I’ve gotten emails lately from people new to the mileage game. I’ve been repeating myself a lot, so here’s some things to do if you’re new to the game:
- Make sure you’re collecting rewards if you fly or stay in hotels! I still can’t believe how many people pay for flights and don’t get miles out of it!
- After setting up accounts, store them with Award Wallet. You won’t have to remember passwords and you’ll get reminders before miles expire. This is a must. When you have 30 or 40 accounts to track, you’ll understand why.
- Credit cards. You will obviously rack up the most miles this way. But only dive in if you have great credit and can handle charging money on credit cards without going crazy.
- If you do start “churning” cards, stay very organized. I keep a spreadsheet that tracks when I applied for a card, how much I need to spend to collect the bonus, when I have to spend it by, and when I need to close the card. It’s color coded so I know when I’ve collected a bonus or closed a card. I check this spreadsheet every day. Yes, I am a nerd.
- Keep cards open at least 6 months. I close most cards with annual fees between the 6-month mark and the 1-year mark.
- Don’t just randomly open cards. I open up a new round every 3 months, and apply for only one card per bank (Chase, Citibank, Barclays, Bank of America, etc) each round.
- Take advantage of all the “little” promotions. 500 miles here and there can add up after a while.
- Stay tuned. Every once in a while, a promotion pops up and it truly is a jackpot. Last year, United’s Months of Miles made me around 250,000 miles for under 100 bucks.
