How I earn points and miles has changed dramatically over the past few years. While I once made earning points my part-time job, my current rewards strategy involves earning maximum points for minimal effort. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but I value my time more and only want to partake in points-earning activities that are fun and rewarding. I’m also focused on sustainable methods that help me maximize every dollar I spend while minimizing risks.
Your points and miles strategy should evolve alongside your goals. Mine are totally different from those of a decade ago. I used to spend more time earning points than actually traveling, and I’ve aimed to correct that. I focus less on solo travel in premium cabins and more on creating memorable experiences with family.
Creating more of those moments requires a lot of points, and thankfully, I have a few options to make that happen. Here’s a look at how I’m earning points and miles these days:
Optimizing my credit card spending
While I’ve never been big on credit card sign-ups to earn points, I’ve always maximized every dollar spent. I earn a lot of points just by being strategic with my credit card spending. I make sure I use the most rewarding credit card for every purchase and use shopping portals like Rakuten every time I purchase things online. It’s a small step that earns me double or more points.
Right now, dining and groceries are two of my biggest spending categories. The Citi Prestige helps me earn upwards of 5X points through regular and promotional bonuses. In addition to maxing out those bonuses, I charge all other non-bonus category spending to a card that earns at least 2X rewards.
My go-to is usually the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, which earns 2 miles for every dollar spent. I like the flexibility of redeeming these miles for travel purchases or transferring them to a handful of airline and hotel loyalty programs.
I also picked up a Bilt Mastercard last year to cover housing expenses, which has been a massive boon to my rewards balance. If you’re paying rent, I highly recommend getting a Bilt Card since it has no annual fee and allows you to earn fee-free points on rent.
For business expenses, I use the Blue Business® Plus Credit Card to earn 2X on everything. The 2X rate is limited to the first $50,000 spent annually, but I never get near that number so it works out. Between these cards, I’m well-equipped to leverage my necessary expenses for the most rewards possible.
Note: If you use my Bilt Mastercard referral link to apply and get approved, I’ll earn 2,500 bonus points.
Leveraging credit card welcome bonuses
It’s been a while since I signed up for a credit card, but I’m always looking for a great welcome bonus to top up my rewards balance. I try to be strategic about my credit card portfolio and only get cards that have long-term benefits.
For example, I will probably pick up a Citi Strata Premier℠ Card this year and a Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card. The welcome bonus for the Autograph card is relatively low, but Wells Fargo is becoming a formidable player in the rewards arena, thanks to their recent acquisition of transfer partners.
Meanwhile, the Citi Strata Premier offers a 75,000-point welcome bonus after $4,000 spent in the first three months of account opening. With a reasonable $95 annual fee, generous category bonuses and travel protection benefits, it’s a long-term keeper. My goal is always to earn more points, so I love these two cards for their long-term reward potential.
Retail arbitrage
I recently got into retail arbitrage to earn more points and elite status. I’ve dabbled in retail arbitrage in the past, but a friend showed me how lucrative it can be if you choose the right product and put the whole thing on autopilot. So far, I’m really enjoying it, since it stretches that entrepreneurial muscle I’ve let atrophy over the years.
I love anything that seems like a game—hence my obsession with points. Give me a project that involves clear rewards tied to metrics, and I’m all over it. Retail arbitrage checks both boxes. I don’t anticipate turning this into a full-time job, but I loved earning almost 30,000 points and miles a couple of weeks ago. The profit from these purchases is just the icing on the cake.
My goal this year is to earn 100,000 points from retail arbitrage. This goal is totally feasible, given the time I’m willing to devote to this particular venture.
Dabbling in buying clubs
For the past two years, I’ve relied heavily on buying clubs (or buying groups) to earn points and miles. Buying clubs can be lucrative around the holiday shopping season when demand skyrockets for certain products and sales run rampant. I mostly stick to buying Apple products on Amazon to get the highest return.
My favorite buying club is Buy For Me, thanks to its user-friendly interface and fast payouts. My current lifetime payout is showing as $46,947.03, which translates to a ton of miles earned with very little effort. I’m going to double down this fall and make the most of money clubs.
The downside with buyers clubs is that they don’t always pay full retail. You might incur a slight loss on some purchases, which I try to avoid. That being said, buying clubs make it easy to earn lots of points without much effort. Sign up for alerts, and occasionally find deals where you can make a small profit.
Other buying clubs I’ve used include Buying Group and PointsMaker. They were pretty reliable and sometimes paid higher rates than BFM, but their interface was more challenging to navigate.
Buying points and miles
Buying miles isn’t technically the same as “earning” them, but it’s still a great way to stock up on rewards for less. Avianca Lifemiles has been one of my go-to programs for booking Star Alliance awards and they’re renowned for their mileage sales. If you buy Lifemiles during a sale, you can lock down an international business-class ticket for as little as $1,200.
Currently, Avianca offers up to a 160% bonus when you buy Lifemiles. You can buy 127,400 miles for $1,617 and use 126,000 for a round-trip business class ticket to Europe. Considering economy class tickets to Europe can cost that much, buying Lifemiles for business class is a much better value.
While I also earn tons of Amex, Capital One, and Citi ThankYou points, I don’t like to transfer those to Lifemiles. I can buy Lifemiles cheaply and use these transferable rewards for higher-value redemptions.
I’ve also bought IHG and Hilton points in the past year. When I traveled to Singapore for the Eras Tour in April, hotel prices were steep. A stay at the Conrad Centennial costs over $700 per night. I ended up buying Hilton points for around $300 per night. I saved a ton and stayed at a great hotel with easy access to the National Stadium.
Bottom line
I’m not earning as many rewards as I did when I got into this hobby over a decade ago. Nowadays, I value my time more and prefer to earn points by maximizing every dollar I have to spend anyway. Most of my expenses are set on auto-pay, so I don’t have to think about it. I always have my Citi Prestige and Capital One Venture on hand to maximize any purchases and try to keep up with the latest Citi spending offers.
When I want to earn more points, I turn to shopping portals and buying clubs to earn more rewards. As a last-ditch effort, I’ll gladly buy points to make up any deficit. It’s a good system so far, but I’m always making adjustments based on my travel goals and needs—as we all should.
I’m curious: How are you all earning most of your points and miles?
I haven’t signed up for a new card in a very long while, mostly because I keep my spending on a just a few and try to maximize with their bonuses, Citi Strata and Amex Gold are my two favorites. I don’t have Chase, they basically hate me so I gave up on applying for their products. I have a good bank on points and miles that I’m working my way through. I want to burn them before signing up for a new card.
I’m the same – never been a big churner and I generally won’t get a new card unless I have a specific travel goal in mind. The Strata is a great choice. I love that they’re including travel insurance, which makes it so much easier to justify using the card for travel.
I also like to buy points when they are on sale. I have purchased Avianca, Aeroplan, IHG, Wyndham and Marriot points on sale. My wife and I used Wyndham points from cards and purchases to use for a VACASA rental in Kauai, HI. We live on the west coast and often use Alaska Airlines points to travel to Asia and South America. By buying Alaska Gift cards at 10% off and combining them with Companion Fares, my wife and I have traveled to Hawaii and on other domestic travel quite reasonably.
The bonus miles and points from opening credit cards are lovely. My wife and I use the two-player approach. I get a new card and hit the bonus spend, then she gets a new card.
I use Venture X for daily use to receive 2X points, when not getting needing to hit spend for new card bonuses. Hotel cards that offer free nights and cards that are free (no annual fee) are keepers.
Aeroplan is having a great sale right now and I’m tempted to buy some. I love your Alaska Airlines hack – they’re great to fly with and the Companion Fare is so versatile.
Ariana thanks so much for this article. For those of us who aren’t big openers of cards we can almost feel left out of the game. But your article touched on ways to earn points without applying to a new card every 3 months. I am nearing retirement and may have more time on my hands. Is there a good tutorial you suggest for retail arbitrage-kind of like for “dummies!”
I’m glad to hear it! I’m also not big on opening new cards (it was never really my thing) and like putting things on autopilot as much as possible. I’m working on a retail arbitrage guide + one about buying clubs. Is there anything specific you want to see included?
Thanks for the update. I have used Buy For Me in the past. My challenges were that s
1. The retailer often refuses to send to the known arbitrage delivery addresses and cancels the order
2. Very often the retail price published on BFM is actually higher than how it is listed on their website.
Have you come across these issues as well? I do like their new website!!!
In my experience, Amazon is the only retailer that won’t cancel your order. I think I had one successful order with Best Buy and that was it. Buy For Me tends to fall behind on their pricing, so you really have to compare their buy price against the actual listed price on Amazon. But I do like them for how user-friendly their site is and how fast they pay.
I like your info on buying clubs. I haven’t tried that. One method I use to acquire points is to use the Chase Buisiness INK card to get 5x on gift cards that I can use right away (e.g. Amazon, Shell Gas, etc). I also buy Visa & MasterCard GCs when they go on sale.
When you buy Apple products on Amazon, I suppose you could stock up on Amazon GCs at 5x before doing so, correct?
I love the Ink Card. I do the same thing, including buying Doordash gift cards for all my grocery deliveries. I don’t use gift cards for retail arbitrage much – with Apple products, I’m worried if something happens (i.e. they don’t get delivered, the warehouse loses them), I’ll miss out on valuable travel protections. I’m ok doing it for Airpods but not so much iPads and Macbooks.
I still earn a decent amount of points from high sign up bonuses. I recently got the Chase Sapphire Preferred with their 85K in branch offer and got an Amex Plat at 150K. My wife and I have several Chase Freedom cards and we do our best to maximize the quarterly bonus on each. I earn a decent amount on the Ink card when office supply stores run promos, but nowadays only use the gift cards for organic spend. I have the Bilt card which has netted a decent amount of points over the past 18 months. I also have a bank account with Bask Bank that earns AA miles for interest. I also make use of shopping portals, mostly Chase since UR are my favorite points. Sometimes I utilize some decent offers on SimplyMiles. I do miss the old days of MS but I do not miss visiting Walmart every other day. Even without MS’ing my wife and I still earn a ton of points and have been taking some very nice trips.
Our strategies are very similar, Scott. Though I prefer Rakuten for shopping portal rewards. Have you looked at them? You can opt to earn Amex Membership Rewards instead of cash back.