Credit Cards are the Bomb, Really!
“This post is sponsored by Lexington Law”
I can’t tell you how many credit cards I have applied for to gain miles recently. I always try and take advantage of every card with 50,000 or more flight miles offered in exchange for flight miles. I wouldn’t be able to secure these cards if my credit wasn’t superb and above average. If you need better credit, I would recommend you contact a “>credit repair company as soon as possible. Credit card companies do not like to award these types of promotions unless they are fairly certain you will follow through and uphold your obligations. However, if you feel like your credit has been damaged through no fault of your own, you may want to look into a credit dispute lawyer in Denver or wherever you are located, so you can go over with them the issues you are having and see if they can help you out.
John Lennon Wall Prague
In the past four years I have secured enough miles, by applying and being approved for over eight personal and business cards to travel substantially. This has enabled me to have made round trips to Japan for myself and my son, round trips to Belgium for my wife and myself, an upcoming round trip for my wife and myself to Paris and then Brussels, a round trip for myself to Barcelona and originally a round trip to Cuenca Ecuador for my wife and myself and still have over 325,000 miles available. As a write this blog post, I just had a business card approved for another 70,000 miles which will bring my totals to over 400,000 miles total, if I don’t feel the urge to use some for a spur of the moment week to Europe, Asia, South America or some other luxury travel destinations.
One of the ways I manage to use the minimum amount of miles each time is to look carefully at the award chart from my flight company and see if I am flexible if the miles used will be reduced by changing the date of departure from Texas or the departure date from my intended destination. This insures I don’t waste my miles. A great example is this upcoming trip that will use 70,000 to 80,000 miles less because I moved my departure date back from Texas five days and my return date I pushed three days. This is for both my wife and myself, so we in essence saved enough miles to make another round trip to Europe by optimizing our mileage usage. We originally were looking at 140,000 to 160,000 miles round trip to Brussels.
Pastries at Vienna Christmas Market
Additionally, I always gravitate to Credit cards with no International fees, as we tend to travel almost exclusively abroad. My first trip a travel blogger in 2012 was unbelievable and the fees associated with my credit card that was originally obtained for travel in the US were astronomical. I will caution you and ask you to be observant. If you use your cards at restaurants, ATMs or for transportation please be vigilant and make sure you validate you charges fairly often. My wife and I were in Bratislava Slovakia and we used her Debit card for cash. Immediately Chase Bank notified us that there was suspicious activity on her card and a $600.00 charge was canceled thank goodness.
When traveling I would rather use my credit cards for purchases than to carry a giant wad of cash. That’s just asking for trouble in my honest opinion. I would also tell you that it is imperative you make contact with your credit card companies and inform them of your planned schedule, countries and major cities to be visited.
Flavors of Gouda Cumin, Truffle, Walnut, Cayenne, LoFat Plain, all from Kinderdijk, Netherlands
When I first started collecting miles I was employed and only captured the personal expenditures during a fiscal year. Probably not that much to write home about, but certainly helped me establish my account. Slowly but surely I have been amassing miles in order to hopefully one day hit the million mile mark with my flight account. Certain benefits will become available at that point and flying can become extremely fun again, not the arduous process it is currently. I am excited to hit that plateau one day and begin again. Every time they alter or change the rules I jump on the advantageous items and hold off on those that would impede my progress.
I will never forget losing 68,000 miles because I was inactive. I would have already been very close to achieving this goal of a million mile flyer. In those days one could not achieve miles unless you were actually flying. Now just having the credit card, making purchases with it will land you a massive amount of miles over time, especially if you have extraordinary expenses like teeth or medical surgeries. These have helped my get my miles collection nearer my goal. Alas it’s been at a substantial cost from the events of my life, both medically and dental wise. Recently I have expanded to other airlines and started attaining miles from them. Truthfully though the best way to accumulate miles is to have a card that can be used for any and all flight miles programs. My favorite method though is and has been lately, to sign up for the personal and business cards offering large amounts of miles dedicated to my account.
