Calchas

Where do you live? This might help us help you.

If you have a bank account and an address in the UK you have everything a normal UK citizen does.

Is this kind of theft really a serious problem where you live?

Unfortunately, it is a risk you take by doing business with a credit card issuer in that country. If you take a credit card from the UK, your agreement will be governed by English law (or possibly Scottish law but it is basically the same in this). If you are that worried, tell your bank you do not want a contactless card.

WolfvanWeen

Yes. It's actually quite well explained on the lifemiles site.
Europe - Europe redemption RT Economy is 25k points, that's less than M&M at 30k, but there ain't no "FlySmart" type of promos.

drewp123

If you're truly dedicated then you should move to the states. You can live in whichever hotel has a mistake fare and use credit cards to fly around. Seems simple enough.

^_^

Raffles

You won't get a UK credit card that easily. Our last nanny took 3 years to get one and had lived here for 5 years by that point.

Wayfahrer

Let me counts... Since 8 years on UK soil to get her credit card? If I understand you correctly.

I just seen your great blog, btw! Finally a very informative non-US FF miles blog.

Bottom line, even for you as one of the top miles bloggers in the UK only 75-100k is possible without actually paid flights and credit card spends (compared to Chris' - from the US - 500k claims)? Interesting at least.

Wayfahrer

I'm in transit, but really, you won't discover secret high mile country. If it were the case, I would be aware of it, trust me.

I answered to you in the topic

EUR 150 cardholder liability in Europe does not go well along contactless payments

oliver2002

The easy 100k is generated at 1cpm with newspaper/magazine subscriptions. German mailing address required. Can be bumped to 2-300k if you don't care what you read. Combined with Senator status the surcharges don't hurt because as SEN/HON you can pick and choose which flight you want to redeem on. As long as they are selling D or B you can waitlist your business or economy award and it will clear.

Raffles

No, I generate huge volumes, thats why I have 10m miles in the bank. But you asked about a 'normal' person, not a 'professional'.

A 'normal' person can probably churn an Amex Gold (20k), Starwood Amex (20k) and perhaps one MBNA and one Barclays card per year. That gets you to the number I quoted, for a couple.

Only Amex in the UK allows you to reapply for the same card and get the bonus again without leaving a substantial (ie multi year) gap.

If you want to get into Tesco supermarket points seriously, or some of the limited manufactured spend opps, then the sky is the limit.

I meant 5 years for our German nanny to be offered a UK credit card, not 8. Apologies if I phrased it badly.

lin821

(underline mine)
That's how I read it as well: 5 years. No need to apologize. Your wording was quite clear for this non-English native speaker.

Jasper2009

I would disagree that surcharges don´t hurt. Paying >400Euros in YQ per person is absolutely ridiculous, but indeed more managable when taking into account the savings from the SEN/HON companion award and the better award availability.

If you don´t have SEN/HON status it´s questionable IMO whether it´s worth spending 0.01 Euros per mile. IMO the value of M&M miles is closer to 0.006-0.007 Euros.

Wayfahrer

The question is if it worth the CPM if I am not reading the magazines I subscribe for at all (true mileage junkie style)? I have more than enough good reads, I can subscribe a hospital, charity, homeless shelter, whatever; German address solved, too.

Or you can just redeem flights on a partner airline? If I have a fair understanding of the game.

Wayfahrer

If it does not require my physical presence in the UK (after establishing credit there), why not?

Overview question: If you have to rate on 10 point scale the mileage opportunities available for residents in the US/UK/Germany/Australia/Whichever major country where the earning potentials you are aware of, how would the countries rate against each other relatively on the mileage scale?

Generally speaking, you better spend your miles (Membership Rewards points, transfer hotel program points, etc.) on actual flights which are in general would be more expensive to pay cash on (in general First and Business, but can be Economy to more out-of-reach destinations as well). OK, if you do not like that much flying around back and forth, any good value to spend miles on hotel stays? I guess that might be (from the flight analogy) the super-expensive hotels (either luxury or a more expensive destination like Moscow) and I don't know how they compare in value to flight awards.

10 M miles in the bank? Nice. But seriously, doesn't it violate a basic rule in the mileage game: don't hoard it? You can never know when your airline goes bust. Did you consider donating them to a charity? Not converted to dollar value but for their actual flying needs, better mileage, pun intended.

Wayfahrer

Again, 8 years in my books. And I thought I know English

lin821

(bolding mine)

OP, if it would help, Raffles' post read to me that the German nanny didn't get her 1st UK credit card until living there for 5 years. The nanny didn't try to apply for a UK credit card until her 3rd year in UK and finally was able to be offered/approved for one after 3 years of trying. Raffles' followup reply confirmed my understanding too:

So the math didn't work out as 3+5=8.
It was meant to be 5-3=2 (of first 2 years of no cc attempt)

Well, all I can say is you don't know math that well either.

Anyhow, my FT math and English comprehension appear to be different from yours in this thread. And this thread isn't about English and math either.

Calchas

I think you will struggle to play the manufactured spending game without your physical presence being there.

If you have 10M miles, you don't put all your miles in the same airline.

If you want to donate to charity, it's more efficient to do it with cash, directly.