These days, everyone is trying to save a buck – but some travelers are taking it to the extreme.
While earning airline miles or hotel points might not seem too important to most people – for some travelers it is a way of life.
From diving in a dumpster to earn a free roundtrip to paying for grandma’s funeral on a credit card – here are some of the craziest stories travelers have done to earn points.
Hacking The System
One traveler spoke about a promotion for his Hyatt card that would award bonus points after making various spending transactions throughout the month.
The catch was each transaction only needed to be above $1.00.
While most people would use their card as normal – one traveler decided to game the system to increase the number of transactions he’d have that month.
The Points Guy reported:
“While at the supermarket, I paid for each item in my shopping cart individually. Fifty-plus items, each priced over $1 — and I earned 5,000 bonus World of Hyatt points. Based on TPG’s valuations, 5,000 World of Hyatt points are worth $85.”
Imagine standing behind that guy in line as you wait for the cashier to ring up 50 separate transactions!
He may have earned his points, but I bet he didn’t make too many friends.
Carry More Than 20 Credit Cards
Those that play the points games are literally obsessed with sign-up bonuses.
And it is true – many cards offer an insane number of miles or points if you hit a certain spending threshold during the initial time frame.
True point masters have spreadsheets and systems to track their purchases – but others take it even further.
Some travelers offer to pick up large tabs from nights out on the town with their buddies – and ask their buddies just to give them the cash.
Others think of “creative ways” to put a large amount of money on a card at once – like paying for grandma’s funeral (yes, really).
The danger in having 20 credit cards is that a person can seriously destroy their life if they have a spending problem… plus who REALLY has time to track that many cards?!
Dumpster Diving
Ever heard the phrase “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”?
One traveler admitted all the crazy things he did to earn points – like dumpster diving and even getting a hair replacement consultation – when he had a full head of hair!
USA Today reported:
“I once went to Bosley Medical for a hair replacement consultation to earn 20,000 Delta miles. I have a full head of hair — or at least I did then.
I might have once gone dumpster diving at Wendy’s for soda cups, when 64 of those were enough for a free roundtrip ticket on Airtran.
I’ve definitely rented and returned cars I did not need, because the mileage bonuses were so big — worth far more than the rental fee.”
Of course these days, rental cars are so expensive, people are renting U-Haul’s instead.
And you probably won’t see your average person diving in a fast-food joint dumpster for cups.
But the principle is still the same – diehard point fanatics will do whatever it takes to earn more points or miles.
As for the rest of us – we’ll likely just continue to use our credit cards as we always do and score miles when we can.
But congrats to those who have found ways to beat the credit card companies at their own game!
What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done to earn travel miles or credit card points?
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