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The 5 Million Frequent Flyer Mile Challenge
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Passport Pages for 5 Million Frequent Flyer Challenge

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.