But how many of us did schlepping those heavy dollar coins into the banks?

JudyJFLA

That was certainly a gray/no go area for some, others not so much.

What is VR and bluebird?

I think in your situation that may work for you. But you're clearly traveling for personal needs. Most frequent business travelers really crave that top status.

Even if you take a leisure traveler and show him the ropes to travel like you do, SedonaJoel, most don't like dealing with credit card apps, cancelling cards on a schedule, meeting minimum spend, etc. For those of us who have the time and ability and commitment to do so, it's great. But we're a decided minority.

VR / Bluebird style manufactured spending is a nonstarter for me. It gives me headaches just reading the instructions on FT, never mind the stories about finding the cards and varying ability to refill with a credit card. I would much rather prepay monthly bills for utilities if I need to get a few thousand miles in a hurry.

I can't speak for people who do MRs as a significant portion of their overall elite qualifying miles, but they do make sense for people who need a little more to get to the next status tier. Especially when one travels frequently, the value of status benefits adds up quickly. For example, the business class upgrades I got as an elite allowed me to avoid spending multiple 100k's of miles on upgrades during job-related travel and use them for nice vacation flights instead.

No MS for me. I have bought some no fee GCs to places we regularly shop at in order to accelerate spend to meet bonus deadlines but that is all. Being that I have only been at this a little over a year, there are many sign up bonus options still open to me. When those become scarce, I'll consider MS to supplement.

I do not travel much for work these days so really no opportunity for elite status by adding MRs or mattress runs but I totally understand why someone would if they are close to the next level. I did do a mattress run once at a cheap local hotel in order to complete a promo and get a free night that we could use somewhere much better for a planned trip. Saved us about $200 so worth the minimal hassle.

(1) I don't think I'd ever do a "pure" mileage run. Flying to Alaska and back without leaving the airport, that kind of thing. I have certainly taken a few trips over the years motivated by reaching the next elite tier... It's often been an excuse to do an early December vacation (an excellent time to travel), but always to a destination I had some interest in.

(2) I use iDine to nudge dormant accounts. That one is not a problem for me. If the restaurant is mediocre (as many of them are), my spending is 10 bucks or less. As long as 1 mile posts, it's okay. I find that the miles *do* post reliably, which is why I'm more willing to do this than buy some cheap online widget from a retail partner.

(3) I have never done VR/Bluebird or similar. Doesn't seem worth the time to me. The only high giftcard usage pattern I've personally employed has been buying loads of Marriott GC's when they are running a 10-20% off sale and I'm in a heavy period of Marriott stays. In that case, the act of receiving and handling $1,000 gift cards for a short period to put an instant $100-200 in my pocket is worthwhile.

(4) Never done a Twitter promotion and I'd probably never do one that required me to tweet. I use Twitter to follow companies and news organizations, so if somebody was throwing me 100 miles for a follow, I'd probably do that. I have done a couple Foursquare promotions with Starwood, but I have no friends on Foursquare and don't use it for much of anything at all, so I figure I wasn't giving away much valuable information for those 250 points per checkin.

Surveys and such. Anything that gains less than 1,000 points or so just doesn't do it for me.

No surveys, liking , or tweeting for me .
Definitely a waste of time to give away personal info. for a measly few hundred points/miles two to three months from now.

I try to keep my <ahem> enthusiasm under wraps for this hobby by not convincing myself that I need to spend money to earn miles (MS and the like in large degrees).

The allure of "a business class ticket for only $478 in Vanilla Reload costs" only holds water if you down to your last mile to get that ticket. If you are banking miles by the boatload, and have enough miles for the tickets in your accounts, than that $478 is money spent on something that you don't need... kind of like going to the sale rack and buying stuff that you wouldn't normally buy, just because it's on sale.

But my record is spotty on this account, having just bought Club Carlson miles that are sitting around, and moderate MS on my personal horizon, etc. So my theory sounds good, but I lie, I lie!

However, I can confidently say that I will not tweet or take a survey...

Surprisingly, I have found over the last 3 years that by applying for more credit, paying it off monthly, and having virtually no balance, along with my rising income, has helped me climb from a 530 FICO to a nearly 750 FICO score. It's been an amazing journey.

For this reason, I didn't blink twice recently when I applied for another 4 cards (mostly business to help build biz credit separately) but ended up qualifying to earn close to 250,000 points over the next 3-4 months!!

Welcome to Flyertalk! You could be the poster child for the naysayers who insist that applying for credit ruins one's credit. In fact, we tend to lose sight of the fact that a credit score is designed to analyse how likely one is to pay back debt. Proof that you pay your bills- as evidenced by open lines of credit in good standing-- is the best way to show that you WILL pay your bills.

Anything that gives low ROI.

Well, I stay in Asia - so most things available are very low in ROI

I won't apply for business cards, as I don't have a business and I won't lie on a credit card application.

No mileage runs or mattress runs, as I don't have the time. (Although I do foresee more weekend trips to Chicago in the future as my parents get older.)

I have no problem with the VR/BB trick as long as it's used to pay actual bills, but it's simply too much hassle and too time-consuming for me to do right now.

I won't do manufactured spend.

Since I'm not on Facebook, I won't be liking anyone there to get miles.

I will do surveys, but only if they don't take too much time. Ditto with games.

Mostly I'm content with getting my miles and points through credit card spend plus flying and hotel stays. It works for me for now!