Originally Posted by Miles Meyers

So I am new to the mile game and have been reading through all the forums and different mileage blogs to learn the ropes, but I still had a few questions I was unsure of. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated!

-MM

1. How long should I wait for points to show up when complete different activities? (credit card sign up bonus, online contests, partner activity, ect.) If the points don't ever show up, what should I do?

Each activity should have some kind of guideline to let you know when miles/points should post. If you want to make sure it does, document everything and follow up. If you're just talking about points earned through credit card spend, this usually posts at the end of a billing cycle. Credit card sign-up bonuses usually post at the end of the billing cycle in which the spend requirement was met.

2. How do you figure out how many miles you earn when you actually fly? And when you redeem miles for flying, can you pay with both miles and cash?

It depends on your status, the class of ticket, and promotional offers at the time. You may do better to ask about specific flights or airlines.

3. When you redeem miles for RTW flights, can you split it up amongst different mileage programs? (ie. fly from San Francisco to London on Virgin, London to Thailand on Cathay, then Thailand to SFO on something else)

Yes, but it may get tricky.

4. How long do my miles last? do they ever expire? If an account requires "activity", what does that constitute?

Some programs (like Delta and Continental) have no expiration on miles. Others (like American and United) expire after a certain amount of inactivity in your account. Any activity that results in an increase or decrease in your miles balance should extend the maturity date. (There are a couple exceptions, like Starwood, which technically says you need hotel activity.)

5. When churning cards, how many a year/month is good to limit yourself too?

Start small, going after the deals that are most valuable to you. Consider a quarterly churn schedule with 2 or 3 cards each time, but don't do anything you feel uncomfortable doing. Keep an eye on your credit scores to see how they are impacted.