How to Get Started as a Travel Nurse Anesthetist

I’m diverging a bit from my normal travel content because I get more and more questions about the travel Nurse Anesthetist topic all the time, so I thought this would be useful to write about. Being a travel Nurse Anesthetist is not the same as being a travel nurse so if you’ve been travel nursing prior to becoming a CRNA (certified registered nurse anesthetist), some of what you’ve been doing will be helpful and will prepare you well for this type of life, but some things are different, which I’ll explain. Here is my guide on how to get started as a Travel Nurse Anesthetist, aka becoming a Locum CRNA.

Consider this a checklist of things you need to think about. Not all of these have to be done in a specific order and you don’t need to have this all figured out before leaping to being a traveling CRNA. I’ll highlight the things that I feel are crucial at the beginning. As a bonus I’m including some very valuable travel-hacking advice for those of you who like me, love to travel for FUN. I have been pretty successful and the point game for many years now and will share some basic strategies specific for the travel nurse or nurse anesthetist lifestyle.

How Do You Find Travel Assignments

This probably seems basic but many people don’t know where to start. You can check Linked In, Gasworks, the AANA journal job posting, and things like that but ultimately if you are going to be a traveler you will be doing one of two things: working with an agency or working directly for your employer.

Working with an Agency

This is the easiest route although not the most economical one. The various agencies out there that work with travel medical professionals are essentially recruitment firms/matchmakers. They find providers to match with their clients who are either a hospital-based group or independent anesthesia group. As you know, many large anesthesia groups have contracts at hospitals either regionally or across the country. The agency’s services don’t come free. They take a significant chunk of money per hour that you work. So that means that the employer pays more hourly and you make less hourly because a middleman is involved. A typical position is 13 weeks with the option to extend. There are shorter assignments out there but many of these are emergency contracts for a week here or a month there, and you have to be ready to go at the drop of a hat. I don’t like to commit to more than 13 weeks until I go and make sure I like the place. You typically have to give 30 days’ notice to get out of a contract if you truly hate the place. Make sure you have this in your contract!

The agency is helpful, however, because they have access to jobs that you may not find on your own. They match you with your ideal job. You tell the recruiter what kind of hospital you want, what state licenses you have, what skills you have, and what schedule you prefer (you can request no OB, no hearts, no pediatrics, no weekends, no call, etc). You can tell them to prioritize looking at a certain region first for a certain period. Anything is possible. The larger agencies obviously have more contracts and will be more likely to find you the perfect position. Once they find something that fits most of your criteria, they will give you a generic profile of the place and then you can negotiate. They will almost always offer you the lowest salary possible and you should always ask for more because ultimately the employer likely already set the rate and the agency will keep whatever portion of that you don’t take. They are hoping you don’t know that. I suggest joining travel or locum CRNA Facebook groups to discuss what the market is paying in various regions before accepting too low a salary.

Pro Tip: If they won’t tell you a rate up front, or demand your CV before giving this info to you, that’s a Red Flag!!

The agency also has people who can facilitate getting a state license and handle your credentialing. They also have housing specialists that will help you find housing, and a rental car and make your flight arrangements. They do your background check and arrange whatever medical things you need such as TB tests, drug screens or vaccinations. Many CRNAs dislike agencies but they aren’t all terrible and I have found it hard to avoid them altogether, especially when you are new at this or don’t know anything about the region where you want to work. One of the downsides is the non-compete clause which is fairly ubiquitous. You typically cannot come back to a certain facility to work independently or with another agency until at least a year after your contract with the 1st agency is completed. This, like most things, is negotiable. My advice is to ask for the non-compete language to be removed before signing.

Some agencies work with CRNAs and Anesthesiologists, some work with all advanced providers and some work with all of the above plus RNs. Regardless of what structure they have, there are typically anesthesia-specific recruiters who know that end of the business and that is who you will be dealing with. Companies I can recommend with caution include StaffCare, United Anesthesia, Nationwide Anesthesia and Locum Tenens. None of these are CRNA owned. CRNA owned companies include Krewe Anesthes and LokumApp. Even within good agencies, you may come across a sketchy or incompetent recruiter. It’s ok to ask to work with someone else if this is the case and if your gut is telling you there is a problem, listen to that. I will tell you that not all CRNA owned agencies are good!

A few warnings. Don’t send your CV to anyone unless you are ready to be “presented” to that position. Once you send your CV to an agent, you are implicitly permitting them to “present” you. Once they present you to a job, they “own” you as far as that specific job goes. Let’s say you find a better offer through a different agency or on your own for that same job (same hospital, same anesthesia group). Well too bad, you can’t go that route now for a certain time. This was never explained to me at the beginning and I gave the entire world of recruiters my CV. Feel free to laugh at me. So definitely be clear with the agents that you DO NOT WANT to be presented right away until the things you want are negotiated.

Once they present you to the anesthesia group and your name is “cleared” (meaning no other agent “owns” you) then the anesthesia group will decide if you are a good candidate and then contact you for a phone interview. Sometimes this part takes forever. If you are in a hurry to work, it’s ok to have several of these situations in motion simultaneously. I play the “who will get back to me first” game at times. I used to feel bad about this but now I don’t. Don’t put all your eggs into one basket, as they say. You can develop relationships with several recruiters and see what they can do for you.

Working Directly with Anesthesia Groups

This is preferable for many reasons, mostly because you will make more money and the anesthesia group will pay out less money since the agency is not out of the picture. You can accomplish this by either cold calling anesthesia groups you want to work for or by having a pre-existing connection with one. Maybe you used to work somewhere and you know the right people to talk to. Some groups don’t want to work directly with providers because the agency does the background checks and vets you. However, if they already know you, you are more likely to have success.

I worked with a small regional anesthesia group via an agency but after several contracts, I negotiated out of the agency’s non-compete and contacted the anesthesia group and asked if they would work with me independently in the future and they agreed. I used the same contract I had previously but with different wording and asked for more money (since I knew the agency’s chunk was up for grabs). I also requested that they add me to their malpractice policy since the agency had covered me previously. I really like this group so I come back for a few months and work with them every year. It is easy since my hospital credentialing was already done and renewing it is relatively easy.

If you don’t already have a contract you can use, there are many resources on the web for making your own contract. I got one through the Facebook group I mentioned above. Many CRNAs are very willing to share this information within our circles. You could also see an employment lawyer as well. I am not a contract expert but just in general, make sure you read carefully and have hourly rates, minimum guaranteed hours, overtime rates, contract beginning and end dates, shifts, 30-day notices, reimbursements, malpractice, etc all very clearly notated.

Differences Between Being a Travel CRNA and a Travel RN

1099 vs W2

This is not true across the board, but typically most travel CRNAs are 1099 while travel RNs are paid W2. What does this mean? In the most basic terms, 1099 means that the company pays you your salary and does not take out any taxes or benefits. This means that you are responsible for saving the money for taxes and providing your own benefits to yourself. Benefits such as health insurance, retirement savings, disability, vacation time, etc are typically provided with a W2 job and money for certain benefits is taken from your paycheck pre-tax. When you are working 1099, you get tax writeoffs from these same things. This is why 1099 salaries are higher. You are not getting a paid vacation or any other benefits. Some travel RNs do work 1099, but from what I understand, many use an agency that does give them benefits and operates much like a normal employer. Being a locum CRNA, this is not the case except for a few exceptions.

Licensing

Licensing as a Nurse Anesthetist is more involved than licensing as an RN. Your board certification is national but you still must be licensed in each state where you want to work. At least we have the nursing licensure compact (NLC) in which 33 states participate. In the compact program, once you are licensed in your primary state, getting the license in the participating states is easy since you don’t have to go through the regular process but you still have to pay the state’s fees. This multistate license allows the nurse to practice in the home state and all compact states with one license issued by the home state. This eliminates the burdensome, costly, and time-consuming process of obtaining single state licenses in each state of practice.

Having your primary license in one of these states is more helpful to RNs than CRNAs because we also need an APRN (advanced practice registered nurse) license in most states (New York is one exception). The APRN license is an individual state only (for now). The states that are part of the compact arrangement will basically grant you the RN part of the license once you fill out the application and show your primary license. Then you have to apply for the advanced practice portion of the license. And of course, you have to pay. An APRN compact has been in the works since Aug 2020 so hopefully, it will get easier.

This is a frustrating process and some states are harder than others to work with. Some have boards of nursing that are easy and helpful to communicate with and some are simply awful. Remember that the more states you are licensed in, the more options for work you will have. Obtaining and keeping licenses costs money plus some states are really obnoxious about their specific CEs and even APRNs must continue to do the state-specific RN CEs to obtain the license. This is tax-deductible and sometimes you can get your agency to pay for this if they need you badly enough. The problem arises when you are in a hurry to work. Having the license already will speed up the process. Some jobs such as those in California where licensing takes notoriously long, won’t even talk to you if you don’t already hold a CA license.

Credentialing

A major difference is that CRNAs require extensive credentialing to work at a hospital. What is credentialing? It is a process by which the hospital verifies that the provider (this is true for physicians, NPs, and PAs too) has the proper qualifications to practice. They look at literally everything you can imagine. Board certifications, education, licensure, malpractice insurance and any claims pending, work history, professional references, etc. It is a painful process that typically takes 60 days but can take up to 6 months. If you join any travel CRNA forum you will see lots of tears and anger over this process. Any provider needs to be credentialed for their specific scope of practice. Credentialing is such a big deal that anesthesia groups, locum agencies, and hospitals have employees completely dedicated to doing this.

Tips to make this process less painful as you go through your career is to keep all the documents you need very handy. I keep a file on my computer, update it frequently and also keep many things in a Google Drive folder so it is accessible to me when I don’t have access to my computer. Documents you may need include: Copy of Passport, Driver’s License, Diplomas, NBCRNA certification card, various nursing state licenses, your ACLS, BLS, and PALS cards, and vaccination records. You also need an updated CV with references. Copies of COI (certificate of insurance) from previous malpractice insurance. Take the time and obtain these from your current workplace before you leave because I have had to literally harass people for weeks to obtain this. You may also need Case Counts. Some CRNAs keep their own records of these, but I refuse to do this. The billing person for your anesthesia group should be able to print these for you easily. Keep a working document of all the hospitals you’ve worked in with starting and end dates, the address, the phone number, your supervisor, etc. Having a few contact people at each place and finding someone from each place you can use as a reference is a good idea. It can be challenging as a traveler who is going to a new job frequently to form relationships and acquire people to use as references but you will always need references, so be friendly and look for these people.

The more places you have worked, the more complicated it is because they have more verifications to obtain and more history to dig into to make sure you are not a sketchy criminal.

Things to Think About Before Quitting your W2 job

How much savings do you have?

As cool as the travel lifestyle is, there is a lot of uncertainty built into it and there will likely be periods where you are not working. It is challenging to have completely seamless transitions from one job to the next and you will need to have money for food and shelter during these times. COVID made the uncertainty painfully clear. Unlike travel nurses who were in great demand, this was not necessarily the case for travel CRNAs. If surgeries are canceled, anesthesia is not needed. Many of us were the first to lose our contracts when elective surgeries were canceled. I was out of work for 2 weeks after a canceled contract before obtaining a crisis assignment for helping to manage COVID emergencies in New York. Some locum CRNAs did not wish to take these COVID assignments and stayed out of work for months until travel anesthesia jobs opened up again. The bottom line is that you should have 3 months of living expenses saved before quitting your job for peace of mind.

Where Will You Live?

Are you going to be a local traveler or a nationwide traveler?

This matters mostly for licensure and housing. Many CRNAs opt to “travel” regionally and live in their existing home. They do this for several reasons. Perhaps they have a stable living situation and children in school and don’t want to uproot their family. They may get health insurance via a spouse. Maybe they want more hourly pay and flexibility with the schedule. Maybe they just want to work PRN 2 days a week. There are many ways to “go 1099” and that is the beauty of it. You can tailor this to many types of life situations. If you are planning to be a local traveler, you will able to use your current license and you don’t need to worry about getting reimbursed for housing or travel so you can likely negotiate a higher hourly salary.

Tax Home vs Itinerant

Nationwide Travelers have more to consider. Firstly, are you licensed in the places you want to work? If you’re lucky to have your primary license in a compact state, this makes things a bit easier. I will talk more about licensing in a bit but before you make any moves you must be licensed where you are going to work and this process can take anywhere from 1 month to 6 months, depending on the state. So plan ahead. Also, where will you live? Are you going to keep a home base somewhere just constantly be on the move? Will you have a “tax home” or be an “itinerant”? These have different tax considerations and pros and cons to both.

In basic terms, a tax home is a general area where your main place of business is located. This can be different from your family home or permanent address. If you don’t have a regular place of business due to the nature of your work (for example, you’re a travel nurse), your tax home may be the place where you regularly live. You cannot write off housing stipends or lodging reimbursement if you are an itinerant but you can if you have a “tax-home.” If you ever are audited by the IRS you need to show proof that you spend a significant amount of time at this tax home, do business there and pay living expenses there. Also, If you spend over one year on a travel assignment, the IRS now considers that your home and you cannot receive tax-free housing reimbursement. Being an itinerant means you pay state taxes wherever you work. Having a tax-home means you pay taxes in your home state, unless the state where you worked has higher taxes. You will not benefit from working in a state with no state income tax when you have a tax-home. I will refer you to a CPA for more details on these things because it’s beyond the scope of this blog.

Not Having a Home Base

Keeping a home base will be perhaps your biggest expense whether it be mortgage or rent plus all the utilities. Many travelers who are working around the country may choose to either downsize to a very small inexpensive apartment in a convenient location near friends or family and some simply keep things in a storage unit. With my work, I spend months in either a hotel or Airbnb while at a job, and while in between jobs, I travel for fun. I make sure to spend time and do some work at my tax home region.

Some people live in RVs, rent a cheap apartment or stay with friends and family in between contracts. There are many ways to “do travel jobs”. You need to figure out what works best for your lifestyle and budget, but deciding your housing situation is a must before you quit your non-travel job. Having pets or children definitely changes the dynamic. Luckily there are many pet-friendly Airbnbs and hotels out there, but it does limit your options.

If you choose to do the hotel thing, which I love, stay tuned because I am going to do another post about hotel life and how to maximize your business credit cards and hotel points to use for fun travel. Because of hotel stays for travel jobs, I have been able to fly first class around the world and stay for free in luxury hotels all because of points I’ve earned.

Health Insurance

This is obviously a biggie and I recommend this be one of the things you have worked out before making the jump into locums life. If you are lucky enough to have a policy through a spouse, good for you. If you don’t, then you need to purchase this for yourself.

Full disclosure here and I’m being really transparent, but I went without formal health insurance my first few years as a traveler and paid out of pocket for things like a yearly dental exam, mammogram, and GYN visit because I am healthy and didn’t need more than this. I spent under $1000 total on my health care per year paying out of pocket. I had a travel insurance policy (I’ve had this for years with Allianz which costs $300-$600 per year depending on what plan you choose) and this covered me while out of the country where I spent half the year and there is an emergency medical coverage up to 25,000. I realize this isn’t the ultimate health coverage, but it is better than nothing. When COVID hit and I was in the United States more than out of it, I decided I should get a regular policy especially since I’m getting older and needed more regular preventative services.

Note: I do NOT think it is wise to forgo having health insurance but I also know that many people choose not to and I understand. I know many travelers who get healthcare in other countries. That is beyond the scope of this post, but a very interesting topic.

You can shop for health insurance on the government healthcare marketplace. Educate yourself on the Affordable Care Act and what it means to have an ACA-compliant plan and a non-compliant one. I have had both. A few caveats: ACA compliant plans cannot refuse you and can only ask your age and whether or not you smoke. They also must cover all recommended preventative health care services 100% such as primary care yearly visit, mammogram, pap-smear, colon screening, etc. Non-ACA compliant plans use what is called “medical underwriting” and can look into your health history. The dreaded “pre-existing conditions” BS becomes a factor. They will factor this into your eligibility, pricing, and coverage. This can either hurt you or help you get a cheaper plan than the ACA provides, however they are not obligated to provide the same level of preventative services as an ACA plan. It seems that they flat out deny people who have even the simplest health issue in their record. I detest the for-profit health insurance industry, TBH.

Malpractice Insurance

CRNA malpractice insurance is more of a big deal than RN malpractice insurance. Firstly, ours is absolutely required and different states have different limits on required coverage. A typical requirement for coverage is a policy with $1M/$3M limits (meaning that the insurance company will pay a maximum of $1 million for a given claim and a maximum of $3 million in total for all claims in a given policy period). Many locum CRNAs purchase their own policies. I get mine either via the agency that recruited me and set me up with the job or directly from the anesthesia group if I’m working for if without an agency. I purchase a supplemental policy through the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) that essentially provides me with an attorney that is looking out for my personal interests rather than the groups. This is considered important so I did it. Any malpractice policy that you purchase is a write-off for your business. Always request the COI (certificate of insurance) before setting foot into the OR so you know you have coverage. You will also need this paperwork for future credentialing at other places. Before leaving a position that includes insurance, make sure you find out if your current policy includes a tail and if it doesn’t you may want to think about purchasing one. Remember that there are “Occurrence” policies and “Claims-Made” policies. Occurrence policies are better policies because you don’t need a tail.

1. An occurrence policy has lifetime coverage for the incidents that occur during a policy period, regardless of when the claim is reported.
2. A claims-made policy only covers incidents that happen and are reported within the policy’s time frame, unless a ‘tail’ is purchased

Starting Your Own Business

I am NOT an expert on this but will tell you some really basic tips to help you get started. I recommend finding a CPA that knows traveling medical provider stuff and can help you set all this up. I am NOT business-minded so I struggled with these things. Once you decide to go 1099, it generally behooves you to incorporate for tax purposes and for some legal protection. This is fairly easy to do online. I used TotalLegal.com. LegalZoom is another popular one. I don’t know enough to tell you the difference but it was easy and you pay a fee that differs depending on your state and they will assist in the IRS assigning you an EIN.

EIN or Employer Identification Number is also called Federal Tax Identification Number. It is a 9-digit number assigned by the IRS and is like a social security number but for your business. You will use this to open business bank and credit accounts (which you should do if you are in the travel hacking game).

LLC vs. S-Corp

Deciding what type of business you will have is another decision to spend some time reading about. You don’t have to do this right away. You can practice as a traveler/1099 without doing anything but you will get more tax write-offs once you form a business. I worked for over 2 years as a traveler before I formed my business because I was truly clueless and just flying by the seat of my pants.

• An LLC is a type of business entity, while an S corporation is a tax classification.
• An S corporation election lets the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) know that your business should be taxed differently.
• To become an S corporation, your business first must register as a C corporation or an LLC and meet specific guidelines by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to qualify.

I chose LLC at the beginning because it was simpler. I wanted simplicity in my life. S-Corp has more options and tax write-offs but you will also need to use a payroll service like ADT or Quickbooks, have the business officially pay you a salary and provide you with a W2. Everything is much more formal and complex and makes sense once you are over a certain income level because you don’t have to pay as much self-employment tax.

The IRS treats single-member LLCs as sole proprietorships by default, so instead of the LLC paying income tax, its profits and losses are passed on to you. You don’t need to file a separate federal tax return for the LLC. As the sole owner, you’ll report all of your LLC income on your personal federal tax return. Your state, however, may have tax filing requirements for LLCs, so make sure to check your state’s rules. If you prefer, you can choose for your LLC to be taxed as a corporation. If you do that, you’ll be considered an employee, and you may be required to pay yourself through payroll as I mentioned above.

I’m going to link some resources since I am a very LIMITED resource on this subject. This is a great article about comparing LLC to S-Corp.

https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/how-to-pay-yourself-in-an-llc

Retirement Savings

You likely had your employer withholding money from your paycheck and investing it in a 401K and possibly matching it? What to do on your own? Again this is beyond the scope of this post (and my knowledge) but there are things you can do. You can put money in an IRA (individual retirement account). Roth IRA means the money is invested after taxes but when you take it out it is not taxed. Traditional IRA money goes in pre-tax but is taxed upon withdrawal. However, you can only contribute $7000 a year to an IRA ($8000 if you are 50 or older) so you need something else.

As a self-employed individual, you can choose to set up a SEP-IRA (simplified employee pension IRA) or a solo 401-K. With these, you can contribute up to 25% of your income. There are differences between the two that is explained nicely here. Contributions to these are great tax savings for your LLC as well as good things to do for your personal retirement.

Summary

I hope this helps get you on your way to the exciting travel CRNA life! It is challenging at first but once you get the hang of this new lifestyle it is extremely rewarding. One of the hardest parts is being away from a friend circle or family and always being the new person at work. Usually, at a new hospital, I find the 1st 2 days difficult and then you are right back in your groove for the most part. I have been lucky and have worked with wonderful people in all of my various assignments. Some places I return back to again and again and now I know the area well and have friends there. This lifestyle is a great way to experience life in different cities and states and also allows you more free time to travel for fun.

Here are the things I think you should focus on before becoming a traveler vs the things that you can decide later.

• Saving Money
• Obtaining a license where you will work
• Figure out the living situation
• Health Insurance
• Malpractice Insurance

Can Do Later

• get a CPA
• opening business bank accounts and credit cards
• Forming an LLC or SCorp
• Investing in a SEP IRA or solo 401K
• obtaining more licenses

You can certainly get all of this done before becoming 1099 if you have the time and energy but it’s not necessary to have everything figured out right from the start. I meant for this to be a quick guide about the basics. There is much more to learn about all of this and there isn’t just one way to do things. I am still learning myself after 5 years of travel life.

Travel Hacking for Travel Nurses

Now for the fun part. How to maximize the travel nurse or travel CRNA lifestyle for fun travel. If like me you enjoy the finer things and life and want to jet around the world, your career can actually help fund these travels. Sounds too good to be true? Here are some tips.

Hotel Travel Hacking

If you are doing contracts away from your home you need lodging. While some may not love the idea of living in a hotel for months at a time,  this is a very easy way to rack up mad points as well as get elite status at various hotel groups 

Marriott Bonvoy,  Hilton, and Hyatt are the big ones.  IHG (intercontinental hotel group) is another option as they own Holiday Inn, Crown Plaza and many you may not have known are part of this group that owns many luxury hotels around the world.

Marriott Bonvoy 

Marriott Bonvoy group has the largest footprint worldwide which makes it a popular option however hardcore luxury travelers will argue that it isn’t the best of the “Big 3”. However since Marriott points can be transferred to airline miles, this makes them particularly valuable points. No other hotel points can do that.

Now I’m not suggesting you stay at the Ritz Carlton as this would certainly break the budget.  However, Residence Inn, Fairfax Inn, Springhill Suites, Courtyard by Marriott, and TownePlace Suites are all lower-priced Marriotts that are everywhere.   Residence Inn is my favorite because it is almost like a little apt with a kitchen. 

Hyatt

Again, you are not looking for the high-end Park Hyatt or Grand Hyatt for a 3 month work contract however Hyatt Centric and Hyatt Place are two of the more budget-friendly Hyatts to consider. Hyatt has the lowest footprint of the big 3 but many travelers love the Hyatt program since the luxury benefits are very nice.

Here are the various status levels with how many nights it takes to achieve them.

Hilton

In the Hilton group, you have the Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, and Home 2 Suites in the affordable group.  Home 2 Suites have a kitchen similar to the Residence Inn. 

I will admit that it is hard to stay long-term in those places that don’t have a kitchen and even so,  it’s not the same as having your own apartment. It all depends on your goal.  I REALLY wanted those points.  I travel a ton and like having elite status, free upgrades, and other perks. So this crazy lifestyle is worth it to me,  for now.  I’ve been doing this for 5 years now.  I do mix it up and get an Airbnb now and then.  In some cities, staying in a hotel simply isn’t in the budget. However, in some places,  the Airbnb is more than the hotel! You just have to shop around and compare.

One tip is to call the hotel manager and tell them you’re a travel nurse and staying long-term.  They may give you a break on the price.  

Hotel Credit Cards

Now let’s talk about hotel credit cards.  I suggest getting a hotel credit for whatever chain you have chosen to stay in.  

How to choose between the hotel groups? Well at one point I just decided to try to get status with all of them. You may have one you prefer to use the most when you travel or maybe you have a bucket list destination to visit like the Maldives or Tahiti.  Maybe you have a specific hotel you want to stay at.  That’s the one you should try building up points for. 

Example: I want to stay at the Conrad Bora Bora Nui and started building up Hilton points years ago for a stay next summer.  Travel hacking is often a long game.

Marriott Bonvoy Credit Cards

Marriott Bonvoy has several card options. All of them are with Chase Bank.

Hyatt Credit Cards

Hyatt has two cards, one personal and one business and both are with Chase Bank

Hilton Credit Cards

Hilton offers 3 personal credit cards and one business card, all with Amex. All have a yearly free except the first one, the Hilton Honors Amex

Blanket advice for all credit card hacking

Rule 1: Be prepared to pay your cards in full every month. Once you start racking up credit cards, it will be challenging to keep track of them all and you can get into some real financial trouble. I suggest setting up auto-pay from the beginning so that you don’t miss a payment. Opening and closing cards DOES NOT affect your credit. Late payments do.

Rule 2: Be ready with things you need to purchase before acquiring a card with a steep sign-up bonus spend requirement. You will see something like “Earn 100k Chase points when you spend $4000 in 1st 3 months”. What you do NOT want to do is spend $4000 on things you don’t need. This is never a good strategy to get points because you could have just spent that $4000 on the hotel or flight you wanted in the first place. With travel nursing this is easier because you need to pay for 3 months of a hotel so that spend requirement is easy to achieve.

Rule 3: Get the cards when there is the best possible sign-up bonus. Don’t just get any card some influencer you follow has a link to. You can easily google what the highest sign-up bonus has been historically with various cards and wait for a good deal (if you can wait).

FYI You generally need good to excellent credit to obtain most of the cards mentioned.

My strategy

I generally get one card at a time, make the minimal spend to get the bonus then move on to the next card. I will use the card for my travel lodging and also for any big purchase I’m planning to make. I will hold off on putting a deposit on a trip or buying new dive equipment until I get the new card.

I will spend 1 month at a Marriott property, then move to a Hyatt or whatever one I need points in. Maybe I’m just a few days shy of the next elite status or maybe I’m saving points for a specific purpose. These goals inform how I choose my lodging for travel contracts. All the moving around, however, can be a huge pain. It’s all a give and take. The upside is being able to experience and compare various hotels and live in different parts of town.

Every year I evaluate all my cards and decide which can be cancelled if they are not doing much for me. Many cards with a yearly fee pay for themselves with free nights or other reimbursements but many don’t. And once you have many cards, you’ll find that some of the same perks (Global Entry or Priority Pass access for example) are covered by multiple cards. Remember if you haven’t used or transferred your points before canceling a card, you will lose the points so don’t make that mistake!

Also, you need to remember the 5/24 rule with Chase. So if you are planning over the next year or so to open a Chase Sapphire, a Capital One, and Amex, get the Chase first.

Airline Hacking

If you are brand new to airline point hacking, I recommend you get a card with points that transfer to many airlines. These would be Chase, Amex or Capital One.

Doing a complete review of all these cards is beyond the scope of this post but I’ll quickly go over the finer points.

Chase Sapphire

Chase Sapphire is largely considered to be the best travel rewards card that everyone should have. They have two, the Sapphire Reserve and the Sapphire Preferred. I tend to recommend the Preferred card more often because it can have an amazing sign up bonus and a reasonable annual fee of $95 (compared to $550 for the Reserve). I think this is a good first travel card to have. The sign up bonus is almost always 60k but can go to 80k or even 100k so keep checking.

How you earn points:

• 5x points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards
• 5x points on select Peloton purchases over $250 (through March 31, 2025)
• 5x points Lyft (through March 31, 2025)
• 3x points on online grocery purchases
• 3x points on dining at restaurants, including eligible delivery services and takeout
• 3x points on select streaming services
• 2x points on all other travel purchases
• 1x points on all other purchases

Other travel-related perks with the card include:

• Primary Rental Car Coverage — Your rental car is covered for theft and damage in the U.S. and most countries around the world.
• Annual Hotel Credit — Receive an annual statement credit of up to $50 towards a hotel stay purchased through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
• Annual Bonus Points — Receive a 10% bonus on your annual spend on your card as bonus points on your account anniversary (i.e. spend $30,000 and receive 3,000 bonus points).
• Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance — If you need to cancel or cut a trip short due to covered issues (like severe weather or an illness), you’re eligible for up to $10,000 of coverage for prepaid, nonrefundable travel expenses.
• Baggage Delay Insurance — If your checked baggage is delayed more than 6 hours, you’ll receive $100 in reimbursements for essential items per day for up to 5 days.
• Trip Delay Reimbursement — If you pay for your trip with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and it is delayed for 12 or more hours, or long enough to require an overnight stay, you’ll be eligible for reimbursement of up to $500 per ticket in reasonable expenses.

The Reserve card gives you $300 back on any travel-related purchase so that offsets the yearly fee somewhat. You also get Global Entry and Priority Pass access with that card.

The 5/24 Rule

If you’re not familiar, the 5/24 rules limit new applicants from opening certain cards with Chase if they have previously opened 5 or more new credit cards in the last 24 months.

Keep in mind that this mostly applies to new personal credit cards — many business credit cards, personal loans, auto loans, etc., are not counted towards your 5/24 total.

So, if you’ve opened 5 or more new accounts over the past 2 years, you will not be approved.

Travel Hacking Resources:

As I said, I am not the expert but I guess I know more than the average person. Here is where I go to get information:

Upgraded Points (follow their Instagram)

Million Mile Secrets

One Mile At a Time

WorldTravelAdventurers (find them on Insta…they are always sharing great tips)

Adventure Parks (also a good Insta to follow)

Award Hacker This website helps you find award flights for whatever route you are planning to fly