Frequent Traveler University :: 'Learn, Earn, Burn' and See the World!

You know, of course, that some credit cards offer incentives in the form of air travel miles and / or hotel points. The more you spend, the more you earn. Some day, if you plan wisely and allocate your purchases in a wise, informed manner, you could find yourself sipping wine on the Riviera or taking in the sights Parisienne.

That "someday" could be a lot closer and a lot more rewarding with a little education. The "Frequent Travelers University" weekends offer workshops that explain to novices how the miles and points game works, give those at the intermediate level some advanced tricks and tips, and provide a social occasion (and some amusing talks) for those with Ninja-level skills.

This EDGE correspondent attended the recent FTU weekend at the Grand Hyatt in Tampa, Florida, with nothing more than a couple of miles-generating credit cards, 79,000 "avios" to his name, and the merest wisp of an idea about how to redeem all the miles he had accrued thus far. True to its slogan ("Learn, Earn, Burn"), FTU proved enormously educational (and entertaining). Two packed days later, his eyes opened, your correspondent realized two things:

One: He's been (and remains) shockingly ignorant of a social and economic phenomenon that can provide practical, real-world benefits.

Two: In order to gain the maximum benefit of miles incentives, level-headed planning is essential.

The hobby of collecting travel points "can consume you, and it can cost more than it should," warned blogger Summer Hull, creator of the Boarding Area.com blog Mommy Points, in a Saturday morning session titled "Beginner's Workshop: Welcome to Miles & Points."

Part of the danger comes from the simple fact that it's far easier and quicker to accrue points by taking advantage of credit card sing-up offers than by doing just about anything else. Consider, for example, the offer from British Airways that I took up just over a year ago. Frustrated that the credit card I'd been using for a decade and a half did not offer me anything in the way of miles, points or other incentives, I decided to get a second card. BA's Chase card came with an irresistible offer: Get 35,000 points (or, in the card's lingo, "avios") upon approval, and then get another 35,000 avios upon charging $10,000 within a year.

Note: Such offers start the clock as soon as the card is approved - not when the first purchase is made. This may seem trivial, but it can trip you up. One friend shared the story of how he missed the deadline on one card because he assumed that the clock began on his "spend $5,000 in three months" offer when he called to activate the card. The result: He missed the deadline, and didn't get the big bonus miles he was hoping for.

2 Cards Will Do Ya

Whether the deal is $5,000 in three months, $10,000 in one year, or something else, it's important to recognize that going into debt just to get points may not be the best idea. No one wants to miss out on a good deal, of course, but as Summer's co-presenter, Ed Pizzarello, the author of the blog Pizza in Motion, noted, "There will always be some company that wants to give us miles and points. It's okay to take baby steps."

That's good news, because an unchecked drive to spend, spend, and spend in order to meet one's miles goal could all too easily break the bank.

And it's not necessary to have a portfolio of 12 or 18 credit cards to get the miles you want. (No kidding: Some enthusiasts have a dozen, or even dozens, plural, of cards to juggle: A mind-boggling feat, and potentially expensive if you miss a payment.) But there's a simpler way: Blogger Daraius Dubash of Million Mile Secrets laid it all out in a presentation titled "2 Credit Cards Can Get You Almost Anywhere in the World."

The core message boiled down to what I said above: There is no easier way to earn points than to sign up for new credit cards. "You can earn 50,000 points with one [credit card] sign-up, or you can fly around the world twice and earn 50,000 miles," Daraius pointed out. Like Summer and Pizzarello, Daraius strongly advocated a dose of fiscal responsibility: "If you're not paying your balance in full [every month], then cut up your cards."

But assuming you spend wisely, or use the cards for things you need to buy anyway, you can rack up big rewards in a short time. Part of the magic happens through combining the right two or three cards. Like Summer and Ed, Daraius likes Chase Sapphire Preferred. In addition to the 40,000 points for signing up, cardholders can take advantage of the "Categories" feature on this card to earn double points for travel and dining - plus, there are no foreign transaction fees once you get to your dream destination. Even shopping domestically you can earn a lot, if you use your card to buy gift cards and then use the gift cards you've bought to shop at online portals like Chase Ultimate Rewards.

The Chase Ink card also offers fantastic earnings using the "categories" approach, because cardholders can earn five times the usual rate when they use the Ink card to pay telecommunications costs - meaning phone and cable bills. It also offers 5X points for office supply purchases, which makes the card great for small businesses (and, by the way, becoming a small business is a great way to qualify for more and different cards than you could get applying as plain ol' Joe Neckbone).

Daraius' pick for the best airline card deal: Chase Southwest, which offers the Companion Pass. This will offer up to 110,000 points in a calendar year, which is why you want to time it so that the card is approved in January, giving you all year to meet the $2,000 spending hurdle. (Get 2 cards - one for your favorite traveling companion - and rack up 100,000 points. But pay attention to the details: Planning to go to Europe on those miles might not work out so well since Southwest is - with the exception of flights to Puerto Rico - strictly a domestic airline!)

Daraius is also a fan of the Chase United Explorer, which rewards you with 55,000 miles once you spend $1K in the first 3 months.

There's so much to learn about the miles and points game that it's just not possible to set it all out in a single online article. But in addition to the basic points outlined here, what you need to know is this: You can learn a lot by reading blogs, you can earn a lot by using the right cards and using them wisely, and you can learn a lot a lot by attending one of the FTU weekends. (They take place in different cities each time, so you may not need to travel far.)