Hi everyone,
I signed up at the recommendation of a couple of friends who told me they use the site regularly.

At the moment I'm not a frequent traveler but I do still fly and take road trips in the U.S. a few times a year. I've traveled and lived abroad previously and have pretty consistently made sure to be signed up for mileage reward programs and to make sure I get credit for my miles. That all being said, as I'm getting older and working towards becoming more financially responsible and independent, I'm interested in getting the most out of my travel experiences and taking advantages of credit cards and rewards programs that help to rack up miles and points. Currently I'm a member of the Hilton Honors Club and have a Hilton Honors American Express, as well as a United Mileage Plus Explorer card. I'm interested in learning more about which cards frequent travelers use that are the most beneficial in terms of points, rewards, and miles. If there is one particular thread you'd recommend, feel free to share a link or point me in the right direction.

Happy to be a part of the community and to learn more to make my future travel experiences more enjoyable and affordable. Thanks. ^

http://milevalue.com/free-credit-card-consultation/

Welcome and enjoy.
Read the Citi, Amex, and Chase forums. They have the best deals normally. See which works best for you or a combination. You have plenty of time to branch out to the smaller point providers.

Start with a few newbie-friendly blogs if you like - millionmilesecrets may be the easiest to get the basics spelled out and spoon fed to you. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Always check here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...-programs-599/ before applying for a card to make sure that you are not applying for an inferior offer such as a USAir and United 30K card. Most of the biggest blogs are businesses that make a lot of money on affiliate credit card applications, so you can consider whether you want to use their links or not. If you dive into this hobby, you'll find that earning miles is a lot easier than redeeming them efficiently. Travelisfree.com has a lot of great articles on redemptions.

Anyway, much of the info is here before it's on any blog, so welcome to the big maze of info that is Flyertalk.

Welcome to FT! As with most things in life this will take a lot of studying (reading) before you feel confident in making big decisions. I would read a lot of the threads on the Credit Card Programs forum and other FT forums of interest (favorite airline & hotel forums). After a few weeks of heavy reading you'll start formulating questions. Keep a diary/list of future questions.
Good luck!!

Honestly, I've had this conversation with many of my friends. 9 times out of 10, I end up recommending the Chase Sapphire Preferred to them. The card is amazing and the transferability of points is great too! The earning potential is huge with access to the Ultimate Rewards Mall! I don't think you'll be let down with this card!

Let me know if you want a referral as I have a link!

I was in your position about a year ago. I actually started out with the Southwest cards from Chase (both personal and business) so that I could quickly earn a companion pass for my wife. We're not globe trotters (yet), so we actually have gotten some great value from this traveling domestically. And then I have really been focused on the Chase Ultimate Rewards program, using an Ink card. Being able to transfer points into United and IHG has been great for us as well. I have points in several other programs, but always seem to fall back to UR and Southwest for this time in our lives.

You'll find all kinds of advise and opinions on here. I've also learned a lot by keeping a few of the bloggers in my RSS feed, although after you learn the basics, their content becomes pretty repetitive.