New Year, New Credit Cards, and Perks Galore!

2013 was a great year in travel and food for Flavor City. After starting my online cooking and travel show back in February, I shot episodes in 3 countries, made TV appearances, and did a live cooking demo at a Chicago fest. It was incredibly rewarding to see all the hard work payoff, and to see that people connect with my passion for all things food and travel. I am working on some exciting projects for 2014(think Food Network!), and am kicking off my travels in a couple weeks with a trip to Los Angeles.

Part of the reason I am able to travel and have the food experiences I have always dreamed of, is because of the insane credit card points/miles I get just for making every day purchases. I have dedicated large parts of this blog to educate everyone on how to get airline/miles/points credit cards and take advantage of huge sign-up bonuses that can be redeemed for free travel all over the world. A prime example is the Southwest family of Credit cards. Visa offers 4-5 different Southwest business and personal cards, with sign-up bonuses of 50,000 points each. This year I got 2 of these cards(100,000 points), and spent well over $10,000, because of this, I earned something EXTREMELY valuable called the "Southwest Companion Pass." When you earn 110,000 Southwest Rapid Reward points in one calendar year, they give you the companion pass, meaning I can designate one person(my wife obviously) who can fly for FREE with me all of 2014, yes free! Whether I book my airfare with cash or redeem Rapid Reward points, my companion flies free with me all of 2014. This is a HUGE money saver considering how much I travel, and since I book most of my travel with points, it is going to save thousands of points I would have used to book a second ticket for my wife. I already used the companion pass to book free travel for my trips to Los Angelos and South Beach coming up soon.

I strong encourage you to check out the Southwest Family of Cards below, and sign up if you are in the market for a new card, with these kinds of perk, you can't afford not to!
https://creditcards.chase.com/southwest

                            My WGN TV appearance July 2013

                  My NBC TV appearance September 2013