[defguy]

Im sure some of you have heard about racking up frequent flyer miles to travel for free and Im wondering if we can share ideas how up to date methods for doing this.

So far there are 2 big strategies:

1) Credit Card churning - Only works if you have outstanding 750+ credit. You apply for cards that give you free bonus flyer miles usually 10-25k miles, spend the minimum needed to receive the miles then cancel the card. Some cards you can apply again even after canceling and keep getting those free miles.

2) Flyer Rewards Credit Card - best ones offer 2 miles for every $1 spent or 1 mile for $1 spent. You use this card to buy 1000 (the current limit) $1 mint coins from the US treasury and deposit it into the bank to pay off the credit card thus earning free miles. This can legally be done every 10 days.

Now for the PROBLEMS which is why I started this thread:

1) I got my first credit card at 21 and now I am 23, i have great history and no late payments but my credit score is nowhere near 750.

and

2) The government caught onto this tactic so now its extremely hard to get coins to do this. Especially in a reasonable time period. Some coins have been sold out and others discontinued.

I did think of doing #2 but buying expensive things and returning them for cash However most companies have return policies that return the $$ via the option you paid for it. You need cash for #2 to work. I need to buy things that can easily be returned for cash and that dont lose value after being bought. ie college textbooks that are $200+ and still in the wrapper.

Anyone have any ideas of what else could be bought and returned in a reasonable time period for cash? or Does anybody know any other strategies for raking up lots of free flyer miles?

[Eldon]

Frequent Flyer Tips--
 
I don't waste time with small time transactions to obtain miles (i.e."liking" a company on Facebook to get 500 miles). The best way to Game the Frequent Flyer maze and be as efficient as possible, is to sign up for the best new credit card offers you can find. Recently I signed up for British Airways Visa card (100K miles after $2,500 in purchases) and 2 Citicards (150K in miles after $1,500 in purchases on each card). That's a good deal of "free" flights (the taxes on some routes will not make the tix worthwhile) for doing nothing but shifting my spending to plastic instead of cash. My credit score only went down10 points for those three credit inquires. It's important to pay your bills in full so you're not throwing the banks free money in the form of interest.
 
1. The best dude to follow on Twitter or his site is The Points Guy. He's got the lowdown on the whole Frequent Flyer Game and the best current offers.
 
2. Don't waste $85 on Chris Guillebeau's Frequent Flyer Master book(s). I did. Total waste of money with generic tips you can find free on the internet after 20 mns of Googling.

3. Using the churning credit card you can still do the US mint game. Also, to meet a spending point you could buy a Amex gift card but obviously that's not as good as the US Mint racket.