I am a firefighter just wanting to travel 2 times a year with my family. I have great credit and I want to travel for cheap.

1) Do you just sign up for bonuses and then close the cards. Do you have to have those cards open for a while to get those points. And if I close the card when will I be available to get the bonuses points again.

2)The only cards that I should keep open are the cards that I get multiple points for my purchases.

3)Do points expire?

4) I see how you can get the sign up bonuses but how do you keep on acquiring points so I can keep acquiring points year after year to get 2 vacations a year.

I know I am not the only person that has had these question so if anyone would like to direct me to more information that would be awesome.

Welcome to Flyertalk, firefighterchris!

As you may have surmised, this is a massive topic. I think you should start by looking at the threads in the credit card forum here on Flyertalk.

First decide where you want to travel. That will help you decide on an airline and, to a lesser extent, hotel chain. For example, if you want to go to Europe, Southwest won't do you much good. Or if you want to go to Belgium or Spain or Portugal, Hyatt points are no good, as there is not a single Hyatt in any of those countries.

As long as you don't go hog wild, applying for a few credit cards won't hurt your credit much, and it will pop back in a few months. Might not want to apply for mortgage or car loan in the few months following credit apps.

Good luck.

Welcome to FT firefighterchris!

As toomanybooks says, you should read up on some of the wealth of information here first. There are many of you who have traveled this path before! Here are some good ones to get you started:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...r-threads.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...solidated.html

You should also look into some of the airline forum pages for the airline(s) you intend to use. No sense in not building up a mileage account.

Normally you gotta keep the cards open for 6 months to 1 year. You can sometimes switch it to a no fee version after the year passes or cancel (small hit to your credit score )
2) yes but for example i also keep the platinum card due to the benefits and club entrance
3) normally no
4)Just open 4 cards a year and you got your vacation in business class

Thank you to everyone that has replied to my thread very helpful.

One of the things that I want to do is just keep adding up the points so when I want to take a vacation I will have more than enough points available. I have 2 young kids and my wife and I won't be able to travel for about another year till the kids are old enough.

I guess I don't want to wear out my welcome with the credit card companies by just getting the bonuses. After I get the bonus I can't close that card and reopen it to the bonus can I?

Should I keep doing the 5x points at office supplies stores to keep building my account.

Sorry again I know that I am probably asking the same questions that everyone has already asked. If you know any links for newbies that just want to adding up points while they are waiting to go on vacation send them to me please.

Thank you again

Ways I accumulate points with INK cards:

1. Watch Ultimate Rewards or United Shopping Portals. Never buy anything online without seeing if you can get more points by going through the portals. (remember to clear your cookies 1st.)

2. I fly Southwest and Use Amazon a lot. I buy gift cards at office supply for both.

Get Chase freedom card: no annual fee and follow the category promos.


If you want to fly united and want the United CC sign on bonus, make sure you get some points in your acct (from flying, transferred from someone else, dining,etc) before doing so since you get a larger sign-on bonus.

I am relatively new to churning. I've been churning Citi HHonors for about two years. I also travel a lot. So in the last two years, I've gotten 10 days at the Conrad Rangali for free.The basic room runs about $1000. I just booked my third stay. Between the churning and the Hilton bonus offers, I've done really well. I think Citi is about the last company that lets you churn the same card.

Chase is good, several different cards. You and your wife can have separate cards and so double the points/miles.

My suggestion is start slowly. Start with one card, meet the minimum spend and try another. I keep mine open about a year. Sometimes the cards come with benefits I want to keep. The Hilton fee cards (Amex and Citi) bring Gold levels which gets you free breakfast for two with each room. I would guess lots of hotels would include your children in the free breakfast. (But I don't know for sure.)

My other suggestion is to decide where you want to go, figure out how to get there, where to stay and then start collecting.

I think the credit card churning is winding down, but while it lasts, take as much advantage as you can. And don't charge more than you can pay off each month.

An addendum. You can get the United card with United miles and then get the Chase Sapphire card and transfer Chase points to United. Several different cards allow you to transfer miles/points to different hotels and airlines. That's why I suggested figuring out what you want to do and then mapping out a strategy to get there.

If a really good offer comes along, grab it even though you might not have a use for the miles or points. They can come in handy in an emergency. You may want to visit a sick parent or go to a funeral at the last minute and having miles may make an expensive trip reasonable.

Don't worry about wearing out your welcome credit card market is competitive enough