Hi all,

I am a complete beginner trying to accumulate miles in pursuit of a particular goal: a year (or so) of work/travel before gradschool. I have some savings and am working on developing internet-based income sources. Still, money is tight. I'll be traveling coach and staying in hostels. I'm a lot less interested in hotel miles than flight miles.

I currently work full time and I'm going to keep my job for the next 7-10 months. This is what I think I know so far. Please let me know where I'm wrong:

Miles usually do not expire within 2 years so I should start racking them up as soon as possible. Some cards award miles after spending for a number of months, which is further reason to start while I still have a job.

Ideally I'd like to be able to take three intercontinental flights (South America, Europe/ME, and Asia). One way flights are generally not possible so it will most likely be three roundtrip flights from the US. These three flights will cost in the range of 40-60k miles. I should aim for a minimum of 150k miles.

Credit cards with 50k mile signup bonuses are rare and a good deal. If possible I should sign up for a couple of those.

Questions that I have:

Is there a good resource for how miles can be converted between companies/understanding if some miles are worth more than others?

Is there maybe a cheaper type of ticket (RTW or some other deal) that would let me pull this off with fewer miles?

When applying for multiple credit cards, is there a particular strategy that increases chances of being accepted or minimizes any credit score hit?

What else am I missing?

Thanks in advance for everyone's help.

Finally, if anybody with more experience wanted to go as far as to recommend specific cards/programs that would be good to try I'd be really grateful.