Net yourself a free holiday this Christmas

Thanks to a brilliant new Airmiles deal, you can secure a great holiday, absolutely free, just by doing your Christmas shopping!

This time last year I was counting down the days until I flew to the other side of the world for my honeymoon. I’d be lying if I said I don’t miss that level of excitement, so it’s time to start thinking about my next holiday. And thanks to some new offers, I might just be able to arrange it for free!

Collect ten times more Airmiles!

One of the easiest ways to collect a shedload of Airmiles is to sign up for the official credit cards of the scheme, the Lloyds TSB Duo credit cards. As the name suggests, this gives you two separate credit cards, a Mastercard and an American Express.

Ordinarily, you get one mile for every £50 you spend on the Mastercard, and one mile for every £10 spent on the American Express. However, there’s now an even greater reason to slap all of your spending on the Amex – new customers who take out the cards between now and March 31st will collect one mile for every £1 spent on it in the first three months!

Personally, I manage to spend the best part of £700 a month on my own credit card. If I put all of that on the Amex card then three months in I would already have enough miles for flights to Zone 2 cities like Barcelona, Rome, Vienna and Budapest, and be well on the way to Zone 3 locations like Athens, Istanbul and Helsinki.

Of course, it’s worth remembering that American Express won’t be accepted everywhere, but the situation is far better than it used to be – there’s no reason you can’t rack up some serious miles by putting as much of your usual spending on the card as you can. Note this is not an excuse to spend more than usual just to try to get a few extra miles - it's only worth taking advantage of this scheme if you are able to pay off your credit card bill in full as otherwise the interest you pay will far outweigh the benefits you gain.

Shopping online gets you miles

Of course it’s not just the official credit card that offers a great way of racking up miles – Airmiles has also launched an e-store which is worth a look.

Head over to the Airmiles e-store website, and once you log in you’ll be presented with a choice of different shops, places like Apple, eBay, John Lewis, M&S, Debenhams and Tesco. Follow the link from the e-store to the shop itself, and shop as normal. Ordinarily, you can get up to one mile for every £2 you spend, however spend more than £60 in a single transaction and you’ll earn double points!

Rachel Robson highlights five ways to help you get upgraded to first class!

This offer only lasts until December 10th though, so you’ll need to get a move on to take advantage of the double points deal!

Other ways to bag Airmiles

There’s a stack of other ways to collect Airmiles. My own preferred method is converting the Tesco Clubcard points we rack up through using the marvellous, market-leading Tesco Clubcard credit card, but you can also get points by recycling your old phone, booking train tickets, buying petrol, or even taking out a subscription to The Times!

Check out the Airmiles website for a full run-down on how to collect points.

Airmiles alternatives

It would be remiss of me not to mention the various alternatives to the Airmiles scheme out there, of which there are many.

British Airways has its own BA Miles scheme. You can collect miles by using either of the official credit cards. The BA American Express credit card offers a bonus of 1,000 BA miles when you spend £500 within the first three months, as well as one BA mile for virtually every £1 you spend. Should you spend £20,000 on the card in a year, you’ll get a free companion ticket too!

Alternatively there’s the BA American Express Premium Plus card. You’ll get a bonus of 6,000 miles the first time you spend on the card, as well as 1.5 BA miles for virtually every £1 spent. And you only need to spend £10,000 annually for the free companion ticket. There are other ways to earn miles, which you can read about on the BA website.

Free accommodation

Of course getting there is only the start of it – a holiday is more about where you stay rather than how you got there. Having saved so much cash on the flights, you could treat yourself to an extra special (and expensive) hotel. Or you could be really frugal and stay somewhere for free!

You can do this by trying a little home swapping. All you do is sign up, advertise your own home and state your preferences for where and when you’d like to swap. You can then have a search around other homes on the site to see which ones take your fancy. If you spot one, drop the owner a line and see if you can arrange a swap!

There are all sorts of different sites to consider, some only cover UK properties, while others deal with properties from all across the world. And while some will charge a fee, such as Homelink which will set you back £115 for a 12 month membership, others like Geenee are free to join.

I’d really recommend having a read of Property swap shop for a guide to the different sites, and the questions you should be asking before you agree to a swap.

House sitting

My Nan has been housesitting for years, as it gives her the opportunity to live somewhere a bit different for a week or so, experience a different side of life. And you aren’t just limited to looking after a property in the UK – you can housesit all over the world.

Take a look on MindMyHouse.com, a global housesitting service, where you can secure a housesitting assignment anywhere, from Puerto Rico to the Algarve to the Philippines. And you won’t have to pay a penny for the experience!

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