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Curious about the miles and points + credit card world of travel hacking and how it works?  This YouTube channel, Daily Drop has some great recent videos explaining some basics such as:

• The 5 biggest credit card myths
• How to find award flights on exact dates
• What is Daily Drop

I trust Kara and Nate the owners of Daily Drop and their team of travel hacking professionals. I also love TPG – The Points Guy – founded by Brian Kelly, a (if not THE) Guru in the travel hacking space. Between the newsletters produced by these two entities and their YouTube videos, I have learned everything I know about travel hacking which recently allowed me to take a trip I booked 8 weeks before departure and included:

• Round trip Economy flights (hey – it was high season August and I’m on a points diet haha!) on Air France and Air Canada LAX/ATH/LAX
• 7 nights 8 days Virgin Voyages Adriatic Sea and Greek Gems sailing out of Athens, calling on Split, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Corfu (an exceptional luxury playful & fun break-the-mold cruising experience)
• 1 excursion in Dubrovnik – otherwise I self explored
• 3 nights Athens pre cruise in a lovely hotel called the Coco-Mat
• Transfer ATH/hotel, Hotel/Port, Port/ATH
• Wifi & non alcoholic drinks on board Virgin Voyages
• VIP status including; $100 bar tab credit, $10 daily Ground Club specialty coffee credit, laundry service for free and a few other VIP perks such as fast line at check in etc. All this because Virgin status matched my Princess Cruise lines Platinum status which I found out about because I am a daily reader of my The Points Guy newsletter and I discovered this 2 weeks before my departure – phew!
• All food during the entire trip

Retail cash value: $8,150

My travel hacking cost: 142,500 points + $927 which included airline taxes and fees, portion of the Coco-Mat Athens hotel not covered by my travel hacking, and incidentals.

This is how I can travel as much as I do.  Not because I had a lottery payoff, because I travel hack.

And something most of us are interested in no matter which class of service you want:  6 key tools and tips to find the cheapest airfare  and the best credit cards for booking cruises – from TPG!