Greetings from the Caucasus, where I’m wrapping up my two weeks of travel in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and now Armenia. I’ll post more on the trip at some point, but this afternoon I’m getting ready to begin the long journey home (EVN-VIE-FRA-DEN-PDX).

My first flight departs Yerevan at the lovely hour of 5:45 a.m. tomorrow, but I decided not to sleep on the floor of the airport the night before. (I know, I’m probably getting soft… but remember I took the 15-hour Russian train last week.)

***

This is the Sunday Store Update, where I write about the business side of AONC. Frequent Flyer Master has been rocking the internet for two weeks now, and I’ve compiled a few of the mentions and reviews it’s received thus far.

• Alaska Dispatch
• Indie Travel Podcast
• View from the Wing
• Get Rich Slowly
• Budget Travel
• ManVsDebt
• Gadling

(Note: unlike the others, the last one is a somewhat lukewarm review. I disagree with several aspects of it, but I’m including it here for transparency’s sake.)

Reader Feedback

I appreciate the props from journalists and my fellow bloggers, but ultimately the best test of any product comes from unsolicited customer feedback.

Here are a couple of my favorite comments, included in unedited form and with the permission of the writer:

I hesitated a moment before buying it and then took the plunge, trusting it would be worthwhile. I skimmed it quickly for tips and seized on three quick ones that gave me 80,000 miles plus elite status with a rental car company. I look forward to reading the report at my leisure while I wait for my other miles to roll in! -Dan O’Neil

I read FFM on my flight home last night and it was fantastic! I’m looking forward to trying out some of the items you proposed. Don’t think I’ll be able to emulate your huge success, but a free trip here and there each year will be worth it for me.

Because of what was in your e-book I was able to receive $50 credits from Travelocity and Expedia with minimal work. The book has paid for itself twice and I’m just getting started. Not only is the manual full of incredibly useful information, the bonus materials and the weekly email updates are the icing on an already awesome cake. -Tyler MacWilliam

This week I sent out an update regarding an additional 100,000 mile offer and a separate opportunity to earn an 100% bonus on purchased Star Alliance miles. Next week I’ll publish a new update about some unusually good redemption opportunities.

This is the kind of material I’ll be sharing with FFM owners for at least the next six months. If you’re interested, you can join the party over here:

Frequent Flyer Master

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In other news, I ventured down to Armenia this week via marshrutka, a Russian-style mini-bus. It took about seven hours to leave Georgia, clear the Georgian-Armenian border, and then swing down to the capital of Yerevan. Aside from a moment of confusion when the driver didn’t remember me and tried to get me to pay twice (the other passengers spoke up on my behalf), I was lost in thought for most of the journey.

Among other things, I thought about how much my life has changed as a result of AONC and all of you who take the time to care about my work and adventures. I realize this is the Sunday Store Update, but I am far more excited about the fact that I can write from Armenia and people are actually interested.

Thanks as always for reading. I hope all is well in your part of the world.

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Find me on Twitter: twitter.com/chrisguillebeau
Join AONC on Facebook: facebook.com/artofnonconformity

Denver Airport Image by Gwen Bell

On November 5th I’ll release my final Unconventional Guide of 2009. The goal of the project is to democratize free travel.

As part of the preparations, I wanted to take you behind the scenes of a few of my own mileage accounts. The screen-capture video below shows my current tally of 676,358 Frequent Flyer miles, complete with screenshots of five accounts.

Before I launch my final product of the year, I want to make sure everyone knows I can speak with authority when it comes to travel hacking.

Check out the video below:

The product will launch on Thursday, November 5… three days from today.

By the way, even if you’re not as travel-crazy as I am, you may want to pay attention to this project. I’ve deliberately designed it to provide info for a range of people, even those who only travel a couple of times a year or don’t know much about Frequent Flyer Miles. As I say in the video, the most important thing about a big mileage balance is the opportunity it offers you to pursue other goals.

Also, all of my products are 100% guaranteed for life, but this guide will have an additional guarantee—more on that with the launch. To make it even more fun, I’ll also include something special for the first 150 buyers.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments on the video. Have a great Monday!

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Find me on Twitter: twitter.com/chrisguillebeau
Join AONC on Facebook: facebook.com/artofnonconformity

Virgin Atlantic by Foxy

Greetings, friends and readers. I’m back from the Oregon coast with only a couple of domestic trips planned for October.

Earlier this week I published an article for Business Week on How to Negate the Competition by Owning Your Space. I always appreciate the chance to write for traditional magazines and newspapers, and I wish them well in their transition to the world of the social web.

One funny story, though: Business Week didn’t edit much of the article itself, but they did change “ass-kicking” to “butt-kicking” in my bio. I’ve always thought of ass as a mere descriptive word, but apparently it’s too edgy for some media outlets. A couple of people suggested I use “arse-kicking” the next time and see what happens.

***

This is the Sunday Store Update. I use this time every Sunday for a brief update about the small business behind the AONC site.

As promised two weeks ago, I’ve removed the Discount Airfare Guide from the store. It’s been a good guide and has helped a lot of people, but in the future I’ll be updating the material in a different format. My next guide will be all about maximizing Frequent Flyer Miles, one of the most frequently requested topics from readers.

I currently have more than half a million miles in the bank, and I’ve received the majority of these miles without actually flying. Through strategies like the infamous Frequent Flyer Mile Challenge, carrying $9,000 in coins in a shopping cart to the bank, and more (much more, really), I’ve been able to earn hundreds of thousands of miles on at least half a dozen airlines.

I then use the miles to get to all kinds of faraway places in the world– including Hong Kong, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Bosnia, and a fair number of less exotic places too. Every year I take at least four international trips using the miles I earn, saving thousands of dollars and having fun at the same time.

Of course, I don’t know it all– and many AONC readers are far more skilled than I am with Frequent Flyer Miles and travel hacking. That’s why I’m going to do some crowdsourcing as I work on building out this project.

For now, I’m looking for the following two things:

1) Short stories (100-300 words) of creative and high-value trips you’ve taken with miles.

2) Specific tips on earning and redeeming miles– the more unconventional, the better.

If you have something to share, please hop over to this form and send me a note. All input is welcome. The airline pilots, airline executives, and travel journalists who regularly read AONC are also welcome to contribute too — and if you’d like to contribute something more substantial, just let me know.

If I use your story or tip, I’ll attribute the info to you in the guide (unless you’d prefer to be anonymous, which is fine too). I’ll also award a free copy of the product to the top five stories or tips, as judged by me and a couple of travel industry reviewers who will be helping me with copy-editing.

By the way, I’m really excited about this one. It’s going to be great.

***

Continuing with the travel theme, tomorrow I’ll explain how to request an airline status match. It’s a little-known travel fact that once you qualify for elite status with one airline, you can leverage the status over to several other airlines. I’ve recently done this to obtain Platinum status (the highest) with all three major airline alliances, despite the fact that almost all my flying this year was only with one of them.

Later on, we’ll also look at more unconventional business ideas. Have a great week, wherever you are.

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Find me on Twitter: twitter.com/chrisguillebeau
Join AONC on Facebook: facebook.com/artofnonconformity

Frequent Flyer Image by OHH

Late last fall, I was in need of a new source of Frequent Flyer Miles. I used to earn at least 200,000 miles a year from small business spending, but as I transitioned to full-time writing, the regular addition of miles fell to a couple of thousand a month.

A couple thousand miles a month adds up to a free domestic ticket every year, but most of the Awards tickets I use require redemptions of 90,000 miles or more, so that doesn’t help much.

I did what I always do in these situations – I broke down the problem into logical reasoning:

The Problem: No longer earn hundreds of thousands of free miles each year

The Stipulation: Want to avoid flying long-haul Economy class whenever possible

The Concern: Can’t pay $4,000 for Business Class tickets, unless it’s a Round-the-World flight where I’ll get excellent long-term value

The Solution: Therefore, I need to replenish my mileage account some other way

(This is how I usually process problems I run into, on the assumption that there is almost always an alternative way to accomplish something.)

That’s when I decided to conduct a personal experiment with credit cards and mileage bonuses. Over the course of a few weeks, I applied, was approved for, and received 13 new credit cards. I applied for the cards only to get the miles, but I made sure to fulfill all the requirements to ensure my eligibility.

Somewhat to my own surprise, it worked – I earned just under 300,000 Frequent Flyer Miles in a few short weeks. To be fair to all of you, I decided not to keep the news to myself. I published the full story of each credit card I applied for, how I tracked the cards through a spreadsheet, and set a goal of helping at least 100 readers earn at least 50,000 Frequent Flyer Miles of their own.

Recently, a few people have been asking… what’s happened? How many miles are we up to?

We didn’t get to 5 Million Miles in 30 days, my original goal. But that’s OK – we’re well beyond 1 million now, and new miles keep posting every couple of days.

As of last week when I took off for my trip, the current reported total was 1,670,000. This does not include my own miles (300,000), or miles from anyone who didn’t complete the form. Numerous other people have reported big mileage accruals by email or general internet chatter, but to keep the reporting to a conservative estimate, I’m only including those who have filled out the form.

(That said, if this helps you – fill out the form! You can be anonymous if you want.)

Reader Feedback

Here are a few stories from readers who have made this unconventional project work for them:

Through the frequent flyer challenge, I have already earned 70,000 miles through three different personal American Airlines cards. Last week, I booked a trip to Nairobi, Kenya using those miles in August 2009 where my girlfriend and I will attempt to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro (aka the trip of a lifetime)! We are so excited, to say the least!

-John

I expect to receive 125,000 miles split between only two airlines (thanks to the NW-Delta merger). I am already using 30k, since I am travelling in Peru right now using the first batch that arrived. I like having them so I can take advantage of last minute opportunities. I am planning on doing some house-sitting and language immersion over the next couple years, and also taking a year to travel on my first round the world trip so the possibilities are endless.

-Coco

I have received 70,000 miles already (50,000 from AA and 20,000 from NWA). I expect to churn more AA credit cards this year for at least another 100,000 miles. I am doing this for my husband as well.

We will use them to go to Costa Rica this summer. We are also saving for First/Business Class to Kenya.

-Amy

My husband and I are going to take a CareerBreak / Gap Year and travel the world! We already purchased our first flights – using miles earned from the credit cards, plus miles we already had. Our gap year will start this summer, ~July 2009. Our first stop (which we bought flights for) is to Europe from August to November. After that it’s unknown, but on our list is Australia/NewZealand, South America, and possibly Asia and possibly Africa. Also we will probably spend a decent amount of time in the US visiting family and also exploring.

Anyway, back to the miles – I’m sure that we will continue to use the credit card method to fund other parts of this adventure. I’m so glad I stumbled upon AONC… I found it through the article “Why you should quit your job and travel around the world” last November when my husband and I made the decision to do this. The ideas on non-conformity have really struck a cord with me and helped to inspire us to take this trip.

-Anonymous (by request)

Update on Available Cards

When I began my own process of credit card applications last fall, the credit market had already tightened. I worried it would continue to tighten even further, negating the value of some of the information. Fortunately, this wasn’t the case. Some cards have now closed – the Northwest Visa from U.S. Bank, for example, is no longer available – but most of the others are still plugging away and giving out the miles.

A couple of people were worried that my publicizing this story would also cause the card issuers to close down the deal. I wasn’t really worried, but whatever concern I had was vanquished when one of the card companies contacted me about advertising on the site! (The site is ad-free, so naturally I turned them down – but I enjoyed the irony.)

Interestingly, instead of cutting back, my favorite cards (the American Airlines cards issued by Citibank) have actually seen a mileage bonus increase from 25,000 to 30,000. How about that? If you apply for two at a time, like I do, that’s 60,000 miles, and the cards have no annual fee for the first year. (Hat tip to One Mile at a Time for first breaking the news on this.)

How to Redeem Frequent Flyer Miles

Of course, miles are only good when they can actually be redeemed. Here are a few tips to help towards that.

1) If you can book online, do so. You’ll probably save a phone booking fee, and the airlines are getting better at providing detailed info on awards availability online.

2) Much of the time, however, you’ll need to book by phone whether you want to or not. When this happens, be prepared that it’s probably not a quick call. Use Skype if you’re paying for the call, because it could take an hour or more for complicated itineraries.

3) If you don’t get the answer you want, try calling back, because some agents are more knowledgeable (or just generally helpful) than others. You can usually tell right away if someone knows what they are doing or not. No offense to India, but I usually prefer to deal with U.S. call centers.

4) Be prepared when you call in. This means: get flight numbers and times for the specific flights you want. Have a backup. When the agent says, “I don’t see availability,” ask him or her, “How does LH flight 640 look? I’d like to connect to LX 1100 three hours later,” or whatever your situation is.

5) Ask the agent to check partner airlines – all of them. Again, be specific – let the agent know that you’ve done your research.

6) Don’t give up right away – I’ve been able to book more than 75% of the trips I wanted without too much difficulty. (I’m not sure how many awards trips I’ve taken, but it’s in the dozens by now.) Keep checking back, and many times the date and flights you want will open up.

Wrap-Up

The Frequent Flyer Challenge isn’t for everyone. It’s possible in Canada and overseas on a limited basis, but most credit cards with mileage bonuses (especially no-fee cards) are for U.S. residents only.

Also, if you missed this before, please note the careful disclaimer I made when I first introduced the challenge: if you have a problem with debt or just don’t like credit cards, this isn’t for you. I pay my balance every month and have never defaulted, so it’s not a problem for me.

For me, the best news is the fact that so many people will be able to travel for free through the knowledge gained in the experiment. As I said then, you don’t have to apply for 13 credit cards – if you just apply for one or two, you’ll be well on the way to some serious miles in the bank.

The current AONC total of 1,670,000 miles represents the equivalent of 67 round-trip domestic tickets. Of course, some readers are using their miles for higher-priced awards, which is exactly what I do.

Using a conservative monetary valuation of the conservative total of reported miles earned, these awards represent at least $33,400 in free travel obtained by readers. I’ll keep the total updated throughout the year as more people post about the miles they’ve earned.

***

Previous Frequent Flyer Challenge Updates

The 5 Million Frequent Flyer Mile Challenge (Original Post)
Update #1 (Live from Hong Kong)
Update #2 (Live from Bangkok)
Update #3 (Live from Namibia)

Related Articles

Travel Hacking
Developing Your Own Philosophy of Travel
Travel FAQ

Travel Products

Discount Airfare Guide (Basic-to-Intermediate)
Travel Ninja (Intermediate-to-Advanced)

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Maple Leaf Lounge Image by Golden Toque

Hi guys, I’m reporting live from Windhoek, Namibia with two short notes on a couple of ongoing projects today – the regular post arrives tomorrow, of course. For now I want to update you about the Frequent Flyer Challenge and Travel Ninja.

Frequent Flyer Challenge

I’m happy to report that we’ve now crossed the One Million Miles point in our goal to help 100 people travel for free. The exact total as reported by AONC readers is 1,040,500 Miles as of this weekend. I’ll try to write up a press release and send it out to the world when I get back home in a couple of days.

Even if everyone uses their miles for domestic tickets, this means we have generated at least 40 free Round-Trip flights within the U.S., Canada, or Europe. Of course, not everyone will use their miles for the lowest (and most common) awards. So far I’ve heard from someone who is going on safari in Kenya and Tanzania, someone else headed to Panama, and a couple of people going on vacation to the Caribbean.

I’m glad to hear that my experiment with credit card maximization is helping so many people. If you’re one of them, all I ask is that you let me know so I can keep a running tally. Please post your miles here.

Travel Ninja

I realized I haven’t yet posted an update on the Travel Ninja launch. Over the past 10 days, the report has been expanded from 25 to 39 pages, and several new updates are in the queue.

A couple of nights ago (on location from South Africa) I also recorded the second audio session on earning and redeeming Frequent Flyer miles for high-value awards flights. Only a few minutes of this 22-minute recording refer to credit cards. The rest of the material covers general strategies and specific tips that are useful worldwide, whether you use credit cards or not. Anyway, it’s uploaded now for everyone who purchased the complete version.

If you’re interested, check it out. Otherwise, just keep reading the site. Many more good things are on the way, thanks to all of you who completed the recent survey.

That’s All for Today

Namibia is fun, and it’s on my list of things to write up for you as soon as I can. The problem is, I have a LONG list of things to write up. Thanks for providing the motivation for all of this through your support and participation. The Art of Nonconformity continues to get better because of the readers.

See you tomorrow, and keep rocking the universe.

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Namibia Image by Kruggg6

If you haven’t seen the Frequent Flyer Challenge before, read these posts first:

The Original Post
The First Update

***

Here’s the Second Update

Hi everyone – after traveling through Cambodia and Laos last week (trip report coming on Thursday), I’m transiting back through Bangkok before going on to Bangladesh, the final stop on this trip.

I’m happy to report that I did NOT sleep in the airport last night, and it looks like there are no more airport camping adventures scheduled for the rest of the trip. Minimal airport sleepovers make for a much happier traveling writer.

In this update:

1. Feedback and the Total Mileage So Far
2. AA Visa Link & Hilton HHonors Points
3. Valuation of Miles
4. Thanks to Travel Bloggers

Feedback and the Total Mileage So Far

We are now up to 710,000 new miles that have been earned through the challenge. As I’ll explain below, mileage valuation is completely relative, but even if we take half the valuation that I use for my own miles, that’s $14,200 worth of free flights that have been earned in a couple of weeks. Free travel is good, I say.

Here’s what a few other people have had to say in the mileage submission form:

(I’ve removed last names to preserve the privacy of our co-conspirators)

Micki: I had quit doing this, but was inspired by your post… I didn’t know you could get multiple offers for the same airline. Thanks for sharing – I will earn 95,000 miles with this.

Jon: Thanks Chris! I already had the AA Mastercard for 25,000, but your blog helped me to get the AA Amex and Visa for an additional 45,000 (the VISA for non-business owners only offers 20,000 now). Kenya in July 2009, here I come! I also intend to cross over to Tanzania while I’m there and spend a week hiking Kilimanjaro. Keep being awesome!

Camille: I’m starting with 50,000 miles on U.S. Airways. The plan is to go the Caribbean or Mexico, someplace warm. I’ve told my friends as well!

I could discuss mileage valuation and credit scores all day, but in the end comments like those are probably the best response to anyone who objects to the experiment. I fully intend to keep it up! Remember to submit your mileage if it works for you.

American Airlines Visa Link

At least five people have asked for the AA Visa link that provides a 20k mileage bonus. Yes, there is such a link, and yes, they keep it hidden for some reason. Here it is. Note that the Mastercard offers 5,000 more miles, so if you don’t have a preference, choose that one.

Remember that with AA you can have multiple cards – one Visa or Mastercard, one American Express, and one business card if you qualify. When I got started with the project, I earned 70,000 miles in one day using this method.

Hilton HHonors

The Hilton HHonors link mentioned in the article only provides 10,000 points now. When I applied for the card a while back, there was a 25,000 bonus after $750 was charged to the card for a total of 35,000.

Interestingly, neither the 10k or the 25k posted up in the expected time, so I called both Hilton and AmEx to check on it. I’m not sure what happened, but somehow they ended up posting the points twice for a total of 70,000! I thought they might realize the error and take away the extra bonus, but 45 days later and it’s still there – so I’m calling it good at this point.

By the way, you can transfer Hilton points to AA and a couple of other airlines if you’d prefer, but in my case I think I’ll keep them in the program and use them for hotels.

Valuation of Miles

A couple of people have asked, some nicer than others, how I arrived at my valuation of $12,000 for the 300,000 miles I earned through the experiment. The answer could be long and technical, and therefore more suited to FlyerTalk than this site. I’ll give you the short answer here, and if anyone else has a specific technical question, just check with me directly.

The short answer is the only way to accurately value Frequent Flyer miles is based on the actual flights you will redeem them for. That’s exactly what I do.

For example, I redeemed 30,000 of the miles a few weeks ago (through United) for a Business Class award on Singapore Airlines to Bangladesh. That flight would otherwise cost more than $2,000, so in that case my miles are worth $.066 each – a lot more than the overall valuation I used in the original post.

If I wanted to go full-tilt and focus only on high-value tickets, I could put 150,000 of my AA miles (I currently have 250k just in that one account) towards a First Class award to Japan or Australia, where the ticket price often exceeds $10,000. My travel plans don’t really call for an award like that, but I include the example to show that high valuations are indeed possible. Also, before I applied for the cards, I had active accounts with most of the airlines I received miles for (Continental and Alaska being the only exceptions), so having the miles in multiple accounts is not a problem for me.

The point is that $12,000 for the 300,000 miles is a conservative estimate for my travel needs. I fully expect to receive at least that much value, if not more. To anyone who remains cynical, just keep following the site and you’ll see all the redemptions I use.

Thanks to Travel Bloggers

My thanks to all the travel and personal finance bloggers who have helped publicize the original article, especially Wendy Perrin from Condé Nast Travel. (Fingers crossed that we’ll make the actual magazine.) The site was in MSNBC last week as well, thanks to Chris Elliott, for which I’m also grateful.

About 15 other bloggers have also mentioned the article and provided good feedback, and I appreciate that. If you have your own site and think this might help your readers, it’s not too late – you can link to the original article here:

http://chrisguillebeau.com/3×5/the-five-million-frequent-flyer-mile-challenge

Lastly, I’ve decided to remove the 30 day limit to the challenge, since it was somewhat arbitrary. We’ll keep it up as long as the information remains relevant, and I’ll provide updates on the total every couple of weeks. Sound good?

See you again tomorrow, where I should be posting live from Bangladesh. I’ve been working on some other fun things while I’ve been traveling, and I’m looking forward to your feedback.

Keep working hard over there!

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IMPORTANT: If this helps you earn Frequent Flyer Miles, please use this form to let me know.
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BKK Airport Image by Nikon Guru

Greetings, friends. Today I have an update on the Frequent Flyer Challenge, coming to you live from the Hong Kong airport:

First, a good news / bad news personal update.

The Bad News – After flying 19 hours, I slept on the airport floor for five more hours last night. It just didn’t make sense to get a hotel, since I arrived at midnight and am headed off on my final flight (to Bangkok) at 10am local time.

The Good News – Thanks to my AA Executive Platinum status, I can now visit one of the nicest airline lounges in the world – otherwise known as the Wing by Cathay Pacific.

Who says you’re not supposed to drink champagne at 9am? Certainly not me. At least, not after you’ve flown 19 hours and slept on the airport floor. I’m headed that way right after I upload this.

And now, here’s the Frequent Flyer Challenge update:

If you didn’t read the original post from Monday, you should do that first or this won’t make sense. This update will cover the technical points of:

1. Earning Mileage on Multiple Programs
2. Cards for Canadians
3. How to Submit Your Expected Mileage

Earning Mileage on Multiple Programs

A couple of people have asked how it works if you spread your mileage across multiple programs. If you earn 20,000 miles on five airlines, that’s not as good as 100,000 on one airline, right?

The short answer is, yes, 100k in one program is better. However, you can avoid this problem by maximizing the miles you earn in your preferred program instead of getting smaller amounts in multiple programs.

It will be easy for me to use all 300,000 of the miles I earned due to the kinds of redemptions I use, but as mentioned, you don’t need to apply for 13 credit cards to benefit from the mileage bonuses.

To be more specific, consider these examples from the original post that will each give you at least 50k miles in one program:

American Airlines MC/Visa/Amex = 50,000 Total Miles
Add the AA Biz Card = 75,000 Total Miles

U.S. Airways 1 + U.S. Air 2 = 50,000 Total Miles

Northwest + Delta = 50,000 Total Miles
Add the Delta Amex = 75,000 Total Miles

This can be a bit technical, but with almost every program I highlighted, you can easily earn at least 25,000 miles, and in most cases, 50,000 miles. 25k is enough for a for at least a domestic (U.S./Canada/Europe) ticket. Of course, 50k is enough for two of those, one First Class domestic ticket, or an award for another region.

Because award ticket planning is an in-depth topic, I’ll write more about this later.
For now, I just wanted to note that if you can earn 25k in any one program, you’re good to go.

Cards for Canadians

Thanks to La Presse and the general awesomeness of my friends from the north, we have a LOT of Canadian readers. I’m not sure exactly how many, but it’s at least 20% of the total readership.

The challenge can be done on a limited scale in Canada, but it really is limited. Unfortunately some of the best cards for U.S. residents aren’t available in Canada, but on the other hand, most of the ones I found for Canadians have no annual fee.

If you’re in Canada, here are a few cards I recommend you take a look at:

• Alaska Airlines Visa (Canadian version, 5k bonus w/ no fee)
• Air Canada Mastercard (and others, 15k bonus)
• TB Bank AA Card (10k bonus)
• CIBC Visa (15k bonus)
• SPG Card (Canadian version, 5k bonus w/ no fee)

How to Submit the Mileage You Expect to Receive

The form is now working to submit your mileage success:

**Submit your Information Here**

You can be anonymous if you want, but please take a moment to let me know if you earned mileage from the information. Remember, the goal is to help 100 people earn at least 50,000 miles each, so I need your reports.

Travel and Personal Finance Bloggers, Help Spread the Word

So far we have reports coming in that the post has generated at least 440,000 new Frequent Flyer Miles. That’s not a bad start, but to get to 5 Million, we have a ways to go.

Thanks for the trackbacks thus far, but the project needs more help. If you find it worthy, please help it go further. You can link to the original post here:

http://chrisguillebeau.com/3×5/the-five-million-frequent-flyer-challenge

And that’s it

OK friends, I’m heading out to Bangkok, where I’ll settle in to the Southeast Asian routine and meet up with some fun people. But first, it’s time for that morning glass of champagne. I hear it goes well with coffee.

See you again on Monday, where we’ll talk about How to Be Awesome.

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HKG Airport Image by ArtSnap

This is the true story of how I’ve earned more than 300,000 Frequent Flyer miles in the past five weeks thanks to mileage bonuses from new credit cards. If you’re up for it, you can do this too – and if you’d prefer a more conservative strategy, you may still be able to earn at least 50,000 new miles.

In short, I’ve spent $500 and a few hours of my time in exchange for 300,000 miles that are worth at least $12,000 to me. I’ve closely monitored my credit score along the way, and the effect has been minimal.

The goal of the 5 Million Frequent Flyer Mile Challenge is to help at least 100 readers earn 50,000 miles or more in the next 30 days.

Here are all the details in almost 3,000 words, a free tracking spreadsheet, and a 12-minute video I recorded live from Mexico in late December.

Disclaimers

WARNING: This is not for everyone. Most of the credit cards I used for this Frequent Flyer arbitrage experiment are only available for U.S. residents. There are a few cards you can get in Canada and the U.K. to replicate this on a smaller scale, but otherwise, you’re on your own.

You’ll also need to have good credit to begin with, since presumably the banks don’t want to give out up to $100,000 in new credit lines to just anyone – although ironically, they never verified my income or (lack of) employment, so you never know.

Lastly, if you have any kind of problem with debt or credit card spending, this project is definitely not for you. I have a healthy paranoia about debt, so it’s not a problem for me, but if you can’t possess a credit card without spending money you don’t have, please don’t do this.

Those are the disclaimers, and here’s the fun part.

The Video

On the 12-minute video below you can see the spreadsheet I use to track the applications, the results, and the miles I received. I recorded this live on location in Mexico, where I was facilitating my Annual Review and spending time with Jolie for our end-of-year vacation. The video is not professional quality in any way – it’s just me talking through the process and explaining which credit cards I used. If you get bored partway through, you can find most of the information in the rest of the post.

(Having technical problems or want a larger version? Try this link.)

How It Works

First, some background: I used to earn more than 200,000 Frequent Flyer Miles each year without flying, thanks to the work I did with Google Adwords and Adsense. Those days are long gone now, and with the declining economy, I needed a new source. I’ve taken advantage of credit card bonuses occasionally in the past, but this time I decided to get serious about it.

Over the course of a few weeks, I applied for and received 13 new credit cards that each included bonuses of at least 20,000 Frequent Flyer Miles.

I was accepted for every single card I applied for, and received $102,100 in new credit that I will never use. What I will use are the 300,000 bonus miles I was awarded for accepting the cards. After meeting any minimum spending requirements, most of the cards will be unused, consolidated, or canceled over the next few years. Not everyone will be want (or be able) to emulate this challenge, but I know that enough people will that I decided to put it all out there for you.

Just as importantly, many other people will be able to use this strategy on a smaller scale and earn at least 50,000 new miles within the next month.

The Cost

The cost for my experiment can be summarized as follows:

• $497 in annual fees (I’ll cancel, consolidate, or ask for a free extension on the cards before the second year’s fees become due)
• 3-4 hours of my time
• 4% decline in my credit score

Since I regularly use Frequent Flyer Miles for high-value redemptions, I wasn’t worried too much about the monetary cost. As I’ll explain below, the miles I earned are worth thousands of dollars to me. I also didn’t mind the time investment, since the idea was intriguing to me and I wanted to see how far I could take it.

Before conducting the experiment, however, I was somewhat concerned about the effect on my credit score. I had always heard that your credit score goes down whenever you apply for a new account. Each step of the way, I closely monitored my own report to see what the real effect would be – and I was pleasantly surprised.

Before applying for the cards, I was in the 98th percentile of U.S. credit users. Presumably this was because I have 10 years of good credit history, only a couple of late payments over the years, and no pattern of defaulting or maintaining high balances. After I had applied for eight new cards, I checked again and noticed that I had fallen to the 95th percentile – hardly a significant amount since it is already so high and I have no plans to apply for a mortgage. A couple of weeks after applying for five more cards, I checked again and saw that I had fallen a tiny bit further to the 94th percentile.

In other words, the effect was noticeable, but not seriously damaging. Despite the fact that my credit report listed all the accounts and new inquiries, banks continued to send me new credit cards every week. I was never declined, and never asked to provide any additional information.

At one point I thought the banks were slowing down on the offers of credit, since I received a low $2,000 limit on one card after getting 4-5 others of $10,000 or more – but the following week, another card arrived with a $14,500 limit. We could probably talk for a long time about how crazy the U.S. banking system can be, but that’s another story.

(Practical Info: I use MyFico.com to monitor my credit, but you can also get a free copy of your report from all three credit bureaus every year at AnnualCreditReport.com. There are other sources as well that I did not thoroughly investigate.)

The Benefits

Most importantly, I now have 300,000 new Frequent Flyer miles available to me on all three worldwide airline alliances. I can use these miles for all kinds of awards, including these possibilities:

• 12 Round-Trip Domestic (U.S. and Canada) Tickets
• 15 Tickets within Europe or Asia
• Up to 15 Domestic Upgrades or 10 International Upgrades
• 6 Round-Trip Tickets to Europe from the U.S.
• 3 or 4 Round-Trip Business Class Tickets to Anywhere

Those are a few examples, and of course I’ll choose the awards that make the most sense to me for my own goals. Based on how I travel and how I will optimize the awards, I conservatively estimate these miles to be worth at least $12,000 to me.

Once I realized that my credit score would not go down and the fees were reasonable, it was a no-brainer. Spend $497 and invest a few hours of time, get $12,000 in free flights. I like it.

I also received numerous intangible benefits through the process:

• 8 Alaska Airlines Space Available Upgrades
• Airline Lounge Passes (multiple)
• Companion Airfare Discounts (multiple)
• 6,000 Mile Discount on a Northwest Awards Flight
• Hilton Gold Status
• Hertz Gold Status
• Enterprise Gold Status
• Free Weekend Car Rental with Hertz, Budget, and Enterprise
• Other random perks that are still arriving in the mail each week

In reality, some of those things sound nice, but I don’t really need them. I’d love to give them away, but unfortunately most of them are not transferable.

All the Details

Here are the cards I applied for:

1. Citi AA Visa Signature ($0 annual fee for 1 year, 25000 miles)
2. Citi AA Mastercard ($0 annual fee for 1 year, 25000 miles)
3. CitiBusiness AA Mastercard ($0 annual fee for 1 year, 25000 miles)
4. Chase United Visa Signature ($79 annual fee, 25000 miles)
5. Hilton HHonors AmEx ($0 annual fee as long as you have another AmEx, 25000 miles + 10000 bonus miles)
6. Delta Gold Personal AmEx ($0 annual fee as long as you have another AmEx, 20000 miles)
7. Alaska Air Visa ($79 annual fee, 20000 miles)
8. Northwest Worldperks Visa ($0 annual fee for 1 year, 25000 miles)
9. Continental World Mastercard ($85 fee, 25000 miles)
10. Continental World Biz Mastercard ($85 fee, 20000 miles)
11. US Airways DM Visa Signature ($90 annual fee, 25000 miles)
12. US Airways Premier World MC ($79 annual fee, 25000 miles)

There are a couple of cards I’ve skipped for now – the Virgin Atlantic AmEx and British Airways Visa, for example. I may come back to these later depending on when all my other miles post up. There are also cards for JetBlue and Southwest (among others), but I rarely fly on those carriers, and I don’t think I could use the points for much else.

Keeping Track of Everything

After I realized my credit score wouldn’t drop significantly with all the increased applications, the greater problem was figuring out how to keep track of the information. I mean, most people don’t walk around with 12 new credit cards in their pocket, right? I also had to remember which cards I had applied to and on what date.

To stay on top of everything, I made a spreadsheet to track the date I had applied for each card, when it was received and activated, any requirements I needed to meet in order to earn the miles, and so on. If you’re up for some version of this, you can download the template or open it in Google Docs (Gmail users) to add your own details in.

*Click here to download the spreadsheet template*

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Your Turn – Here’s What You Can Do

I could have kept this information to myself, enjoyed the 300,000 new miles, and perhaps included the details in my upcoming Travel Ninja product. Instead, I decided it would be a lot more fun to put it out there for all of you, in hopes that it will help more people be able to travel wherever they want.

I know that not everyone is comfortable with applying for a dozen new credit cards, but the beauty of this strategy is that you only need to apply for (and be accepted by) one card for every 25,000 miles you want. If you want 100,000 miles for two tickets to Europe, for example, then you apply for four cards. If you want a First Class ticket to anywhere in North America, then you apply for two cards.

In other words, you can match your number of card applications to your risk level and that’s how many new miles you’ll earn. And of course, if you have a spouse or partner, they can also earn miles through their own applications, potentially doubling whatever new mileage you end up earning.

Let’s break it down further based on your personality and what you’re willing to do:

For the Adventurous – You too can earn 300,000 new miles or perhaps even more. Start by paying MyFico.com for a copy of your credit report to make sure you’re comfortable with a slight drop in the score. Then, apply for the cards in the rough order I did above. It may not make much difference, but the Citi AA cards are some of the better ones, so I’d work on getting those first in case you get declined later. Be sure you use the spreadsheet to keep track of everything; unless your memory is better than mine, you’ll probably forget some of the details if you don’t write them down.

For the Conservative – You may be wary of applying for so many credit cards at once (I certainly was when I started). If so, start with a couple of them and see what happens. Are you approved? Do the miles post in a reasonable period of time? You can move on and do more if you want, or just enjoy a free flight or two to the destination of your choice.

Regardless of which path you pursue, here are the actions you need to take:

FIRST - You’ll need to join the Frequent Flyer programs of the airlines you end up requesting credit cards for. Do that before applying for the card (it’s always free and can be done on the airline’s web site).

Here are the ones that match the cards I listed above:

• American
• Alaska
• Continental
• Delta
• Northwest

(soon to be merged with Delta; do this quickly)

• United
• U.S. Airways

And here are the optional ones:

Virgin Atlantic
British Airways
Southwest
JetBlue

SECOND – Choose your cards. You should match the cards you get to the airline or alliance you want to fly with, but I have a couple of general recommendations – first, the AA Citibank cards, including the AmEx and the Visa OR the Mastercard, are especially good since they have no annual fee for the first year. If you have a business, get one personal card and one business card.

Next, the U.S. Airways cards are best used in combination, so if you’re getting one, you might as well get the other to earn a total of 50,000 miles. If you’re loyal to one of the other airlines (United, Alaska, Delta, or Continental), do those cards afterwards.

THIRD – Meet any minimum spending requirements for the cards you choose. These requirements will be disclosed upon application, and you’ll want to keep track of them in the spreadsheet template or elsewhere.

By the way, if you’re worried about not being able to spend enough to qualify for multiple mileage bonuses, there’s a trick for this too: buy $1 coins from the U.S. Mint. They come in boxes of $250 each, and you can exchange them at your bank for the same value. With free shipping, it won’t cost you anything at all, and you’ll also earn additional miles for the “purchase” of the coins.

FOURTH – After the miles post, don’t wait too long to plan your trip. Mileage valuations are going down, and it’s best to use them quickly. I include a few tips for redeeming awards in the Discount Airfare Guide, and if there is enough interest I’ll provide a full tutorial for everyone in the near future.

That’s pretty much it. Be sure and cancel the cards before the year is up, so that you don’t have to pay for the second year. (If you do forget and they charge you, you can still cancel the next month and get the money back. If you are concerned about a credit score hit after cancellation, you can also try your luck by requesting a free extension.)

In short, if you meet the basic requirements and are willing to invest a bit of time, you can really rack up the miles and opportunities for free trips with this strategy. I’m looking forward to using my 300,000 miles, but I’m even more excited about creating mileage wealth for many of you through the challenge. Yes, there is a group challenge – because every good goal has a good follow-up. Here’s this one.

The 5 Million Mile Challenge

A while back I asked you to pick one place you’d like to go in the next three years and showed you how $2 a day can get you there. Well, if you can fly for free, that makes it even easier.

I’ve spent several hours compiling this information for you, and I have two easy requests in return. First, use this information wisely. As mentioned, if you are in debt or have cut up your credit cards to keep from charging something you can’t afford, please don’t do this.

But for everyone else, if you are able to use this information to easily earn at least 25,000 miles (one free ticket anywhere in North America), please let me know.

I’m making a Google Docs spreadsheet to track the information you submit. But for now, please post in the comments section and include this info:

1) Your name (however you want it to be displayed in the list I’m making)

2) The amount of miles you expect to receive (based on the cards you decide to apply for)

The goal is to create new “mileage wealth” of 5 Million Miles in the next 30 days. I promise to report the full results back to you, and I hope that this will help at least 100 people travel for free on their next adventure.

How does that sound? Oh, and if you have any questions about the logistics, post them below.

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P.S. Lastly, if you’ve enjoyed reading this detailed information about my experiment, please help me spread the word. Use the blue Stumble button to vote for the article, and tell your friends on Twitter or elsewhere so they can get their own 50,000 (or more) miles.