In my industry, the trade show business, there are many opportunities to rack up many, many points and miles. So many in fact that some trade show exhibit managers or special events coordinators, seriously consider their ability to earn personal miles and points as a major point in selecting a position.

For instance, they often charge all of their shipping, drayage*, and labor fees to their own AMEX card. These figures can easily exceed $100,000.00 per show for a major exhibit.

Additionally, trade shows by their very nature require travel, sometimes for fairly large groups of people. Often the trade show manager will make the whole block of hotels rooms for his/her company and can pay for them all on his/her own credit card, or cause the purchase of all the airline tickets to go to his or her personal AMEX.

Then, there are coporate meetings. Negotiating for personal perks with a hotel manager when arranging a coporate meeting, has for some become an art form in and of itself. Here again, all of the points and miles are going directly to the account of the meeting planner. 100 rooms for 3 nights, plus all the catering = $$$$$$.

Of course, there are many large companies with government contracts, that forbid the personal accumulation of points and miles from business transactions, but there are also those (frequently the free-wheeling dot.coms) who encourage this practice as a method of wooing top talent to their companies.

So for all you young adventurers out there who are looking for a way to rack up huge number of miles and points and aren't of the ilk to start your own business (another path to big numbers in the miles and points department), don't overlook the trade show industry. Of course, you will like to have to work very, very hard under a great deal of pressure without a great deal of sleep to enjoy this work.

For those not familiar with this arcane argot:

*drayage: is all the movement of trade show freight from the time it hits the dock at a show until it leaves the dock at the show. This includes moving crates from the dock to the booth space for setup, then moving the empty crates from the booth space into storage durin the show, then from storage back to the booth space for teardown and repack, and then back to the dock for shipment. Just in case you were curious.