5 Advanced Ways to Accumulate Miles with a Credit Card

This post is contributed by Mr. Credit Card from www.askmrcreditcard.com.

Life was good when I was a road warrior. Like the George Clooney character in the movie “Up In The Air,” I didn’t do anything without accumulating miles. These days, I have changed gears and it has been some time since I have traveled on business.

Nevertheless, I still have found ways accumulate a hefty amount of frequent flier miles and hotel points without leaving town. Some of these are fairly advanced tips, but that is the only way you are going to earn a serious amount of miles and points using travel rewards credit cards if you don’t actually travel.

1. Sign Up Bonuses

There is no reason to be loyal to your credit card company. It just makes sense to apply for a new credit card from time to time when your needs change or there is a better deal out there.

In fact, it is in your interest to change cards every so often. The reason is that banks offer large sign up bonuses to new card applicants. It used to be that a good sign up bonus was 25,000 miles, but lately we have been seeing bonuses of 50, 75, and even 100,000 miles. Granted, a mile today is not as good as it was in years past, but the inflation of bonuses has outstripped the devaluation of miles. Add to that the fact that most cards waive the first year’s annual fee and you would be crazy not to go after sign up bonuses.

2. Husband and Wife Signups

You and your partner may share all of your finances, but to the bank, you will always be separate entities. When you find an irresistible sign up bonus, it may make sense for both of you to apply for the same card.

3. Business and Consumer Cards

In the same way that you can double your miles earned when your partner applies for a card, you can double your bonus when you apply for both the regular card and the business credit card. Just remember that business cards are actually exempt from many of the recent consumer protections enacted in the CARD Act.

4. Taking Advantage of Airline Mergers

When Delta merged with Northwest, savvy fliers were able to apply for Northwest cards, knowing that their bonus miles would later be added to their Delta account. Today, fliers of United and Continental have the same opportunity, as do Southwest and Airtran customers.

For example, you can apply for both Continental Airlines credit card and United Airlines credit card. Or if you are an Airtran or Southwest flier, you can apply for a Southwest Airlines credit card and also the AirTran credit card and get lots of bonus miles. Now is a great time to apply for the card you don’t have, confident that the two airline’s loyalty programs will be merged next year.

Other Reward Cards with Airline Partners: Aside from getting specific airline credit cards, you can also get reward cards with programs that allow you to transfer points into miles. Examples include Membership Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest and Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program. The Ultimate Rewards program allows you to transfer points into Continental, SouthWest and United miles (on some of their cards), so signing up for this card and getting their sign up bonuses will simply add more miles to your account.

5. Special Promos

If you really want to strike it rich, you have to stay on top of all of the latest promotions. Once or twice a year, an airline or credit card company will announce a phenomenal promotion that seems too good to be true.

For example, a few years ago Delta put up a web page with a huge promotion whereby you could earn an additional 150 percent mileage bonus on virtually all non-airline miles that post to your account between November 13 and December 31st, 2008. They later withdrew the promotion, but honored it for those who had registered in time.

For a time, British Airways was giving 100,000 bonus miles for their Chase card signup. US Airways had a promotion last year that allowed people to essentially buy miles at a ridiculously low rate.

To find these promotions, the key is to read the travel blogs. These are the people like myself who enjoy hunting for these kind of promotions. Read my column over at the blog at AskMrCreditCard.com. Other key sources include the forums at FlyerTalk, and the bloggers at The Boarding Area.

Taking advantage of these resources will allow you to learn how to travel for free, without being a frequent flier.

Use All of the Above Tactics–Using each technique alone will bring you more miles in your frequent flier account, but using all these techniques together and pile up the miles like you’ve never seen! If you are just starting this game and seriously planning for your next trip, try using a combination of these tactics.

Sign up with your spouse, sign up for the business card version and if you happen to fly one of these airlines that are merging, get both cards! You could top it off by getting reward cards who have your airlines as their partners.

There is a caveat here. You are advised not to apply for all these cards at once. Space them out every few months. We are also assuming here that you are the sort that “pay your bills in full” (PIF). For those of you who carry a balance, I suggest you pay down your debt first and get into the habit of paying your credit card bills in full before you get into this game.

Lastly, when you apply for credit (whether it be a credit card or a loan), you might take a few points hit on your FICO score. It should rebound in most cases, but if you are in the market for a mortgage or an auto loan, then perhaps you should refrain (at least until you have gotten your loan) from applying for credit cards for the sake of bonus miles.

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November 2, 2010 • Tags: Card, Credit Card • Posted in: Credit Cards

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