[misterbwong]

Edit: not sure if your comment was meant for me or timqin. Leaving it up just for general awareness

General tips:

  - Never carry a balance, ever.  If you do, forget about playing this game because it'll cost you more than you gain.  Pay off your CC debt first.
  - There are many blogs/sites that push "their" link over ones that pay more to the user because they get paid a hefty affiliate fee.  Be wary.
  - Have a goal in mind before you accrue points so you can be more strategic about accruing.  I recommend starting with a list of all the trips you'd like to take in the next two years and using that to frame what points you will need to accrue.  Don't forget hotels as the cost of hotels can easily outweigh the cost of flights.
  - Figure out how much work you want to put in.  There are levels to the game-the deeper you go, the more work it will be.  It will also get that much more rewarding
  - Prioritize transferable currencies (UR, MR, Cap1, TYP, etc) because devaluations happen often and transferrable currencies help insulate a bit.
  - Try to get your partner on board if at all possible, having a second (third, fourth, etc...) player (P2-P100+) is a scaling super power
  - Keep in mind the "burning" side of the equation and use them often.  Points and miles are worthless bits of made up paper dressed up as currency and subject to the whims of corporations that don't have your best interests in mind.  Treat them as such.
  

My general strategy for a (US based) newbie is:

  1. Read above, create a strategy and an ordered list of cards
  2. Sign up for the credit cards and put all your organic spend on those credit cards to meet spend.
  3. Repeat 1 & 2 after meeting spend and gaining sign up bonus
  4. If you have another player available, switch between players every time you meet the spend and get the bonus to lower your velocity and appear "safer"
  5. You might also want to get a (minimum) 2% everywhere card for everything you can't put on the new cards.

It can get a bit difficult as the minimum spend requirements can be high. There are many strategies out on the web that can help with this.

For a couple using this strategy, you'll be averaging ~2 new CC's per person per year (which is very safe) and earning ~7-10ish percent back on most spend. After a year or so of doing this, you should have enough for a vacation or two.

[Beijinger]

Thanks, great info.

I never accrued points wiht my CC. Is it really worth it compared to 1-2% cash back? I just collected by flying. You have to ask yourself: What do I want to achieve?

1. Fly free with points

2. Have gold status and access to the lounge, more luggage, faster check-in

1 is hard. It basically makes only sense if you really fly a lot and your company pays for it. 2 is easier, IF you chose the right airlines to collect points. This is a science but take this as a start: https://www.wheretocredit.com/

At one time I had all three alliances gold elite status (or equivalent). But I flew very little for free or discounted with points.

It always depends on your situation. But I had Turkish (Star Alliance) gold. And if I flew via Asia to Europe with Ethiopian Airlines via Addis Ababa (with nice stay overs), TK shitted me with points.

[misterbwong]

Agree 100% everyone should ask what you want to achieve before even considering starting. General archetypical goals of travel hackers I've seen are:

  1. Maximum number of trips
  2. Minimum cost for trips (cheap or free travel)
  3. Free or discounted luxury travel (business class, luxury hotels, etc)
  4. Maximum cash back (to the point of being a full time job)
  5. Maximizing elite status (for business travel, etc)
  6. Short term, saving up for one or two big bangs (honeymoon, bucket list item, etc)
  7. Any combination of above and more.

Each one of those goals require a different strategy. If you're aiming for maximum cash back, I personally think the work involved in the CC game would be worth the time but everyone is different. A sign up bonus generally represents 7-10% cash back on the bonus spend so I'm ok with spending a bit of time updating spreadsheets and keeping track.

On the other hand, I have some friends who do not want to bother due to the stress and overhead involved (finances can be difficult). For those types, I usually recommend foregoing the CC game and putting everything on a no annual fee 2% card.

[khafra]

Flying free is a high aspiration; are there easier goals in that direction? Like substantially discounted flights, or business class flights for the price of economy?

[Beijinger]

Check out flyertalk. This can't be answered here.

There are airlines where you could fly for free, including paying ticket taxes with points (e.g. Aeroflot), there are airlines that are okay, for example Turkish. I once flew extremely cheap with TK from Europe to Colombia. This being said, the ticket prices change tremendously if you switch to "buy with points" at TK. Terrible experience with points: Lufthansa. Lufthansa is also pretty good with "this flight earned you 0 points.

You really have to do your research. If you have a lot of international business class flights paid by your employer, it becomes easier.

You have to sort everything out. What do you want to achieve? How? Where do you earn points? Remember, even if you fly most with airline X, it may, depending on your situation, makes sense to collect points with airline Y, as long as they are in the same alliance.

Aeroflot was great. Since they are kind of closed now, I collect SkyTeam with Delta, but I am not sure if this is the best option. But Delta is a really good airline.

This as a last bonus to get you rolling: https://statusmatcher.com/

Got Latam and TK Gold via status match (and then flew a lot of cause)

[timqin]

Definitely possible. There are a lot of mispricings for cash fare flights