10x Your Points Earning

If you earn miles and points the traditional way, you earn them based on spending.

You take a flight on United Airlines and earn United miles based on how much that flight cost.

You stay a night at the Marriott and earn Marriott Bonvoy points based on how much that night cost.

If you have an airline, hotel, or bank points credit card, you will also earn points whenever you use that card.

You can earn free travel this way, but for most people it's going to take a long time to accumulate a substantial amount of points. Typically the people earning lots of points this way are business people who travel a lot for work.

How to Earn a Lot of Miles and Points (Without Traveling for Work)

That's where welcome offers come in.

Our goal with travel points is to earn a lot of points by taking advantage of bonuses, not by doing a lot of spending. Credit card welcome offers tend to give you the biggest bang for your buck. These are the extra points that credit cards offer to incentivize you to open and spend on their card. It's not uncommon for credit card bonuses on a low fee (under $100 per year) card to be 60,000–80,000 points.

After you have been approved for a card you will need to meet the minimum spending requirement in the time frame allotted in order to receive your bonus.

And then repeat. After you have met the minimum spending requirements on one card, it's time to start planning for your next card. I have earned millions of miles and points and the vast majority of that comes simply from opening credit cards for the bonus.

Opening a few cards a year will allow you to put your regular spending to work by earning you a lot more miles and points.

In the example below, each person is spending the same amount on credit cards in a year.

The first person has the same card they've held for years, earning points per dollar spent — no bonuses. At the end of the year, they have a modest number of points.

Compare that to the person who opens a few new cards, earns several sign up bonuses, and ends the year with many times more miles and points — on the exact same spending.