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My Introduction to Airline Miles

 I was first introduced to airline miles by a friend who had just gotten a United Airline Chase Credit Card.  

I signed up and started getting airline miles for all of my business purchases.  Just for signing up I received 50,000 miles.  I believe I had to spend $3,000 in the first three months to get the 50,000 points.  This was a great bonus, two free flights anywhere in the US for spending $3,000 which I would have spent anyway.   The annual fee for this card is $95 which is waived for the first year.

It took 25,000 airline miles to get one round trip ticket anywhere in the US.  Short flights would only cost 20,000 airline miles.

I used just this Chase United card for a couple of years and earned a couple hundred thousand Airline Miles on the purchases my business made.  

More Chase Points Cards

I applied for and got more Chase credit cards for points.  I got the first Chase Freedom card with no annual fee.  This card offered more points on purchases from certain categories of businesses. These categories changed every quarter.  I believe I got 25,000 free points on this card after I spent $1000 on the card in the next three months.

When Chase came out with the Freedom Unlimited card that offered 1.5 points on every purchase I applied for and received that card also.  I received another 25,000 points with this card after spending $1,000 in three months.

Transferring Chase Points to Airline Miles

In order to transfer points from my Freedom card to my airline card I had to get the Chase Sapphire Card. Within the Chase credit card environment you will have to have a Chase card with an annual fee.  Again I spent  $3,000 on my Sapphire card to get 50,000 points that I transferred to my Airline miles.  The Sapphire card makes it possible for me to transfer points but costs $100 per year.

An Annual Fee example:

The United Airlines card has an annual fee of $95.00.  That is an $8 a month fee.  If you spend $800 per month on this card you will get enough points value to break even.  The first $800 per month is just to break even.

If you are not spending a lot on your airline card with an annual fee it will not pay to have the card.


All Airline Miles are not created Equal

Many companies Airline cards give you 1 cent credit per mile earned when you buy a ticket.   Others like Alaska and United have lower flat rate fares for using points.  Often this is a much better deal than you can get when you pay cash.

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