As mentioned in part one of this series, my wife and I flew to Phuket for free, stayed 3 nights at the JW Marriott Resort & Spa, -which normally costs USD339 per night- for USD99 for the whole 3 nights. Then we stayed at the Sheraton Krabi beach for less than 25% of the going rate. We then flew back to Bangkok (for free of course) and stayed at the Grand Hyatt Erawan for 2 nights for free, then took two rooms at the Hua Hin Hyatt Regency for 2 nights for free.

In this, part 2 of the series, I am going to go into the details of the free flights. It is nothing new; in fact you are probably participating to some degree already. The under-estimated tool is frequent flier programs.

Frequent flyer programs have been suffering from an image problem of late, due to downgrades in the value of points and the perceived difficulty in using points to redeem free flights and other benefits. While it has indeed become quite difficult to redeem points for free domestic flights, international flights on non-US airlines are a lot easier to book with points.

You don’t really need to be a frequent traveller to earn enough points for free international flights. In fact, with the wealth of point earning options now available with frequent flyer programs, you can conceivably earn enough frequent flyer points to earn free international flights without flying a single mile.

One of the absolute fastest ways to rack up points without actually flying is through the use of a co-branded credit card, which is offered by a lot of airlines in conjunction with frequent flyer programs. You earn a certain number of points per dollar spent on your credit card which can be converted to miles in your program. If you use one of these cards for your everyday spending to buy groceries, gasoline, pay for your utilities, even pay your taxes in some states, you can easily earn thousands of points, possibly enough for an international return flight in just a year.

Even if you don’t have a co-branded credit card, affinity cards like American Express and Diners Club have point programs that allow you to transfer points accumulated on your card to a frequent flyer program of your choice. A lot of credit card companies who have affiliations will also offer a number of bonus miles for signing up so it is a good idea to check out any promotions that may be offered.

Another reason a number of people may not take full advantage of frequent flyer programs is the perception that unless you have a job that takes you all over the world or across the country on a regular basis, it would be very difficult to accumulate enough points for a free flight.

I earned enough points for a return flight to Phuket after only 4 return flights, 2 from Japan to Australia, and 2 return flights from Japan to Bangkok. Also, many airlines have various membership levels depending on the number of miles earned, and award bonus points when you reach a new level. For example Thai Airways’ Royal Orchid Plus program, a part of the Star Alliance frequent flyer program, has three levels of member ship, regular, silver and gold. Silver is reached after 15000 miles and once you reach that level, you are awarded 3000 bonus points. Let me demonstrate how easy it was:

A free return flight with frequent flyer miles from Tokyo (where I live), to Phuket with free stopovers in Bangkok is 45000 miles. I took 2 return trips from Japan to Australia which each earned 15102 miles =30204 miles. Plus 2 return trips from Tokyo to Bangkok which each earned 5794 miles= 11588 miles. At 15000 miles I was awarded 3000 bonus miles, bringing my total to 44792 miles. I needed 208 miles to get my free return flights to Phuket, which was easily done by transferring points from my Travellers rewards program with American Express.

Another point to keep in mind is that while it may be getting more and more difficult to secure seats using points on domestic routes, international flights on non-US carriers are a lot easier to get seats on. Believe it or not we got our free return flights to Phuket at the height of the peak season, in early January. We didn't have to wait or beg to get on, the award was issued instantly.

Acquiring enough frequent flyer miles to redeem for a free international return flight is not as impossible as it may seem at first. With a little forward planning and snooping around to find the best program that suits your travel patterns and also offers good bonuses and incentives, you can rack up miles in no time.