Sorry! we don’t have anything for sale. nor do we have pictures of models on beaches. We’re just a couple that has learned how to travel for free.

For the 18-month period from September 2021 to March 2023, Kate and I racked up 2,000,000 airline miles/points by learning to play the credit card game. Less than 5,000 miles of these were earned through airline flights. We spent 1,100,000 miles/points on trips to Southern California, Hawaii and Europe, but we easily re-earned the spent miles.

We were able to do this by:

     SECTION 1) Earning credit card welcome bonuses.

     SECTION 2) Other methods to earn points & miles

  1. Having a 2 Player household
  2. Using Shopping Portals
  3. Shopping Portal Bonuses

      d) Using Simply Miles

      e) Earning Dining Rewards

      f) Annual Fees & Retention Offers

      g) Capital One Rewards

      h) Business Checking account

      i) Bask Bank

      j) Triple Dipping

      k) Mattress Running

    See the TRIP EXAMPLES page to see how we took a $20K seventeen-day trip to Europe that only cost us $437.

SECTION ONE: HOW TO GET TONS OF MILES AND POINTS

   The last way you want to do this is by getting miles from flying. The number of miles you would earn is a pittance and it would take forever. Instead, you’re going to earn miles through credit card welcome bonuses, shopping portals and everyday credit card spending. 

EARNING CREDIT CARD WELCOME BONUSES

Note: I’ll use the terms miles and points interchangeably as with some of these cards you’ll earn points and with others you’ll earn miles.

PREPARATION

  1. Boost your credit score by making payments on your credit cards before the due date. This will increase your credit utilized to credit available ratio.
  2. Close out junk store credit cards. Cards that don’t have VISA, Mastercard, Amex or Discover brand are considered junk cards. (i.e. Macy’s, Target, Shell, Kohls). If you really use these a lot keep them for the discount, otherwise close them out. A possible exception could be if you have a long credit history with one of these but only have a short/no credit history with a standard card then you’ll want to keep the card with the long credit history.
  3. Unfreeze your credit with Experian, Equifax and Transunion before applying for a new card. Then refreeze your credit afterwards.
  4. Some of the credit card links in this document last a limited time before they need refreshing. If you try one and it doesn’t work please let me know and I’ll send you the latest one. 

     Be aware of the Chase 5/24 rule (Chase will not approve a new card application if you have opened 5 or more cards, with any bank, in the past 24 months). Thus if you started out with 5 Capital One, Amex or Citibank cards you wouldn’t be able to get any Chase cards for two years (Chase also sometimes frowns upon opening more than one card within a ninety day period. So be sure to spread out your application rate). 

    Therefore, one of the most efficient ways to achieve credit card bonuses is to only apply for Chase cards first. However, you have to weigh that option versus:

  1.  If you think that you’ll only want to open a credit card at a slow rate (like once every six months), then start with the heavy hitter cards like the Amex Platinum or Amex Gold before getting the Chase cards.
  2. If you have all Chase cards you’ll be limited to Chase Ultimate Reward Points and their branded partner points. But ideally, you’ll want to have a mix of the other major players (Citibank, Amex and Capital One) because they’ll have different airline transfer partners than Chase has.
  3. If you are planning a trip and need to earn points with a particular airline or hotel, start with the card that lists them as a transfer partner.

ACTION

    I’m going to discuss a lot of credit card options. You’ll need to consider what the best card to start with is and the subsequent order of additional cards to get. 

DON’T GET FREAKED OUT BY ANNUAL FEES!

   I’ll be discussing ways to get out of paying an annual fee (AF) and/or getting more benefits out of the card than the cost of the annual fee. I’ll also be discussing ways to meet the minimum spending requirements. 

HERE ARE SOME OF MY FAVORITE CARDS (IF A LINK DOESN’T WORK, PLEASE TRY AN IN-PRIVATE WINDOW OR A DIFFERENT BROWSER. THANKS!)

American Express Platinum card. This card gives you 125,000 points after $8,000 of spending in 6 months. Estimated first year value is $1,344. 

This card has a $695 annual fee, but we always get over $700 in credits so we come out ahead. 

Benefits include: 5X points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel ✦ 5X points for prepaid hotels booked through American Express Travel. 1X points everything else. 

 Up to $200 a year in statement credits for incidental fees at one qualifying airline per calendar year ✦ $200 prepaid hotel credit per calendar year valid on Fine Hotels & Resorts and The Hotel Collection bookings ✦ Up to $20 per month rebate for Disney+, a Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Peacock, SiriusXM, and/or The Wall Street Journal ✦ $15 monthly Uber or Uber Eats credit ($20 in December, use it or lose it each month) ✦ $189 CLEAR fee reimbursement per calendar year ✦ $12.95 (+tax) monthly credit for Walmart+ monthly membership subscription credit when you pay with Platinum card ✦ Up to $100 in credits annually for purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue (up to $50 in credits semi-annually) ✦ Priority Pass membership (Lounges only) with 2 guests and other airport lounge benefits (Centurion and Delta) ✦ Rental car elite status ✦ Marriott Gold status ✦ Hilton Honors Gold status Enrollment required for some benefits.

American Express (Kate’s referral link)

American Express Gold card. This card gives you 90,000 points after $6,000 of spending in 6 months + 20% back at restaurants for the first 3 months up to $50 back. $250 annual fee. Estimated first year value $1,103.

Benefits include: 3X points for flights booked with airlines or on amextravel.com ✦ 4x points at US Supermarkets (up to $25K in purchases, then 1x) ✦ 4x at restaurants worldwide ✦ 1X points on other purchases.

Up to $10 in statement credits monthly with participating dining partners (Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar, Shake Shack, Seamless/Grubhub, Cheesecake Factory) ✦ $10 monthly Uber or Uber Eats credit (use it or lose it each month) ✦ $100 hotel credit on qualifying charges on stays of 2 nights or longer, plus a room upgrade upon arrival, if available with The Hotel Collection at americanexpress.com/hc ✦ Enrollment required for select benefits.

American Express (Kate’s referral link). Scroll down to EXPLORE OTHER CARDS, Then PERSONAL CARDS. Then AMERICAN EXPRESS GOLD CARD. 

Capital One Venture X VISA. This card gives you 75,000 points after $4,000 of spending in 3 months. $395 annual fee. Estimated first year value $944. 

Benefits include: 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked via Capital One Travel ✦ 5x miles on flights booked via Capital One travel. ✦ 2X miles everywhere else.

$300 annual credit for bookings made through Capital One Travel ✦ 10,000 bonus miles each year starting at first anniversary ✦ Up to $100 application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® ✦ Capital One Lounge access ✦ Priority Pass membership w/ unlimited guests (lounges only) ✦ Plaza Premium lounge access ✦ Cell phone insurance ✦ Trip insurance ✦ Primary CDW coverage ✦ Redeem miles for travel at value of 1 cent per mile ✦ Convert “miles” to airline miles & hotel points.

Capital One (Mike’s referral link)

Chase Sapphire Preferred VISA. 60K points after $4K spend in 3 months. $95 annual fee. Estimated first year value $785. 

Benefits include: 5X Travel booked through Chase Travel℠ (2X all other travel) ✦ 3X Dining ✦ 3X Select streaming services ✦ 3X Online grocery ✦ 5X Lyft (through March 2025) ✦ 10% annual point bonus

Primary auto rental collision damage waiver ✦ Free DashPass through 2025 ✦ Transfer points to airline & hotel partners ✦ $50 annual credit for hotel stays booked through Chase ✦ $15 quarterly Instacart credit ✦ 6 months free Instacart+

Chase (Mike’s referral link)

Chase Sapphire Reserve VISA. 65K points after $4K spend in 3 months. $550 annual fee. Estimated first year value $560. 

Benefits include: 10X hotels & car rentals booked through Chase Travel℠ ✦ 10X Chase Dining ✦ 5X flights booked through Chase ✦ 3X Travel and Dining ✦ 10X Lyft (through March 2025)

 $300 Annual Travel Credit ✦ Points worth 1.5 cents each towards travel when booked through the Chase Travel(SM) Portal✦ Transfer points to airline & hotel partners ✦ Primary auto rental collision damage waiver ✦ Priority Pass Select lounge access ✦ Up to $100 Global Entry fee credit ✦ $5 monthly DoorDash in-app credit through December 2024 ✦ Free DashPass through 2025 ✦ Earn 10X on Lyft spend✦ Free Lyft Pink All Access Memberhsip through December 2024 ✦ $15 monthly Instacart credit ✦ 12 months free Instacart+

 Chase (Mike’s referral link)

Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless VISA. Earn three 50K free night certificates after $3K spend in 3 months. $95 annual fee. Estimated first year value $823.

Benefits include: 6X Marriott Bonvoy ✦ 3X gas stations, grocery stores, and dining on up to $6K in combined purchases each year ✦ 2X everywhere else.

✦ Annual free night certificate for 1 night at a hotel redemption level up to 35K ✦ Automatic Silver status ✦ 15 nights of elite credit each year ✦ 1 Elite Night Credit for every $5K spent

Chase (Mike’s referral link)

Chase World of Hyatt VISA. Up to 45K: 30K after $3K spend plus 1 extra point per dollar for non-bonused spend, up to $15K spend in 6 month. $95 annual fee. Estimated first year value $715. 

Benefits include: 2X restaurants / cafes / coffee shops, airlines, local transit, fitness clubs and gym memberships ✦ 4X Hyatt

 Free category 1-4 night every year upon renewal ✦ Additional free category 1-4 night after $15K spend in calendar year ✦ Discoverist elite status ✦ 5 elite qualifying nights

World of Hyatt Credit Card | Chase.com (generic sign up link)

Chase IHG One Rewards Premier Mastercard. Earn 140K points after $4K spend within the first 3 months and an additional 35K points after a total of $7K spend with in the first 6 months. $95 annual fee. Estimated first year value $926.

Benefits include: 10X IHG ✦ 5X travel, gas stations, restaurants and dining, social media and search engine advertising, office supply stores ✦ 3X on all other purchases. 

10K bonus points + $100 statement credit after you spend $20K in a cardmember year + make one additional purchase. ✦ Diamond status after $40K in purchases + one additional purchase in a calendar year ✦ Free night certificate (up to 40K points) after $60K in purchases + one additional purchase in a calendar year

 Anniversary free night e-certificate good at IHG properties up to 40K points per night ✦ Ability to add an unlimited number of points to a free night certificate to book a higher-level hotel ✦ Fourth night free on award stays ✦ 20% discount on points purchases ✦ Platinum elite status ✦ Up to $50 in United TravelBank cash per year (must register your card with your United account)

Chase (Mike’s referral link.)

Citi Premier Mastercard. Earn 60,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. $95 annual fee. $713 estimated first year value.

Benefits include: 3X grocery ✦ 3X dining ✦ 3X gas stations ✦ 3X flights, hotels, travel agencies. $100 Annual Hotel Savings Benefit

Citi Premier® Card (generic sign up link)

     On all of these cards, if you don’t think you are getting enough value to pay for the annual fee, then you can cancel the card (or downgrade the card to a no annual fee card) within 30 days after the annual fee posts and get the annual fee refunded (closely check the date of the annual fee posting because the card must have been opened for at least one year). 

    After you unfreeze your credit to apply for a card. You can apply for multiple cards on the same day and it will only be one hit to your credit. (your credit will drop 10-15 points for credit inquiry). So if you think you want two cards, apply for them both on the same day. Alternatively, if you get turned down by one company for a credit card, have a backup card to apply for. As long as you apply on the same day your credit won’t get an extra ding.      

  If your partner already has one of these cards, then you could consider getting the same card for the other person. This person will be referred to as PLAYER TWO (P2). P1 can thus provide the referral for P2 and receive a small bonus of points. But don’t limit yourself to one brand of cards! It really helps to have different cards from the major players (Amex, Chase, Citi and Capital One) as they all have different transfer partners. 

 The hotel cards listed above are easy wins. They each have a $95 annual fee, but they all provide an annual free night certificate. You can easily book a hotel room costing hundreds of dollars so it’s easy to come out way ahead with these cards.

   But, hotel card points are generally limited to just that hotel. Non hotel cards like Capital One, Amex Gold card, etc earn points which could be transferred to many different airline and hotel chains. 

Here’s some other cards we like:

Chase United Explorer VISA. Earn 50,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. Annual fee is $0 for the first year, then $95 after that. 

 Estimated first year value is $729.Benefits include:  2X United ✦ 2X restaurants ✦ 2X on hotel stays. 

 Improved economy saver award availability ✦ Free first checked bag for primary cardholder and one travel companion when you pay with the card ✦ Unlocks complimentary elite upgrades on award tickets ✦ Priority boarding ✦ No foreign exchange fees ✦ 2 United Club passes per year on you anniversary ✦ One year of complimentary Dash Pass (Must activate by 12/31/24) ✦ Primary auto rental collision damage waiver ✦ Up to $100 Global Entry,TSA Pre-check or Nexus credit ✦ 25% back as a statement credit on purchases of food, beverages and Wi-Fi on board United-operated flights and on Club premium drinks when you pay with your Explorer Card

Chase (Mike’s referral link)

Chase Aeroplan Mastercard. Earn 60,000 points after spending $4,000 on purchases within three months from account opening. $95 annual fee. Estimated first year value $634. 

Benefits include: 3X Air Canada ✦ 3X grocery stores ✦ 3X dining ✦ 500 bonus points with each $2K calendar month spend, up to $6K spend per month (1,500 points max) ✦ 1X everywhere else.

Discounted award pricing ✦ Free checked bag ✦ $100 credit for NEXUS, Global Entry or TSA PreCheck every 4 years ✦ Carbon offsets on Air Canada awards ✦ Pay Yourself Back for travel at 1.25 cents per point, up to 50K points per year ✦ 10% bonus when transferring Ultimate Rewards to Aeroplan (25K max bonus/year)

Aeroplan Card | Chase.com (generic sign up link). 

CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard. Earn Up to 65K miles after spending $4,000 a purchase within the first 90 days.  $0 annual fee for the first year, then a $99 annual fee.  First year value $777.

Benefits include: First checked bag free and priority boarding.  2X AA ✦ 2X certain telecommunications merchants ✦ 2X car rental merchants ✦ 2X gas

Citi Credit Card – Application (generic sign up link).

AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® | Barclays US (barclaycardus.com) (generic sign up link). 

Delta SkyMiles Gold American Express card. Earn 55,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first six months of card membership.) Annual fee is $0 for the first year, then $99 after that. Estimated value $647. 

Benefits include:  2X Delta ✦ 2X U.S. purchases for advertising in select media and U.S. shipping purchases.

 15% off when using miles to book an award flight (Delta metal only) ✦ Get up to $150 back per year as a statement credit for prepaid hotels or vacation rentals booked through Delta Stays on delta.com/stays ✦ Priority boarding, and first checked bag free on Delta flights

American Express (Kate’s referral link. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Explore Other Cards.”)

American Express (Mike’s referral link).

 Another good card that will quickly give you enough miles for a round trip ticket to Hawaii is:

Barclaycard Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard. Earn 65,000 bonus HawaiianMiles after spending $2,000 on purchases in the first 90 days. Receive a one-time 50%-off companion discount for roundtrip coach travel between Hawaii and North America on Hawaiian Airlines. $100 companion discount for roundtrip travel between Hawaii and North America on Hawaiian Airlines for each account anniversary. $99 annual fee. Estimated value $388.

Benefits include:  3X Hawaiian Airlines ✦ 2x gas, dining, and grocery stores ✦ 1x everywhere else. Two free checked bags (when booked direct), one time 50% off companion ticket, $100 off a companion ticket for roundtrip coach travel between Hawaii and North American each account anniversary.

Barclaycard (Kate’s referral link)

Barclaycard (Mike’s referral link)

HOW CAN YOU ACHIEVE THE MINIMUM SPENDING REQUIREMENTS? 

  1. Put all your utility bills on the credit card.
  2. Pay your homeowners and auto insurance bills with your card.
  3. Use the card for all your shopping.
  4. If you are short on achieving the minimum spend requirement and you are running up on the time limit:

a) You can usually prepay utility or insurance bills for several months in advance.

b) Sometimes you can buy gift cards (do this in a store. Some online gift card purchases might not qualify for minimum spend purchases). Example; if you get groceries at Safeway, you can buy a $250 Safeway gift card. You’ll be able to use it later, but it’ll help you meet the minimum spend requirement now. (try to only buy gift cards that are behind a locked display case. Gift cards that are in an unlocked display case are vulnerable to hacking by crooks). There are a lot of cautions to purchasing gift cards. If you purchase too many the credit card company might close your account. 

          c) You can pay your taxes using a credit card (this will typically cost you a 1.85 to 3% fee. But because of the value of the huge card welcome bonus that you will receive, it is often worth it. (Don’t do this with a virtual card number. Wait until you receive the physical card).

    If you are front loading future bills by doing a, b or c; you still need to be able to have enough funds to pay your credit card in full. If you have to start paying interest charges it’ll end up costing you more than the value of the welcome bonus (and it will lower your credit score). 

     When you are getting close to achieving the minimum spend on your card, you should apply for your next card. Then update all your utility autopays to the new credit card. 

   Credit card issuers may offer you a virtual card (typically the CCV is different) immediately upon approval. To insure you receive your credit card bonus, it is best to wait until you receive your physical and to put your spend on your physical card.

  NEVER PAY THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM AMOUNT OF SPEND FOR THE BONUS!

    Let’s say the bonus requires $4,000 of spend in three months. You spend $4,025 so you think you’re all set. Then a few days before the three month window passes you return a widget that you bought for $50. Guess what? Your spend just went under $4,000 and you missed out on the bonus. Also, ANNUAL FEES DO NOT COUNT TOWARDS MINIMUM SPEND! I wish that I had known about this when I started because this tripped me up one time and I missed out on the welcome bonus. 

What if you can only achieve about $500 of spending every month? 

  1. Before getting a new credit card, delay spending on as many purchases as you can. Hold off on that new laptop, home project etc.
  2. Use the front loading methods as described in the previous section. 
  3. Since your credit card acquisition rate will be very slow, start with the heavy hitter cards (Amex platinum, Amex Gold, Chase Sapphire Preserve, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Capital One Venture X and Citibank Preferred). 

Do I have to keep paying those annual fees every year? No!

     See section e in part II to learn how to avoid annual fees.

    It is a good idea to maintain a mix of the four main cards (Citi, Chase, Capital One and Amex). That is because they all have different transfer partners (although there is some overlap). Also, maintain some spend on all your cards. Even if it’s only $5/month, keep some activity going. Sometimes card issuers will close accounts that haven’t had any activity in a long time. And if you have a big stash of points in a canceled card they will just disappear. 

   If you can’t pay off your credit cards in full each month, don’t even start with this program. And if you are planning on getting a mortgage don’t open any credit cards within six months of that date. Applying for a personal credit card will result in a hard inquiry into your credit which will slightly lower your credit score (this lasts for ninety days. After that, if you’ve been paying your bills on time, your credit score should be even higher than it originally was. The reason for this is that your credit utilized to credit available ratio will be even larger than it was before). Note that multiple inquiries in the same day only count as one inquiry. Also, business credit cards don’t result in a hard inquiry and they (usually) don’t count against the Chase 5/24 rule. 

   If you do get turned down for a credit card, try calling the reconsideration line. Anecdotal evidence indicates that people that call the reconsideration line get approved over fifty percent of the time. 

   Once you start opening your cards, create a credit card spreadsheet and track the following information

  1. Date you opened the card.
  2. Welcome bonus offer.
  3. Date welcome bonus achieved.
  4. Annual fee.
  5. Noteworthy Perks. 
  6. Card number, expiration date & CID number. 

    You’ll also want to keep track of any retention bonuses or waived annual fees that occur.   

    If you are paying rent, see if your complex is part of the Bilt rewards alliance. If so, you can pay your rent with the Bilt Rewards Mastercard (there are no fees added). You’ll be able to earn points every time you pay rent. 

TRANSFER PARTNERS (as of 3/10/23)

AMEX TRANSFER PARTNERS

Aeromexico

Air Canada

Air France

Air Lingus

ANA

Avianca

British Airways

Cathay Pacific

Delta

Emirates

Etihad

Hawaiian

Iberia

Jet Blue

Qantas

Singapore

Virgin Atlantic

Choice

Hilton

Marriott Bonvoy

CAPITAL ONE PARTNERS

Aeromexico

Air Canada

Air France

Air Lingus

Avianca

British Airways

Cathay Pacific

Emirates

Etihad

EVA Air Infinity

Finnair

Iberia

Qantas

Singapore

Tap Air Portugal

Turkish

Virgin Atlantic

Accor Live

Choice

Hilton

IHG

Wyndham

CHASE TRANSFER PARTNERS

Aeromexico

Air Canada

Air China

Air France

Air Lingus

American

ANA

Asiana

British Airways

Cathay Pacific

China Southern

Delta

Emirates

Etihad

Hawaiian

Iberia

JAL

Jet Blue

Korean

Qantas

Royal Brunei

Singapore

Southwest

Thai Airways

United

Virgin Atlantic

Hilton

Hyatt

IHG

CITI TRANSFER PARTNERS

Aeromexico

Air France

Air Lingus

Avianca

British Airways

Cathay Pacific

Emirates

Etihad

EVA Air Infinity

Iberia

Jet Airways

Jet Blue

KLM

Malaysia

Qantas

Singapore

Thai

Turkish

Virgin Atlantic

Choice

Hilton

IHG

Marriott Bonvoy

Wyndham

In general, you should always be in the process of applying purchases to meet a minimum spend requirement for a welcome bonus. 

     What should you do In the rare cases where you are in between earning a welcome bonus? In your spreadsheet you’ll have all the point earning rates for each card listed. For example, Card A earns 4X points at grocery stores, Card B earns 3X points at gas stations and Card C earns 2X everywhere. You’ll generally want to maximize your point earnings unless you are in need of points on a specific card.   

What if you’ve gotten all of the good consumer credit cards?

    Then go for business credit cards. Don’t have a business? Just start one. Sell something on Craigslist or eBay, have a garage sale, start writing a book or whatever. Now you’ve got a sole proprietorship. You don’t have to get a business EIN tax number. Just use your social security number when applying for a business credit card. Can you use your business credit card for personal spending? Yes. I’ve never had any issues with this and the credit card user groups I follow don’t report any issues with this. 

    Three business credit cards that we have are:

Hilton Honors American Express Business card. Earn 175,000 points after $8,000 spend in the first six months. Annual fee $195. Estimated first year value $520. Getting this card was great. As soon as we hit the spend requirement we got the bonus. We then immediately used that to book a three night stay in the Hilton Brussels Grand Place hotel in Belgium. If we had paid cash this would have cost us $1,000.

Benefits include:  12X Hilton spend ✦ 5X on other eligible purchases (on the first $100K in purchases per calendar year, 3X thereafter). ✦ For eligible purchases made from March 28, 2024 through June 30, 2024: 6X on Select Business & Travel Purchases (flights booked directly with airlines or Amex Travel; car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies; US restaurants; US gas stations; wireless telephone services purchased directly from US service provider; US shipping purchases.

American Express (Kate’s referral link)

American Express (Mike’s referral link)

Delta Skymiles Platinum American Express Business card Earn 65,000 miles after $6,000 spend in six months. Annual fee $350. Estimated first year value $393.

Benefits include: 3X Delta ✦ 3X purchases made directly with hotels ✦ 1.5X on transit, eligible U.S. shipping, and purchases of $5K or more. 

15% off when using miles to book an award flight (Delta metal only) ✦ Annual $2,500 MQD Headstart ✦ Domestic, Caribbean, or Central American economy companion certificate (subject to taxes & fees) each year upon card renewal ✦ Earn up to $200 as a statement credit each year after booking prepaid hotels or vacation rentals with your Card through Delta Stays on delta.com/stays ✦ Up to $10 per month in statement credits on eligible purchases with U.S. Resy restaurants ✦ Up to $10 per month in statement credits for purchases with select rideshare service providers [enrollment required] ✦ Priority boarding ✦ First checked bag free on Delta flights ✦ Complimentary Upgrade list

American Express (Mike’s referral link)

Chase Ink Business Unlimited / Preferred / Cash. Chase has three versions of this card. Depending on which one you get, you could earn 75,000 – 100,000 points after $3,000 – $8,000 spend in three months. Annual fees range from zero to $99. Estimated first year values range from $1,030 – $1,280. I like (and have) the Cash card because it is 5X on cell phone charges. I like (and have) the Preferred card because it earns 1.5X points on everything. While that’s not as high as the Capital One Venture X 2x points, Chase points have some unique transfer partners so I’m always on the lookout to get Chase points when I can.  

Chase (mike’s referral link)

How do you keep track of all those points and miles?

     The easy way is to use https://awardwallet.com/. This site has both free and premium versions. Awardwallet will track all your credit card points, airline miles, hotel points, points & miles expiration dates, program status levels, progress on claiming credit card perks and more.     

Watch out for “you’re not eligible for the bonus award.” 

     Sometimes when you’re applying for a credit card, a pop-up window will occur during the application process and it will state, “You’re not eligible for a bonus, but you can still apply for the card. No credit check has been processed yet. Do you want to continue?” If this happens, close the application window. Many credit cards have “lifetime limitation” wording. If you’ve had the same card in the past that you’re applying for you may not be eligible to receive the bonus. In this case you’ll need to apply for a different card.

   With Amex, their lifetime language applies to a family of cards. If you first apply for the premium card (like the Hilton Aspire) and then later apply for the Hilton Surpass you won’t get the Welcome Bonus for the Surpass. The same rule applies to their Platinum and Gold cards. If you first apply for the Platinum card and then later apply for their Gold card you won’t receive a bonus for the Gold card. So consider applying for their lower level cards first if you want to receive a bonus on both cards. 

Watch out for “clawbacks.”

    Some credit card issuers will clawback your welcome bonus if you close your card less than one year after you opened it. So keep your card open for at least one year.

     A second issue to watch out for is refunds. Let’s say that the welcome bonus required $3,000 of spending within ninety days. You spend $3,010 and you receive the bonus. We’ll also assume that $250 of your spending was for concert tickets that you bought. The card issuer gives you the bonus. Then a couple months later the concert gets canceled and Ticketmaster issues you a refund. It’s now well past the ninety day period and because of the refund you have no longer met the minimum spending requirement. In this case, you may get your welcome bonus clawed back. So if I have any purchases that could possibly end up being refunded, I don’t count those toward the minimum spend requirement.

Amex and Bank of America Rules

     We discussed the Chase 5/24 rule above because that is the most important one. However, Amex, Bank of America, Citibank and Capital One all have their own rules too. Here are Bank of America’s credit card application rules:

  • 3/12 or 7/12 Rule: You won’t be approved if you have opened 3 or more accounts, with any bank, in the past 12 months. For those with Bank of America deposit accounts, the rule changes to 7+ accounts.
  • 2/3/4 Rule: Max 2 consumer cards per rolling 2 months, 3 per rolling 12 months, and 4 per rolling 24 months.
  • 5 card limit: You will not get approved for a new consumer card if you already have 5 consumer BOA cards open
  • Get Same Card Again: With some BOA cards, must wait 24 months after either opening or canceling, depending upon the card.
  • If denied, call reconsideration here: (800) 625-7866

    Here are Amex’s rules:

  • Lifetime Rule: If you’ve ever had the same card before, you are most likely prohibited from earning a welcome bonus offer for the card if you apply now. Fortunately you’ll be warned during the application process if this is the case. Amex is known to “forget” that you’ve had a card after about 7 years.
  • 90 Day Rule: You can get at most two credit cards within 90 days. This rule does not apply to Pay Over Time (charge) cards.
  • 5 credit card max: Amex usually won’t approve applications for new credit cards if you already have 5 or more Amex credit cards or 10 or more charge cards.
  • If denied, call reconsideration: 877-399-3083 (new accountholders); 866-314-0237 (current account holders)

    Here are Capital One’s rules:

  • 6 month rule: Must wait 6 months after applying for a Capital One card before applying for another one.
  • 2 card limit: Conventional wisdom and user experience has been that you can have at most 2 Capital One consumer cards, but according to application terms it may be possible to have up to 5. You may be limited to 2 of their rewards cards. Note that this limit does not apply to Capital One co-branded cards like the Kohl’s charge card.
  • Get Same Card Again: Must be at least 48 months before reapplying for the same card.
  • Hard inquiries usually get issued through all 3 credit bureaus
  • If denied, call reconsideration here: (800) 625-7866

  Here are Citibank’s rules:

SECTION TWO: OTHER METHODS TO EARN POINTS/MILES

  1. TWO PLAYER HOUSEHOLD

     Once one of you has one of the above listed credit cards you’ll be able to use a referral link for your partner. This will typically generate a small bonus for you (10,000 to 30,000 points) in addition to the regular welcome bonus that your partner will get. Thus, you can follow the pattern of Player One getting a certain card followed by Player One referring to Player Two for the same card. 

     Not all cards have referral links and they can sometimes be hard to find as the card issuers have different names for this process (referral link, refer-a-friend, etc).

  1. USING SHOPPING PORTALS

American Airlines, Delta, Alaska, Southwest, United, Wyndham and many more travel companies all have shopping portals. Once you’re signed up for a shopping portal, clicking through it to your favorite store will generate X points per dollar spent. This might be anywhere from 1 to 15 points. There is no markup, so the price will be the same whether you click through the shopping portal or not. The difference is just that you’ll be earning extra points. To earn these points you can:

  1. Open up the shopping portal and search for the store. If the store is listed, just click through and shop.
  2. Enable a browser extension for these shopping portals. Then, everytime you land on a webpage that has shopping portal rewards, a window will pop up saying, “Activate up to X miles.” Just click on it and you’ll earn the miles. Note that a downside to having these browser extensions is that when you have eight of them (like I do) everytime you open a website like Homedepot you’ll get eight popups (they’re each about 3” x 3”) that cover the page. Sometimes I’m not actually shopping and only doing research. In that case, I’ll click “Activate later” on each one of them to make them disappear. 
  3. Sign up for Cashbackmonitor.com. With this website, you just enter whatever store you’re planning on shopping at and Cashbackmonitor will tell you how the rewards compare for all the different shopping portals. As an example, Cashbackmonitor currently lists the values for 33 shopping portals for Home Depot. Examples:

Wyndham Rewards Shopping 3/pt./$

American Advantage      up to 4 mi./$

Delta Skymiles              up to 2.5 mi./$

It will also show you a “best rate” history. Looking in that, I can see that at one point Jetblue was offering up to 30 mi./$. 

Another thing to take note of is when it says, “up to”. On the following page  it might say something like, “Appliances .5 mile/$, Bedding 4 miles/$, all other 5 mile/$.

If you do click through a rewards portal to a website, if you’re

trying promo codes or if you’ve been on the site for a long time make sure you reclick through the shopping portal before making the purchase. Also, make sure that cookies are allowed on the website. Otherwise the shopping portal may deactivate and you won’t get the points you were expecting.

  1. If you enable marketing emails from these shopping portals, you’ll receive emails that will show you bonuses being offered. As an example, sign up for the Wall Street Journal and get 5,000 miles (trial offer of $1/week for 8 weeks). Or sign up for XYZ wine club and get 4,500 miles. On a large bonus like this, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve clicked through the shopping portal and gone directly to the offer. Don’t open the same website in another window. And take a screenshot of the bonus offer and your purchase.

    Many of these offers will be for something “like sign up for a trial subscription for $1/week.” Then after 12 weeks the price will bump up to the regular price. So you simply sign up for the service, wait about eight weeks for the bonus to post, and then cancel the service. Make sure you program a reminder in your phone calendar to cancel the service.

  1. You can use whatever credit card you want when using a shopping portal. So if you’re using the Delta shopping portal, don’t think that you have to use a Delta credit card.
  2. Shopping portal links:
  1. Wyndham Hotels
  2. United Airlines
  3. Alaska Airlines
  4. Southwest Airlines
  5. American Airlines
  6. Delta Airlines

       c) SHOPPING PORTAL BONUSES

You can expect to see Bonus Offers for Back to School, Summer, Holidays and more. These will state something like “Spend $200 and get a 500 mile bonus, spend $500 and get a 1,500 mile bonus, spend $1,500 and get a 5,000 mile bonus.”

 Sometimes you’ll be most of the way to earning a 5,000 bonus through shopping portal X. Then you’ll need to buy something from StoreXYZ.com and you’ll see that shopping portal X is only paying 1 point per dollar and shopping portal Y is paying 3 points per dollar. You just keep using shopping portal X because the bonus you earn will outweigh the few extra points you would have picked up through the other shopping portal. 

       d) SIMPLY MILES

This is an American Airlines website. With this site, you simply register your credit card on the site. Then if you make a purchase from any of the merchants listed on their site with the credit card that you registered you’ll earn whatever the stated reward is. You can use any registered credit card (note that they only accept MasterCards). It doesn’t have to be an American Airlines credit card. You can stack this on top of other offers. Simplymiles.com 

       e) SIGN UP FOR DINING REWARDS

     American Airlines, Alaska, Delta, Southwest, United and Marriott all have dining rewards programs. They all work the same way and they all have the exact same restaurants in their program. All that you have to do is register a credit card to the program and then dine at any restaurant listed on their website. These typically will give you 3 miles per dollar spent. This is in addition to any credit card rewards that you may earn. So if you register your American Express Gold card with the United Dining Rewards program and then eat at one of the restaurants listed on their website, you’ll earn 3 United miles per dollar spent plus you’ll earn 4 Amex points per dollar spent.

   Don’t register for one of these programs until you’re ready to eat at one of their restaurants (you can search for restaurants in your area without having to sign up). The reason for this is that most of these programs offer a bonus of 500 to 1,000 miles if you dine at a restaurant within thirty days of registering.

     Dining Rewards links:

  1. Delta Airlines Dining
  2. United Airlines Dining
  3. Southwest Airlines Dining
  4. American Airlines Dining
  5. Alaska Airlines Dining
  6. Marriott Eat Around Town

     f) ANNUAL FEES & RETENTION OFFERS

           For the cards that I’ve discussed, the Welcome Bonuses far outway the initial annual fee. But it may not be worth it to pay that annual fee (AF) in year two of having the card. With every card that has an annual fee, you’ll need to do a cost vs benefit analysis each year to determine whether or not it’s worth it to pay the AF to keep the card open. You will normally let the annual fee post before you pursue your options (but double check with your card issuer). Normally, credit card issuers won’t give you a retention offer until after the fee posts. Note that after the annual fee posts you’ll usually have thirty days to cancel the card and get the annual fee refunded. Your options are:

  1. Call the credit card issuer and ask for a retention offer. Say, “I’m not sure if I can justify the card’s annual fee.” The rep will probably transfer you to the retention department. A retention offer may be something as simple as spend $3,000 on the card within three months and you’ll receive 40,000 points. Sometimes there’s more than one offer available so ask if there are any other options. With some card issuers, they may offer to waive the annual fee. If the offer is good enough for you, just keep the card.

    Here are some examples of offers I have received:

With a Bank of America Alaska Visa, I’ve been given a $175 credit to keep a card with a $75 AF open.

With an Amex Platinum card, I’ve been given a 45,000 point bonus to keep the card open (spend $4,000 in three months). 

With the Barclay Hawaiian M/C, I’ve had the $99 AF waived.

  1. Ask to “product change” to a card with no AF. That will maintain your points/miles balance.

     Never state that you want to close a card. If for any reason the card issuer completely closes your card all your points/miles will disappear. If you really do want to close the card, be sure to transfer all your points to an airline or hotel first (you may also be able to transfer your points to your partner by calling the card issuer)  If you do cancel or change the card then the issuing bank will usually refund the AF so long as you do so within thirty days of the date that the fee was posted. 

     Capital One card exception. Capital One rarely has retention offers, but you can always try. I’ve read user group posts about Capital One that if you do want to avoid the AF that you have to close the card prior to it posting. But when we called about Kate’s card we were told that you could close the card up to forty days after the AF posts and have that refunded. 

   g) CAPITAL ONE REWARDS

If you have a Capital One card and you enable the Capital One browser extension, random offers of Capital One rewards will appear when you’re on various websites. Alternatively, you’ll sometimes receive an email from Capital One the following day and it will state something like, “Purchase the widget you looked at and you’ll get 30% back in Capital One Rewards.” 

          With this service you don’t have to use a Capital One credit card. You only have to click that you want to accept the rewards. You can then make the purchase with any credit card. 

The rewards do not come in the form of a statement credit. Rather, you’ll go to https://capitaloneshopping.com/r/J3JQRDP  . Once there, it will show you the dollar amount of your rewards. You can redeem these for gift cards. There are several hundred to choose from, but I find that Safeway and Home Depot are cards that I’ll be able to use quickly. Capital One Shopping: Best Coupons, Loyalty, and Deals.

     Regardless of whether you receive a Capital One Rewards offer, it’s usually a good idea to leave an item in a shopping cart without completing the purchase on the same day. Although you may get a pesky email from the merchant stating, “you forgot item X in your cart.” But you’ll sometimes get an email stating that you can complete your purchase for a lower price or you’ll get an email from Capital One offering you shopping rewards on the item.

   h) BUSINESS CHECKING ACCOUNT

         If you open an American Express business checking account, you’ll receive a 30,000 – 60,000 Amex point welcome bonus (minimum $5,000 deposit for two months and ten transactions during that period). You can get information here: Rewards Checking: Open an Account Online | American Express  but sign up through your Amex credit card account when you see a Welcome Bonus offer for this.

   i) BASK BANK

         With Bask Bank, you can elect to receive American Airline miles in lieu of interest on your deposits. The Bask Mileage Savings Account awards 2 AAdvantage® miles for each dollar saved annually (100,000 miles for a $50,000 deposit). Bask Bank

   j) TRIPLE DIPPING

You can often double or triple dip. I’ve even seen offers that would let you quadruple or quintuple dip. What am I talking about? You will sometimes see an offer for something from Simply Miles, a shopping portal and a targeted credit card all at the same time. Here’s an example that I’ve taken advantage of: Offer #1 (United Shopping Portal) Sign up for XYZ wine club and receive 5,000 United Miles plus 45% off your first order. Offer #2 (Amex targeted offer). Use your Amex card at XYZ wine club and get $45 credit on a purchase of $45 or more. In this case, I picked a starter box of a dozen bottles of wine for $100 (it included free shipping). I got 45% off the first order leaving a balance of $55. I then used my Amex card and got credited for $45 or the $55 purchase. My net cost was $10. And for this I received a dozen bottles of wine, 5,000 United miles and 45 Amex points. After the initial purchase, I delayed the wine club’s subsequent shipments until after eight weeks had passed. Then I canceled my membership. 

    I’ve had another time where I picked up 1,000 American miles from Simply Miles on top of a Shopping Portal bonus.

k) MATTRESS RUNNING

         Mattress running refers to registering for a cheap hotel stay or product where you don’t really plan to stay there or to use the product. But there happens to be a promotion whereby you spend a few dollars now in order to get a free hotel stay worth hundreds of hotel dollars down the line. Here is an example that Kate and I recently used. Wyndham Rewards portal is offering 12,000 points for signing up for a monthly subscription for Lifelock (a Norton company) and holding it for at least sixty days. The subscription costs $7.99 month. On top of that, there is an offer with the Amex Hilton Honors Business card to get 20% back on any Norton subscription. So two months of Lifelock ended up costing us each $12.78 and we each received 12,000 Wyndham points. With just 15,000 Wyndham points, you can reserve a one bedroom Vacasa vacation rental for one night with a cost of up to $250. So for the cost of $25 and picking up a few more points, we can get a two night vacation rental that would have cost us up to $500. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you’ve made it this far I’ll leave you with these thoughts. 

  1. Anybody can pay cash to travel. The challenge is to travel for free.
  2. Travel is a lot more fun when it doesn’t cost you anything.
  3. It’s cheaper to use points in order to stay in a great hotel for free than it is to pay cash for a cheap hotel.
  4. Let’s say you can earn 4X at a grocery store by using an Amex Gold card and 6X by using the Amex Hilton card. Which card should you use? Actually, you should use the Amex card. The reason is that the reasonable redemption value (RRV) of the Gold card is 1.55 cents per dollar and the RRV of the Hilton card is only .48 cents per point. Here is a link for an RRV chart:

Reasonable Redemption Values (RRVs) (frequentmiler.com)

  1. Here’s what Kate and I are currently using for our purchases:
  1. Grocery stores – Amex Gold (4x/$)
  2. Restaurants – Chase Sapphire Reserve (3X/$). Note that the Amex Gold actually pays more here (4x/$). But Amex points are really easy to earn and we’re practically overflowing with them. Whereas we’ve used up most of our Chase points so we want to restock those.
  3. Gas & utilities – Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business VISA (8x/$).
  4. Online groceries – Chase Sapphire Reserve (3x/$).
  5. Travel (other than going through a credit card’s travel portal) – Chase Reserve (3x/$). Note that the Citi Preferred card pays just as much. But we currently have a lot of Citi points so we are choosing to earn Chase points instead. 
  6. Everything else – Capital One Venture X (2x/$). 

     6)  The best time of year to apply for a credit card is about December 10th. The reason is there are often calendar year benefits. Let’s say that you receive a new card on 12/10/23. You obtain a few hundred dollars of benefits in 2023 (this could be a free night certificate, $200 Amex credit towards a hotel booking, etc). You do the same in 2024. Then on 12/10/24 your annual fee processes. During the first few days of 2025 you obtain your benefits again. Then on 1/9/25, you call the credit card company and tell them to downgrade your card to a no annual fee card or you cancel your card. They will then refund your annual fee. You will have received the card’s benefits three times during a thirteen month period.