I want to go on record and share my credit card predictions for 2012.

Obviously, these are predictions and are based primarily on how my gut interprets the facts currently available to me.

1. 2012 credit card sign up bonuses will not be as lucrative as 2011.

In 2011, we saw a ridiculous amount of generous credit card sign up bonuses. 50,000 points replaced 25,000 points as the standard offer.

There was also the Capital One 100,000 mile match offer ($1,000) and the British Airways 100,000 mile sign up bonus.

I don’t thing we’ll see a return of the frequency of large credit card sign up bonuses in 2011.

2. 2012 will be the year of targeted offers.

With the growing number of folks who are cycling through credit cards for the sign up bonuses, I think we’ll see more offers like the current 25,000 American Express Premier Rewards with a referral.

I suspect that there will be some very good offers that are only made available to a select group of people.

The obvious take away is that if you get a targeted offer, you’d better not pass it up!

3. Chase will decrease the standard sign up bonus for both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Ink Bold.

Chase seems to be in direct competition with American Express, but right now the standard offer on the Premier Rewards is 15,000 compared to the Chase Sapphire Preferred 50,000 offer. For the business product, Chase is offering 50,000 and American Express 0 (Business Gold).

I suspect Chase will keep its bonus competitive in comparison to AMEX, but if AMEX doesn’t step up its game, Chase will scale back.

4. Award flights will be increasingly more difficult to find.

With all those miles floating around out there, more and more people will be fighting for the available seats. I don’t expect airlines to open up more award seat availability.

The good news is that there are still lots of options, especially if you have a clue about finding them and booking award seats. If you don’t, you can always use my award booking service.

5. Airline award chart changes will occur.

I’m predicting that United and American will change their award charts sometime in 2012.

I hope I’m wrong, but many of the other programs have recently made adjustments, and I suspect those two airlines are next.

6. Most people will sit idle while the big bonuses pass them by.

I know you good people are all on board, but I continue to be amazed at the number of people who know about these fantastic offers and pass them by.

Do you have any predictions for credit card and award travel in 2012?

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> 6 Credit Card and Award Travel Predictions for 2012

Related posts:

1. Award Travel Booking | Creativity Required
2. The Ultimate Guide to Free(ish) 2012 Summer Travel
3. Why I Track Mileage Award Programs with Award Wallet

I’m not sure what it is about Americans and Europe, but it seems to me that most Americans want to be sure to visit to Europe at some point in their lives. Europe has the art, the architect, the history, and the romance – the very things that are missing from many North American cities. As a mileage traveler, the question is …

What is the Best Mileage Program for Getting Flights to Europe?

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been doing some research for award bookings for a couple of different people so I want to share those results with you in case you’re in the planning stage of your trip to Europe.

Europe Travel: Star Alliance Vs. One World

Star Alliance is the group of airlines which includes United, Continental, US Airways, and several other airlines. One World is the group of airlines that includes American and British Airways, along with others. I had two people who had American Airlines miles who wanted to fly from the US to Europe this fall. The date availability was very limited. They had to leave a day earlier than they planned and fly back a few days later. Why? They wanted to avoid British Airways. If they were going to use their miles to book travel on British Airways, they were going to pay over $600 per person in taxes and fees. Of course, this is very unfortunate since British Airways has the best coverage to Europe and within Europe. Contrast that to a family of five that contacted me about travel plans for June. My initial reaction (after finding it hard to get fall flights to Europe with One World) was, ‘Good luck with that.’ However, the day after their kids get out of school, they could fly (all five of them) to Paris. They wanted to return on a Friday, but if they left the day before, they could fly back on that date. I share those little experiences with you to let you know that if you want to fly to across the ocean (and I know many of you do), you should be collecting Star Alliance miles through Continental or United. You’ll find that they have the best availability and the most flight schedules to and from several European cities. You have options like Continental, US Airways, United, Lufthansa, and Air Canada to pick from. Even better is the fact that for 5,000 miles more you can fly to North Asia, South Asia, or Japan, and take a stop in Europe. It’s like getting two vacations for the price of one. American only allows stopovers in their American gateway cities.

Four best (fasted) United earning opportunities currently available

1. United credit card = 50,000 miles
2. Chase Sapphire Preferred = 50,000 miles
3. Ink Bold Business = 50,000 miles
4. Fidelity Brokerage Investment = 50,000 miles

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> Traveling to Europe? The Case for Star Alliance

Related posts:

1. 5 Cool Benefits of British Airways Miles
2. 2 Simple Steps to Go from Zero Miles to a Free Business Class Ticket to Europe
3. Airline Flyer Miles | The Value of Jumping Back On the Bandwagon

I get that people are skeptical about the negative implications regarding using credit card sign up bonuses to earn miles.

I do.

I get that people think the whole concept of signing up for multiple cards, canceling them after a year, and repeating the cycle is weird, unusual, too much, or just over board.

I do get it.

I get that collecting miles and managing all the cards is not for everyone.

Here’s what I don’t get – why you have to go and make stuff up about credit scores and the negative impact caused by multiple new accounts.

No, I’m not referring to anyone in particular.

When referring to credit scores, here are the types of phrases I hear :

• “Dude, your credit score is going to plummet to the depths of the ocean.”
• “You think you’re so smart doing all this, but you’re really going to pay for it when you try to get a loan.”
• “Say goodbye to a good credit score if you want to do this.”

To be honest, that was one of my initial reservations with getting multiple credit cards.

As a result, I decided to do some of my own credit score myth busting.

I needed a worthy subject: Someone with a solid credit score. Someone who signed up for several credit cards a year.

Who could I find?

Then I looked in the mirror.

I became the product of my own experiment. Why inject someone else with a potentially legal dose?

Since signing up for my FICO score monitoring, I’ve just received my third quarterly score update.

The damage?

In that time period, I signed up for three new credit cards and …

MY SCORE DROPPED 1 POINT!

I’ve plummeted from a 772 to a 771 over the last three months.

In my books, the one point drop was worth the $2,400 worth of travel I received for the cards.

Now, to be honest, I do expect a larger drop (8ish points) next time I get a credit score report. The reason is because I’ll probably be spending more over the next quarter and may have larger outstanding balances. That leaves me with less available credit, so it could impact my score.

Will applying for multiple credit cards affect your score?

Yes, of course. Don’t expect to apply for a card and not see any impact.

But, please, please, please refrain from using words like plummet, huge hit, and devastating.

It is possible to apply for multiple credit cards every year and have a solid 700+ credit score. At least this statement is consistent with my credit score experiment.

Why Not Try Your Own Experiment?

While I pay $50 a year for my FICO score, you can also monitor changes in your score by signing up for a free account at both Credit Sesame and Credit Karma. Each month, you’ll be able to monitor how your credit card applications are impacting your score.

Don’t take other statements as proof – test your own credit score for your own results.

Credit Score Disclaimer:

The importance of your credit score is determined by your relationship with debt. I don’t have any credit card debt. I don’t have a car loan. I may or may not be getting a mortgage in the next couple of years. Thus, drops in my credit score don’t impact me in any way.

If you’re getting a mortgage soon, you’ll want to be more vigilant about your credit score. A drop in your credit score only matters if you plan to access credit. Also, your credit report (not score) may be a factor when applying for a job or an apartment, and it may impact your auto insurance rates.

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> Lies Skeptics Spew About Credit Scores

Related posts:

1. Credit Score Update | How Multiple Credit Card Applications Impact Your Score

Crazy! I wrote this post yesterday and had this back door way for you to possibly get in on the generous Companion Pass offer.  However, today while searching Southwest.com for flights I saw that they are advertising the 2 free flights (50,000 points offer) on their homepage.  

In the fall of 2011, I wrote about the possibility of earning enough miles for a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass.

The key benefit of the Companion Pass is that you can have a designated person fly with you for free! (You can change the designated person 3 times.) The benefit lasts until the end of the year after you get the companion pass.

Thus, someone who got the Companion Pass in November 2011 would have it until December 31st, 2012. However, if you get it in January 2012 it will last until December 31st, 2013.

The Step-By-Step Process to Getting the Companion Pass

In the fall, Southwest had a 50,000 point sign up bonus for the Chase Southwest credit card.

The process was quite simple:

1. Get a Southwest Personal card with the 50,000 point signup bonus and wait to activate the card in 2012.
2. Get a Southwest Business card with the 50,000 point sign up bonus and and wait to activate the card in 2012.
3. Earn (or buy) an additional 10,000 miles. As Million Mile Secrets points out, the cheapest way to get those points is to buy Marriott points for $375 and transfer those points to Southwest.

The reward for this minimal amount of work is that you’d end up with a Companion Pass.

The only complication was that no one really knew if Southwest was going to allow the credit card sign up bonuses to count towards a companion pass in 2012 (as they clearly were doing in 2011). Some folks went for it in 2011, and others waited.

I was one of the ones that waited.

I’m glad I did.

I’m now within 10,000 Southwest points of getting a Companion Pass that will last through December 31st, 2013.

Can you still get in on the Companion Pass offer?

Yes.  As I noted above it seems that this offer is publicly available again.  You can find the application page here.

The page clearly states -

Apply for the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards^®Plus Card and get 50,000 Bonus Points after your first purchase- that’s over $800 in Wanna Get Away^®Fares to be redeemed for2 FREE ROUNDTRIP FLIGHTS!

I don’t see anything that has an expiration date for the offer.

Anyway, it’s very little work for free companion flights through December 2013.

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> Southwest Companion Pass: How to Get Two Years of Free Southwest Flights in 15 minutes

Related posts:

1. Southwest Credit Card | $830 Worth of Flights
2. How to Get Up To Five Free SWA Round-trips with 50,000 Southwest Points
3. How to Make Your Own Lowest Rate Guarantee with Southwest | I Saved $500+

With the justified popularity of Ultimate Rewards, many of us are earning and collecting hoards of Ultimate Rewards (UR) points.

However, we cannot forget the goal is never merely to collect or simply to earn, but to use those points to help us board a plane, get in a hotel, or sit in a rental car for as close to free as possible.

One of the primary selling points for UR points is the flexibility. There are so many ways to use them!

Unfortunately, some people are paralyzed by too many options. This is especially true if a person isn’t very familiar with all his or her transfer options and the advantages and disadvantages of each program.

I’m afraid that some of you might not get the full value out of your points because either you don’t understand how the transfer programs work, or you just don’t want to spend the time doing the research.

In that random example from Tuesday (Denver to Quito, Ecuador), I found out that a person could have overspent 28,550 points per ticket $(342.60 travel value) if he or she didn’t do the appropriate research and just booked through the UR booking portal.

I also know some of you are too busy for the research, too insecure about the process, or would gladly pay someone else to do the work.

If that doesn’t describe you, then you’re probably not going to be interested in the new service I’m launching on Travel Free Coach.

However, If that describes you, then I’ve got a product you’re sure to be interested in …

Ultimate Rewards Booking Service

I’m launching two products with this service:

Ultimate Rewards (UR) Best Value Analysis

Get help finding the most valuable ways to use your UR points.

You tell me where you want to go, and I’ll look at all the options including flights and/or hotels. Once I’ve completed my research, I’ll send you a detailed email describing the best value for your points – starting with the option that had the least mileage requirement to the option with the highest UR point requirement.

How much does it cost?

That service will cost $35 or 3,500 Ultimate Rewards points (regardless of number in the group).

1. If booking directly with Ultimate Rewards using your points is the best value, then I won’t charge anything because I’m guessing that would have been your default booking mode.
2. If the option of transferring your miles to a partner program won’t save you any more than 3,500 points, then I won’t charge you.

You only pay a fee if I can save you more money or points than I charge. That’s what we call a win-win situation.

This service lists the best options, but doesn’t confirm airline availability for the scheduled dates.

What that means is that there might be flights to your destination for 40,000 miles round trip, but I have not yet confirmed if there are miles for your dates to that destination.

To learn more the Ultimate Rewards Best Value Analysis you can click here.

At that point, you could …

1. Do your own work to find availability using miles for the most valuable for the airlines on your desired dates.

2. You could then decide to use my Mileage Award Booking service.

Either way, you wouldn’t want to transfer any miles until you know there is availability on your dates.

If you choose to use my Mileage Award Booking service, I won’t charge you anything for the Ultimate Rewards Best Value Analysis, but you will be charged the standard rates for my Mileage Award Booking.

You’ll need to do the math to be sure that when you use my services you still come out ahead on the price.

Let’s take the example of the Denver to Quito options I looked at on Tuesday.

• Booking directly through the Ultimate Rewards site uses 68,550 points.
• Transferring to United uses 40,000 points and $71.30 in taxes and fees.

If a couple was wanting two tickets, here’s how it would break down:

• They would need 80,000 UR points
• + $142.60 in Airline taxes and fees
• + $200.00 in Mileage Award Booking Fees (can be paid in UR points –  20,000 UR points)
• Total = 100,000 UR points (assuming person paid service fees in UR points) and $142.60.

Assuming that same couple booked directly through Ultimate Rewards, it would cost 137,500 points. That couple would need to decide if they would rather have 37,500 points or $142.60. Since the 37,500 points has a $450 UR booking value, I’d rather have the points.

Again, this service is not for everyone, but if you’re looking for someone to help you figure out the best ways to maximize your Ultimate Rewards points, you’re most welcome to consider my services. To get more details or to get your own Ultimate Rewards Best Value Analysis, you can click here.

FYI: All of my services have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you’re not happy with the work I’ve done, I won’t charge you anything.

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> Ultimate Rewards Booking Service Launch | Best Value Analysis

Related posts:

1. Chase Sapphire and Sapphire Preferred Ultimate Rewards Value Analysis
2. Maximize Ultimate Rewards | Discover the Smartest Way to Redeem Ultimate
3. Ultimate Rewards Alert: Points Soon to Transfer to Southwest Rapid Rewards

My magic 8-ball is telling me that many of you are accumulating Ultimate Rewards points using either the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Ink Bold Business card. (Either that, or my analytics and stats tell me this.)

I also predict that you want to use your Ultimate Rewards points, not just accumulate them.

I’ve been getting questions like: how do I know if I should be using my Ultimate Rewards (UR) to transfer to one of the mileage/points programs or using them to book travel through the UR booking portal so I can get the 25% bonus?

Smartest Way to Redeem Ultimate Rewards

Let’s do a real life experiment to show you (1) how to decide which is the best use of your UR points, and (2) to show you a sample of the process you should go through in determining the options.

My sample is a selfish one, as it’s a trip I’d like to take in the next year (just not the date listed).

By the way, if you don’t think you’d every want to do this much research be sure to read the article I’ll publish on Thursday.  I’ll be introducing a new Ultimate Rewards booking service.

Denver (DEN) to Quito, Ecuador (UIO) in October 2012.

The first order of business is knowing your options.

In this case, my options are as follows:

1. Book flights using the Ultimate Rewards Booking portal and get a 25% point bonus.
2. Book flights on United Airlines (transfer points to United 1:1).
3. Book flights on British Airways (BA) (transfer to British Airways 1:1).
4. Combination of British Airways + either Southwest (1:1) or direct booking: DEN – MIA using flight booking direct with UR or Southwest transfer then BA from MIA to UIO.

Option #1: UR Direct Booking Cost

The cheapest flights were $914 on American Airlines. That means I’d need to use about 68,550 Ultimate Rewards points to book that flight (25% mileage reduction included).

Advantage: You’ll be able to earn mileage on your flight. There was no need for flexibility to find availability.

Option #2: Book Award Flights on United Airlines

The cost was 40,000 miles and $71.30 in taxes and fees. What that means is I could do the trip with 40,000 Ultimate Rewards miles (transfer to United at a 1:1 ratio) and $71.30 out of pocket.

Disadvantage: After playing with the dates, I could get a flight out late Oct. and returning early Nov.

Option #3: Book flights on British Airways

While there are some direct flights on American between DEN and Miami (MIA), I couldn’t easily find one with availability. The result was that I would need 44,000 British Airways miles and $111.70 in taxes and fees.

Disadvantage: These flights required the most date searches to find availability.

Option #4: Combination

The flights from MIA to UIO are reasonably priced at 20,000 BA miles and $101.70. As a result, I wanted to know if I could find a cheaper way to get from DEN to MIA.

Southwest:

Right now, Southwest doesn’t really have any great fares, so it would cost me $350 for a Wanna Get Away Fare. Using Rapid Rewards points costs 60 Southwest points per $1 ticket cost (for Wanna Get Away fare). Thus, I’d need 21,000 Ultimate Rewards points and $10 in taxes to get from DEN to MIA.

Total with the Southwest option is 41,000 Ultimate Rewards points plus $111.70.

I managed to shave off 3,000 UR points, but I’m also flying different airlines and actually flying into Ft. Lauderdale airport (FLL), not Miami (MIA). The 3,000 point difference is not worth the added hassle.

If Southwest had a cheaper sale fare, this could be a more viable option.

Book with Ultimate Rewards points directly DEN – MIA:

The best price I could find for this was $293. This would cost 21,975 Ultimate Rewards points.

The total with the Ultimate Rewards points plus BA option would be 41,975 UR points and $101.70 in taxes and fees.

Maximize Ultimate Rewards | The Final Results

The results are listed below in order from best (cheapest) to worst (most expensive). I also factored in inconvenience.

1. Transfer points to United and get your flights for 40,000 UR points and $71.30 in taxes and fees.
2. Transfer 20,000 points to British Airways and buy tickets (on American) from DEN – MIA. 41,975 UR points and $101.70 in taxes and fees.
3. Transfer 44,000 points to British Airways. 44,000 UR points and $111.70 in taxes and fees. Bonus: This could easily become the #1 option if one could find a direct flight from DEN – MIA as that would reduce the required BA miles from 24,000 to 15,000.
4. Transfer 21,000 points to Southwest and 20,000 to British Airways. Total would be 41,000 Ultimate Rewards points plus $111.70. You’d also have to find a way from FLL to MIA. Bonus: Get a cheap Southwest flight, and you could save even more UR points.
5. Book directly using points. Uses 68,550 points.

Final Notes:

If this all sounds too complicated to you or if you wouldn’t want to spend the time doing this research stay tuned for Thursday’s post where I’m introducing a new travel service related to Ultimate Rewards points.

Planning a vacation? Click here to book your travel now.

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> Maximize Ultimate Rewards | Discover the Smartest Way to Redeem Ultimate

Related posts:

1. Ultimate Rewards for Flights Vs. American Express Rewards
2. Ultimate Rewards Alert: Points Soon to Transfer to Southwest Rapid Rewards
3. 9 Amazing Benefits of Ultimate Rewards (Above American Express Rewards)

Finally!

It’s been a long time since American Express has had any decent offers. If you’ve been wanting to get some American Express Rewards points, this is your ‘golden’ opportunity.

If I send you an email invitation link, you have an opportunity to get 25,000 American Express Rewards points for the Premier Rewards Gold card.

The standard offer (and as far as I can tell, the best publicly available offer) is 15,000 points.

To be clear, this is a good offer, just not fantastic. American Express hasn’t had much of anything lately to get excited about, so at least this is a step in the right direction.

Premier Rewards Gold Card Offer Details

1. Sign up using the link I’ll email you. (Send link requests to htcheap at gmail dot com).
2. Spend $2,000 in the first 90 days.
3. You’ll get the first year without an annual fee ($175 thereafter).
4. Get 25,000 American Express Rewards points.

Let’s talk for a moment about the value of American Express Rewards Points.

There is no doubt that with the loss of United from the program, these points have devalued over the last year.

However, the advantage of AMEX Rewards points is that they often run transfer bonuses.  For example, right now you can get a 30% bonus when you transfer to British Airways.  That means you could end up with 32,500 British Airways Avios miles by signing up for this card.

Delta is also a transfer partner, and they do frequently run transfer bonuses as well.

This card is actually really good, too!

I think this is the best part of the promotion.

My wife currently has the Premier Rewards Gold card, and one of the things I really like about it is the opportunity to get 3 points per dollar spent on airfare.  If you travel a lot or buy lots of airfare, you won’t find a better card for earning airfare bonus points.

You’ll get double points on gas and groceries and a point per dollar on everything else.

Remember, if you want to get the extra 10,000 bonus points (for a total of 25,000), you need to email me and ask me to send you a sign up link or complete the embedded form below.  In the email include:

1. First Name
2. Last Name
3. Email address

Disclosure: Rather than the typical process whereby I might get a referral bonus in cash if you sign up for a card I mention on this blog, in this case I’ll get bonus American Express Rewards if you use my link to sign up for the card.  Remember, you’re getting a better deal, and I’m getting a bonus if you use the link.

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> 25,000 American Express Rewards Sign Up Points for American Express Premier Rewards Gold

Related posts:

1. Business Gold Rewards Card | 50,000 American Express Rewards Sign Up Bonus
2. 9 Amazing Benefits of Ultimate Rewards (Above American Express Rewards)
3. 50,000 Points Sign Up Bonus | Chase Ink Bold with Ultimate Rewards

If you like treasure hunts, you’ll love the opportunity to sign into your United account to see if you can get up to 60,000 miles for signing up for the Chase United credit card.

In order to get the bonus, you’ll need to (1) have a United Mileage Plus account, and (2) have a points balance in your United account.

If you don’t currently have any miles in your United account, there are two simple ways to do so:

1. If you have Continental miles, you can transfer as many as you wish over to United (no charge).
2. If you have any Ultimate Rewards points, you can also transfer them (without a charge) to your United account.

United MileagePlus 60,000 Mile Offer Details

When you get to the united.com landing page, you’ll probably see an offer for 40,000 miles.

However, once you sign in (if you have miles in your account), you should be able to see an offer for 60,000.

Actually, it’s more like 50,000 because you get 50,000 after the first spend. You’ll need to spend $25,000 to get the other 10,000. Blah.

Last fall, Chase was set to come out with a 60,000 mile offer, but someone released the information before the promotion (which they ask affiliates not to do). As a result, Chase pulled the offer.

They’ve indicated that they would run the offer sometime early in 2012.

The ultimate question – is there going to be a better offer than the 50,000 offer?

Or perhaps the better question is – why risk waiting if you know you can get 50,000 after one spend?

Combine this with the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Ink Bold, and you’ll easily end up with 150,000 United miles. WOW.

Unfortunately, I’m on the Chase sideline for a couple more months as I recently applied for the Southwest 50,000 mile offer card. However, if you have a Chase application to spare, this would be a great time to take advantage of a 50,000 offer.

Remember that a trip to Europe in economy costs 60,000 miles, so you’ll be almost there with this one!

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> 60,000 United MileagePlus Miles Treasure Hunt

Related posts:

1. A Unique Time for Super Sizing Your United Mileage Balance
2. United Airlines MileagePlus Program Overview
3. Lufthstansa 50,000 Bonus Miles | Miles and More MasterCard

It doesn’t come as any surprise that the fastest way to build up your frequent flyer mileage accounts is through credit card sign up bonuses.

With all the 50,000 point sign up offers, you could either sign up for one credit card or fly to Australia roundtrip three times for the same number of points.

As you’re planning and scheduling your vacations, you’ll want to focus on credit cards that allow you to combine points so you can reach your mileage trip in record time.

Why?

If you’re trying to get more than one ticket somewhere, then the more miles you have, the more likely you’ll be able to fly on the same flight.  We’ve had occasions where we’ve had miles with two airlines, but not all on the same airline.  A big stockpile of miles on the same airline can be important for family travel.

Most people typically think about the specific airline brand cards.  Thus, people know that they can get Delta miles with the Delta American Express, but they can also transfer American Express Rewards points.

By combining differing mileage sign-ups into one account, you can accumulate enough miles for a free trip in record time.

United Miles Combination Strategy

Within the next six months, you should be able to earn 125,000 United miles.

1. 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points for the Chase Sapphire Preferred.  Those points can be transferred to 50,000 United Mileage Plus miles.
2. 50,000 Ulitmate Rewards points for the Ink Bold Business card.  Once again, those points can be transferred into 50,000 United miles.
3. 25,000 United miles for the United credit card.

After spacing out these three applications over a few months, a person could have 125,000 United miles.

What can you do with 125,000 United miles?

• 5 domestic tickets to anywhere in the mainland United States or Canada
• 2 economy tickets to Europe
• Almost enough for 2 round trip tickets to Japan (5,000 miles short)
• 1 economy round trip ticket to Australia and 1 roundtrip ticket to northern South America

Anyway, you get the point.  You can do a lot.

American Airlines Mileage Combination Strategy

1. Sign up for the 50,000 Citi AAdvantage Visa and American Express using the two browser trick and get 100,000 AAdvantage miles.
2. Wait three months and get the AAdvantage business card and get 50,000 miles.
3. Sign up for the Starwood American Express and get 10,000 miles.

After you’re all done with your applications, you could end up with 160,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles.

Delta SkyMiles Combination Strategy

Delta has a whole host of earning opportunities.

1. Sign up for the 30,000 Delta Gold American Express card.
2. Sign up for the 30,000 Delta Gold American Express business card.
3. Wait a couple of months and sign up for the American Express Premier Gold card.  You’ll get 15,000 American Express Rewards points.*

* The offer of 15,000 AMEX Rewards points is lower than it’s been this past year, so you might want to wait to see if they have a better offer.

Total Delta SkyMiles haul would equal 75,000 miles.

When planning your sign ups for 2012, be sure to plan to stack multiple cards for record fast mileage accumulation.

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> The Mileage Combination Short Cut for Earning Your Free Trip in Record Time

Related posts:

1. A Unique Time for Super Sizing Your United Mileage Balance
2. New Limited Time 45,000 Mile Delta Credit Card Offer
3. American Airlines AAdvantage Points Program | Best Family Mileage Program

You may just be wanting to dip your toes in the water.  That’s fine.  However, what we’re going to talk about today is jumping right into the waters of free travel by getting approval for multiple credit card sign up bonuses.

Those who have been doing applications for a long time know the value of the same day credit card application strategy.

What is the same day credit card application strategy?

Let’s say a person has several cards on her ‘to apply list’.  They want a Chase card, an American Express card, and a Citi Card.

They could apply in moderation.

• Month one they apply for a Chase account.
• Month two they apply for an American Express plastic.
• Month three they apply for a Citi credit card.

What may happen, depending on your credit score and credit history, is that when you sign up for your AMEX card, they may wonder why you want another card when you just applied for a Chase account last month.  Citi might wonder why you want another card when you just got an AMEX and Chase account.

However, you could do all your applications in one day:

On the same day you apply for a Chase, AMEX, and Citi card.

Why would anyone do that?

When these companies do a credit pull, they won’t see your other applications (because they’ll all be processing it on the same day).  In addition, if you apply for two cards with the same company (not recommended with Chase, but it can work) you only get one credit pull with that company.

If you signed up for two American Express Cards, two Citi cards, and two Chase cards in one day, you’d only end up with three credit pulls and six credit card approvals.  In addition, you wouldn’t be as likely to be denied for too many credit inquiries.  You should have a higher credit score when you apply for each card because the impact of your first two applications haven’t been applied yet to your score.

Man of a Thousand places talks about how he applied for 13 credit cards in a single day.  The result was 550,000 miles worth of sign up bonuses.

The downside?

The primary downside is the required minimum spend.  If you get three cards that have a $2,500 minimum spend, then you’ll need to spend $7,500 in 90 days.  That may be possible for some of you, but not for all.

Anyway, this hack is not new by any means, but in case you’d never heard of it, I thought you might like to know that sometimes it’s better to get all your applications out of the way in one day.

The Frugal Travel Guy even suggests a mythical credit card churn schedule for 2012 so you can see how this type of approach would pay off over the year.

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Related posts:

1. How Many Chase Credit Card Applications are Permitted? Will I be Approved?
2. Credit Score Update | How Multiple Credit Card Applications Impact Your Score
3. Newbie FAQs About Credit Card Churning and Sign Up Bonuses