Hello!

I'm a new member here. Just want to say ahead of time, sorry for my not knowing all of the lingo ahead of time, and I appreciate your reading this and being patient. FT is a pretty incredible community, with a mind-boggling amount of information, and it's a little hard to process it all at times.

So here's the deal. I'm almost 22 years old, graduating from college this coming May, and am looking to take an extended trip starting either at the end of next summer, or the beginning of next fall (2011). As a college student, I don't have a lot of cash on hand, and am trying to figure out the best way to go about travelling cheaply. I currently have only one credit card, my Chase Freedom card, which I rarely use. I also have my Chase debit card, and a Perkstreet Financial debit card which gives me 2% cash back. Up until now, these three cards have done everything I've needed. I pay back my credit card debt every month, without fault. I think I should have excellent credit, though I don't have a large credit line.

As detailed in this post, it seems that I'm shooting for about 140-160,000 miles to make this trip work. Does this sound right? (This OneWorld Award deal seems pretty incredible.)

Now, getting those points. Seems the best deal at the moment is this one, which, if I understand it correctly, I could sign up for two cards with, a personal and business card (and maybe even a third one), and as long as I spend $4000 on each one of those cards within the next six months, I'm all set. that would be 150,000 miles.

According to this, I can basically rack up charges on my credit cards by buying mint dollars, depositing them in the bank, and paying off the card. Obviously, this would be a little bit of a hassle, but seems absolutely worth it if it's going to save me basically $8000 in travel fare for a little bit of time and effort. I'm still not quite sure how long it would take me to pay the full $8000 back through the US Mint scheme (2 boxes? as in 2 boxes per order every 10 days? or 2 boxes of any particular kind of coin?), but barring some horrendous bank situation, I think this is all do-able. Though it does seem much too good to be true. Does anyone have experience doing this that they could pass my way?

So, does anyone have any advice? Is this a good plan? Does anyone know of a better plan? Are there better deals and techniques out there? It seems with the time I have allotted, basically, that I want to be travelling by the end of next summer or early next fall, and that I have no miles, no credit card programs, no nothing right now, this kind of quick mile-grabbing scheme by signing up for cards is the best way to go. But again, I'm a complete neophyte at this, and would love to hear some advice from someone with more expertise.

Thanks so much!
All the best,
Stufferino

Sounds like you've done some good research. As for the Citi AA cards...sign up for the two personal ones on the same day and then wait to do the business later on (common thought is 90+ days). You could also sign up for the SPG cards, get those points, and transfer them into AA.

I am a newbie like you so I dont have any advice but I just wanted to tell you that I am planning on doing pretty much what you're doing! Applied & received two personal AA citi cards in October and already have my 150,000 miles in hand (threshold was lower when I applied). Now the hard part -- planning!! Good luck!

Plant a garden, it takes time for it to grow..

You will find their are very few free lunches...

Do a couple of CC offfers a year, and go to work, life will be better with a strong foundation...it not party time yet you have just began..

The mint good for 2000 miles a month, don't call attention to yourself...the garden grows slow, but it will grow and produce some good fruit..another avenue of miles revenue..

Moderator note, Egnogra's discussion of credit card signups moved to:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...s-etc-etc.html

Please let's keep this thread on topic.

Thanks!
Gary
aka gleff
MilesBuzz moderator

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Your plan sounds good. I did a similar thing recently. Signed up for the citi aa cards I think in September. Miles posted in november. Booked 150k oneworld award thanksgiving weekend. I primarily used amazon payments to accelerate the spending. My best advice is to get the points posted asap and start booking your itinerary asap to ensure you get all the routes/schedules you want. Good luck.

i've hit a bit of a speedbump.

i applied for the cards but was told: "Too few satisfactory credit references were recorded on your credit bureau report." that was my decline notice information.

i should have figured something like this would happen, being a 21 year old with only one previous credit card.

so i called citibank and one of the women there said that applying for the AAdvantage cards is pretty difficult, that they have high standards for entrance. the kicker was she said that you should have 7 (SEVEN!) cards before applying for the AA cards, and that you should have them and be using them for up to a full year before applying.

anyone have any advice here? looks like i've dug myself into a hole and am not gonna be able to get out of it anytime soon.

if anyone knows some way to get myself approved for those cards, that would be incredibly helpful.

thanks again!
-s

That is disappointing.

I was a college student not too long ago, and this is the route I followed:
I had an ordinary no-frills primary credit card with a low CL. Six months or so after I had that card, I applied for a DL Amex. About a year after I was approved for the Amex, I started applying for higher-end cards (UA, SPG, 2x AA), etc and was approved for all of them.

Your RTW trip might have to wait a little, but I think having an Amex and paying it off each month helped me a lot. Maybe you should apply for the SPG card first, wait some months (ideally six) , and then apply for the AA Cards.

Good luck!

IMHO, whoever said you need seven other cards before getting an AA card is just plain wrong.

Establish your credit a little with a couple of accounts, show some income from a job (over, say $25K per year, higher is obviously better) and you should get Citi AA cards with bonuses.

Kinda random, but my plan is very similar to OP....

How long do these miles stay for? Do I have to use it within a year? Or can I stock up on them for a few years? Thanks!

I recommend that you study http://frugaltravelguy.blogspot.com/
He recently ran a series about building up your credit standing, and he often has hints for getting cards, etc. (he's a former mortgage banker turned mileage junkie)