Business Credit cards with travel perks. Travel Hacking

[Rich Hupper]

Hi not sure if anyone has a guide or some suggestions from experience but I use credit cards a lot and they aren't doing that much for me right now. I would love to earn miles on purchases and other travel perks. I have seen videos online about these travel hackers who fly and lodge for free almost. Is this really possible to do building points with the right card? 

Thank you

[Jay Hinrichs]

Quote from @Joe Splitrock:

@Rich Hupper in my experience the travel rewards have been steadily getting worse over the last 20 years. Most of these travel guru are full time traveling outside the US, which racks up tons of miles and higher status levels which accelerate your benefits. 

The majority of the benefit with any card is the sign up bonus. For this reason, I move between card, get the benefit and close the card. You can be eligible for the benefit again two years after closing the card. Another way to get benefit is hitting massive spend levels, like $25,000 or $50,000 on a credit card. Some cards have accelerators when you get to these higher spend levels.

I really like the direct cash back cards. I can get between 1% and 5% depending on spend category. I only use airline cards to get the welcome bonus. 

for me you need to use the card and the airline or hotel in conjunction to really build any serious miles. Unless your spending 20k a month or so on one card and of course paying it off..  Like maybe doing a lot of rehab work then paying it off with your construction draw. 

I bank my miles for international business class anything domestic i pay for the ticket and given my staus with miles i get a lot of free upgrades but if the flight is more than about 2 hours I always buy a first class ticket you use your miles card and buy a full fair first class ticket and you really build miles quickly without having to spend a ton of dough.. first class will give you double miles and more depending on airline. So for me right now I am typing this from Reagan national in the American Airlines Admirals club which are essential tools for the busy traveler.  So from Portland to Reagan round trip first is about 1200.00 its about 2600 miles one way so I get 5200 miles X 2 for 10,400 miles plus a bonus because i used my Alaska card to buy the ticket but lets say its just the ticket price thats 11,600 miles for one trip and only spending 1200 bucks..  Plus with first bags are free and all other types of perks.. really worth it in my mind to spend the extra money, not to mention how you feel after a 6 hour flight in first compared to back of the plane HUGE difference.