If you regularly read travel hacking blogs, you have probably heard the term “churn” used quite a bit. For the uninitiated, a churn is a strategy used to sign up for new credit cards to maximize signup and bonus offers to rack up a huge number of frequent flyer miles and travel points quickly.
About four years ago I made the transition from being a casual earner of frequent flier miles to becoming a serious mileage junkie. How serious am I? I attend conferences devoted to the subject and make a nice living writing about loyalty travel programs and credit cards. But having earned millions of points and miles through some ingenious methods, I reached an inescapable conclusion that will sound very familiar to personal finance enthusiasts: Spending points and miles wisely is at least as important as finding ways to earn them.
I have written about awesome mileage cards in the past, and just took advantage of a sweet deal that landed me a free round trip flight on American Airlines. Sound too good to be true? It isn’t. You can do it too.
In November, I spent 2 weeks in London, Paris, and Amsterdam. In January, I was in Costa Rica. In March, I made it to Fayetteville, Arkansas for a weekend. On Monday, I came home from New Orleans for three days before I drive to Omaha for a long weekend. Next weekend I am back in Arkansas, and by the end of the summer I will have been to Minneapolis and hopefully Spain. This might be incredibly overwhelming, but you can really do it too. I promise.
