Introduce yourself here!

[Lawrence]

Hello all! My name is Lawrence and I am from Pensacola. I have only been in this game for a couple of years, and frankly, am not yet the most experienced traveller. However, I have been accumulating miles and points for an all-out round-the-world extravaganza to be taken just before before I become a slave to law school for three years. I've enjoyed the various blog posts I have read here and have high hopes for the forum as well.

 

[Lucas]

Hey guys, I'm a flyertalk enthusiast who regularly follows travel bloggers of the non-affiliate sort. I signed up on this forum due to a number of tweets being posted about it, as well as the decreasing quality of flyertalk forum posts. I ms about 10k/month and travel about once/month for pleasure. cheers.

 

[thorax]

I signed up for the hot pics of Matt. I have not been disappointed.

 

[Steve Zappa]

Inspired to look at this forum based upon someone at a Walmart kiosk suggesting it. I tend to vary how much I do in miles from year to year (I feel like I'm cheating on my job with my focus on miles/points). Doing more now in terms of MS. I did a lot of coins from us mint previously. I've done 2-4 rounds of credit card apps per year for past 8 years.

 

[PointsEarner615]

Welcome aboard, Steve! And that someone at the Walmart kiosk was me ;-)

I'm waiting for Matt to send me the referral fee for signing up new members!

 

[Scott]

Hello...Scott here. Currently Boston based, previously a resident of Chicago and Atlanta. I have experience in variants of MSing back to around Y2K (look it up if you don't remember). Looking forward to meeting some more people here!

 

[Darlene]

Hi everyone. I'm in NEPA. I love to find good deals and have just recently really gotten into MS. Can't believe it took me this long to figure it out. I've done credit card and checking account bonuses since I can't remember. Have been traveling much more in the last few years since I don't pay for flights and now even more with free hotel rooms! I've been reselling on Amazon and Ebay for a while too. Looking forward to improving and helping other too.

 

[DWaggs]

Hello Everyone, Darby here. I am in Denver. I have been in the credit card churning game for around 18 months now and have had a great deal of success and has allowed my wife and I to go on trips to Ft. Lauderdale, Disney World, Pittsburgh x 2, Omaha x 2, Rome, China, Washington DC, cruises x 2 and Cancun. My MS has been limited to meeting minimum spend on the credit cards but, I am interested in stepping up my game on MS and utilizing some new methodologies to reduce/eliminate the out-of-pocket costs associated with MS. I am running out of new credit cards that can get me UR or MileagePlus points and so MS seems to be the best option for me. I have learned a lot about using points and identifying hidden costs of travel that I would be happy to share with others.

 

[milehunter]

Hi everyone, I am new to the forum. I really like the personel finance blog. I would like to learn more with level 2 access.

 

[alymae1010]

Hi all! Checking in from STL. Excited to find a forum that combines my favorite topics of point hunting and personal finance. Yep, I'm pretty popular at parties.

 

[f0xx]

Hi all! Checking in from STL. Excited to find a forum that combines my favorite topics of point hunting and personal finance. Yep, I'm pretty popular at parties.

Welcome!!!! Glad to have you here!
Watch out for a guy name @Matt

 

[3rddayfan]

Hello Everyone, Darby here. I am in Denver. I have been in the credit card churning game for around 18 months now and have had a great deal of success and has allowed my wife and I to go on trips to Ft. Lauderdale, Disney World, Pittsburgh x 2, Omaha x 2, Rome, China, Washington DC, cruises x 2 and Cancun. My MS has been limited to meeting minimum spend on the credit cards but, I am interested in stepping up my game on MS and utilizing some new methodologies to reduce/eliminate the out-of-pocket costs associated with MS. I am running out of new credit cards that can get me UR or MileagePlus points and so MS seems to be the best option for me. ** I have learned a lot about using points and identifying hidden costs of travel that I would be happy to share with others.**

Welcome. You've obviously been very successful. Congrats on that. I would appreciate any info you are willing to share in regard to your experience and "using points and identifying HIDDEN costs of travel..." Thanks for being willing to do that.

 

[3rddayfan]

Hi everyone. I'm in NEPA. I love to find good deals and have just recently really gotten into MS. Can't believe it took me this long to figure it out. I've done credit card and checking account bonuses since I can't remember. Have been traveling much more in the last few years since I don't pay for flights and now even more with free hotel rooms! I've been reselling on Amazon and Ebay for a while too. Looking forward to improving and helping other too.

Welcome! Hope you get your wish to improve and help! Quick question already: Do you have any recommendations on posting a variety of retail GCs on ebay? Example: I did a promotion a few months back where I bought 4 Olive Garden GCs. I gave one away to an elderly woman for Mother's Day but really hit a brick wall on how to find interest in them with others. My DH is more of a "beef" guy and is very busy working most days/nights. I have had them 3 months now. Would love to sell/liquidate them somehow.

 

[3rddayfan]

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What's up everyone, I'm Leigh from Maryland. I've been playing the CC game since around 2006 when I did my first AOR for 0% balance transfer arbitrage. The good old days of borrowing from B of A at 0% and lending it back to them in a savings account at 6%!!

After savings interest rates tanked and 0% no-fee balance transfers all but disappeared, I was out of the game for a while. I started collecting miles/points bonuses in 2011. I ramped it up last year and since October I've taken trips to Hawaii, Thailand, Whistler for skiing and Peru.

Looking forward to meeting some more people who enjoy this hobby.

Wow, wish I had gotten in on that! My DH was just coming back from Iraq and we bought a house in 2006. Wish I had been in the know and smart enough to do that to BOA. We had $50K in a BOA plain jane savings account to use to put down $ on the house. It hurt to see that 50 go to 13 in a flash. I sure wish I had known about that!

 

[Kendon]

Hi, my name is Kendon, and I'm addicted to manufactured spending, expensive trips I can't afford to pay for out of pocket, and finding new ways to play with credit cards. Other than that I'm a financial analyst in the GSO area, and I've been playing the credit card points game for about 2 years.

 

[smittytabb]

Welcome! Hope you get your wish to improve and help! Quick question already: Do you have any recommendations on posting a variety of retail GCs on ebay? Example: I did a promotion a few months back where I bought 4 Olive Garden GCs. I gave one away to an elderly woman for Mother's Day but really hit a brick wall on how to find interest in them with others. My DH is more of a "beef" guy and is very busy working most days/nights. I have had them 3 months now. Would love to sell/liquidate them somehow.

Have heard good things about giftcardzen and there are many others sites that will buy your cards.

 

[knick1959]

Hi, my name is Nick. I live in Strongsville, Ohio ... a suburb of Cleveland. Originally I only knew the Continental Airlines program and their credit card. Two or three years ago I started to see the potential for more, so I started reading every article and blog I could find. I am now a member of more than a dozen air and hotel programs (as is my wife) with a matching number of cards to go with it. I do MS however I limit my efforts and believe my "risk" is very low compared to the norm. The goal is 2-3 Business class trips a year (for 2). Last spring was England and Ireland, next spring Peru and Ecuador. Domestic travel in between.

 

[hightops56]

Hello all, My name is Mike (we are legion) and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area (more accurately known as Oakland). I'm interested in travel (shocking), finance (in my own, small way), guitars (looking at them looking at me in the corner (that's ambiguous: they are in the corner; I am not in the corner)), and coffee. I've been laying on my couch for two days reading travel/points blogs/forums. I don't want to read any more blogs/forums and I don't particularly like to be laptop-horizontal for quite so long so I have chosen to settle here, as it seems like a relatively reasonable place. Unfortunately for you all (I am not from the south), I can confidently say that the great majority of you have a great deal more knowledge than I do. I don't know what to say about that. I've been acquiring credit cards and accruing points for about a year now and doing a small bit of travel. I'm looking for ways to creatively accrue more miles via the usual spending shenanigans in my own aggressively conservative and quiet way. I am not a blogger; I will never be a blogger.

 

[Paul]

Paul here - SFO tri valley. Coming up on 2 years as MSer. Fairly experienced in the game despite being a relative noob - well over 8MM miles/points now, and have burned about 5MM along the way. Mostly doing cash back these days as building more points isn't a priority.

Keeping my hand in to see if something new under the sun arrives, but gotta admit don't see much these days, so don't follow the scene as closely as I did when trying to learn about the game. Not so interested in redemption side - I try to brute force things with volume so that it really doesn't matter if I fail to get the most value (although I try). I'm more interested in F/top tier hotels and making my travel as painless as possible (planes are just pressurized tubes to be endured as far as I am concerned, so F/J lie flat is mandatory). My focus is on lowest cost scalable methods. All are relatively well know basic methods, so little to offer besides experience of doing most programs (and being shut down by many).

I despise the credit card pimps masquerading as travel bloggers who out deals and ruin the game just for eyeballs and affiliate income. And I view anyone who clicks on one of those scumbag's links as just as complicit in ruining the game. So DON'T CLICK ON ANY CC LINKS!

Words to live by:

Friends NEVER let friends click on ANY affiliate links for ANY reason.

Don't be a Tool and don't feed bloggers!

Diversify.

 

[Adam Sferlazzo]

Hi All!

I'm Adam. I recently graduated from college and have been really into the point/miles game for about 2 years now. I love helping family and friends travel more frequently and better - for less! I currently work in the IT industry for a finance company in the NYC area. I try to get away for trips as often as possible and have been fortunate enough to travel to many exciting places this year despite having a full time job! I'm looking forward to a community where I can help and learn from others who have an in-depth experience with all things points/miles.

 

[stout01]

Hello,

I'm Andrew. I am in my last year of college and just recently discovered the world of credit card offers and MS. I started earlier this spring by being approved for the Southwest premier card with 50,000 points. After I met the minimum spend for that card, I started reading up on other offers and various methods of MS. Earlier this month I applied and was approved for the United explorer and the arrival+. Using some of the methods that I have learned and some that I discovered on my own, I almost have my minimum spend for those cards already. I want to request access to level 2, so that way I can have the opportunity to hear about other user's accounts of MS and so that I can securely share some of my own experiences. I'm looking forward to hearing from all of you!

 

[dfwrealtor]

hello this is Vir .. new to MS concept! looking forward to doing some amazing/crazy things!

 

[cooper]

Hello, Everyone...
I am Holly and I live in the SF Bay Area (East). I started out with FT over 10 years ago, and this hobby has given my family and me some marvelous trips and wonderful memories over the years. They all think I am a little nutty, but never seem to complain when we travel really, really well.

I did coins routinely and regularly for a couple of years and was greatly relieved to switch to gift cards for my ms. So much easier on the arms!

My husband retired last year and a s a physician, found he was with out hobbies and a wealth of time on his hands. So he bought a trailer, and a big ass SUV to pull it with. It was not for us, but I thoroughly enjoyed paying for the vehicle with gift cards. That was tons of fun.

 

[beth p]

Hi, I'm Beth from Cleveland Ohio. We've been into CC mileage collecting for 7+ years through CC's but we've started to get deeper the past 3 years.
Back in the day we would order $ coins, with a 6% cash back with First National of Omaha, but we would legitimately use the dollar coins for all our cash spend.
For domestic flights, we love SW with the companion pass, International=United (stopovers etc), so naturally chase is our best option.
We started getting into MS a few months ago for a Wells Fargo 5% back card at gas & drug stores (6mo). We've been able to knock $1,800 off our mortgage with ($350 cost). I use AMZ pymts for min spend req.
June was our biggest application month with 8 different cards.
I'd like to get more into hotels. I usually try to find deals on hotels or do rate matches. (I just submitted a Marriott Renaissance Aruba price match this evening)
We currently have ~1mil miles, diversified over several airlines. We like to burn our miles. We don't feel the need to fly first class. We'd rather take more friends of family with us with those miles.
My companion pass ends 12/31, so I will need to get Jeff one that we can switch over to using.
Our friends all think we are crazy and think this takes too much effort, but it is a hobby that pays off in free travel!
I love beaches and snorkeling. Jeff loves skiing.
So, we normally end up doing 4 ski trips/year (which is great w/ SW & the 2 free bags)
along with Caribbean beach trips. We also try to do an International trip each year.
I'm 12 years out of college and doing a career change from business/supply chain to the world of education....so although I have summers open, the other dates I have available for travel are restricted to peak travel holiday time frames. My husband works for an insurance company and gets 5, soon to be 6 wks a year.
I also need to figure out what to do with 3 lingering 401k accts from my previous employers

I look forward to learning with you and sharing what I find.

 

[HTaufReisen]

Welcome! Hope you get your wish to improve and help! Quick question already: Do you have any recommendations on posting a variety of retail GCs on ebay? Example: I did a promotion a few months back where I bought 4 Olive Garden GCs. I gave one away to an elderly woman for Mother's Day but really hit a brick wall on how to find interest in them with others. My DH is more of a "beef" guy and is very busy working most days/nights. I have had them 3 months now. Would love to sell/liquidate them somehow.

Check out this site for best prices
http://www.giftcardgranny.com/buy-gift-cards/

 

[Kirk]

Hi, I'm Kirk from NC! I've been following the saverocity blog for quite some time and pfdigest even longer. I really enjoy reading anything personal finance or points related. I'm married with 2 young kids so while I participate a little with MS, I value my free time spent with family more. I also lean more towards hotel programs and cash back as that suits our family best right now. I'm enjoying all the new blogs on the saverocity site and I'm glad to be a member of this forum.

 

[ny6413]

Hi All - I been slowly increasing my MS activities in the NY area over the past year. I would love to connect with other NY area folks to trade tips!

 

[Aegialia]

I'm Sarah. Not entirely new to this, but took some time off and now I'm back. First time her - I tend to talk to people, so I haven't been on forums much. I'm in Denver, and we usually fly as a family of 5!

 

[Darlene]

Welcome! Hope you get your wish to improve and help! Quick question already: Do you have any recommendations on posting a variety of retail GCs on ebay? Example: I did a promotion a few months back where I bought 4 Olive Garden GCs. I gave one away to an elderly woman for Mother's Day but really hit a brick wall on how to find interest in them with others. My DH is more of a "beef" guy and is very busy working most days/nights. I have had them 3 months now. Would love to sell/liquidate them somehow.

Sorry it took so long to respond. Things have been crazy!! When I said I re-sell I mean merchandise. I haven't done GC although I have looked into it. I looked at itune cards on ebay and I was afraid of a buyer scamming and claiming the card was no good. But in the future I may give it a try.

 

[shenxing]

Hi, I usually post on FT but that place is getting pretty bad these days. Happy to be here.

 

[Annie H.]

Hi, I usually post on FT but that place is getting pretty bad these days. Happy to be here.

Welcome. You'll have to get used to not being told, "read the thread." Fairly painless and we're a friendly bunch.

 

[chinomad]

Hi, I usually post on FT but that place is getting pretty bad these days. Happy to be here.

Welcome Shenxing. Agree re: FT -- I think you'll find the Forum a more pleasant environment than FT.

 

[zackarybrown]

Hey all,
This is Zac from San Antonio, Texas.

I'm looking forward to finding new ways to travel for less with my family though this forum!

 

[3rddayfan]

Hey all,
This is Zac from San Antonio, Texas.

I'm looking forward to finding new ways to travel for less with my family though this forum!

Hi, Zac, I am in SAT frequently. Traveling for less is what it's all about from my perspective. Anytime I can help in a meeting of the minds, please ask (not an expert, though, just a trial and error gal!)

 

[chinomad]

Hey all,
This is Zac from San Antonio, Texas.

I'm looking forward to finding new ways to travel for less with my family though this forum!

Hi Zac -- welcome. Up in DFW but make it down to SAT occassionally.