UPDATE # 1: This article has just been updated to reflect what we believe to be the best cards for miles as of 2016.
UPDATE # 2: Many people I’ve talked to have expressed concerns about how opening and closing credit cards regularly will affect their credit score. I’m happy to report that, ultimately, doing this has actually increased my score significantly. Yes, your credit score will dip down a bit each time you apply for a new card…. but as soon as you start paying the card on time and in full, your score will go right on up higher than before. As proof, I’m 23 years old, have had at least 12 cards in the past 3 years, and have a credit score of just under 800. I’m not sharing that score to brag or anything but to show that if someone completely normal, like me, has a score that high with that many credit cards, then there’s no reason you can’t either. So, read on to learn more.
Hello all!
I have a confession to make that might surprise many of you… I’m a credit card addict at the ripe old age of 23. Yes, it’s true. If you were to take a peek into my wallet, you find 6 of those little slips of plastic tucked in there.
Before you all panic though and start an intervention, let me explain myself. No, I am not in debt and no, my credit score doesn’t suck (as you can read about in update #2 above). Although I have 6 credit cards, I am not spending a dime more than I would if I only had a single card. Despite this, I’ve managed to wrack up 450,000 miles over the course of three years with the three major airline alliances. By the time I have used all of these miles, I will have altogether saved about 8,000 USD in flight tickets.
Sound too good to be true? That was my first thought, too. However, from personal experience I can tell you that it’s relatively easy (you just have to meet the spending requirement within a certain amount of time), painless (as long as you don’t get too heartbroken about being denied from a card you applied to), and basically life-changing. So, without further ado, here are what I believe to be the 3 of the best cards to get airline miles.
- Chase Mileage Plus Explorer Card
50,000 MILE BONUS IF YOU APPLY BEFORE JUNE 30TH, 2016!!!!!
Through this link, you can get 50,000 miles instead of the usual 30,000 offered by the Explorer Card. However, you will then have to spend $3,000 instead of the $1,000 in the first 3 months and the annual fee for the first year won’t be waived.
Link: https://www.theexplorercard.com/rewards-cards
Airline: United (a member of Star Alliance)
Spending to Get Miles: $1,000 in the first three months
Number of Miles Received: 30,000 miles
Value of Miles Received: enough for a one way flight between the U.S. and Europe or the U.S. and South America (and vice-versa) during low season
Annual Fee: $0 for the first year, $95 per year after that
Foreign Transaction Fees: none (great for travel!!)
- Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select Mastercard
Link: https://secure.fly.aa.com/citi/direct-plat
Airline: American Airlines (a member of Oneworld Alliance)
Spending to Get Miles: $1,000 in the first three months
Number of Miles Received: 30,000 miles
Value of Miles Received: enough for a one way flight between the U.S. and Europe or the U.S. and South America (and vice-versa) during low season
Annual Fee: $0 for the first year, $95 per year after that
Foreign Transaction Fees: none
- Gold Delta Skymiles Credit Card
50,000 MILE BONUS IF YOU APPLY BEFORE JULY 7TH, 2016!!!!!
If you apply before this date, you can get 50,000 miles instead of the usual 30,000. However, instead you’ll have to spend $2,000 in the first 3 months instead of the usual $1,000. I think it’s worth it for the extra miles, though!
Link: https://www.americanexpress.com/dapply/web/getthecard
Airline Alliance: Skyteam
Spending to Get Miles: $1,000 in the first 3 months
Number of Miles Received: 30,000
Value of Miles Received: enough for a one way flight between the U.S. and Europe or the U.S. and South America (and vice-versa) during low season
Annual Fee: $0 for the first year, $95 per year after that
Foreign Transaction Fees: 0%
How to make sure you reach your spending limit:
- Use your card for absolutely EVERYTHING. Even a $1.00 pack of gum. Trust me, it’ll add up!
- Offer to pay for group dinners, events, activities,etc. with your card. Just ask the others to pay you back in cash.
- Centralize all of your family’s spending. Cover groceries, insurance payments, phone bills, etc. Have others pay you in cash if need be.
- Open new credit cards before big purchases (electronics, plane tickets, etc.). This way, you know you’ll hit that limit…. sometimes, with only a purchase or two!
- If you pay tuition or rent, decide if the extra credit card usage fees are worth it. For some purchases, there will be a percentage or set fee you will have to pay if want to pay with credit card. While the fees might seem like a lot, they usually still end up being much less than the cost of the flight you would have to buy if you didn’t earn these miles!
- If you are still short, purchase Visa gift cards until you hit the limit. They can be used for anything so they’re a great replacement!
Some general tips and notes about using credit cards for miles:
- Call and cancel cards that have the annual fee waived for the 1st year before the year is up to avoid paying the annual fee. Occasionally, I’ve found that if you tell them you are cancelling because you don’t want to pay the fee, they will waive it for another year. Most recently, instead of offering to waive the fee, they offered me a number of miles that was worth more than the $95 I was going to spend to keep the card, an offer which I gladly accepted. It never hurts to try.
- American Airlines gives you the best value for your miles. So, if you’re looking into getting another card outside of the ones listed above, try to make it an American Airlines one. As U.S. Airways will be merging into American Airlines soon, these are good cards to have as well.
- You will also earn miles for your purchases. Since I’m not a big spender, this usually doesn’t affect me that much. However, if you have one of these cards it’s worth trying to use it in place of cash anytime you can. The number of miles earned for purchases is usually 1 mile per 1 dollar.
- Try to have at least one card with no foreign transaction fees. I’m assuming you are reading this page because you are interested in traveling, right? In that case, having a card with 0 foreign transaction fees is a huge benefit. Fortunately, most cards these days don’t charge foreign fees.
- Don’t apply for cards too frequently. Often, if you’ve recently applied and been accepted for a credit card, you’ll probably be denied if you apply for another too soon. However, if you want to get around this little inconvenience….
- You can apply for multiple cards at the same time. You can do this one of two ways:
- Fill out the application form of two credit cards that you would like on two different computers and then click the two “submit” buttons at the same time.
- Fill out the application form of two credit cards that you would like on two different browsers (on a single computer) and then click submit buttons as close to the same time as you can.
- Have your application information handy. The cards all ask for different information, but without a doubt, you will have to put you on your social security number as well as your estimated annual salary. If you are a student or working part-time, you can either estimate how much you would be making full-time or input something around $30,000-$35,000.
- Be prepared for rejection. Credit card companies take into account a whole host of things when they decide whether or not to accept an applicant. So, please, don’t be offended if you are denied a card. I’ve been denied before without knowing why.
- Avoid flying into or having connections in high taxing airports. Alas, perhaps I have mislead you into thinking that the flight you will purchase will be really, truly 100% free. Unfortunately, nothing in life is truly free… just almost free. So, even though you will be purchasing your flight with miles, be prepared to pay flight taxes. Personally, I’ve never had to pay more than $60 in flight taxes for a long haul flight. Flights departing from US tend to have quite low taxes (I have a friend who just bought a flight from the US to Japan with miles and only paid $5 in taxes) but they can be more expensive when departing from other countries. In fact, even the airports you have connections in can affect the amount of taxes you pay. In particular, I’d try to avoid the London airports (even for connections) as the taxes there are far more than any other place I’ve seen. When you are searching for the flights available for miles, you should be able to see the connections as well as the amount you will pay in tax for each flight.
- Take advantage of the basic travel and car insurance. Most of these cards above have some basic travel and car insurance when you book and pay a flight ticket or car rental with them. This can definitely save you some money when renting a car or if you have some trouble with your bags during the flight. However, if you are looking for a complete travel insurance that will cover almost any kind of health issues and accidents during your travels, we recommend that you check our page about it with the 3 best and cheapest travel insurances in the market!
(P.S.: By the way, If you need help finding the best car rental companies, check out our article with The 5 Best and Cheapest Websites to Compare and Rent Cars Around the World!)
Well, that’s it for now, folks. I know this seems like a whole lot of information and details for a little piece of plastic, but I can guarantee you that it’s all worth it in the end. Plus, you no longer have to be ashamed of turning into a little credit card addict like me. If anything, you can convince all your friends and families to do the same. Just please do NOT forget to pay off those credit card bills on time…
Just keep in mind that to apply for these cards you must either be a U.S. citizen or have a social security number. However, almost every major airline in the world has a credit card that gives you miles. Check out your local airline’s website and give us your best recommendations for your country below. Or, you can check out our page on 16 ways to save money on flights.
Alright, let me know if you have any questions or comments in the box below and I hope you will soon be dreaming of the new, exotic destinations that you be flying to for FREE (or almost free 
*This article was written by the website’s contributing editor and author, Nikki Elliott. Nikki is an American who has several big backpacking trips under her belt and is currently teaching English in South Korea. If you wish to contact her about her article, please comment below.