2 Mil+ Points Earned – Year One of Churning as a Grad Student

Let me first get this out of the way – this is not a brag post, it is rather meant to show you what is possible even on low income. Also, this is not a high ceiling for someone in my income range. I’m sure someone with similar personal scenarios as me has earned 4x miles than I did in year one.

Intro

I’m a grad student so needless to say I’ve limited budget to play with. I can’t float a whole lot of money in giftcards, kiva, kickfurther, etc neither can I let thousands of $ sit idle on some bank. The best way for me to earn miles is basically to chew through signup bonuses. Since this is year 1…and because there were plenty of credit card opportunities, I did not feel the need to duplicate credit cards.

The Goal

Churning without goal is pointless. As (hopefully) everybody the major goal is to pay as little as possible for vacations (it is almost never truly free) but because of my financial situation, there was a underlying minor goal as well – let churning itself cover cost of MS and AF. Ideally speaking, I did not want to pay a dime to earn points. That said, let’s now look annual fee I paid across several issuers.

AF Paid

Bank	Net 1st Year AF	Estimated 2nd Year AF*
Amex	720	0
Barclay	95**	0
Chase	95	219-614
Citi	445	445
USB	145	60
Total	1500	724-1119

* is based on cards I will keep from year one.

** has been refunded

Negating $1500 AF

Early on I made some poor decisions and signed up for cards with low cash signup bonus. Nevertheless, it did help me pay off a whooping $1.5k annual fee I paid over a course of a year. What helped even more is –

• bank account bonus
• 1st year AF waiver on two high AF cards namely Ritz-Carlton and Business Platinum
• cashing out airline credit on PRG, Ritz, and Platinums
• cashing out travel credit of Arrival+
• cashing out 180k UR points to pay student loan

Bank Bonus

This one is a bit difficult for me since

1. I don’t want to change my DD
2. most bank bonuses require decent chunk of deposit and
3. I don’t want to bank with banks I churn cc of.

Bank	Profit (before tax)
Tech CU	~140
53rd	200
US Bank	$150
360	$400
Total	860

34 Cards in a Year

In Nov of 2015, I applied for 60k Hilton Honors (ops should have waited for highest offer) and started the churning game. By the time I left for a vacation in mid May, I had received 17 more cards. I returned home early September and went on a credit card spree…and got 13 cards in 3 months. I left for vacation again in mid December and as of writing this article I’m still away from home.

Card	Bonus	AF	Keep/Cancel	Notes
Amex Hilton	60k	0	Keep	Free
Ame Gold	25k	160	Cancel	LOLAmex
Plat P	100k	450*	Cancel	LOLAmex
Delta Gold B	50k+$50	95	Cancel	LOLAmex
Arrival+	50k	89	Cancel	Churn
Barclay AA	40k	75**	Cancel	Churn
Citi Hilton	75k	0	Cancelled	Reset 1/24
Hilton Reserve	Bonus Denied	95	Cancelled	Reset 1/24
BBVA NBA	$200	0	Keep	Free
Green	25k	95	Cancel	LOLAmex
CSP	55k	95	Keep	Forever
QuickSilver	$100	0	Keep	Free
Plat B	100k	450	Cancel	LOLAmex
IHG	80k	49	Keep	Free Annual Night
AARP	$200	0	Cancelled	Tested Preapproval
Prestige	50k	350	Keep	Poor Man’s Premium Card
Ink+	70k	95*	Downgraded to Cash	Dead
Gold	25k	160	Cancel	LOLAmex
Carlson B	85k	60*	Keep	My Top 3 Hotel Card
Hiton Surpass	100k	95*	Wait	Analyze
United	55k	95	Down	25% MPX bonus
Delta Plat	70k+$100	175*	Cancel	LOLAmex
Flexperk Gold	30k	85*	Cancel	Paid AF with 5k Points
SPG B	35k	95	Cancelled	Made Room For Delta
SPG P	35k	95	Cancelled	Made Room For Delta
Hyatt	2 night + 5k	75	Keep	Free Annual Night
BA	50k	95	Cancel	Churn
Fairmont	2 Night	95	Cancel	Hope PC to Freedom
Ritz	2 night + 10k	395	Wait	See Retention
Disney	$200 GC	0	Keep	Forever
Access More	650 phone credit	95*	Keep	Plastiq
CB ThankYou	20k	0	Keep	Forever
Flex Biz	34.8	55	Cancel	Get FP Personal Instead

* 1st year AF was paid

** AF was refunded

Noteworthy Points and Miles

Program	Amount
UR	220k
TY	120k
MR	390k
FP	65k
Hilton	420k
Marriott	306k
United	60k
BA	50k
IHG	81k
Delta	155k
Carlson	150k
Arrival	55k
NET	2072k

How?

If you attempt to add my signup bonus from 34 cards, you’ll clearly see that it does not add up to 2 million points. I also said that I don’t float a lot of money on giftcards. In fact I’ve never gone the typical MS route, i.e.

CC – buy GC – buy MO – liquidate through bank

I’ve meet vast majority of my minimum spend through NW Buxx (rip 1/31/2017). Because Buxx did not accept Amex cards I ended up using Paypal cards (risky) to MS vast majority of my Amex minimum spend requirement. I also MSed a large portion of 100k leaked Plat via Venmo and I MSed almost entire minimum spend on Arrival+ with Venmo as well.

Redemption

Nothing too amazing. Basically a lot of money saver trips. I spent very little $ on travel I otherwise would have to pay in. I also got to take my parents on mini vacations so that was great.

Cost	Redemption	Notes
50k TY + $150	RT ORD – KTM	Saved $
150 UR + $30	3 x RT MDW – NYC	took parents on a trip
80k Hilton	1 Night DT Times Square NY – Suite	I liked
Hyatt Cert	Andaz Wall Street	Meh
Hyatt Cert	Park Hyatt DC	Okay
15k UR + $30	3 x RT MDW – Washington	took parents on another trip
24k UR	3 x Suite Hyatt Regency KTM	loved everything here
15k Carlson	Radisson KTM	ehh
20k IHG	4x Crowne Plaza KTM	free breakfast for Platinums tho <3