I’ve planned some pretty cool trips over the past 6 months & have earned just over 1.1 million new points & miles in the process.
I’m earning most of these points by completing a minimum spend for welcome bonuses on new cards. Instead of optimizing our usage of our cards for various categories like groceries, restaurants, travel, etc, we are typically trying to work on hitting the minimum spend for a new welcome bonus. This is by far the best way to earn the greatest number of points in the shortest amount of time.
Here are the bonuses we’ve worked on since the last update:
- American Express Business Gold - 200,000 points
- American Express Business Platinum - 250,000 points
- Capital One Business Spark (x2) - $4,000 or 400,000 points
- Citi AA Executive - 70,000 points
- IHG Business - 200,000 points
We planned the following trips (using points):
- Christmas Trip to NYC
- Birthday Trip to Santa Barbara
- Couples Trip to Cayman Islands
Some of the cards listed above have a higher minimum spend. The way we meet the higher spend is by:
- Piling all of our bills & purchases onto one card at a time until the bonus is met
- Pre-paying some expenses (like insurance) in order to hit bonuses
- Paying our yearly taxes & estimated taxes with 2% cash back cards
- Opening bank accounts and depositing money with a credit card when needed
You can easily become a “points millionaire” just by spending like you usually do in strategic ways.
I always enjoy hearing your Travel Hacking stories, so feel free to send any new ones my way!
