I hung up the phone with a giant grin plastered across my face. One of my oldest friends, who I\u2019ve known since I was 14, just called to tell me that he was getting married! And the wedding was going to take place in just a few months in July. In Barcelona.<\/p>\n
There was just one slight problem. I was nowhere near Barcelona. In fact, I was exactly 7,919 miles away on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Which meant that I needed to book a flight\u00a0literally across the world<\/em> during the busiest travel season of the year<\/em>.<\/p>\n As you can guess, flying 30 hours from Honolulu to Barcelona was not going to be cheap. But I knew exactly what to do. After all, I\u2019ve been flying around the world for almost a decade. I like to think I\u2019ve learned a thing or two.<\/p>\n It was time to put my travel hacking skills to the test. So I got to work.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n With just a few months until the wedding, I knew I needed to book a flight fast. Unfortunately, Honolulu to Barcelona is not an easy route to fly. Without a direct route, I was looking at two layovers and almost 30 hours of travel time.<\/p>\n Now look, I\u2019m not against flying economy. If I can score a good deal and fall asleep, then I\u2019m happy to pay for a cheap seat. But with 30 hours of travel time ahead of me, and with enough long-haul flights behind me, I knew it was going to be one long, hellish ride in economy.<\/p>\n So I checked my points balance to see what I had.<\/p>\n Travel hacking isn\u2019t just about collecting miles. It\u2019s about knowing when, where and how to maximize your points in order to save the most on travel.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Throughout the years, Chase has been my primary bank of choice. I have their Sapphire Reserve, Preferred, Ink Business Plus and MileagePlus Explorer cards. Come to think of it, that probably makes me the ultimate Chase fanboy.<\/p>\n And as a result, I\u2019ve racked up millions of points over the years. And these were points that I could use towards my flight to Barcelona.<\/p>\n See, it\u2019s not necessarily about getting points to prepare for a specific trip. It\u2019s about collecting points for the sake of having them on hand to use when special or extenuating circumstances come around.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Travel hacking is a strategic way of accumulating award points and then redeeming them in a way that gets you the most bank for your buck. And sometimes you can even get all bang without spending a buck at all.<\/p>\n Which, yep, means free\u2014or nearly free\u2014travel. I\u2019m talking free flights, free upgrades to first class and even free hotel stays.<\/p>\n Travel hacking is more than just collecting frequent flyer miles and hotel points. It\u2019s about knowing when, where and how to maximize those points in order to save big on travel.<\/p>\n Once you have enough points, you\u2019ll be able to redeem them for discounted or free flights, also known as award fares. Essentially, you can think of your points as a special currency.<\/p>\n Trust me, travel hacking is easy to master. You can use your points to unlock a world of cheap travel, as long as you\u2019re strategic about it. To be totally honest,\u00a0getting\u00a0<\/em>the points is the easy part. The real trick lies in learning how best to redeem them.<\/p>\n So, my first step was to figure out which airlines flew from Honolulu to Barcelona. And that\u2019s where flight comparison websites like\u00a0Google Flights<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Skyscanner<\/a>\u00a0really shine. They search through multiple travel sites to show airlines that fly the best route for the most affordable price.<\/p>\n In this case, price wasn\u2019t so much of an issue, since I knew I wanted to redeem points to pay for it. So, mostly, I was looking to see which airlines flew the most efficient route. It was a long flight, so finding an easy flight path was important.<\/p>\n I found a few flight options that looked appealing, but they were pretty much all on either United Airlines or Turkish Airlines, which is actually just a partner of United.<\/p>\n So United it was.<\/p>\n The fastest way to redeem your points is to book an award flight is through your credit card\u2019s online portal. You can search dozens of airlines, hotels and activities in one go. And, if you don\u2019t have enough points available, you can spend what you have and charge the rest to your card.<\/p>\n But booking through the online portal comes with disadvantages. The value of the point is fixed, so the required number of points could fluctuate depending on the flight price.\u00a0Under most circumstances, you should\u00a0never<\/em>\u00a0do this.\u00a0They almost never offer the best deal, but I always check it just to get a baseline idea of what a \u201cregular\u201d award fare would look like.<\/p>\n Knowing that I would be redeeming my Chase points, I checked their booking portal to see what they were offering.\u00a0And, as I expected, Chase\u2019s point valuation was too low. They wanted nearly 300,000 points for a mixed-class flight in business (a mix of economy and business seating) and more than 900,000 for a flight in first! That\u2019s\u00a0way\u00a0more than I was willing to part with\u2014and I knew I could do better. A lot better.<\/p>\n By doing a little of my own research, I also learned that these business class flights were actually in United Polaris. And while there is a\u00a0slight\u00a0difference in service, Polaris First and Polaris Business are\u00a0essentially the same product. For those who want to get technical, they are different flight classes, yes, but really, I consider any seat in Polaris to be first class.<\/p>\nHow I Booked a First Class Ticket Around the World for $5.60 <\/h2>\n
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So, What, Exactly, Is Travel Hacking? <\/h2>\n
Step 1: Find the Airlines with the Best Routes Available<\/h3>\n
Step 2: Look for Different Ways to Book Award Fares<\/h3>\n
![\"Inside](\"https:\/\/travelfreak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/chase-bcn-hnl-1200x638.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/travelfreak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hnl-bcn-1200x639.jpg\")
![\"HNL](\"https:\/\/travelfreak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hnl-bcn-award-fares-1200x639.jpg\")
![\"Inside](\"https:\/\/travelfreak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/chase-shopping-portal-1200x638.jpg\")
![\"MileagePlus](\"https:\/\/travelfreak.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/mileageplus-extension-1200x638.jpg\")