Aren’t we all trying to travel more… in 2024?
I promise this won’t be some cheesy travel campaign, but the rhyming is just too good to pass up.
Travel has a reputation of being expensive, but that doesn’t always have to be the case! Here at Daily Drop, we consider ourselves expert travelers, miles and points aficionados, jet-setting Jedis… You get the idea.
So in this guide, we’re sharing some of our best trips to help you get out there and travel more this year.
1. Score free accommodations from petsitting
The hardest part of traveling for me is leaving my pets for an extended time. However, I might just have the answer to help you get your fur baby fix while abroad.
And that, my friends, is Trusted Housesitters.
Trusted Housesitters is a worldwide program that allows you to book free accommodations in exchange for caring for someone’s pets!
They are located in 140+ countries around the world and feature safe, secure, and verified properties and pet owners.
If you’re interested in learning more and want to create your own account, you can get started here.
2. Give bleisure a try
If you have the luxury of working remotely… why not blend your business with leisure? That’s bleisure, if you didn’t pick up on it.
No matter where I go, my laptop is along for the ride, and this allows me to work seamlessly from all corners of the world 🤗
And when it comes to your business, did you know that you can maximize on the perks and benefits that comes from business-specific credit cards?
This is true no matter if you run a multi-million dollar company, are a freelance writer, or just sell products on Etsy, for example.
Many business cards come with large welcome offers that can translate into hundreds of thousands of points to use for future travel (e.g. flight and hotel redemptions).
One of our favorite business cards is the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card that consistently has a large sign up offer… like 90,000 points type of large.
We also love the Capital One Venture X Business and the American Express® Business Gold Card for their generous welcome offers and portfolio of travel perks!
If you want to learn how to book amazing first-class flights with miles and points, read this resource.
And if you want to learn about how anyone can get a business credit card (and why!), we’ve got a resource for that too 😎
3. Save hundreds of dollars on flight deals with FareDrop
And pssst… We might be a tad biased since this is our sister company ☺️
If you’d like to save up to 80% on flights to destinations all over the world, consider using FareDrop.
This customizable travel tool allows you to select your preferred departure airports and regions of the world you’re hoping to visit!
With no effort on your end, FareDrop will scour the internet to find the best flight and notify YOU when a deal drops.
There’s seriously no better feeling than saving hundreds of dollars on a flight to your bucket list destination 😍
4. Monitor merchant offers
Merchant offers on cards that come from banks like American Express, Chase, and Citi can open the door to hundreds of dollars saved on travel expenses.
Merchant offers come in the form of earning bonus points, statement credits, or cash-back after spending various amount of money with said merchant.
Here’s an example of some merchant offers from my American Express® Gold Card👇
For example, if I’m hoping to book a flight with Delta for an upcoming trip, I’m 100% going to do that using this merchant offer that will give me $75 back.
That will likely hit my account as a statement credit that can be put towards a future travel expense!
We also regularly see merchant offers come through on one of our most popular credit cards: The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
Utilizing merchant offers for bookings or other expenses that you would make anyway is an excellent option to save money on your travels and earn some statement credits, bonus points, or cash-back in the process 😎
So don’t forget to regularly check your credit card accounts for a sweet merchant offer to come through!
5. Open a credit card with a lucrative welcome offer
Utilizing miles and points is, hands down, the BEST way to save money on travel and get you out exploring our world.
We highly recommend looking into the Sapphire Preferred for this!
Not only is it the most popular card among our audience (and the Daily Drop team!), but it also offers some of the most flexible points to use for travel.
In fact, you can transfer Chase points to 11 airline partners and 3 hotel partners to redeem for (nearly) free travel!
The fact that the points from a $95 card can score you a business class flight or a stay at a fancy Hyatt property (as just two examples) is insane.
You’ll just need to transfer those Chase points over to your favorite airline or hotel, so…
If you want to learn more about transferable points and how to actually transfer them, we have an entire resource dedicated to showing you how.
6. Earn additional points with Rakuten
Online shopping portals allow you to earn rewards on purchases you’re already making—these rewards could be in the form of cash-back, airline miles, or even bank points.
Now there are dozens of shopping portals out there, but Rakuten is our favorite for its unique ability to help you earn additional American Express Membership Rewards®.
Amex points are right up there with Chase points— they’re some of the most valuable when it comes to the travel currency of miles and points.
And in our opinion, choosing to collect Amex points instead of cash-back from Rakuten holds significantly more value and will give you greater opportunity to travel more this year.
If you want a complete breakdown of how to earn Amex points with Rakuten, read our full guide.
7. Save money while you online shop
I am a glutton for some online shopping. Who isn’t doing it nowadays?!
And sometimes, when you’re planning to travel… You just need to go back to the basics and save your hard-earned cash money.
In fact, using the Capital One Shopping browser extension is probably our favorite non-miles and points tip!
*Capital One Shopping compensates Daily Drop when you get the browser extension through the links we provide.
Here’s why:
You’ll increase your odds of saving money on everyday purchases.
It takes little to no extra effort on your end to reap the rewards.
You don’t need a credit card to use it.
It’s free.
So how does it work? This simple browser extension will constantly be working in the background as you do your normal online shopping.
If you’re on a site that is supported by Capital One Shopping (there are over 5,000!), you’ll get helpful pop-ups that will alert you if different (e.g. better) deals are present.
Boom. Money saved.
Want to see it in action? We’ve got a resource for that 😎
Bottom line
Let’s face it. A year with travel plans is a good year!
Whether it’s house-sitting abroad, getting a shiny new credit card, or just saving your hard-earned money, anyone can choose to travel if they truly want to! Hopefully this guide showed you seven awesome ways to travel more in 2024—all without breaking the bank.
