How You Can Fly To Europe In Business Class For Free
Do you want to go to Europe? Of course you do. Who doesn’t? Do you want to fly there in the comfort of business class instead of being packed into the back of the plane like a sardine? Definitely! What if you could go for free? You may be saying that nothing is free. But keep reading to find out how you can fly to Europe in business class, like us, absolutely free.
“You may be saying that nothing is free.”
Using Points and Miles
We use credit card points and miles to fly around the world without paying for it. We’re going to outline how you can use credit card signup bonuses to pay for a business class ticket to anywhere in Europe. We’ll use American Airlines as an example. You can fly to Europe from anywhere in the contiguous 48 states for 57,500 miles one way. So you would need 115,000 American Airlines Miles to make the round-trip.
That’s a lot of miles to accrue from just regular spending. In fact with an AA credit card, you would have to spend 115,000 dollars to get 115,000 points. But by using credit card signup bonuses, you can get those same points in a matter of minutes. If you’re nervous about using credit cards, read this blog post we wrote about what it entails and what you should do to get started.
For everyone else, to get the required points, you’ll need to apply for the Citi American Airlines personal card and the Citi American Airlines business card. The personal card offers 60,000 AA miles after you spend 3,000 dollars on the card and the business card offers 50,000 after the same amount of spending. 50,000 + 60,000 = 110,000. But you’ll also earn 6,000 points on the 6000 dollars you have to spend on the card. The new total, after the spend requirements, is 116,000 miles. That's just enough to fly to Europe in style. Both cards have an annual fee of 99 dollars, but it’s waived the first year. Pay off your balance every month, cancel the cards in a year and you'll earn a completely free ticket to Europe.
“Pay off your balance every month and cancel the cards in a year and you’ll earn a completely free ticket to Europe.”
What if you’re not a business owner though? Citi is very loose with what they consider a business. It doesn’t have to be a formal LLC or a brick and mortar storefront. If you’ve ever sold anything on eBay or done any side work, you probably qualify. Just put your legal name on the application where it asks for “business name” and select “sole-proprietor” as the business type. Use your social instead of a tax ID, and you should be good to go.
How to apply for the business card.
If you don’t feel comfortable applying for a business card, you could apply for the AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard. It doesn’t have a spend requirement so you receive 60,000 miles after just one purchase. When I had this card, I bought one single pack of gum and Barclays awarded me the miles. The card does have an annual fee though of 95 dollars that’s not waived the first year. So we recommend getting the Citi cards first, although there’s no reason you shouldn’t get all three.
Conclusion
They say nothing is free. And it's true that using this method does require a little of your time, which does have a cost. You’ll also need to be flexible in your destination and dates to redeem award miles. But the cash value of a business class ticket to Europe can be several thousand dollars. So signing up for these cards is a fairly easy way to make a lot of money. Just be sure to pay off the balance and not spend more money than you actually have. What do you think about applying for a card just to get the bonus? Have you done it before? Let us know in the comments.