How I Saved $5,736 With Travel Hacking In 2024

I’m back at it again! I didn’t write one of these posts in 2023 because I didn’t travel hack any of my 2024 flights. I paid for all of it cash and since I didn’t fly very far, I stayed in Economy Class. I think this is the first year I’ve gone without fancy class champagne in a long while, and luckily I didn’t even notice 🙂 .

• How I Saved $44,667 With Travel Hacking In 2022
• How I Saved $24,227 With Travel Hacking In 2019
• How I Saved $1,348.74 With Travel Hacking In 2018
• How I Saved $1,912 With Travel Hacking In 2017
• How I Saved $27,007.38 With Travel Hacking In 2016
• Cancelling My International Retirement Travel: Credits, Points and Money Lost

But now it’s time to get back into travel hacking because I’m going to the other side of the world next year. These flights all happen in 2025, but I booked them in 2024 because that’s how I roll, so I’m talking about them here.

• How I Travel Hack: A Step-By-Step Guide To How I Saved $100,000 On Flights

Reviews of these airlines and flights are likely to come after I fly them since I find flight reviews super helpful when researching for my travels. Here are some that I wrote in the last year in case you’re interested:

• Review: COPA Airlines – A Panamanian Gem
• Review: Virgin Australia Business Class
• Review: Air New Zealand
• Review: Qantas Domestic Business Class
• Review: Qantas International Business Class

I haven’t been credit card churning (opening new cards for big points sign up bonuses) since I retired. Because of that, I was surprised when I looked to see that I had accumulated the Delta points I talk about below just by flying Delta. The rest of my points come from many years of using my Chase Sapphire Preferred card, which transfers to 11 different airline programs. So let’s get into it!

Delta Economy Class

Flight Cost: $253 USD
Flight Time: 8 hours
Route: ALB to LAX
Points: 22,000 Delta SkyMiles
Taxes: $5.60 USD

Finally the airline points I accumulated from actually flying paid off 😉 . But seriously, the years it took for me (who moves every month and flies Delta if I have the choice in the US) to collect enough points to purchase a flight, just shows me that accumulating points through flying is a losing proposition. It was cool that these points finally amounted to something, but the ROI isn’t there for me to make this my main strategy 🙂 .

Anyway, I logged into Delta and booked my flight with points and immediately afterwards, I  received an email that my awards points were used, but it took 23 minutes until I got the actual confirmation of my flight. So that’s interesting. Strangely, while I was waiting, I could immediately see the flight and confirmation number on my account on my desktop and in the Delta app. But whatever! I’ll take the (almost) free flight.

Singapore Business Class

Flight Cost: $2,787.30 USD
Flight Time: 11 hours 35 minutes
Route: LAX to NRT
Points: 103,000 KrisFlyer points
Taxes: $5.60 USD

Of all the Chase Sapphire Preferred airline partners, Singapore Air is the airline I fly most often – by a wide margin. They transfer points 1:1, fly to the destinations I want, and they are amazing to fly with as you might have noticed since I rave about them all the time:

• Review: Singapore Air First Class Suites – A $4,280 Apartment In The Sky For $26
• Review: Singapore Air First Class (JFK to FRA) – A $15,000 Flight For $27 [Part 1]
• Review: Singapore Air First Class (FRA to SIN) – A $15,000 Flight For $27 [Part 2]
• Review: The World’s Longest Flight – 19 Hours In Singapore Air Business Class
• Review: 33 Hours In Singapore Air Business Class – $7,734 of Flights for $75 [Part 1]
• Review: 33 Hours In Singapore Air Business Class – $7,734 of Flights for $75 [Part 2]

Another reason I love them is because booking with points is super easy. I just log into my Chase account, transfer points to Singapore Air and the transfer happens in 48 hours usually, but in this case, it happened for me instantly. After that’s done, I log into my Singapore Air account to see the points there and then I can choose a flight and book them with the points. Easy peasy.

Singapore Economy Class

Then I booked several flights for me and my Partner around Asia and Oceania. If there are two total flights, I’ve indicated that with “(2)” below. My Partner has yet to get into travel hacking despite my Mom and I writing a document he could follow to do so years ago, but now he gets to benefit from my points, so maybe that all worked out for him 😉 .

Logistically to reserve a ticket for my Partner I just had to go into my Singapore Air account and add my Partner as a “Redemption Nominee” on my account. It was super quick and simple. Also below you’ll see some numbers in JPY (Japanese Yen) because the tickets charged taxes in the currency of the country I was flying from.

Tokyo to Auckland

Flight Cost: $552.61 USD
Flight Time: 16 hours 43 minutes
Route: NRT-SIN-AKL
Points: 45,500 KrisFlyer points
Taxes: $74.16 USD (11,160 JPY)

Auckland to Tokyo (2)

Flight Cost: $422.69 USD each ($845.38 total)
Flight Time: 17 hours 15 minutes
Route: AKL-SIN-HND
Points: 45,500 KrisFlyer points each (91,000 total)
Taxes: $36.28 USD each ($72.56 total)

Tokyo to LAX (2)

Flight Cost: $772.26 USD each ($1,544.52 total)
Flight Time: 10 hours 10 minutes
Route: NRT to LAX
Points: 38,500 KrisFlyer points each (77,000 total)
Taxes: $44.02 USD each ($88.04 total)

Conclusion

So in summary, I saved $5,736.85 by using points to book the above flights instead of buying them outright. That includes the above various Singapore Air flights plus that one flight with Delta. I got that savings number by taking how much I would have paid for a flight and subtracting the taxes that I paid. Not bad at all to fly across the world with my Partner 🙂 .

Do you think travel hacking is still a viable strategy these days? Why or why not?