Miles and Points

Traveling on miles and points is great way to experience first class (or business class) travel and 5 star hotels for cheap or free.
But there are several things that you have to know and be ok with to play this game.

1. Your travel times have to be flexible. Most airlines would not have all days open for flying with miles, so if you have strict schedule, this may not work, but if you can move your travel several days backward or forward to match availability and book well in advance (8-12 months in advance), then it is for you.
2. Have to have good credit score, anything above 710 would be good. You need good credit score to open credit cards, get signup bonus and close it afterwards. It is virtually impossible to spend enough on credit card to earn enough miles for first class ticket for most people. So best way to go is to get signup bonuses.
3. Have to monitor your credit cards to open and close them on time, to minimize annual fees and to maximize bonuses. So if you are lazy and can not keep track of credit cards, this might not be for you.
4. Pay off all your credit cards every month, do not carry balance. If you have to have balance on your credit cards, pay those balances off before starting miles and points accumulation with credit card signup bonuses.

There are several things that you need to play this game well.
1. Know you credit score and number of inquiries. Sing up for free service to keep track of your score and inquires. Creditkarma.com is free and easy to use for that.
2. Have an option to generate spending.Amazon payments is no longer an option. You may use Amex serve to generate $1000 spent per moth, but can not use it with some banks (large fee applies with some bank’s credit cards).

Amazon payments is one of the options, where you can send $1000 per month for free by paying with credit card (payments.amazon.com). Create several accounts (one per person only) for each member of your household. Minimum of 2 accounts, but much better to have 3-4 accounts and make payments in rounds, from person 1 to person 2, then person 2 to person 3, person 3 to person 1. That way you can spend up to $3000 per month.
When creating amazon payment account ( takes 5 days to complete verifications), add your bank account number and once making a payment, withdraw money to your bank account before making another payment to next person. In the end you make $1000 charge to your credit card, earn points and signup bonus, transfer $1000 from amazon to your bank account, and then pay off credit card $1000 from your bank account. There is no fee, so this spending is free up to $1000 per month per person.
3. Use excel spread sheet to keep track of your credit cards and spending. You may use my excel spreadsheet CC Singup Bonuses – generic.xlsx