Questions and Answers

I am new to this game and find it an interesting challenge to juggle the 3 to 4 k per month that i normally spend among new credit cards to get bonus miles.

my question to lucky is based on the 400,000 annual miles you fly. That sounds like you have to average 1200 flight miles every day of the year.
How much does it cost in actual dollars paid for flights when you cant use miles to fly this much?.

I dont travel for work and the last few years i have not traveled much for fun. I am not really sure how long i will be able to keep getting new credit cards to get the bonus miles. It sounds like i will be able to qualify up to about 15 cards a year based on what i normally spend.
At what point do you run out of cards to apply to? and do you normally cancel c
ards before annual fees come due? Obviously you cant cancel and then reapply for bonus within a few months. Which cards do you keep?
Which cards work together? I recently got the chase ink card for 50000 points and then they upped the bonus to 60000 so would i get the increased bonus or the one in effect when i applied? I just applied for chase saphire because it looks like both point bonuses can be combined.

i am thinking of a once in a lifetime trip that heads to thailand and then visits austrailia on the way back….The coming aa mileage devaluation will not help. I think i can qualify for enough miles for 2 first class cathay tickets by march but i dont know if the miles and points will get to me fast enough to be able to get the awards. The citibank info says 6 to 8 weeks after hitting the spend requirements which sounds like i have to have 2 cards qualified by early january 2016 to get the miles before march.

ray

up your spend! get an authorized user and have them give you the money…and you dont have to go first class. I have been to 26 countries and I have never flown business or first class. Seriously.

BTW…there are never enough miles. I have spent an average of 27.8k every month for the last 3 years mostly for parts and gas for my business. I have 688k miles banked and its still not enough.

Then again, I do have 5 people in my family.

Lucky once wrote an article on how he funds his travel. I think it was very early this year. I tried but could not find that one.

This one?

[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/01/21/earned-miles-2014/[/URL]

There’s also something to be said for the power of momentum. I fly [I]a lot [/I](~250k-300k a year), but my life is structured for that, so it’s easier now than it was when I was flying ~50k miles a year.

The same goes for credit cards — meeting minimum spend on my first few points cards was [I]tough[/I]. Now it’s no big deal, because I know how to structure and organize my spending.

The most important thing is to start slow, and gradually increase your pace as your skill grows. If you “only” earn a hundred thousand miles this year you’ll still be ahead of 99.9% of the population.

And remember this is supposed to be fun!