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A friend of mine has over a million miles on American Airlines mostly due to applying for countless American Airlines Visa Cards through Citibank. He gets 50,000 miles for each credit card as long as he spends $3000 in a 90 day period. After he finishes up his spending obligation on a new CC, he puts that card away and applies and is accepted for another credit card giving American Airlines miles. They keep giving him more and more cards. After a year he cancels the card so he does not have to pay an annual fee. (No fee the first year.)
Here is some websites on Credit Card Churning for your analysis. What do you think?
sometimes i will load up on $$$ in gift cards if i need miles for a trip or points for a hotel. these are gift cards that i will use in the near future - gas stations, restaurants, target, etc.
i also opened a hyatt card to get 2 free nights @ any hyatt. came with an annual fee but that's better than paying $700 for my stay. i would cancel the card shortly thereafter
i've done the same for hilton. marriott. the holiday inn chain. i'm all for it.
I try to stay away from credit cards at all cost, but I think if needed to fly quite a bit, or needed the free hotel stay I'd consider it. Of course, it would have to be a reasonable card though. A million miles is a lot.
I have one that I use as much as I can (and then pay it off) to get Disney rewards points. The rewards points tranlate into gift cards that we take on our trips to Disneyland. I figure that if we're going to spend $400 on gas each month, we might as well earn $4 for Disneyland while we're at it.
Citi AT&T Universal - 5-10% discount on all AT&T & DirecTV subscriptions.
Chase Ink Business - 3% cashback on restaurants, fuel stations, office supply stores, & home improvement.
Citi Premier Prefered - 2% groceries/drugstores, fuel stations, and one cent for every mile flown.
Amex Blue - everything else
I purchase airfare for my mom, sister, my wife, and myself. We travel about 100,000 miles a year, so we get about $1000 in gift cards just for flying alone (in addition to frequent flyer points on Virgin America & JetBlue). The Citi Premier has a $75 annual fee, but we get about $2200 in points each year, with which we buy wedding gifts, pay down our student loans, and make mortgage payments.
MOST IMPORTANTLY: DO NOT CARRY A BALANCE! Getting 1-5% in rewards points is nonsense when you're paying 12-30% in interest.
I am talking about getting new cards for the points.
For example, if I sign up for the American Airlines Citicorp Visa I can get $50,000 miles just for getting the card and spending a minimum amount in a 90 day period. It is only 40,000 miles in the shoulder season for a basically free ticket using miles to Europe RT. The value of that ticket is $1000.00.
Please look at the links in my first post to see what I am talking about or google: "Credit Card Churning"
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The rewards points tranlate into gift cards that we take on our trips to Disneyland. I figure that if we're going to spend $400 on gas each month, we might as well earn $4 for Disneyland while we're at it.
