In 2011 I earned 775,000 miles from credit card signup bonuses which I wrote about here.
Getting close to that amount of miles in 2012 is not going to be easy and is going to take some creativity.
I wrote about my first credit card that I received in 2012 and my strategy of only applying for cards with bonuses of 50,000 miles/ points or higher. (You can read that post here)
I’ve been waiting for a new card to come out with a huge bonus (let’s say 75,000- 100,000) but nothing has materialized as of yet. I decided recently to rethink my strategy and went ahead and applied for two cards with a sub-50K signup bonus. (more on this below)
Here are the cards that I have applied for in 2012 and the signup bonus that go along with them.
(I’ve only applied for five cards so far and was approved for all of them)
- Chase Southwest Personal Card- 50,000 miles
- Chase Southwest Business Card- 50,000 miles
- Citi AAdvantage Business Visa- 50,000 miles
- Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa- 35,000 miles
- Barclays US Airways Mastercard- 40,000 miles (potential for another 10-20,000)
Once I receive all of these bonuses, I will already be at 225,000 miles earned in 2012.
Not bad at all if you ask me!
Why did I decide to change my strategy?
The days are flying by in 2012 and we are almost into May. If I keep waiting for massive offers to come out, I might be waiting until next year. Nobody knows for sure what new card offers are on the way. By going for cards in the 35,00+ range, I will be replenishing my accounts as I use miles for travel over the course of this year. I was also getting way too antsy waiting for new cards!!!
- I decided to apply for the Alaska Airlines card due to a few factors. I don’t really have any BOA cards. Most of the big offers over the last year have been from Chase and I don’t want to keep applying for their cards and get banned from cashing in on future offers with them. I’d also love to go to Alaska.
- I decided to get the US Airways card for different reasons. One common factor is the lack of cards from Barclays. I recently cancelled my US Air card and wanted another way to add to my Dividend Miles account. By adding 40-50,000 miles, I should have enough for 2 flights to Europe. I also plan to play the US Airways Grand Slam again this year and having this card is an easy hit.
At this point I don’t feel confident that 2012 will bring me as many miles as last year from credit card bonuses. However, if I can get to 500,000 miles I will definitely consider 2012 a very solid and productive year!
Last January I got approved for a short-lived American Express Platinum Card 100,000 Membership Rewards points sign up offer through creditcards.com. After completing the minimum spend, I had to fight to get my points from Amex.
