It’s no secret. Airline fees are up. There are more surcharges today than just a few years ago. And sometimes they cost more than the flight itself. According to a study from USA Today, airline fees have hit a record high. Delta is now charging $400 to change an international flight–a $150 jump from three years ago.

In frequent flyer forums, I keep seeing the same question: If my flight is cancelled because of weather, do I have to wait for an award seat at the same redemption rate to open up on another flight?

No, it’s not the latest chip dip. A dance move. Or a football play. The triple dip is one of the most rewarding travel hacking tactics. While it’s great to earn miles by making purchases with a co-branded credit card, one purchase can often earn miles or points in multiple ways. That’s what triple dipping is all about.

Among award travelers, Delta is somewhat notorious. You can’t book one-way awards. Inventory at the lowest redemption rate is known to be limited to the point of non-existence.

Want to jump the security line at the airport? You can start your trip in style, feel like a rock star, and waltz by the masses shuttling along through glacial queues. As far as perks go, it’s an oldie but goodie. Front-of-line privileges have never been more important than now.

Do you know where you’re going on vacation this year? Now is the time to start planning!

Among travel hackers, elite status is a badge of honor. For business travelers, it’s a reward for miles logged and a key to sanity via upgrades and special treatment.

If your imagination were the only limit, where would you go?
A secluded island getaway with private access to a crystal clear lagoon from your glass-bottom villa floating over the warm tropical water?

According to Conde Nast Travelers 2013 Readers Choice Awards, the prettier-than-a-postcard private islands in the Maldives are a dream getaway for many people:
“Our readers found this island nation to be the epitome of “rest, relaxation, and indulgence,” citing the “polished, polite” service, the “gorgeous resorts” and the “superb villas.”
Diving into the “turquoise water,” lounging on the “white sands,” and dining under the “incredible sunsets” make the Maldives experience “more picturesque than postcards can portray.”
So, let’s dream that dream for a second.
Though a pampered Maldivian vacation sounds like something you might win in a contest on the radio, you can make it happen just by living your normal life with a simple plan and two well-chosen credit cards.

Choosing the Right Reward Cards

Only two rewards cards are needed, but they won’t be the same for every person. It depends on what the best airline is for you to fly across the world on and what kind of credit card spending you can comfortably manage each year.
Some truly luxurious airlines, including Emirates, Turkish, Etihad, Singapore Airlines, and Cathay Pacific, fly to the Maldives. However, none of them have good co-branded credit cards for Americans. Opt for a card that allows you to transfer points to these airlines, whether through another airlines frequent flyer program or directly from your credit card.
The main three transfer programs Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest have a variety of cards to choose from, as do the major airlines. You’ll start with 30,000 free Delta miles with the American Express Gold Delta Skymiles, 30,000 American Airlines miles with the Citi Premium Select American Airlines AAdvantage Visa Signature, and up to 100,000 Avios with the British Airways Visa Signature Card.

For your hotel nights, you have many options for booking with points. Indulge all the way with princely, private villas starting at 30,000 points per night at the W Retreat & Spa Maldives and the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island by Hilton, two of the country’s most luxurious resorts. Or experience more laid-back luxury at the Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa, Holiday Inn Resort Kandooma Maldives through IHG, and the soon-to-open the Radisson Plaza Resort Maldives Naagoshi.

Sign up for the card that goes with your dream hotel:

• The IHG Rewards Club Select Visa from Chase: 60,000 points after an initial spend of $1,000 in the first month; 2 points per dollar on gas, groceries, and restaurants; 10% bonus on IHG redemptions; free anniversary night
• Club Carlson (Radisson) Rewards Visa Signature Card: 50,000 points after your first purchase and 10,000 additional points after spending $1,500 in the first 90 days; 25,000 renewal bonus points per year; one free night on every reservation of two nights or more; 3 points/$1
• Hilton HHonors Surpass American Express: 60,000 point sign-on bonus; priority pass for lounge access; 6 points/$1 on gas, restaurants, and groceries; 3 points/$1 on everything else
• Starwood Preferred Guest American Express: 75,000 points sign-up bonus after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months. While the number of points is higher than the sign-up bonus of many other travel rewards cards, Starpoints are also among the most valuable so this is an outstanding bonus.

Blogger Andrea Rotondo checked this dream trip off her bucket list using points and miles.

Map Out Your Path to Paradise

Through most programs, you’ll need 80,000 points for an economy ticket and 120,000 for a first or business class ticket (which is what you would want on a dream vacation, right?).

In most cases, you’ll start out with 60,000 hotel points and 30,000 airline points for signing up for those two cards. Let’s say you’re going away for a week. That’s long enough to forget that any other world exists beyond your tropical breakfast served on the mirror still waters of the lagoon.
So, you’ll need 120,000 points for your flight and somewhere between 120,000 and 300,000 hotel points depending on how splashy your vacation will be.
How do you get them all?
Look at your credit card, debit card, and cash spending for one year:

• If you use a personal finance tracking like Mint, it’s a snap to tally this all in one place.
• Otherwise, you can log into your banks and add everything up manually.
• If you want to sign up for a card that gives bonus points for gas, grocery, and restaurant spending, break those out separately and multiply by the bonus.

Say you’ve got $3,000 spending per month or $36,000 for the year, with half that in categories that earn extra points. You can easily earn around 54,000 points in one year.
You can earn extra points in so many ways:
Bonus points on spending. Most cards have a quarterly offer for anywhere from 5 to 15 points per dollar on spending in certain categories.
Point exchange bonuses. Last December, American Express offered a 35% bonus on transferring points to Virgin Atlantic, which transfer to double Hilton points.
Paying rent with points. Unless you completely own your house, your biggest expense if probably your housing. Amazon Payments allows you to pay rent with a credit card so you can earn points.
Paying your mortgage with points. If you have a mortgage another huge expense that seems like it must be paid in cash check out ChargeSmart, a website that allows you to pay your mortgage and home-related expenses with a credit card.
Making basic purchases through shopping portals. Everyone knows that you can buy practically anything on Amazon these days, but you can also find pretty much anything you’d buy online through point shopping portals, where you earn up to 12 times normal points buying goods and gift cards for popular brands.

730 Days to Dreamy Ocean Views

With the right reward cards and a little diligence, you can amp your reward earning up to 100,000 points per year.
Add in sign-on bonuses (about 90,000 points) and in two years, you’ve got nearly 300,000 points! More than enough for a week in paradise.

I want to tell you a little secret about the airline industry.
About booking flights in particular.
Shhhh…come closer.
The best time to book flights is not when the inventory first loads!
I know, it’s so counterintuitive you don’t believe me.

My husband is an academic, which means he’s invited to conferences in truly awesome places all the time.
Skiing in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Spain coupled with a tour of Alhambra in Grenada, the tapas capital, anyone? A week in Tenerife in the Canary Islands? Or perhaps culture capitals like Barcelona, Budapest, and Beijing?

Ever since American Airlines has come out of bankruptcy, they can’t stop talking about the new American. New planes! New amenities! And now: a host of new routes, hubs, and aircraft courtesy of the American Airlines-US Airways merger.

When I worked in a university, it was always a game of chance making holiday travel plans. Our office almost always closed the week between Christmas and New Year’s, but you never knew for sure until less than a month before, too close to book reward tickets without a fee. I traditionally ended up on a short holiday trip followed by a staycation during the office closure.

Unfortunately for reward travelers in America, the days of zones when you could hop to nearby states on a couple thousands airline points are over.

What would you do with 12,520 pudding cups?
After finding out Healthy Choice was offering 100 frequent flyer points for every product barcode sent in, the father of travel hacking, David Phillips, figured out what was the lowest-priced bar-coded item he could buy (pudding cups for $0.25) and bought out every store in his state.

How do you which airline frequent flyer program you should join? It’s easy to be swayed by an attractive credit card offer. And stocking up on airline miles is an amazing way to fly near and far.  But only if you can find available flights.

Determining whether an award ticket was worth your miles used to be a simple equation.
For most airline award redemptions, miles are valued at approximately one cent per mile. You multiply the required miles by $0.01 and then compare it to the price of the flight you’re considering.

First the Olympics said they were headed there. Then FIFA announced it would be the host of the 2014 World Cup. In its annual guide to the top destinations, the New York Times gave Rio the number one spot because “the whole world will be there in 2014.”

Though it’s not available anymore, many travelers fondly remember JetBlues “All You Can Jet” Pass. For $599, you could take unlimited flights on JetBlue between September 8 and October 8. It was so popular that in 2012 they created the “GoPack,” a set of 10 one-way flights for travel between September 13 and December 19.

Domestic carriers don’t always have the most luxurious birds in the sky. If you want an exceptional first class experience, fly Singapore Airlines or Emirates. Enviable in-flight cuisine, even in coach? Try Air France, British Airways, or Turkish Airlines.

Going away for my anniversary is always tricky. It usually falls on or near the Columbus Day holiday weekend, the last chance for many to soak up good weather before winter sets in.