There’s close to an endless stream of airline affiliated credit cards available and most of them come with a free domestic just for signing up.  While some are free, like the American Express card offered by Delta, others require a yearly fee that is sometimes waived for the first year.  Even if the card has a yearly fee of eighty five dollars that is not waived, that could mean a domestic ticket for eighty five dollars (plus whatever standard fees the card requires).

The true deals come into play if you’re willing to keep your eyes open for travel deals based on frequent flyer miles.  American Airlines and United both had deals running earlier this year that offered international tickets for sixty thousand frequent flyer miles.  With the credit card for United, you get thirty thousand frequent flyer miles for signing up (and paying the sixty dollar fee) and additional thirty thousand are available by getting two friends to sign up for the same card.  Even if you offered to pay the fee for these two friends, that could mean a ticket to Japan for one hundred eighty dollars.

In addition to deals based on signing up for these credit cards, there are some interesting ways of utilizing the cards to get massive quantities of miles.  One great example of this is how some people have used their credit cards to purchase gold one dollar coins.  These coins ship with free shipping and can be returned to the bank for cash.  So if you purchase a set of two hundred one dollar coins you have essentially gotten two hundred frequent flyer miles completely free.  There are even some stories online of people buying ten thousand coins for this deal.

So although your ideal destination might be an expensive flight away, keep in mind that with a little bit of research (and maybe a smaller bit of investment) you could soon be on your way to Japan to see a big Buddha.