Correction: I just realized my family has an additional 96,000 AAdvantage miles. This brings my total to 196,000 miles, though I still want to keep my goal at 40k/month to make it challenging.
I haven’t really discussed my points and miles goals so far, but I’d like to earn at least 500,000 points each year so that I can cover a business class trip for my family.
Since June, I’ve earned 100,000 AAdvantage miles, 85,000 Membership Rewards points, and 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points. My goal is to earn at least 40,000 miles each month for the next 7 months, mostly on creative credit card spending. This weekend, I got a few steps closer to my goal.
My aunt recently bought a new house and needed a few appliances and flooring from Lowe’s, totaling $3,000. Remembering that Staples carried Lowe’s giftcards, I immediately jumped at the chance to rack up an easy 15,000 Ultimate Rewards points with my Ink Bold card. No fees, no reloading, just 15,000 free points. Shortly after receiving the cards, she notified me that she intended to spend another $2,000. This brought my total to 25,000 points! I made these purchases at different Staples locations and had no problems. A manager did have to approve both transactions, but it was a fairly quick process.
I did think about taking advantage of the Mastercard prepaid card promo, which would have earned me $150 in rebates. However, my local Staples ad didn’t publicize this deal and the cashier had no idea what I was talking about, so I left it alone. Besides, 25,000 points is nothing to scoff at.
Next, I headed to Target to load $1,000 on three Amex for Target cards, earning me another 3,000 miles.
I headed over to Walmart and attempted to load my Bluebird card with the Target Amex. The transaction would not go through. Instead, I used my Alaska Airlines debit card to load $1,000, earning me 500 miles. I could use this $1,000 to pay down my balance on the other cards, but I intend to use Bluebird largely for purchases to stay profitable for Amex.
A focused search session earned me over 1,500 Hawaiian Miles across two accounts, bringing my total to over 30,000 for this weekend. They’re not all the same mileage currency, but I can always do a credit card churn to even things out. I’ve got 12 days to rack up another 10k and meet my monthly minimum. A few bills will be due and I’ll see if any relatives would like their mortgage paid this month.
What are your miles and points goals and how do you plan on meeting them?
Disclosure: I do not earn a referral for any of the credit card links in this post.
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