In the last 18 months Mrs. Redtop and I have probably accumulated over 1 million miles/points with relatively little flying and nothing absurd (although there have been some trips to Walmart in there). The points/miles "game" has become my hobby, and she accepts that it's a relatively lucrative hobby, like this weekend when she's flying from Toronto to Washington and Bermuda for free.

Well, nothing is quite free. Yeah, I have to do some work, but it's worth it.

One thing I do is, when I get a card I immediately pay the amount of the min spend, and I add it to my online management software. So if I have to spend $3K, I pay $3000 (or $3100) and then as I see the credit balance hit zero, I know I've met my min spend. Yes, it requires some cash to do that.

I also keep all my credit cards in a spreadsheet and move the closed ones to another sheet. So occasionally I look at the ones that are open and think "Hmm, which ones need to be closed?" You could also add the date opened if you wanted.

You didn't say if you want to fly coach or biz, but whichever, you're looking for travel worth $5-10K for free. Is that worth a few hours of your time here and there?

If you're serious, PM me and I'll give yo ua few tips on how to make this happen. It's actually not that hard, if there are two of you. The hard part is going to be using your miles to actually get tickets, especially in biz.