1,375,000 Miles & Points (and more) Earned From Rewards Card Sign-Up Bonuses in 2012

Posted by on Jan 9, 2013 in App-Party, business credit cards, Credit Cards, Miles, Uncategorized | 16 comments

I’ve finally found the energy to calculate how lucrative rewards card sign-up bonuses were for the Whitmores in 2012. It was easier to do this year since I could pull up old posts on my app parties.

Here’s our 2012 year in review, rewards card edition:

 

earningsnew

2012 Miles Points Jordan New

Our combined household total for 2012 was 1,375,000 miles/points, just from sign-up bonuses. We also raked in 4 hotel certificates (easily worth 150,000 pts.), $450 in statement credits, 16 lounge passes, and a companion ticket on Alaska Air (before it was downgraded).

This doesn’t even count points earned from purchases that we ran through our credit cards. If you want to know how we met all those minimum spending requirements – check out this page. 

I think we did pretty well. I mean, we “crushed it!” I know there are people and couples who out-did us, but this is what we felt comfortable doing, and our credit scores are still in good-to-great condition.

We’re always more conservative with Jordan’s applications, because she wants to be, and I respect the he** out of that. She did still apply for 13 cards, but applying for business cards is a huge advantage to being able to protect your personal credit AND maximize your miles & points stash.

We took some incredible journeys last year to Paris, Dubrovnik, the Greek Isles, San Francisco, Venice, Chicago, Puerto Vallarta, NYC, Las Vegas, and a few other domestic spots. We already have trips to Thailand, Dublin, and the Bahamas planned for this year.

We mostly flew in business class and stayed in suites, and there’s no way we could afford to travel like this without the help of sign-up bonuses from rewards cards.

Jordan and me in Greece.

With Jordan in Mykonos.

 

If you’re going to apply for credit cards, make sure that your credit score is in good condition, that you’re monitoring your score, never making a late payment, and always paying your c.c. bills off in full.

If you can do all of that, then you can reap the rewards of being able to travel classy for pennies. Just be ready for the questions from your friends…”How do you travel so much???”

If you’re looking to apply for some cards, don’t hesitate to shoot me an email (geoff@noobtraveler.com, or check out my sick deals page. And a big thanks if you apply through the blog! Smooch.

— Noob Master

  • Maury

    Congratulations to you and your wife. My wife and I also raked in plenty in 2012. And yes lots of people ask me how do I travel so much.

    • http://www.NoobTraveler.com/ Noob Traveler

      It’s always fun to field that question. :-)

  • JL100

    Nice work! We did around 550,000 and earned about $700 in airfare from Citi and Amex cards. Love your blog…

    • http://www.NoobTraveler.com/ Noob Traveler

      Well done! Thanks for tuning in, and safe travels.

  • Mark

    How did you pull off the two AA business cards?

    • http://www.NoobTraveler.com/ Noob Traveler

      The Citi AA business cards can be churned. Some people have had success applying every 95 days, but I just did two cards last year (no need to get greedy). Of course it’s not guaranteed that you will be approved, and I’ve actually been denied before. The Citi AA business card is the only card I’ve ever been denied on (we have a love, hate relationship). Recently it has been harder for people to get approved as sole proprietors, so YMMV.

      • Mark

        Thanks for the quick response!

        How long between apps?

        And… Did you apply for one visa and one MasterCard?

        • http://www.NoobTraveler.com/ Noob Traveler

          My pleasure! You have to wait at least 90-95 days between you can reapply. I waited around 6 months, and they were both Visa’s.

          • Andrew

            I applied for the Biz AA in Oct 2012. I’m coming up on my second App Party ever at the end of this month or early Feb. I’ve never churned a card. I assume I need to cancel it before I get another one.

            Is it too soon to cancel the card I got in Oct?
            Do I risk losing the 50K points I earned? They’re already in my AA account.

            I was planning on canceling it now, then getting it again during my third app party maybe in June. But if people are churning 90-95 days…are they not canceling the original one they got before that?

            Thanks for your help on this one. It’s had me confused for a while.

            • http://www.NoobTraveler.com/ Noob Traveler

              Yes, most people cancel before re-applying. I always do, and you won’t lose the AA miles. Plus it doesn’t a negative effect on your personal credit because it’s a business rewards card. Best of luck!

  • Sazzy

    How do you make a spreadsheet like that? I would like to start tracking that way in 2013! Thank you!

    Sazzy

  • Robert

    Waiting for 2 more phone calls to be made since ‘our office is currently closed’ and we’ll see if my wife got 8 or just 6 credit cards :)

    • http://www.NoobTraveler.com/ Noob Traveler

      I’m guessing you’re waiting on Chase’s business reconsideration department, which is closed on the weekends. Best of luck with your calls tomorrow, and I believe you will go 8 for 8! Let me know, and thanks for the support if you went through the website. I truly appreciate the support.

      • Robert

        Certainly, I’ll give more details later tomorrow.

        • Robert

          Once again congratulations and thank you for all the tips and ideas I found on your blog. Here’s in short a story with our first, my wife’s to be more specific, multi-cc applications. After a few weeks of a thorough research I applied for Amex HHonors, Barclay’s US Airways, BofAm Hawaiian, Chase Sapphire and Ink Bold as well as 2 Citi HHonors.
          At this point, I’d say we had some 75% success rate and it’s not because we may have received 6 cards or so. In fact my dear wife was approved for all of them! Yes all of them!!! There were 3 immediate positive responses and 5 were supposed to come in the mail, thus our reconsideration phone calls. I hope my wife will forgive me one day this weird conversation she had to go through, as if it was a criminal background check, with Chase business lending department:) So now we’ll have to confirm the amount of bonus points we’re supposed to get and make sure the minimum spending requirements are met. The latter one, however, became all of a sudden this 25% of our success rate. As it turns out, we cannot completely rely on Vanilla re-loadable cards only! Yesterday I spent some 3 hours driving in downtown Brooklyn from one CVS to another and a problem occurred Vanillas are scare but if one finds a shelf with 2 or 22 cards they do not accept a credit card as a form of payment. In some places I almost managed to finalize the transaction but there came a manager and the story went over and over again “this is a store policy”, “only up to $100″ or “less than $75″ or “cannot pay with this gift card”. Shoot! Why did I buy $3K Amex gift card in a first place last week?!!?
          I guess I am lucky working for a small construction company where there are filing fees to be paid almost every 3-4 days.

          • http://www.NoobTraveler.com/ Noob Traveler

            Congrats on a very successful app party! My wife has experienced the business lending department a few times herself. :) Wow, I’m still able to buy VR’s at CVS with a card here at most locations. I hope you find a location that works with you! Please let me know, and thanks for the data point.

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