Fly Crazy . When airlines get into price wars or offer new routes, they often launch ridiculous doub

Enter Matthew Kepnes, who has been traveling around the world for the past four years and often getting people to pay him to travel . He runs the award-winning budget american airlines homepage travel site, Nomadic Matt s Travel Site .
Business class. The dream of all who fly. With its flat beds, delicious food, wide seats, and pampered service, it seems the part of the plane reserved american airlines homepage only for frequent fliers or those with deep pockets. At least, that's american airlines homepage what I used to think. Now I fly business class on all my long haul flights and I'm neither a rich man nor that much of a frequent flier (I don't even fly enough each year for get elite status). So how do I get into business class then? I use the airline's rewards system against them.
Airlines offer so many ways to get frequent flier points that it's relatively easy to accrue enough miles to fly business (or first) class. And the best part? You don't even need to fly to get the points! Whether you sign up for credit card, take their surveys, or shop through their website, earning miles doesn't mean you actually have to fly any. I currently have over 80,000 miles in my American Airlines account, of which only 8,400 are flight miles:
Sign up for a branded credit card . Whether you love Delta, fly United and the Star Alliance, live and breath Jetblue, or are hooked on Oneworld, american airlines homepage all U.S. carriers have a branded credit card that gives you a 25,000-30,000 points when you sign up and make one purchase.
american airlines homepage These cards have annual fees of $95 dollars but most wave the fee the first year and if you don't want the card, just cancel. [ NOTE FROM RAMIT: Be careful about this. I would rather have you choose 1-2 good cards and stick with them instead of churning card after card.]
Watch out for deals. I sign up for all the airline american airlines homepage mailing lists. I always watch out for special 2 for 1 miles deal. Or when they have special card offers to get extra miles. Last year, British Airways offered a card that gave 100,000 american airlines homepage miles for signing up. That was a first class ticket home. American Airlines just gave me 1,000 miles for watching a demo on their new shopping toolbar. I got 5,000 AA miles by opening a Citi checking account. I got triple miles by buying some clothes from Gap just by seeing it in their mailing list. That doesn't even utilize all the special bonus offers airlines have on cars, restaurants, and hotels. Make sure you sign up for airline (and credit card) newsletters so you can stay informed about these deals.
The new AMEX Hilton Honors Surpass card gives you 40,000 points for signing up and 20,000 more after you stay at a Hilton property can also be converted into airline points. Even better, american airlines homepage that card also gives you Gold VIP status for a year and a Priority Pass card (discount access to over 400 airport lounges). Hilton's reward ratio isn't the greatest:
Shop at their member stores . All airlines have special offers with all the big stores- Amazon, Apple, Best Buy, Target, etc. Shopping at those preferred stores will earn you 2 to 4 miles per dollar spent- sometimes even more. If you spend 1,000 dollars a month, you can earn up to 3,000 miles just by going through their websites. The products don't cost extra. I do all my shopping through the airline malls simply for the extra miles.
Take the challenge. If you are taking a long trip, go with American Airlines. By paying 300 dollars you can take the 10,000 mile challenge. If you accumulate 10,000 miles by flying american airlines homepage that many miles in 3 months, you get 1 year platinum status which gives you get automatic upgrades into business class as well as lounge access. They do not advertise this on their website. You must call customer service and ask to take the challenge.
Fly Crazy . When airlines get into price wars or offer new routes, they often launch ridiculous double or triple mile offers. Often times you can take a quick and cheap flight and gain triple miles. This is a frequent tactic that frequent fliers use to accrue american airlines homepage lots of miles really quickly. Though, it is time intensive.
Put everything on the card! I pay nothing in cash. I put everything on my card- from Starbucks american airlines homepage to phone bills. My total monthly spending is about $2,500 per month. That's more miles for me. Everything I do is to benefit my mileage account.
So signing up for a branded credit card (30,000 american airlines homepage miles), 2 unbranded credit cards (19,000 miles), my monthly expenses ($2,500 x 12 = 30,000 miles), 7,500 miles in "deals," and watching for double rewards (est. 4,000 miles) gets me 90,500 miles in 1 year without ever setting foot on an airplane. Plus, this low balls the amount of miles I would probably accrue. I probably spend more money, sign up for more bonuses, and do some added shopping in a given year.
The point is that it doesn't take a lot to get to the 100,000 miles mark. And if I never fly, sign up for another bonus, or do other shopping, where would the other 9,500 miles come from? Well, I could buy them from the airlines or use my existing miles to get an upgrade from your coach ticket:
By even utilizing a fraction of these tips, you can accrue enough miles to take a business class flight at very little (or no) cost to you. Signing up for a credit card, do some shopping, and you'll be flying in luxury no time. Take a flight to Asia on American and now you are platinum status for a year giving you automatic upgrades. So often we think about earning miles as difficult and requiring a lot of flying. However, if you focus on using their reward system against them, you'll find your mileage account jumping by leaps and bounds each month and putting you in business class on your next flight.
Matthew Kepnes american airlines homepage has been traveling around the world for the past four years. He runs the award winning budget travel american airlines homepage site, Nomadic Matt s Travel Site and has been featured in The New York Times and Yahoo! Finance. He currently writes for AOL Travel and The Huffington Post.
Of course, there s a whole art of amassing points and rewards, but learning how to redeem them most optimally warrants a whole new post altogether. For instance, I just tried to book a reward ticket from Bostont o Buenos Aires, only to find out that since it s the height of the tourist season down there, the miles needed for a free ticket american airlines homepage are nearly triple what they normally might be in the off season.
Anyways, for any of you aspiring travel hackers out there, I highly recommend the Frequent Flyer Master eBook (as well as the flyertalk.com forums). Those two resources have helped me accumulate and redeem LOADS of miles.
I ve read that canceling cards (if you re churning) only drops your score by a few points. My concern is what happens after a year or two when you ve already claimed all the mileage offers. Do the credit card companies actually keep track and block a bonus on somebody who applies for the same card three years later? I ve currently got over 200k miles in various accounts (I ve already done the credit card deals) and I ve got another 75k from AA on the way. But once there gone .what then?
Ditto what Collin and Greg said about canceling cards. This is the main reason I don t take advantage of the waived annual fee offers, but I m not sure how awful it is for one s score to cancel cards three or four times in five years.
I haven t done the accounting in years, but last I checked, it made more sense to use a cash back credit card and buy fares when they re cheap than to accumulate miles in a notoriously unstable currency. Spending $25,000 evenly over three years with a 1%-cash-back card and then buying a ticket yields $250 (in rewards) + $11 (assuming 3% return on investments) + 1000-4400 miles for future flights american airlines homepage (because you ultimately bought the ticket w/o miles). It s hard to know exactly how to value the latter it depends heavily on what routes you fly. Because I do a lot of coast-to-coast flying on my own (read: american airlines homepage Virgin America for ~$220 RT) and international travel for work to dramatically different locations, an airline mileage card doesn t seem to make as much sense. american airlines homepage Has anyone seen a thorough accounting of this anywhere?
Nice article, and more responsible (particularly with Ramit s addition) than some recent ones I ve read that recommend getting 10-15 credit cards for the miles and canceling them all after a year. Yay, I got three first class flights and now I can t get a car loan. Livin the dream, baby.
Has anyone been able to get this offer to work? The website errors out upon submitting. Calling Citi directly has been less than helpful, and the same cards on the main site (citicards.com) only offer 40,000 miles.
I m no FICO expert but from my understanding whenever you open a new card, you get a short term ding on the score. So as long as you aren t churning 10-15 a year, I don t really see too much of a problem. Plus part of your score is your debt vs available credit so if you have a lot of cards that keep your debt/credit american airlines homepage ratio in good shape, then lots of mileage cards won t hurt you. Then again if you don t have any CC debt, canceling a card won t hurt you much either.
I think it s worth keeping an eye on miles- they re tax-free, and as long as you re not missing out on more valuable perks with other cards, with little effort you get a free flight here and there. If you get an idea about what periods offer lower redemption levels, you can maximize the points you have.
The only itch I have is about the credit scoe. I m kind of protective of it, I really don t want any scatch there. Anyway, being in Canada, I m not eve sure I can get one of these cards because flying in/out of Canada is so expensive as opposed to the US.
I find the least damaging way of earning miles has been through opening up bank accounts american airlines homepage instead of new credit cards. While this still counts as a hard inquiry, it doesn t have the same effect on your FICO score as opening a credit card.
Yup, a while back, Chase offered 25,000 Continental miles for opening up a Chase Checking account with something like $100 minimum and paying $25 for the cheapest de