I’ve just booked a 1500 dollar flight for 70 bucks, so I suppose it’s time for the “make free money and fly for free by managing your credit” post. Let me put it this way: If you spend like an average person, you can easily fly to somewhere like Bucharest, Beijing or Delhi for free every year. With a little extra work, you could do it twice every year. Everything here is assuming that you have decent credit have a decent job, and have no real need to micromanage your credit rating (i.e., you’re not about to buy a house). If your credit is above 750 or so, you’re in good shape. None of my suggestions will ding your credit more than maybe 5-10 points, so it’s not that big a deal in any case.

First, the preliminaries: United and its partners (Star Alliance) and American (oneworld) are the best airlines for mileage redemption. I wouldn’t bother with the smaller airlines, but depending where you want to go, it might be worthwhile. I’m going to use the rule of thumb that an airline mile is worth 1.5 cents (though 1.7 is the more standard number). In general, US flights are 25000 miles, Europe is 50000, and elsewhere is 60-80000. There are occasional offers (i.e., Beijing for 45000 until June on United). Here are some easy ways to get those miles:

1) If you’re in college, go into your United MileagePlus account, and sign up for collegeplus. After you graduate, send your transcript to United, and you get 10000 miles right away. Doesn’t get easier than that.

2) Get the following credit cards: Chase United, Starwood American Express, Citi Aadvantage. Google the following offers, and sign up from there: 20000 miles after $250 in spending with Citi Aadvantage, 20000 United miles with Chase United after $250 spending, 10000 Starwood points after first purchase with Starwood Amex. All of these cards are no annual fee for the first year; just cancel them before the next year begins. With Citi Aadvantage, you can (who knows for how much longer?) get another card a couple months later and get the bonus again (and again and again…). The Starwood points can be used at Starwood hotels, or you can exchange 20000 SW points for 25000 miles on a bunch of airlines. For all of these, you get at least 1 mile/point per dollar spent, and there are specials (i.e., 2 miles on United for each dollar of Spring tuition charged. I got 11000 miles this way).

3) Now go real crazy, and get the following cards: Amex Gold Business, Chase Freedom. You’ll need your own “consulting business” (ahem) for Amex Gold, but you get 25000 Amex Rewards points for signing up. You can use those to just get $250 off any flight you book, or you can convert them to 25000 miles. The Chase Freedom gives you a $250 cash check 8 weeks after you sign up and make a purchase; go to Chase.com and look for the “Get $250″ icon. That’s a pretty damn good deal.

4) Watch sites like View from the Wing for mileage offers. For instance, I just signed up for a month of Netflix for 9.99, and will get 4000 miles for doing so since I paid with my United card. You can get, say, 1000 miles for signing up for online statements with Chase, 10000 miles for signing up for some online checking accounts, etc. It’s very easy.

That’s the basics for now; it’s no problem getting these cards. I have no assets, but I do have a clean credit history and have had cards for 7 years, so I get approved automatically for all of these. If you’re still a student, it will be easier to do this once you graduate. In any case, if you do the things above, then spend $10000 on your Amex, you’ll have: 55000 miles on American, 50000 on United, and $250. That’s a free flight to Beijing, a free flight to Europe, $250 in your pocket, and some miles left over for later. Everything I put up there costs you about $10, and all you have to do is spend an hour online signing up for these offers and remember to cancel before an annual fee comes up (and even so, it’s like $30 for Starwood Amex, so who cares?). Not a bad set of deals, huh?

As for my trip? I’m flying via Kuwait to Dubai on May 22, and then back here from Muscat via Zurich on June 5. Should be one wild (and hot as balls, given it’ll be June in the desert) time. And, for real, you can’t beat the price.

“You know, the Duke always gets tagged as a tax and spend liberal…”

That was the second best thing you did that night — after inviting Kitty Dukakis to the bar.

Brad is here and we’re sitting on the porch, talking about past MA governors and basking in 60-degree weather. You should come visit if you’re ever back in the Northwest.

Love (well, not from Chris… but from Allison),
Chris and Allison

If the electorate didn’t treat him sesriously, I don’t know why I have to! I’ll def try to get out West at some point. I’m going to see if I can get up to Boston before those guys graduate this year. Have you guys seen Brian while you’re out there?

Hope everything’s going well, and I bet your glad the rainy season is almost over! Should I note that it was 83 on Thursday here?

[…] You may remember my post on this subject early last year. I’ve learned some new tricks, so it’s time for an update. I’m going to assume that you like to travel, so these tips lean toward “earning free travel”, though “earning free money” is a major part as well. As long as your credit is decent, you can do all of this no problem, as it has (if anything) only extremely minor harms for your credit score; in my case, my credit score is higher than it was last year. By decent credit, I mean no bankruptcies or late payments, and at least a few years of credit history. I have no assets and an income below the US median, and I’ve never been declined for a credit card; in fact, I get asked to upgrade to platinum on most applications. Here we go: […]

[…] You may remember my post on this subject early last year. I’ve learned some new tricks, so it’s time for an update. I’m going to assume that you like to travel, so these tips lean toward “earning free travel”, though “earning free money” is a major part as well. As long as your credit is decent, you can do all of this no problem, as it has (if anything) only extremely minor harms for your credit score; in my case, my credit score is higher than it was last year. By decent credit, I mean no bankruptcies or late payments, and at least a few years of credit history. I have no assets and an income below the US median, and I’ve never been declined for a credit card; in fact, I get asked to upgrade to platinum on most applications. Here we go: […]