Expert: Stephen Tanenbaum - 7/27/2010

Question
Wow!

That's impressive.  Are you aware of any way to get to India free?  I and my 5-year old son are U.S. citizens and want to leave the U.S. in Nov. or Dec. and stay in India until Jan. or Feb.  Unfortunately, the ticket prices we are being quoted here in the U.S. are prohibitively high.  Free would be better.  Thanks.  Sunitha

Answer
Hi Sunitha:

Times have affected 100% free offers. BUT.... Citibank's onging BONUS miles  give-a-way does continue with added fees. Meaning, for several years these same deals with a waiver of the cards annual fee so the miles were totally free.

With that said....our favorite free travel airline/program is American AAdvantage. The Citibank offer is tied into it and offers American Airline miles. If you do not have an American Airlines frequent flyer AAdvantage account then go to AA.com and sign up for it so that any bonus miles will go into the American account.

Biggest problem is your time frame. But for that you could sign up for three cards for example, a small Business Visa, small Business mastercard and personal Mastercard. Card fees would total $235. You would get 90,000 miles which is good for one RT ticket from the US to India. We have been doing this for years. You do have to make $750 in purchases on each card and then the 30,000 miles goes into your account. If you had more time it would probably work pretty well.
Citibank would usually issue a few cards when they are personal and business combined.

That is the best I can suggest for right now. I am thinking that $117.50 for a one way ticket to India (1/2 of the $235 would be a one way ticket) while not 'free' is pretty dirt cheap. Good luck.

Steve T.

PS: Here is the LINK to the Citibank offer:

http://www.citicards.com/cards/wv/showSearchResults.do?family=FAMILY_AADVANTAGE

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