How do you guys earn over 1m miles?

The post two above yours (by Tr60) gives a good example.

Personally, I don't bother with credit card churning. I've earned about 300-400K miles per year for the last few years just through butt-in-seat flying (total of $3-5K per year spent on fares) and credit card spend ($30-40Kish, but a lot of that is spend in categories that qualify for double points on my card). I don't do hotel points, except I did take advantage of the IHG Win Big promo at the end of last year to earn about 100K IHG Reward points for staying four nights in IHG properties.

If/when it becomes harder to earn enough miles the traditional way due to airline program changes coming down the pike, I may look at credit card churning and using those miles to fly most of my trips rather than pay cash for my tickets, but for now, I'm happy with where I'm at.

last year earned

230k AA (100k Butt in seat - 1 Card with misc charges)
150k UA (78k Butt in seat - Explorer card misc charges)
700k UR (Ink cards and lots of spend)


guess im a bit over a mil.. with ~ 175k butt in seat miles alot of spending on the Chase cards tho

Air:
Delta Miles: 292,539 miles burned 220,000

Hotel:
HHonors 1,299,560 (Almost all in the first 3 months of 2013), Burned 489,000
Marriott 400,818, burned 60,000
SPG 46,820, burned 0

I don't earn anywhere near as many as some on here. I don't play the credit card game, why jeopardize a credit score for a few airline points of depreciating value? I stick with Chase Preferred and can use those rewards on virtually any airline, not just the one on front of a card.

I now burn airline miles as soon as I earn them. been caught out too many times hoarding them when a devaluation comes along....my current situation with WN! I earned a 150K points on WN last year and now trying to burn them as fast as possible.

in November 2012 i redeemed 270,000 UA miles leaving a balance of <25,000. my account is back up to >200,000. 100% based on flying, hotel partner stays, car rentals. no CC earning.

many members here maintain balances of >400-500,000 miles. some in the millions.

because of constantly changing values, mostly to our detriment, i plan to burn down my UA pile in the near future.

in a typical year i burn around 75-100,000 miles and earn between 125-200,000.

this year i expect to earn about 150,000 mostly on AS and spend about 250,000, exclusively on UA.

Thanks for the info!

you actually do not jeopardize your credit score....My wife and I have each gotten ~20 cc's in less than 2 years and both our credit scores are still excellent. Chase SP is a great card, but saying "virtually any airline" is way off base.

Earned ~2MM and burned about 1.3MM....4 trips to SE Asia. Still have a little over 3MM and not overly concerned with devaluations.

I agree with skibum7732. You don't jeopardize your credit scores. After more than 3 years in the game with between 12-16 new cards per year, my three credit scores stayed about 780. Of course, you need to:
-carry zero balance (otherwise, the game is not worth it)
-Pay in full before the statements are issued so that your ratio of credit used vs. credit available is very low.
-Keep track of all cards in an excel spreadsheet with all the required info so that nothing falls through the cracks!
-And you got to love this game . This is a hobby more than anything else but that earns you some money. I calculated that the points spent last year were worth about $30 K.

I don't do any manufactured spending. It is all 100% legit.

I am new to the game and just joined the group. I would like to take a dig and see if I can play this hobby/game well.

Prior to miles knowledge, I have 3 cash back cards and 1 Chase freedom. Recently I applied for 3 miles earning cards. Should I cancel few cash back cards or stay with them?

In other words, are airline/hotel miles more worth than cash back cards? Thanks!
My credit score is > 750 but it does say too many accounts open.

I redeem about half of what I earn each year. I would use them all if I had enough vacation days. I'm holding on to about 300K UA miles for a trip I have planned for Sept 2015. Hopefully UA won't devalue too much again before that, after the Feb devaluation.

If you are new, I strongly recommend that you check some blogs. I personally like http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/
It has great info on all of your above questions. Check out also their top 30 list. It is interesting.
You can get much more detailed and specific answers on FT but you will have to read a lot!

The short answer is that you don't have to cancel the existing cards specially if they don't carry annual fees.
Keep in my mind that most if not all rewards cc programs include cash back features. Barclays Arrival, Chase Ultimate rewards, Amex Membership Rewards,... all have such feature (you can pay your bill with your points). But it is often not the best way to use points as you can get much more value using points for business class tickets.

Good question! I keep track of such things, here's my yearly break down:

2013: Earn: 087,464 - Burn: 022,500
2012: Earn: 130,121 - Burn: 185,000
2011: Earn: 141,405 - Burn: 277,500
2010: Earn: 171,154 - Burn: 132,500
2009: Earn: 220,870 - Burn: 117,500
2008: Earn: 189,441 - Burn: 270,000
2007: Earn: 291,723 - Burn: 300,000
2006: Earn: 274,066 - Burn: 185,000
2005: Earn: 190,752 - Burn: 305,000
2004: Earn: 147,186 - Burn: 050,000
2003: Earn: 145,311 - Burn: 0
2002: Earn: 030,715 - Burn: 0

As you can see, last year was a really down year for me but things have been trending down for a while. Fewer mileage bonuses I've qualified for, less status, less travel etc.

The real question is - why maintain an "good" credit record/score that does nothing for you, when you can put it to work, improve it, and earn a few hundred thousand miles that (even after devaluations) can save you a boatload of money on travel?

2013 totals for Misses and me combined:

1K miles from paid flights
1.6 million miles and points from CC signups
300K miles and points from spending and promos

760K miles and points burned

Earn them and burn them. It will go beyond devaluation in my opinion. You will not be able to redeem F international awards soon without a large additional charge in dollars and or elite status. Think of BA current surcharges times a multiple. Just my thoughts and unfortunately I have a lot of miles.