The Dolphin family clearly loves to travel, particularly internationally, but it can be tough to do with two kids and a relatively tight budget. We’ve explored the world of points and miles to help defray some of those costs. If you missed out on my earlier posts, you can check out Part 1 (strategies to earn points and miles) and Part 2 (redemption strategies). In this post, I’ve collected my favorite resources on learning about “travel hacking” so you can learn more and start planning your own family vacations for “free.” While this series really focused on points and miles, I will have another one in the future about traveling cheaply with cash.
Over wing view flying to Singapore.
Favorite General Blogs
The Points Guy – This is a great general blog with a variety of information. I mostly read it for flight deals and don’t read every post, but the ones I do read are really useful.
Frugal Travel Guy – This blog features posts by staff as well as guest bloggers/contributors. I have some favorite contributors, particularly ones with children. I find this one and The Points Guy to post a fairly diverse set of posts that are useful.
You might also check out:
A lot of the general blogs have tons of overlap, posting the exact same information. If you don’t want to follow a ton of blogs, just pick the two whose writing styles and travel styles you like best.
Favorite Blogs About Travel Hacking With Children
The general blogs will often advocate for point redemptions for first class suites, which would just about wipe out my bank of miles. I like that many of the travel hacking blogs that discuss traveling with children are a bit more in line with my own thinking and instead of getting the highest cents per mile value, they discuss earning and redeeming as a family of three, four, or even eight!
Mommy Points – Mother of two children, based out of Texas. She has done lots of flights with her kids, particularly her older one, and has great general travel tips as well as hacking information.
Points With a Crew – This blogger has six children and discusses how he manages to travel all of the world with them using miles and points. I find his blog inspirational because so many other travel hacking blogs are focused on traveling as a single person or as a couple with no children; reading about his adventures makes me realize that it can still be done with kids.
Trips With Tykes – This one is not a travel hacking blog, per se, and really just more of a general traveling with children blog. That said, I do enjoy it and I can actually keep up with the lower volume of posts (as compared with the general blogs in the previous section where I read less than half of their posts).
Topic Specific Blog Posts
While I follow several of the blogs mentioned above, here are some very targeted posts from a variety of sources that may be helpful.
Flexible Point Transfer Chart – This chart, which I’ve seen updated periodically, is amazing! It lets you know which airlines are partners and in alliances and to which programs various flexible point currencies transfer. It is amazing and great for helping you figure out the best redemptions possible. If you prefer a spreadsheet, you can check out this master list.
Best Hotel Reward Programs Infographics – As someone who is very new to hotel rewards, this page was immensely helpful in determining which points we want to start collecting first and what the value was in the signup bonuses associated with various cards. You can also get an idea about prices, value, number of properties in a chain and more from this post.
Earning a Southwest Companion Pass – A Southwest Companion Pass allows you to add a second free ticket to any paid or award ticket flown on Southwest from the moment you earn the pass until December of the following calendar year. So, if you earned the pass in February of 2017, you would be able to use the companion pass until December 2018, which is almost two years of one of the kids flying for free. The great thing about the Southwest Companion pass currently is that you don’t actually have to fly 110,000 miles to earn it or spend that much; instead, you can earn the pass through the credit card sign up bonuses as long as you meet the minimum spend. We’re looking to earn at least one Southwest Companion Pass next year after Panda turns two and will no longer qualify as a lap infant. Here’s another really good post on the Southwest Companion Pass.
Disney World Hotel Stays on Points – At some point before Panda turns three, we really want to take the kids to Disney World. We’ve been looking into different ways people “hack” Disney and one strategy involves accumulating hotel points to stay at various hotels in the area.
Using Miles to Get a Family of Five to Italy – I love reading success stories and many blogs (Frugal Travel Guy, The Points Guy, Mommy Points, etc.) will post some great ones. I get a lot of inspiration seeing how others, particularly those with children/larger families, manage. This is one isn’t a success story as much as a suggested strategy, but I still think it’s very useful.
Social Media
Travel Hacking 101 – I love this Facebook group which is run by a very knowledgeable travel hacker who has two children. People post questions to the group, highlight great redemptions, notify others about special deals, and generally share good information. I’ve posted one or two questions to this group and always found members willing to jump in and give thoughtful answers.
Miles to Memories – Another Facebook group, much newer than Travel Hacking 101 and with much of the same (albeit much smaller) membership.
And, of course, you can follow most of the blogs listed above on Twitter.
Other
Family Travel for Real Life – I have never been to one of these conferences, but I really want to! They used to have quite a few in DC, but the more recent ones have been in other locations around the country. The upcoming conference is taking place in Orlando, so those in the area may want to check out tickets here. I usually read Points With a Crew’s recap on some of the sessions, but I’d love to attend in person someday (though it’s only likely to happen with a return of the conference to DC).
Flyer Talk Forum – Lots of useful threads here, but be sure to check out the acronyms sticky first, because otherwise you’ll feel like everyone is speaking a foreign language. There are tons of sub-forum from specific airline programs, to credit card programs, to advice on how to generate more miles and points.
. . . . .
These are just some of the very helpful resources out there on travel hacking. I am by no means an expert in the world of travel hacking, but these resources have been so useful as I try to learn more so that we can continue to travel around the world.
guest
Thanks for including my post about Southwest Companion Pass! We absolutely love it and it’s helped us get free flights to a ton of places, including Aruba!
blogger / apricot / 482 posts
My pleasure! It’s one of the best posts I’ve read explaining it!