Welcome to Next Destination Anywhere, A site dedicated to helping you travel further and more comfortably for a lot less money.

Readers will learn such things as:

  • How to get a return flight to Moscow from London for £35.
  • Attaining gold status in the Star Alliance program, allowing you free lounge access, priority check in, and extra baggage allowance for airlines such as United Airways, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and more.
  • Flying first class for the price of an economy ticket.
  • Free nights at 5* hotels.

These are a few examples of the hints and tips you will learn from this site. But there will be additional information about promotions that are happening that could further benefit your travel plans.

How is this all possible?

Loyalty points. Airlines and major hotel chains all have loyalty programs that traditionally rewarded customers for their loyalty with points that could be redeemed for free nights and free flights. However, now there are so many ways to earn points without even having to stay at a hotel or even flying.

Skeptical?

I don’t blame you since I was too, that was until I gave it ago and earned enough points in a year and redeemed it for 2 return flights to Las Vegas from London and saved £1200. From that point on I was hooked and after helping my friends earn loyalty points, and seeing where there points took them, I decided to share the tips and tricks to anyone interested.  Want to know more about where points and miles have taken others, and how much they saved? Then check out Flight redemption stories from the reader, where readers of Next Destination Anywhere share their stories.

Why read Next Destination Anywhere?

I started Next Destination Anywhere to  share tips, tricks and the latest promotion on all things travel to my friends and family. This site aims to be interactive and transparent by allowing readers to add comments on each new blog which will be displayed to everyone, so that we can all share information together.

There are also a lot of travel blogs out there that have been around for many years and are written by veterans of the points game. These blogs are useful for those who themselves have been in the points game for a while. Next Destination Anywhere should be more beneficial to beginners in the points game as I try to simplify promotions. Also my site is independent and not affiliated with third parties, therefore everything I write is my personal opinion and not influenced by others.

Where do I begin?

For beginners to the points game, see below for the basic strategy to ‘earn and burn’ points. For you veterans of the points game just regularly keep checking my posts on the main page.

Basic strategy to ‘earn and burn’ points

1. Have a travel goal in mind. Whether it’s an exotic holiday to the Maldives or just a weekend trip to Paris, have a target of where you want to go and then start earning points and miles to get there. This will allow you to  set yourself a clear target for how many mile and points you need to earn in order to get that ‘free’ holiday. If you don’t have a goal in mind that’s fine but you might find yourself earning miles and points but never actually redeem those points for that ‘free’ holiday.

2. Sign up to the loyalty programs. You need to sign up to a loyalty program to start accumulating points and miles. That way you can redeem those points for free hotels nights and flights. It’s beneficial to sign up to these loyalty programs as you will receive e-mails about their latest promotions, for example In the beginning of the year British Airways and Iberia had a promotion of 50% off miles redemption for flights to New York, Shanghai etc. In addition, if you flew with a major airline or stayed at a hotel chain recently you can retrospectively receive points for those flights and hotel nights. Signing up to a loyalty program is quick and easy and can be done online. Just google the airline or hotel name and once you enter their site you should be able to identify their loyalty program easily .

3. Understand your Loyalty program.  Begin to familiarise yourself with the loyalty programs that you’ve signed up to. Check how many points you need for the travel goal you had in mind. Once you have familiarised yourself with this you should have an exact number of points you need to earn to redeem that travel goal.

4. Time to accumulate points.

– Hotel stays and flights – If you have flights and hotel stays at major chains already in the pipeline then that will help accumulate points.

– Use a credit card that rewards you with points – Believe it or not but travel reward credit cards are the best ways to boost your points balance due to the generous sign-up bonuses. I know many people don’t like using credit cards in general, but by using the right travel rewards credit card, you are getting a much better return than a cash back cards. You can find the best travel rewards credit card sign-up bonuses on the Current credit card deals page. I was able to save £1200 with the first travel rewards credit card I ever got when I spent £10,000 within a year. That’s a cash back equivalent of 12%. Still a non-believer than listen to the money saving expert guru Martin Lewis from his site at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/airline-credit-cards. But don’t forget his ‘Golden Rule’ set up a direct debit to repay the card in full each month so that you don’t incur any interest charges.

– Get a Tesco Club card – Did you know you can exchange tesco clubcard vouchers for British Airways avios points and Virgin Atlantic flying club miles.

– Other – Throughout the year there will be other opportunities to earn points for free and for a few minutes work like answering a survey or playing a game. When these opportunities come I will post it on my site.

5. Stay up-to-date. The points world is constantly changing and it is vital that you stay up to date as this can effect your travel plans. An example that happened last year was that Hilton had a major devaluation of their rewards program that meant going forward in some situations redeeming your points for a free night cost twice as much points than previously.. There were also some good opportunities like the AAdvantage card that had a sign-up bonus of 35,000 points and no annual fee. A great deal Considering you only need 40,000 points for a off peak return flight to North America. Therefore make use of this website, after all it’s here to help you get a great deal on your holiday plans.

6. Redeem and Enjoy. Stick to this basic strategy and you will eventually get to that travel goal. Remember collecting points can be fun and to many it is considered a hobby. A hobby that is free and one that rewards you, which can’t be said for most other hobbies.

Note; The length of time it takes for you to accumulate enough points for your travel goal will depend on various factors, such as:

– Where do you want to go? Normally, the further you fly the more points you require. If we use the British Airways loyalty program as an example, a return flight from London will require, 9,000 avios points to Paris, 40,000 avios to New York and 100,000 to Sydney.

– What Cabin Class do you want to fly on? Obviously the higher the cabin class the more points are required. Using British Airways as an example A Return flight to Los Angeles from London will require, 50,000 avios in Economy, 100,000 in Business Class and 150,000 in First Class.

– Do you already have existing points? If you already have a fair few points due to previous flights or hotel stays than great, you are closer to your travel goal.

– Did you sign-up to a travel rewards credit card? As mentioned previously travel rewards credit cards are the best way to earn a large pile of points due to sign-up bonus. Check here for the latest sign-up bonuses.

– Promotions – Hotels and Airlines loyalty programs will from time to time have promotions such as reduction in points to redeem a flight or night in a hotel. There will usually be a 50% promotion on an rewards program, hope that happens for your loyalty program.