*NEW TO MILES AND POINTS* How do I start?
 

Hello,

I am very new to the mile and points world, and just was wondering what the best credit card is to buy if I like to travel. Any tips here would be nice! Thank you.

You've got a lot of reading to do. Check out the wiki posts in this forum, the credit card forums and the airlines you wish to fly and/or redeem on.

Also when making a post to gather information the more information you provide the more we can tailor the answer to your specific request. In this instance it would help if we know:
-Where are you located (generally)?
-What is your current travel pattern?
- What is your desired reward travel?
-What class of travel do you currently do?
- What airline and destination do you wish to redeem for?
- What is your credit like?
- Do you currently have any credit cards? and if so did you receive a signup bonus?
- Do you currently have any status or significant mileage balances?

Hi Yoshi, Thanks for the reply!!

I live in Los Angeles, California

I usually travel in the months of January - July

I want to fly around the world in first/business class cabin

I want to redeem a ticket from Los Angeles to Tokyo in First Class

I currently have no credit cards.

I have no miles.

You are being extremely optimistic (being polite)
Do you know the difference USA domestic first and long haul international business/first class?
The number of airlines and routes having first class long haul is decreasing.

Start small and work on it for few years

The no credit cards may be a problem if you don't have established credit. Do you know your credit score? You can request a free one from each of the 3 main credit reporting agencies each year. First class is a lofty goal in getting the points required and finding available seats when you want to fly. Business is often less of a challenge in comparison. Not all airlines have an F product and nor fly it on certain routes. On the LAX-TYO route JL & SQ operate nonstop flights with an F product and DL, UA & AA operate nonstop flights with no F class. If you find J class acceptable I'd focus on getting the AA miles for either the JL or AA flight via the Citi AA & Thank You Premier cards. SQ would be my ideal airline for the route and for that you'd need AMEX MR rewards points which can be rather hard to get for someone without established credit or points from Chase's UR program via the CSP.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"Do you know your credit score? You can request a free one from each of the 3 main credit reporting agencies each year."

I know that you can get a free credit report from each reporting agency once a year. Do they now also provide your FICO score free of charge?

Credit Score
 

My credit score is around 750.

That I am unaware of. I get my FICO via my investment account platform, Amex, Discover, Wells Fargo & Cap1 cards.

That's not great nor bad. You should qualify for the AA and Thank You Preferred cards which would get you on your way to reward tickets on AA or JL.

OP, no offense, but what exactly are reported in your credit report?

Unless you have a history in some other aspect of your credit, it will be years (3-5 minimum) for your dream to come true.

with no credit history you get a 750 score? no offense but BS.
you got a mrotgage?
car loan?
student loan?
how many tradelines do you have?

you need at least 3 tradelines reporting to get a "decent" score, with an AAoA of at least 1 yr.


annual credit report doesnt give you the score, it gives you your report.

It will not take a few years for him to redeem one RT ticket from LAX to NRT. I've accumulated the following points in the past 3 months:

70k Starwood
76k UR (50k more if my Ink+ ever goes from pending to accepted
85k MR
130k TYP

One RT ticket on Krisflyer will take 160k that he can take from any of those transfer partners. His only problem then is the waitlist, and if he has an extremely flexible schedule, that's not exactly a problem.

It would seem that most of those are from opening new accounts and meeting minimum spending on multiple cards which is probably a reason your Ink+ is in pending. That's an "aggressive" churn of accounts to get points that most people won't do or won't meet the spending on to make it worth it.

Most people take a year or two+ from starting research to booking a J or F trip. For me I am entering buying a condo so don't want so many hits at once on my credit but want to get points so my churn was 2 cards instead of 4-5. It's working well for me but your plan may be working well for you but everyone's plan will be different.

I agree that different strategies work for different people, but discouraging him and telling him to come back in two years when he could have the points within two months is ridiculous.

It may not be the most post positive situation but most people don't earn the points they need and magically find the reward situation they need. Do many threads on here sounds more doomsday than optimistic but it is more reality than fantasy.