I started this website because a lot of people were curious about the trips I’ve been taking for not much out-of-pocket money and wanted to know what I was doing. I figure a good place to start is explaining what the mileage game is. For me, the game is to acquire enough points so that I can travel wherever I choose and hopefully have at least my airline tickets and lodging and sometimes rental cars mostly paid for with those points. The main place those points come from are from credit card sign-up bonuses. Before we go any further, I would like to mention if you don’t have the discipline to pay off your credit cards every month, this game probably isn’t for you quite yet. If you end up having to pay any interest, the rates will kill you and totally defeat the purpose. This is a note to my younger self!
There are many kinds of points available in the marketplace. The simplest ones for most people to understand are cashback cards like Discover. Pretty simple, spend money, get a percentage back. I don’t have many cash-back cards, but I do like Discover. It has a sign-up bonus and also has 5X categories that change each quarter. At the end of the first year they double your points for the first year, so everything I bought at Amazon in the 4th quarter last year, I got a 10% back. Not a bad deal.
Next are airline and hotel points. The easiest to use and understand in my opinion are Southwest Airlines points. Every flight can be bought with dollars or points. No blackout dates or any games. If there are seats available, you can book them with points. With most other airlines you have to search their calendar to find available flights you can use your points on.
Hotels are pretty straightforward. Most hotels have a chart with the number of points needed for a free night based on the level of a particular hotel. For example, Hilton hotels have category 1 hotels that start at 5,000 points a night, up to category 10 hotels that run 70,000 – 95,000 points a night. Wyndham is even simpler. Every hotel is 15,000 points a night. Stay at a nice one 🙂
The next type of points out there are general travel points such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express (AMEX) Membership Rewards and Citi Bank Thank You points. These are all very valuable points because they are transferable to many different airlines and hotels.
Before you start collecting a bunch of points, it might make sense to think about what you are planning on doing with them. Do you have a specific dream vacation you would like to go on? Do you just need some airline miles so you travel to see loved ones without going broke? Maybe you get a week or 2 off each year and would like to do something other than paint your house or drive cross country staying with relatives. Do you want to travel in First Class and stay in spendy hotels, or are you ok with traveling coach and going more places?
Personally, I have always wanted to travel and see as much of the world as I can, but I put it off for 25 years thinking I first needed to make a boatload of money so I could afford to travel. That’s why I got so excited when I figured out banks would actually give me credit cards with large sign-up bonuses so I could travel for free.
The great thing about this game is you can play it at any level you choose. Some people I talk to about the game seem like they want to travel more and think they are playing the game because they have 1 travel credit card that they put all of their spendings on. That is a great place to start in my opinion, but not very efficient. Like I said before, the main place you get points are credit card sign-up bonuses. How they work is after you apply for a new card and get approved, you then need to charge a certain amount on the card in 3 months then you get the points. I personally really, really hate spending any money that isn’t going towards a new sign-up bonus.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say a family of 4 has $1,500 a month they could be spending on a credit card. Health insurance, cell phone, car insurance, food, clothes, home phone, cable, Internet, beer, gas, and Amazon. We are already spending the money somewhere. So person A has their 1 card like a Barclaycard Arrival +. Great card, I have 2, they give you 2% towards travel for every dollar you spend, so after 1 year they would have $360 they could spend on travel. (12 X $1,500 X 2%)
Person B focuses on sign-up bonuses. That same $1,500 a month would be $18,000 in a year available to meet minimum spend requirements. They could easily get 6 to 9 different cards. I know that sounds like a lot, but it’s only 1 new card every other month. This is just an example and not necessarily the order I would get these cards. Person B gets a Southwest personal card and Southwest business card. Both have a $2,000 minimum spend in 3 months. That’s 114,000 points, plus they would qualify for a Companion Pass which would effectively make those points worth 228,000. The next card is maybe an Arrival plus. $3,000 minimum spend for 50,000 points worth $560 in travel. Then a Chase Sapphire. $4,000 spend for 50,000 points. Next might be AMEX Premier Rewards. $1,000 spend for 50,000 points plus $200 in airline credits. Since person B has a spouse how about 2 Barclay Wyndham cards. Only $1,000 spend on each for 3 nights, so 6 nights total. And lastly, 2 Chase Hyatt cards. $2,000 spend for 2 nights at any Hyatt in the world, so 4 nights total. That should equal the same $18,000 that person A spent.
All of the cards I just mentioned wave the annual fee for the first year except Southwest, Wyndham, and Hyatt, so to be fair you would spend $500 for those annual fees. As far as annual fees, I’m not a big fan of them, so I cancel most of the cards that have a fee after 11 months. There are a few I’m happy to pay each year, but it’s something you need to weigh the benefits for yourself.
Let’s add up the points and see who might get to travel more. Person A is easy. He has $360 to spend on travel. Let’s say it’s his first year and he gets the 50,000 point bonus, so we will call it $860. Enough for maybe 2 round-trip tickets.
OK, Time for person B. Southwest doesn’t have set points for tickets, they are based on the cost of the ticket, but it’s pretty easy to find flights for 6,000 to 12,000 points one way, so you would have enough points for 2 people to take 4 to 10 round-trip flights. They now fly all over the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and next year Hawaii. The Arrival Plus is good for $560 in travel. I just got one for Molly and 2 Capital One Venture cards that work the same way. Part of my minimum spend was using them to buy Airbnb Gift cards Molly sent me. I like doing that for a few reasons. For the Arrival plus it’s $560 less I need to spend to get the points. The Venture cards only had a 40,000 point bonus, so $460 less I need to spend to meet the requirement. Next, I now have the right amount of spending on travel so as soon as I get the points I can redeem them for a credit back into my account, and finally, flights are easy to get points for, but you need someplace to stay when you get there, so I now have $1,480 in my Airbnb account. (actually a bit less since I just booked 3 nights in the Dominican Republic this October.) Got off track there sorry. The Chase 50,000 Ultimate Rewards are worth at least $750 in travel, lots of places you can use them. The 50,000 AMEX points are just enough to transfer to Korean Air to get 2 roundtrip tickets to Hawaii on Delta Airlines. While person B is on say Kauaui, they could stay 4 nights at the Grand Hyatt. Rooms start at @ $500 a night, so there is another $2,000. 
Person B also has 6 nights at any Wyndham in the world. That includes all-inclusive hotels like the one we are staying at for 3 nights in the Dominican Republic. They also have some nice ones by Cancun.
When you add it all up it comes out to well over $8,000 after you deduct the $500 in annual fees. That’s about 10 times what person A has, and next year person A has $360 and person B can have another $8,000.