Welcome to Miledom! Here’s your classic “start here” page

We’re all about miles – miles earned, redeemed, traversed. Why in that order? Every time you travel, you have many choices to make. Airlines, hotels, destinations. Class of travel, hotel star rating, activities. Even if you prefer backpacking and have no desire for luxury travel, “free” probably sounds pretty good.

The beginning of free travel

The greatest opportunities now revolve around earning miles through credit card signup bonuses, spend, and other promotions. It is easier than ever to amass quantities of miles and points to satisfy multiple business and first class flights and luxury hotel stays every year. For the most frugal who wouldn’t let a mile or point go to waste, economy flights are becoming easier to redeem, and requiring so few points, can be redeemed seemingly for perpetuity… You could also redeem points for cash back. Most premium cards nowadays offer signup bonuses high enough to redeem multiple business and first class flights!

So let’s first focus on earning miles that we can redeem to fund all of this. The hobby of travel hacking has been around for long, but has truly proliferated in the 21st century. Credit card issuers are ever hungrier for swipes, airlines prefer selling their miles inventory more than seats, and hotels want to secure your brand loyalty by offering ever more perks. They all cater to many points programs and ecosystems. Airline or hotel points can be used with the respective airline or hotel brands, but the most desirable transferrable points programs include American Express Membership Rewards (MR), Capital One Miles, Citi ThankYou Points (TYP), and Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR).

We should briefly note the classic comparison of points redemption value: points are best used with airline partners for maximum value. The highest cents per point (cpp) value is achieved by using transferrable points currencies right.

Transfer options and value

Programs offer different options and value – an airline or hotel cobranded card, such as Alaska’s or Marriott’s, accumulates only one rewards point currency. Some may offer cashback options: Chase Air Canada Aeroplan card offers an option to redeem 1 point for 1.25 cents. But the most attractive transferrable points currencies offer multiple ways to redeem. We have included a reasonable estimate of value possible to obtain by different options:

• Transfer to airline partners for long-haul business and first class flights (up to 20-30 cpp)
• Transfer to airline partners for long-haul economy class or ordinarily expensive short or monopolized routes (up to 10 cpp)
• Transfer to hotel partners (1-3 cpp)
• Redeem for general travel through card issuer portal (<1.5 cpp)
• Redeem for cash back (1 cpp)
• Redeem for merchandise, such as a toaster (<0.8 cpp)

In the canonical example, 15,000 points redeem an 11-hour business class flight from New York to Hawaii, or a toaster you could find on eBay for $10.

And if you don’t yet have so-called premium cards which accumulate these so-valued points, not to worry. A reasonable credit score above 650 should suffice. Many of these cards are even free, nearly free, under $100, or otherwise offer more value than their annual fee.

(Even if you’re new to the US or somewhere else, even without an SSN, ITIN or credit history, you can get started with premium cards.)

Stacking done right

Apart from credit cards, shopping portals offer miles or cash for shopping as usual on all your favorite websites through them. They might also offer bonuses or promotions for signing up for new services. The cashback generally stacks on top of other discounts or offers. New users may also qualify for bonuses such as $xx cashback after spend. Many airlines operate their own portals where you can earn miles rather than cash back, but earnings and valuations may differ or lead to scattered points balances. We like TopCashback as travel promotions are frequent and payouts easy. You may use our link to sign up with them and obtain a new user bonus of up to $35.