Last August, I was able to spend a week in Turkey without paying for hotel accommodations and I flew in to Turkey without paying for airfare using airline miles. I was able to visit Turkey for two weeks rather than only one because my out-of-pocket expenses were so little while I was in Istanbul.

I had accumulated enough airline and hotel miles from credit card sign up bonuses to pay for an entire week of hotel stays in Istanbul as well as to pay for business class airfare. While I decided to redeem a great deal of my miles and points in Istanbul, I could have also redeemed a week long stay anywhere else in the world like Paris, Vienna or Bangkok.

Guide to Earning a Free Week in Istanbul Turkey

Credit card sign up bonuses are one of the best ways to earn lots of airline miles and hotel points. You can easily rack up a few hundred thousand points just by applying for a few valuable credit card offers.

What do you get from these? Free travel. Or possibly even the opportunity to take vacations that you normally wouldn’t be able to afford. You can use these airline miles to get a free flights and hotels stays, both of which can heavily offset the cost of your vacation.

The premise of this can be applied to almost anywhere in the world, but here’s how to do it in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Hotels

There are a lot of options when it comes to hotel credit cards and depending on your brand of choice you can choose which points to earn. For instance, during my week in Istanbul I redeemed points for three nights at the Holiday Inn Sisli and two nights at the Radisson Blu Bosphorus in Istanbul. Both the Radisson Blu and Holiday Inn are internationally recognized hotels chains. The Holiday Inn is part of IHG and the Radisson Blu is part of Club Carlson, both of which are currently offering major sign up bonuses for their co-branded credit card.

If you are planning to travel (to literally anywhere), it’s completely possible to book at least a free weeks stay just by taking advantage of sign up bonuses. While I did spend a whole week in Istanbul by redeeming hotel points, it didn’t end there. I redeemed additional points in Antalya, Turkey and Croatia for a total of 12 free nights throughout my trip. However, because there are not that many IHG or Club Carlson properties in the Balkans I was limited to only a few properties.

Club Carlson

The Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature® Card has a sign up bonus offer of 85,000 points which is enough to book 9 free nights at a category 1 hotel. The 85,000 point sign up bonus is earned in two segments. After making your first purchase with the card you earn 50,000 points and after meeting the minimum spend requirement of $2,500 within three months, you will earn the remaining 35,000 points.

Card Details:

Up to 85,000 Bonus Gold Points – receive 50,000 Gold Points after your first purchase plus 35,000 points once you spend $2,500 on your card within the first 90 days
40,000 renewal bonus points each year when you renew your card
10 points per $1 spent in eligible net purchases at participating Carlson Rezidor hotels
5 points per $1 spent in eligible net purchases everywhere else
Bonus Award Nights – When you redeem Gold Points for 2 or more consecutive Award Nights, your last night is free. Exclusively for cardmembers!
Your upgrade is automatic – Your Club Carlson membership will be upgraded to Gold Elite Status after you activate and use your card
Already reached Gold or Concierge Elite status? You will receive 15 qualifying nights toward obtaining or maintaining Concierge Elite status after you activate and use your new card.

 

While the 85,000 points is enough to book 9 free night at a category 1 hotel, you can actually maximize the points by taking advantage of a perk Club Carlson card holders get. For at least every 2 nights booked using the points, the last night is free. With that you will basically get your points at a 2 nights for the price of 1 value.

If there are two different Club Carlson locations in the city you will be visiting, you can book 4 nights for the price of 2. Stay at one location for two nights, with the second night free, then check out and book the second location for two nights and check out after the second night.

How many points did I use in Istanbul? 50,000 points for 2 nights.

Club Carlson Hotels: Radisson Blu, Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn, Country Inn and Suites, Quorovus Collection

Intercontinental Hotel Group

The Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) has hotels including Holiday Inn, the Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza and Candlewood Suites and with the IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card, you can take advantage of the 80,000 point sign up bonus offer for free stays.

The IHG® Rewards Club Select Credit Card has a $1,000 minimum spend requirement and a $49 annual fee, but with it comes a free night certificate every year you pay it.
Card Details:

You’ll earn 80,000 bonus points if you make $1,000 or more in purchases in the first three months from account opening.
IHG Rewards Club has great properties across the world and valuable point redemption opportunities.
Free night every year at any IHG hotels. (Certificate may be redeemed online.)
Automatic IHG Rewards Club Platinum status for as long as you hold the card.
Earn 5 points per 1$ spent at IHG hotels, 2 points per 1$ spent on gas,groceries and dining, and 1 point per 1$ on everything else.
Get a 10% points rebate on any redemptions. (Automatically post after the statement date)
Annual fee waived the first year, then $49.
No foreign transaction fees.

 

IHG points are great to have for a couple for reasons. The first one being that the lowest room rate is 10,000 points per night. That would be 8 free stays at a Holiday Inn hotel. The second reason, my favorite reason that IHG points are so great is that every couple of months, IHG releases a Point Breaks list which is a special promo for a selection of hotels that cost even 50,000 points per night (around $300 per night) are only 5,000 points! If you’re able to book 80,000 points during a Point Breaks promo, then that 16 free hotel stays.
How many points did I use in Istanbul? 45,000 points for 3 nights

Take Home Message

The trick to getting the best sign up bonuses is researching whether the credit card has had a better offer in the past and how much you can maximize the points for redemption. The higher the bonus the better.

Regardless of where you decide to travel to, you can likely have most, if not all of your hotel accommodations paid for using miles and points without spending a dime out of pocket. Obviously this has it’s limits, but for anyone that takes only one or two vacations per year, it’s complete feasible.

There’s also the option of mix and matching between hotel stays with points and low cost accommodations like hostels or bed and breakfasts like I did when traveling through the Turquoise Coast in Turkey. If I didn’t take advantage of hotel stays along with point redemption, I simply would have had less funds to travel for as long as I did and probably would have had to cut my trip short.

 

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