because the in-flight offers on cards are often better than the offers online.

A few years ago it was about time to for me to get the Southwest personal card to renew my Companion Pass. I believe the bonus at that time online was 40,000 points.

I happened to be on a Southwest flight during that time & they offered an additional 10,000 points if you applied in-flight. 10,000 Southwest points is a free one-way ticket almost anywhere in the country from a major metro, so that’s a good extra bonus. Those extra 10,000 points also helped me cross the minimum points I needed to earn the Companion Pass as well.

I applied in-flight, got approved, met the minimum spend, and received 50,000 Southwest miles rather than the typical 40,000.

Recently I was...

My wife applied, was approved, & we’ve already earned that additional 90,000 points.

Now it was my turn.

I downgraded my Chase Sapphire & then I decided to reapply online because the online offer just went up to 80,000 points.

I used my wife’s referral code to apply for my card which would give us an extra 15,000 points for the referral. Even better than the current in-branch offer.

Just a few minutes ago, as I’m writing this, I was approved for the Chase Sapphire card (again) and once I hit the minimum spend, we’ll receive a full 95,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points (including the referral points).

Nice!!

95,000 Chase points can be worth well in excess of $2,000 in free travel!

Now’s a great time to get the Chase Sapphire Preferred if you haven’t already.

And if you want to use our referral link, we’d love that — thanks for the support!

...

The bonus on this card is most often 50,000-60,000 points - a great bonus!

Right now, many Chase branches are offering this card with a 90,000 point bonus if you apply within a Chase branch.

My wife and I both had this card and it was coming up on her 4-year anniversary. The terms of the Chase Sapphire are that you can get the welcome bonus once every 4 years.

Wanting to take advantage of this great in-branch offer, we downgraded her current card to a no annual fee Chase Flex card, waited 3 weeks for the old card to be removed from the system, and they reapplied for the Chase Sapphire again at our local Chase branch.

She was instantly approved.

We have to spend $6,000 on the card in 6 months to get the full 90,000 points which will be no problem.

I’ll hit my 4 year anniversary with the Sapphire card this month...

We had a blast.

Neither me, nor my wife, nor our daughters had been to DC & we all wanted to see the White House, the Capitol, the museums, and the monuments. Oh, and the cherry blossoms too!

And it didn’t disappoint.

Here’s how we booked the trip for nearly free:

• I booked a round-trip Southwest flight with 40,749 of my Southwest miles. I could’ve booked with fewer miles but I booked fairly close to the departure date. You can often get the best point redemptions if you book further out.

• My wife also booked a round-trip Southwest flight with 40,749 of her Southwest miles.

• Since we both have Companion Passes, we were able to each add one of our daughter’s as a companion for free (well, we had to pay $11.20 in taxes, but nearly free). I’ll link below to our past newsletters that describe how to earn the Companion Pass.

• We love staying at Park Hyatts and we booked the Park...

I tell them I’m glad to help. Then, I direct them to the free resources we offer like:

• Our weekly Tentmaking Tips newsletter

• Daily tweets/threads about earning extra income

• Step-by-step guides to earning thousands in extra income and free vacations

But it’s usually the case that they want to pay extra for additional courses & coaching.

I tell them about some of our paid products and then share the ways they can get those free as well.

After all, if I’m teaching hacks to get free travel or live nearly free, shouldn’t I give hacks for getting my paid content for free? Ha!

Here are the ways I tell them they can get any or all of our courses for free (and you could too):

1. Follow my step-by-step guide to earn an extra $1,200 quickly and apply that to any or all of the courses

2. Refer 3 friends to any course and get all of the course...

And I’ve always wanted to take my Mom to Wimbledon (we’re a tennis family).

We had a trip booked a few years ago but it was canceled due to COVID.

I recently booked another trip for this summer & we are all so excited!

And, to top it off, we won the Wimbledon lottery and received 2 tickets on the front row of Centre Court. We’re pumped!

We are going to start the trip by flying up to Boston and spending a few days there first. We’ve heard that it helps with jet lag to take the daytime flight to London from Boston.

We booked the flight to Boston using Southwest points & our Companion Passes (where both of our daughters fly for free).

The first time I booked the trip to England, I booked with United Airlines. But this time I decided to book with British Airways.

For all 4 of us to fly from Boston to London & then back home was 29,250 points each.

I didn’t have British Airways...

Jackpot!

Between my wife and I, this is the 4th time we’ve earned the Companion Pass.

The Companion Pass allows you to take a “companion” with you anywhere you travel on Southwest, free of charge. Well, nearly free. You still have to pay their taxes, which ends up being around $11 for a round trip ticket. But it feels like free for sure!

So with all the points you rack up from earning the Companion Pass plus the Companion Pass itself, you & a family member or friend can take a bunch of nearly free trips together over the next 2 years.

I posted about this on Twitter recently and I had several people asking questions about how we earned it and how they can earn it as well.

I’ll share in this week’s newsletter the questions that I answered.

What is the Companion Pass?

For those that haven’t heard of it, the...

Because we plan to stay for several weeks, we’ve found that renting an Airbnb will use far fewer Chase Ultimate Rewards points and put us in a better location than booking 17 nights at hotels in London, Bath, Windsor, and the Cotswolds. Plus, if you’ve been to England, you know most hotels only allow 2 per room. So, our family of 4 that usually books 1 room in US hotels, would have to book 2 hotel rooms and cost us double the points in England.

You may be thinking, “Points for an Airbnb stay? How is that possible?”

Usually points are redeemed for flights and hotel stays but the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal gives you the opportunity to “Pay Yourself Back” by redeeming points for a statement credit against a cash purchase in certain categories.

And, even better, Chase is currently running a special where you get 25% more value...

My family and I have been traveling “nearly” free for years now. We’ve earned tens of thousands of dollars in free travel just by following a simple process.

I’ve written many blogs on the various details of this process, but today I’ll keep it big picture and show you how to get started.

Step 1: Watch and improve your credit score.

• Start by finding your credit score and working to improve it. I’ve written extensively about that here. Even if you have a very low credit score, you can still play the travel rewards game.

• Your credit score will determine what credit cards you can qualify for, and the higher the score, the better the cards you can get.

Step 2: Apply for a Chase credit card with a large welcome bonus.

• The welcome bonuses are the key to accumulating a lot of travel rewards quickly. A welcome bonus is essentially a big chunk of points they give you to incentivize you to apply for...