How you can score a free flight by Christmas

CEO and founder of iFLYflat, Steve Hui, is known as ‘The Points Whisperer’. Source: Supplied

WANT to know how to score a free flight this year? According to boutique travel agent iFLYflat, you can get a free flight by Christmas if you’re smart about the way you collect points.

Steve Hui, CEO and founder of iFLYflat, says he came up with the idea six and a half years ago when he used points to fly business class.

“I was optimising my own points through credit cards and realised how quickly they added up,” he says.

Known as ‘The Points Whisperer’, Hui says what it comes down to is how much money you want to spend and what it is you’re saving for.

Steve Hui only flies business class using points and you can too. Source: Supplied

For example, a domestic flight from Sydney to Melbourne on Virgin will cost you 9600 points one way, a business class flight on Qantas from Sydney to Singapore will set you back 60,000 points one way, or a business class flight with Singapore Airlines is just 46,250 points one way.

“There are quirky ways you can earn points too,” says Hui. “From booking restaurants affiliated with Virgin and Qantas, to playing golf with Qantas and filling up the car at BP Petrol stations with Virgin.”

Here are his tips for how to score a free flight by Christmas this year.

Get a free frequent flyer membership with Qantas

Most are free to join, but Qantas is one of the few that charges $89.50. But you can get a free Frequent Flyer membership with Qantas by signing up for a free Woolworths Everyday Rewards program who give you an option for signing up for a free Qantas Frequent Flyer membership.

Be loyal to one airline and you’ll reap the rewards. Source: Getty Images

Make your points count by flying with the same airline as much as possible to rack up the points

While booking flight usually comes down to cost and availability factors, those serious about earning points should stick with the same airline.

If your preferred airline is not available, try flying with one of their partner airlines. Although you will earn less points than flying with your preferred carrier, you need to take into account its points-earning potential.

Play your cards right

You can actually double dip on your points earning at Woolworths by earning a point per dollar spent through Qantas Frequent Flyer card (for grocery bills of at least $30) and a point per dollar spent with a points-affiliated credit card.

If you don’t have a points-affiliated credit card, switch to one to get a sign-up bonus of up to 50,000 points (enough for an economy round trip to Singapore).

If you’re anti-credit cards, you can get the same deal by using your Qantas Frequent Flyer card as a prepaid card (a fairly recent new feature — just load it up with funds and use it as a regular credit card, complete with PayPass functionality. Virgin also offers this with its Velocity card).

Using your airline card also works well overseas — not only do you reduce the risk of theft by using a prepaid credit card, but you typically get double the points, two points per dollar spent, when using the card overseas.

Make grocery shopping work for you and you’ll soon be up in the air for free. Source: Getty Images

Planning big dinners for friends or family can get you a stack of frequent flyer points

Making a reservation through the Virgin Velocity restaurants portal will earn you 300 points per diner. Not only that, if you use your credit card to pay the bill (and collect cash from everyone else) you can get as much as three points per dollar spent.

Qantas is also running a promotion until the end of January where you can earn 300 points per diner booked (up to four people) at any of the restaurants in Neil Perry’s Rockpool Restaurant Group.

Virgin has also upped the ante by offering 500 points until the end of January. This bonus is independent of how much you actually spend, so you could all just pop in for a quick entree and still rack up the points.

A round of golf can earn you points too. It’s about thinking outside the box. Source: Getty Images

You can earn airline points on everything from gym memberships and grocery shopping to eBay auctions and phone bills

It’s worth checking which companies your airline has partnered with and linking your rewards program with them. You might have to make a few small changes to your spending patterns, for example shopping at Woolworths instead of Coles, or booking your hotel stays through Agoda rather than Hotels.com, but the idea is that you can earn points without necessarily spending more than you normally would.

Your monthly points statement will also feature all of the latest promotions where you can earn bonus points for a limited time. Virgin’s Velocity program, for instance, is currently offering four points per dollar spent with ASOS, Booktopia, Appliances Online and StrawberryNET.

“The whole idea is to spend the money you already spend but picking the right rewards card to best earn points,” says Hui.

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