Yesterday, a free subscriber emailed stating she likes the idea of our service but can’t afford to upgrade. She said she can only afford to travel out of necessity for things like weddings/funerals, etc.

I was covering for Brooke (our AMAZING customer-support person), and I basically said – “If you only travel out of necessity, there is no need to upgrade to our premium service.” I told her “Although our premium service is great for finding cheap prices for places you want to go, it’s not really helpful for places you need to go.”

Instead of convincing her how a premium subscription could help her, I gave her this free report.

She replied with this:

By her response, I can only assume she dismissed my advice because doing that is “only” worth $750 in travel benefits, and not worth the hassle of getting a new card.

Although $750 is the minimum value she’d get if she redeemed those points directly through Chase, there is a LOT more she could do with those points.

Here are 5 examples of what 60,000 frequent flyer points from taking 5 minutes to get one new credit card can do:

  1. Transfer them to Singapore Airlines & book two round-trip flights to Hawaii from just about anywhere in the US. (Value: $2000 to $3000)
  2. Transfer them to United and book 2 round-trip domestic flights when you NEED to go somewhere and can’t find flights under 500. (Value: $1000 to $2000)
  3. Transfer them to Southwest when you don’t like the prices you’re finding, and book as many as 6 round-trip flights. (12 if you have a companion pass.) And yes – you can find direct, non-redeye, round-trip flights on Southwest for 10,000 +/- points quite often. (Value: $1200 to $1800. ($2400 to $3600 if you have a companion pass.)
  4. Transfer them to United, and book a business-class flight to Europe. ($8500 value)
  5. Transfer them to Singapore Air to book a private suite, and still have points leftover. (Our suite was 53,000 points and was worth $12,000.)

Note that every suggestion above requires no more than 60,000 points and exceeds the $750 minimum value by 150% to 2000%

Don’t have frequent-flyer points?

Here’s how to get 60,000 points in the next 30 to 90 days:

1. Take about 5 minutes to apply & wait for your card in the mail.

2. When you get it, keep paying bills on auto-pay with your regular card, but pay things like gas, groceries, hardware store purchases, etc. on your new card. (Basically – anything that doesn’t involve the hassle of changing auto-pay information.)

3. If you like the card, keep it. If not, throw it in a drawer without ever changing a single thing about the bills you pay with your regular card. You can decide whether to cancel it or keep it after you’ve spent your frequent flyer points.

4. When you’ve spent the minimum amount required, save your points for whenever you need to take a trip but don’t like the prices you’re finding.

Once you have your points – it’s like having a stash of Monopoly money

You can use those points as legal tender whenever you NEED to go somewhere and don’t like the prices you’re finding. (And that’s highly likely for “necessary” travel like weddings, funerals, etc. (It’s also quite nice for business & first-class flights at prices you’d never normally pay with cash.)

Here is a link to the Chase card that would allow you to do any of the above examples by doing nothing other than taking 5 minutes to apply & spending a few thousand dollars on gas, groceries, movies, etc. (And for your convenience, here is that quick-start guide again.)

Disclosure: If you get a card through the above link, I may receive frequent flyer points from Chase as a result.

Worried that 60,000 points isn’t enough for your travel needs?

Use your JGOOT trip-alert service to find super-cheap trips to places you WANT to go, and save your valuable points for expensive trips when you NEED to go. That’s “The JGOOT Way”.

If you’re not already a premium subscriber, click here to become one. You can try it out FREE for 30 days.

PS – As of the date of this blog post – All 5 examples above can be done through transfer partners in the Chase network, but those terms can change at any time.

PPS – I’ve done all 5 examples, and with a little patience and creative thinking – I know you can too.