bbriscoe34

I'm assuming much of your big spending comes from business purchases? May I ask what type of job you have and do they allow you to run your travel thru your personal credit cards?

I have a fairly high income job but currently no business travel. And a real estate rental business on the side, but I keep my recurring expenses very low (we self manage, have maintenance free finishes) so the points opportunities are few and far between - prop taxes charge an onerous CC fee so I pay those in cash. Insurance is really the only big item I can run thru the CC.

mia

Is the fee onerous if you are using the spend to satisfy a new credit card bonus requirement? For example, if you pay $5,000 and the fee is ~$150, but you receive ~55,000 miles/points?

RNE

I'm retired now after a 4-decade career as a systems analyst, but my wife still works and her career involves a lot of reimbursed travel and dining (and other) expenses. My wealth comes not from my career but from very savvy—and very lucky!—investing.

RedSun

If you get a lot of business travels, you can get lot of points easily. This is the lifestyle we either love or hate. For most of the common folks, we accumulate from multi cards and multi programs (UR, MR etc) from SUB and organic spending. MS is another topics that there is a separate forum. There has to be some balance with the time we spend earning it, gaming it and spending it.

GetSetJetSet

237,867

not saving up for anything, I transfer them and book as needed. For example, recent transfers for upcoming trips:

- XIY-HKG (KA Y) booked through BA after transferring UR points
- HKG-MNL (CX J) booked through BA after transferring UR points
- MNL-HKG-PEK (CX J) booked through BA after transferring UR points
- JFK-VIE-PRN (OS J) booked through UA after transferring UR points
- HKG-ICN-JFK (KE F) booked through KE after transferring UR points

vtgambler

I currently have about 1.7M UR points. I'm hoping to take a first class/5-star trip to Australia in a couple of years but I will use points as needed before then since I continue to earn significant amount. I'm currently bullish on Chase points since I figure I'm getting a minimum of 2.5% return on any spending and usually more.

RedSun

Can you let us know how you accumulate 1.7 MM UR points? If you earn 2 points/$, it is $850,000 spending. If you earn 5 points/$, it is still $340,000 spending. You only accumulate that if you run a lot of business spending. Even it is hard for MS to do it. Chase has cracked down on MS to earn UR points....

mhdena

No doubt a large 7 figure balance is accumulated over several years with signup bonuses and spending, with the majority being spending.

This seems to be something the churn only people miss, as evidenced by the many posts of "I have 100k points, where can I use them".

drminn

I keep my balance at about 200K points for emergency air travel. We have family in Europe and South America, so if required I can get a cheap ticket on relatively short notice.
We had a family emergency shortly after Xmas last year, I was able to get business class tickets on about a weeks notice. Would have flown in Y if pushed, but since J was available. Paid tickets in coach at that time (and with about 5 days notice) were $2.5K or more .

bbriscoe34

Potentially true, and I did that once. But I try to stay at or under 5/24 (plus Amex, Citi, USB, and Chase business cards which don't count towards 5/24) and I tend to have enough true merchant spend that I usually don't need the prop taxes with their fees to meet another spend minimum, and still reach all the bonuses I can get over 2 years from Chase UR points. Especially since I've done pretty much all the AmEx once in a lifetime bonuses already.

That said, maybe I'm giving up a 2nd tier bonus here or there - I could apply for and probably be approved for the Marriott business card. But I'm not sure that 80K Marriott points is really worth the $95 fee plus the $150 in CC fees to pay my prop taxes last fall. And I can still get that card later this year (maybe with AF waived if I time it right) and meet the spend with merchant spending - right now I'm trying to reach $40K on my HHonors to hit Diamond for '18/19 and rack up 120K HH points. But the HH points certainly aren't worth enough to pay those onerous fees to get the extra spend.

vtgambler

Yes I own a business and put whatever I can on credit cards. Many vendors require smaller businesses to pay by credit card. Given the option of Net 30 or CC, I'm obviously using a card as I effectively get at least 30 days to part with the cash anyway. I've never done any MS and I haven't ever churned the same cards but I have maximized the sign-up bonuses for the various personal and business cards that earn UR points.

I currently have Sapphire Reserve, Freedom Unlimited, Ink Business Plus (Bold) and Ink Business Preferred. With that combination I earn 1.5 point for any non-bonus spending, and I have a fair amount of spending on dining, travel, shipping & internet advertising which earn 3x on certain cards. I believe I also still get 5x for office supply, cell phones and internet with x-Bold card.

RedSun

Churning makes it really fast. And there are still many cards folks can churn. You can get your spouse or SO to do it with you etc. MS is another thing. But there is balance of the time and efforts....

mhdena

You're not going to get to over a million Chase points by churning alone, even with multiple spouses.

RedSun

Why you want to get a MM? Even the multiple spouses can't spend that much....

mhdena

Make up your mind!
You'd be surprised no doubt to find some have MMs in multiple programs.