Levels of Participation

Since I just started this blog and the only readers so far are my friends, I wanted to go over with them the levels of participation in this ‘miles and points’ game.

The Credit Card Only users
This is the level most people start out with. It’s where I started out and stayed for 10 years just because 1) I didn’t travel much and 2) didn’t know how to maximize the value of my miles. I also didn’t have a tracking system for my points and lost some Hilton points because they expired due to inactivity. If this is the group you are in now or want to be in, it’s totally fine. If you only fly 1-3 times a year domestically, there’s no point in you trying to amass hundreds of thousands of points. If you apply for 1-3 credit cards a year, you can easily get those trips paid for. If you are in this level, I suggest you use Award Wallet (my referral link gives us both 6 months of “plus” membership) to help keep track of points expiration dates for you. Figure out all your membership numbers, logins and passwords and enter them all into AW. You’ll also get a weekly email from AW telling you changes in balances.

The Manufactured Spender
This is when you start to get serious about the game. Usually an event will occur that will push you into this level – a honeymoon coming up perhaps. This is when you start to think about flying internationally and perhaps in business class. In this level, you’re probably applying for 6-8 credit cards a year, following 4-5 blogs, learning about route maps and airline alliances, and you also have a Bluebird/Serve card to help you ‘manufacture’ miles. Your total miles balance starts to get into the 500K level, and you’re about to or have booked already your first award trip on points. You also understand the value of points and how a Hilton point is worth much less than an SPG point or an airline mile.  This is the level most people should be in if they want to fly in international business or first class.

It’s now a Hobby
This is when you start to get serious about the game.  This is when you start buying AMEX gift cards, have multiple Serve accounts and subaccounts, and possibly some reselling in shopping portals.  This is when you start to get ultra organized because you lost a $500 gift card and wiped away any MS (‘manufactured spend’) earning for a month.  This is when you spend 2-3 hours a day in this hobby.  At this point, you have more miles than you know what to do with.  You’ll apply for 5 Citi AA Exec cards just to stash away 500,000 AA miles that will take you years to burn off.  You also learn about stopovers and routing rules, and get really deep into the game.  Even at this level, there are varying degrees; some may be better at MS’ing and some are better at booking flights.  At this level, you probably have 1-2 million miles and points.  This is the level I put myself in.

The Unicorn
I belong to a private forum where another member told us he used to MS over a million dollars A MONTH on the old blue AMEX cashback card.  I think his income was mid 6 figures.  At this point, you just wonder why would he need miles when he has that level of income.  Just goes to show, although you can AFFORD first class, you may not want to.