In our monthly newsletter, you'll find travel tips and updates to travel regulations that we have researched so you don’t have to. We also include restaurant and experience recommendations every time we travel; most of our content is on Europe and the UK.
How To Get Flights And Hotels For Nothing
Published 6 months ago • 7 min read
April 2026
Stock photo by Dave Garcia
Getting Trips Paid For With Points & Why You Should Get Travel Insurance
Ciao Reader,
We’ve been busy updating blog posts on our website and planning some fun trips for our clients. As in years past, Rome is still really popular, but we’ve also got fun beach trips and outdoor experiences we're planning in places like Croatia, Spain, and Norway. Whenever we plan a trip, we discover topics that many travelers are either unaware of or don’t have all the information on. The most recent topics are points (credit card and loyalty points) and travel insurance. Keep reading if you have any curiosities on these topics.
Anyone Can Become A ‘Points Person’ And Get Their Trips Paid For, And It’s Never Too Late To Start
Many of us have lived with the common knowledge that credit cards are ‘not a good thing’. And for good reason - interest rates make everything cost much more. The problem isn’t the credit cards; it’s that most people don’t use them the right way. They are often used as a way to borrow or advance money that one doesn’t have at the moment. It’s time to rethink credit cards if you’ve been missing out on all the travel that credit card points can pay for.
Before you start planning what you want to do with credit card points, you first need to understand how to earn them (and avoid interest or debt). We seldom pay for international flights, and get many hotels and rental cars covered too. Your neighbors & retired friends who travel all the time, they aren’t rich, they’ve figured out the points game.
Here’s our top strategy tips for point gaming:
Find a credit card that will work for you. It should have a good introductory bonus points offer, a reasonable APR, and an annual fee you can manage.
Consider the annual fee and what perks you get that make up for it.
Sign up for the card and start using it for everything. Use it to pay as many bills as you can, fill up your gas tank, go shopping, go out to dinner, etc. Use the card to pay for everything you normally do, not things you can’t afford.
Pay off the card once or twice a month. Pay off the card regularly so that you never pay interest.
Watch the points roll in, and when you reach a high point value, it’s time to plan your next trip. Use the miles to pay for your flight and more.
If you just booked a trip, you haven’t missed the boat yet. Maybe that trip won’t be paid for with points, but it could pay for your next trip. The strategies we just shared are high-level. Read more details about this strategy to become a points person here.We also recommend signing up for The Points Guy's 10 email series, Points 101. He gives step-by-step instructions on how to get started earning points. Before you know it, the trip you are on will be helping pay for the next one.
If you have points and want to be sure you use them the best way you can, we recommend Point.me. This subscription-based service helps travelers unlock maximum value from their points and miles. Users save an average of 50-90% on award flights with Point.me
Subscriptions include:
Real-time flight searches with 100+ airlines and over 30 loyalty programs.
Fare alerts (never miss a deal or a bonus opportunity)
Side-by-side cash vs. points comparisons (make smart choices)
Step-by-step transfer and booking guides for your credit card points and loyalty programs.
A Point.me subscription starts at just $10.75 a month. The savings would pay for itself and then some.
Use our link below to save on a premium membership before April 26th.
*We are not financial advisors or credit experts. You should talk to your financial advisor about the use of credit cards before you start using them. We don’t know your financial situation or spending habits, so we can’t advise you on what to do.
Spotlight: The Best Things To Do In Rome And How To Do It
In our last newsletter, we talked about Florence and promised to have more posts about how to do 'the best things to do' in a given city. This new post about the best things to do in Rome doesn’t just tell you what to do and how fabulous it is, but it tells you how to do it. If we think taking a tour is the best way, we will tell you exactly which tour to take. If a tour isn’t the best way, then we'll tell you how to do it on your own. We’ve also included hints on the best time of day to do some of these things, when that is relevant. This clear and direct path will make it easy for you to plan time in Rome without sifting through hundreds of search results.
Why We Recommend Travel Insurance, Hint: It Covers More Than Cancellations…
If you’ve ever traveled, you’ve been offered travel insurance. At the very least, you saw a button to add it when you were purchasing a flight. Did you know you have options, and you don’t have to buy the insurance right then? Did you know that travel insurance can cover more than a cancelled flight or missing luggage? Keep reading…
Tons of travel insurance will cover you for more than a cancelled flight or missing luggage. Insurance can cover medical needs while traveling, and some plans even cover adventure trips and legal help while abroad. The medical piece alone could make it worth it.
It’s important to know that most insurance will require a valid reason for cancellations; however, if you purchase insurance relatively quickly, you may be able to get what’s called CFAR (Cancel For Any Reason) insurance. Meaning you won’t have to prove your reasoning for cancelling in the claims process.
If a reservation has a cancellation policy that is more than 24 hours before the reservation, we recommend getting that covered. This means when you input the value or amount spent on the trip, you want to include all of those items. Every insurance company and policy is different, so read the details.
Travel insurance is not one-size-fits-all. InsureMyTrip helps travelers compare top plans and providers to help them find the right coverage for their unique trip. And with over 24 years of experience, InsureMyTrip was the first travel insurance comparison site. They’ll make the quoting process easy. Recently, they began offering luxury travel insurance, designed for high-value travel.
If you bought the flight insurance, but you are thinking that medical/health coverage would be a good idea, Ekta Traveling is a great place to look. Ekta Traveling offers 3 different levels of medical travel insurance packages for a multitude of travel types (from business, group, or student to annual, expat, and more). Every time we read their list of options, we’re blown away. Some plans start as low as $1.37 a day.
We want to hear from you. If you have any questions about travel, please send us an email or reply directly to this newsletter. We’re happy to help.
Save yourself from sifting through hundreds of search results. In this post, we tell you the best things to do in Rome, how to do them, which tours to book, which to do on your own, and pro tips to help make the most of your time in Rome.
A guide on all of the best things to do in Florence and how to do them. The guide includes information on when and how to DIY, and when to take a tour, along with a link to the best tour that we recommend.
Our 5-step process to planning an international trip is linear. Our process will help save you the stress and the headache of figuring out where to start without missing important steps along the way.
A Few Of Our Favorite Travel Resources:
VoiceMap - Harness the power to explore on your own, at your pace, with a self-guided audio tour. No big tour group, no failing equipment, and straining to hear a guide. Select a tour, download it, grab your favorite earbuds and phone, start, pause, and stop at your leisure!
Get Your Guide - A marketplace for tours that is growing every day. Compare tours and reviews to find the best one for you. We typically find tours for larger historical sites and museums here.
Walks - This company curates some of the best and most exclusive VIP and small group tour opportunities. We use this company to find extra special experiences.
Devour - This tour company is obsessed with finding the most authentic and tasty food. We think that’s the best approach to a food tour! A food tour usually takes you to multiple locations to try the best foods in town, and they often include drinks. We highly recommend a food tour anytime you visit a new country or region.
Rail Europe - Rail Europe is a good place to start for a Eurail pass (travel in 1 European country or multiple countries).
DiscoverCars - These car rentals are not only competitively priced, but they are in just about every destination you might be headed to. A bonus: they have a high customer satisfaction rate, and we love that.
You can find more of our favorite travel websites, apps, and products on our website in the Resources section. These are all the resources that we frequently use to plan and enjoy a trip.
*No BS, we want to be transparent; some of the links included on this page may be affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, we earn a commission if you make a purchase. We only recommend products and companies that we have vetted. Thanks for your support. This helps us bring you travel tips!
In our monthly newsletter, you'll find travel tips and updates to travel regulations that we have researched so you don’t have to. We also include restaurant and experience recommendations every time we travel; most of our content is on Europe and the UK.
