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As you probably saw over on Instagram, I went on a little family vacation down to Destin, Florida for a long weekend.  (Michael and I used our Southwest Companion Pass so one of us flew for free!).  It was wonderful!  I’ll be sharing a few posts from the weekend later this week so stay tuned!  But back to reality today and back to regularly scheduled programming here on Cobalt Chronicles.  Today I want to share with you a little intro to accumulating frequent flyer miles, without flying!

In case you missed last week’s post on traveling around the world for free, check it out here before delving into today’s post.

Busting the No. 1 Myth On Frequent Flyer Miles

First things first, the No. 1 myth about frequent flyer miles is that you have to fly to accumulate miles – FALSE.  This statement is so far from the truth, but it’s definitely what I thought up until about a year and a half ago!

Yes, you can certainly accumulate frequent flyer miles by flying, but honestly, ain’t nobody got time for that!

The most effective, efficient, and fastest way to accumulate points (frequent flyer miles OR hotel points) is through credit card sign up bonuses.

For example, if you were to sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred today (and get approved), you would earn around 50,000 points (the sign up bonus varies, this is just a general estimate) so long as you meet the minimum spend requirement, which usually sits at $4,000 within the first 3 months of opening the card (the clock starts ticking on the day of approval).

As an example of how beneficial these credit card sign ups can be, I recently booked a round-trip flight to Europe for 60,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points.  By simply signing up for the card and meeting the minimum spend requirement, you’ve already amassed enough points for a round trip flight to Europe!

Make Your Money Work FOR You

The logic here (and behind every sign up bonus) is that you’re going to be spending that $4,000 anyway (monthly expenses add up fast!) so you might as well be making some sort of profit off of the money  you’re spending rather than, say, using a debit card where you literally get nothing in return!  (You MUST pay off each credit card in full at the end of every month for this to work).  Make your spend work for you!

So now that you’re set straight on shaking that notion that you have to fly to accumulate miles, check out my posts on credit cards to nail down exactly what credit card(s) makes the most sense for you!  You can check out a list of every single card I have in my wallet and why I keep it in my wallet in this post!

Remember, a little planning can take you around the world!

Let me know if you have any questions/comments/want a specific topic covered related to credit card point accumulation for travel!  I love hearing from you guys!  Email: [email protected]

*Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, accountant, or anything of the like.  These tips and tricks that I’m sharing are methods that have worked for me personally.  However, the ONE (and MOST important!) piece of advice that I’ll give is DO NOT OPEN any credit cards if you are not financially stable enough to pay every single balance, on every single card IN FULL each month.  With that said, I am an open book and happy to help guide you along this path to travel freedom, so definitely let me know if you have any questions at all!

Disclaimer: If you click and/or sign up for a credit card through certain links on this site or any of my related social media platforms, I may make a commission from that click through.  The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are mine alone.