Jan 2025 Update

I would never try to talk someone into travel hacking. It’s not for everyone. If you’re like me, though, and enjoy finding loopholes and inefficiencies, it can be very beneficial. I don’t have any formal records, but we have definitely saved thousands of dollars every year for the past 20 or so years by travel hacking.

If you’re a US person living in Canada, you have some really great travel hacking options available to you. For me, travel hacking is all about sign-up bonuses, and the US sign-up bonuses are much, much better than their Canadian counterparts. You can travel hack with Canadian cards, but it’s more about finding a loyalty program you like and focusing your spend there. In my opinion, this isn’t travel hacking — it’s just using rewards credit cards.

Thus, with my Canadian cards, I typically focus on no-annual fee cards that give specific perks — for example a PC Financial card for groceries or a Canadian Tire card that comes with roadside assistance. I primarily use US credit cards for travel hacking.

As a Canadian resident, I target US cards that have no foreign transaction fee. In addition to free travel, these cards also give me a way to take advantage of currency swings without exchanging money. I can use USD cards when the CAD is weak, and vice versa.

A couple of basic travel hacking tips:

• Chase will typically deny you if you have opened 5 or more new credit cards (from any US provider) in the previous 24 months. I don’t believe they count Canadian credit cards. Some non-Chase business cards may also be exempt.
• If you’re married and you want to play this game, don’t add your spouse as an authorized user because that will count towards BOTH of you for Chase’s 5/24 rule. If my wife and I need to share a card, I’ll typically give my wife the physical card and put the virtual one on my phone.
• Most sign-up bonuses can be repeated every two years but check the fine print.
• When re-applying, make sure that you’ve let 30-60 days elapse since you closed the card. If you immediately re-apply, you’ll typically get denied.
• For cards with annual fees, put a reminder on your calendar to either cancel the card or downgrade it to a no-fee alternative. Downgrading it is preferred since that continues the credit line (and credit line age helps your credit score) but some cards don’t have a no fee alternative available.
• You can get business cards without a formal business (e.g. for selling things on Craigslist, a website, etc.). That said, I find most business cards have foreign transaction fees so I haven’t used these since we moved to Canada.
• Keep records! I use a spreadsheet to track the date I applied, the annual fee, whether I’ve set up Auto Pay yet, the date I need to downgrade or cancel (if there’s an annual fee) and the date I received the bonus.

As in most things, I aim for the Pareto Principle rather than relentless optimization. Some people take this VERY seriously (check out r/churning) but a lot of value can be had for pretty minimal effort. I typically get 2 or 3 credit cards per year for both my wife and I. It takes a few minutes to apply (and update my spreadsheet and calendar), some moderate intention to make sure we hit the spend, and then a few minutes to cancel or downgrade. In exchange, we get a significant number of free flights and hotel rooms every year. Again, I enjoy it but it’s not for everyone as it requires a bit of data tracking and can stress some folks out.

If you’re interested, here are some of my favorite US cards for crossborder travel hacking:

Chase Sapphire Preferred – Ultimate Rewards are a great, flexible reward. You typically get the most bang for the buck with them by booking travel through their portal and paying with points. You can also transfer points to many airlines 1:1, which can be useful. There are other Chase Ultimate Rewards cards out there, but they typically have a bigger annual fee or a foreign transaction fee, so this is the only one I use as a Canadian resident.

Chase IHG – This is the only hotel card I really bother with. Travelling with a family, Holiday Inn Express is a good fit. They typically have pools and free hot breakfasts. Depending on the exact bonus available, I sometimes get the free one (aka Traveler) but I like these points so much that I’ll often pay for the Premier version for the additional bonus, and then downgrade to Traveler after my first year. You get every fourth night free when staying with points, so these can add up fast.

Amex Delta Skymiles – If Delta serves your local airport, this can be a good card to pick up.

Chase Aeroplan – The bonus for the US card is typically significantly higher than what you can get for a similar card in Canada. I don’t love Air Canada, but they’re often the best / only option. This card also gives you 25K status, which may or may not be useful.