This is a blog about earning and redeeming frequent flyer miles to travel more, better, and for less money.


I live a transient lifestyle, flying around the world sometimes in economy, but often in Business or First Class, on a budget because I know the tricks to getting tons of miles without flying and redeeming them as efficiently as possible.

Whether you want to take a dream honeymoon, a family vacation, a round-the-world trip, or even just get a free flight home for Christmas, read this blog and you’ll find out how.

Before going any further…

The primary way to earn miles these days is through opening new credit cards and optimizing what and how you spend on them. If you are in debt or can’t control your spending on credit cards, don’t apply for new ones. If you run a balance on your credit cards, the interest will cost you more than the rewards are worth. Only open new cards if you can pay off their balances every month.

First steps

Sign up to receive our free daily email. Start each morning with all of the day’s posts - expert, free-travel advice featured in the New York Times, Marketwatch, and other news sources.

Follow MileValue on Twitter and Facebook.

Start reading Travel for Pennies with Miles to get excited about the possibilities when collecting miles. Pretty cool, huh? I get most of my miles from credit card sign up bonuses.

Check out this list of the top ten credit cards that we update twice a month and apply for a card or two.

If the thought of getting started seems intimidating, don’t worry. You’re not the only one that feels that way.

We can get you pointed in the right direction. With just some basic information, our Free Credit Card Consultation service will get you on the path to free travel.

Unsure how to efficiently use the miles you already have? Our Award Booking Service does all the hard work for you. You send us your miles, points balances and where/when you want to go and we do the rest.

Which cards to open first

If you haven’t picked up on this yet, the easiest way to get tons of miles fast for more travel is by opening numerous credit cards to earn sign up bonuses, increasing your return on spending ten-fold. But don’t get in over your head. Start with a few Chase cards first and get used to managing them. Chase bank issues numerous valuable travel cards, and will cut you off from them once you’ve opened five. None of the other big rewards-card issuing banks have a rule like this, more commonly known as the Chase 5/24 rule. Anyone wanting to maximize their bonus earnings should hit Chase cards first. In the posts below I go over different combos for different types of travelers/consumers.

The 5 Chase Cards you should apply for: