MileValue is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
Note: Some of the offers mentioned below may have changed or are no longer be available. You can view current offers here.
Hey there, you’re reading an outdated post! The updated series from April 2015 can be found here.
This is the thirtieth and final post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.
You did it! You passed Miles Collecting 101. You should now have the basic tools to accrue millions of miles through credit card sign up bonuses mainly, but also credit card retention bonuses, online shopping, dining, flying cheap paid fares, and many other ways. I really hope you’ve enjoyed reading this series; the positive feedback I’ve gotten has been gratifying.
So what’s next?
Your mileage education is never complete. There’s always something more you can learn, so check back daily at this blog. Hopefully you now have the basics down and can understand a few of the more complicated posts. You should also be checking flyertalk’s forums daily to keep abreast of the daily developments in the world of miles’ promotions.
Keep up with your new hobby, and maybe I’ll see you at the front of the plane in the flying bed across the aisle from mine. It’s your turn to enjoy Free First Class Next Month This Month.
Here is a link to every post in the series in case you missed one.
- Free First Class Next Month: A Beginner’s Guide to Free Travel
- Free First Class Next Month: Signing Up for Loyalty Programs
- Free First Class Next Month: Checking Your Credit Score
- Free First Class Next Month: How Many Cards Can You Personally Apply For?
- Free First Class Next Month: Your First App-o-rama
- Free First Class Next Month: Signing up for Award Wallet
- Free First Class Next Month: Credit Card Application Reconsideration
- Free First Class Next Month: Meeting Multiple Minimum Spends At Once
- Free First Class Next Month: Category Bonuses
- Free First Class Next Month: Transferable Points Programs
- Free First Class Next Month: Other Credit Card Benefits
- Free First Class Next Month: Credit Card Cancellation Negotiations
- Free First Class Next Month: Dining Programs
- Free First Class Next Month: Using kayak.com
- Free First Class Next Month: Using Flyertalk’s Mileage Run Forum
- Free First Class Next Month: Learn Airline Alliances, Codes, and Hubs
- Free First Class Next Month: Seatguru
- Free First Class Next Month: Using United.com for Award Bookings
- Free First Class Next Month: Using AA.com for Award Bookings
- Free First Class Next Month: Using Hawaiianair.com to Make Award Bookings
- Free First Class Next Month: Using BA.com to Make Award Bookings
- Free First Class Next Month: Using Delta.com to Make Award Bookings
- Free First Class Next Month: Great Circle Mapper
- Free First Class Next Month: Using Priceline to Save Hundreds on Hotel Rooms Part 1
- Free First Class Next Month: Using Priceline to Save Hundreds on Hotel Rooms Part 2
- Free First Class Next Month: Using evreward.com to Earn Miles from Online Shopping
- Free First Class Next Month: Other Frequent Flier Miles Opportunities
- Free First Class Next Month: Double Your Credit Card Applications
- Free First Class Next Month: Using the Mile Value Calculator
- Free First Class Next Month: The End
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.
Awesome Job! Knowledge knows no bounds!
Today I finished reading all 30 posts of your “Free First Class Next Month” blog. I have been totally absorbed in it for the past 2 days. Congratulations on having the most thorough and comprehensive information anywhere of how the ‘miles game’ works.
However, I am unclear about certain things because I am completely new to this:
1)Are you suggesting that I apply for numerous credit cards from all 3 airline alliances (which would mean credit cards from United, American and Delta)? If so, wouldn’t this dilute the effectiveness of my miles-earning efforts? Wouldn’t it be better to pick just one alliance and concentrate my efforts to maximize my rewards there?
2)You say that I should get only 1 personal card and 1 business card per issuing bank at a time. Let’s say I do this for a United Mileage Plus card that, hypothetically, offers 30,000 bonus miles. With this scenario, could I do the following?
-Get 30k miles for 1 personal UA Visa card + 30k miles for 1 business UA Visa card.
-Get 30k miles for 1 personal UA Mastercard + 30k miles for 1 business UA Mastercard.
-Get 30k miles for 1 personal UA American Express card + 30k miles for 1 business UA American Express card.
-Get 30k miles for 1 personal UA Discover card + 30k miles for 1 business UA Discover card.
This would total a whopping 240,000 miles, provided I could meet the spending requirements within the specified time frame, which brings me to my next question:
3)Let’s say these cards each required you to charge $3,000 within 3 months in order for you to receive the bonus. That’s $24,000! These numbers are not realistic to achieve, so I’ll stop dreaming and come down to reality.
Personally, I could probably barely meet the spending requirements of 1 single credit card at a time, and I’m not even sure about that, because it is nearly impossible to charge everything on a credit card (some stores don’t accept them; you can only pay cash for small transactions, etc).
But, let’s assume that I can meet the spending requirements of 1 credit card every 3-4 months and earn an average of 25,000 bonus miles per card. That’s about 100,000 bonus miles a year. Not too shabby. But, using these figures, how long would it take for me to earn 1 round trip Business class or First class ticket from, say, New York to Delhi or Buenos Aires on average? If 250,000 miles are needed to pay for a r/t first class trip of this length, it would take me nearly 3 years (!) to have the privilege of sitting up front only once.
I hate to be like a dark cloud that rains on a parade, but these are some of the reasons I am not too optimistic about this whole miles thing. True, if I am persistent, I can probably get an upgrade or something once-in-a-blue, but I wouldn’t get too excited, unless, of course, I am missing something.
1) Apply for tons of cards across all the alliances. You can focus on all of them.
2) You could if those cards existed. But you are confused on two things. One is that Visa and Mastercard aren’t issuing banks. They are payment processors. American Express is both an issuing bank and payment processor. And Discover is an issuing bank (with no good rewards cards). And the second thing is that very few airlines have deals with multiple issuing banks.
3) NYC to BsAs costs 125,000 miles r/t in first, 100k in fully flat bed biz seats. You could get that many from 2 offers. I spend very little annually on cards, and I am getting 3 first class trips a year by getting 50,000+ mile cards and getting a lot of them. Don’t be discouraged.
See my post tomorrow or the next day with the best current offers.
[…] I've found this to be the best newbie guide: https://milevalu.wpengine.com/free-first-clas…month-the-end/ […]
Please keep up the good work! You covered in 30 days what I learned over 6 months. This is a great asset to anyone starting out. Thanks again.