My Friend Just Flew to Paris for $100

How did she do it?

She was able to pay for all of her flight (except $100 of it) using credit card rewards.

No, this post is not “sponsored.”

When I turned 18, I decided to get a credit card. My hope would be that I could build up my credit score by charging various things on it and paying it off every month. I had a starter credit card with a $500 limit and an outrageous interest rate, but it had decent rewards. The key, of course, is to pay it off each month so you don’t have to deal with the interest. Every few months I would redeem the rewards points for gift cards, which seemed like a pretty sweet deal to me.

Fast forward several years and a few different credit cards and I have discovered the mother of all sweet deals: the CapitalOne Venture card. As a world traveler, how on earth did I not have a Venture card before?!

Right now, they have a deal where you get 50,000 points free when you spend $3000 in the first three months. Easy peasy. Those 50,000 points translate to $500 that you get to spend on airfare, rental cars, hotels, etc. I am using the points to travel to Baltimore in February and Denver in March. There weren’t any “black out dates” or restrictions either. You earn 2% back on every purchase, which is better than the typical 1% I usually see.

When Collin and I traveled to Iceland with some friends a few years ago, our friends used their credit cards instead of converting currency. They argued that the exchange rate with their credit card rivals normal rates. I challenged this a bit, but then when we traveled overseas a different time, we tried the theory out. It was certainly much easier, and the exchange fee charged on our cards seemed to be about the same. I prefer to not have to bring large amounts of cash when traveling. That being said… the Venture card does not have ANY exchange fees. 

And the newest perk? Free TSA Precheck. If you apply for precheck using your Venture card, it automatically reimburses you the $85. You can use this perk every four years, which is how long the precheck is valid for. Goodbye airport security lines.

Since getting this credit card two years ago, we have traveled to several places completely for free using our credit card points.

This is the credit card that all travelers need. Like I said not a sponsored post, but if you’d like to try it out, here is my referral code: Here’s my Venture referral link: https://capital.one/2ViVMb3