Mythbusted: The Miles Game is way easier than you think

Whenever I bump into an old friend, I’ll hear something along the lines of “Wow, you’ve been a real baller, travelling in Business and First Class!”. And that is when I would take a deep breath and explain how I did not pay $10,000 for that flight and all I did was accumulate the miles/points through normal spending. This is when they assume that one have to be a big spender to accumulate enough miles to fly in a premium seat.

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Bit of extra work

Of course it is going to require some effort. Did you think airlines are going to make it easy for you to fly in a seat that they could have sold for $10,000? You will have to track your credit card statements and due dates. You will have to memorize the best cards for each spending category. You will have to check which Frequent Flyer Program (FFP) to credit your upcoming flight to. But when you end up with 40,500 miles to fly in the best First Class Suite in the world, you will be reminded on why you got into this in the first place.

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Myth 1: You have to be a big spender

Let’s look at how long you will take to accumulate 40,000 miles. The absolute easiest way to accumulate your first 10,000 miles is by signing up for AMEX Krisflyer and use it to spend your first $1,000. By using the best cards for each category, this is how long you will take to accumulate the remaining 30,000 miles:

Monthly Spending	Duration to 30,000 miles
$300	25 months
$500	15 months
$800	10 months
$1,000	8 months
$1,500	5 months

Myth 2: You should only be aiming for Economy Class redemptions

Let’s look at the following example: Flying round trip from Singapore to Istanbul.

Class	Actual Price	Miles Required
Economy	$1,015	50,000
Business	$4,270	98,000

Business class flights for the above example cost 4 times more but only require twice the amount of miles. This simply means that you get more value from your miles by redeeming for a Business class ticket. Check out the article I wrote on Singapore Airlines Krisflyer sweet spots for the best value redemptions.

Crediting your flight to the right Frequent Flyer Program

The number 1 mistake that most people make is crediting their flights to the FFP of the airline that they are travelling with. They would end up with a few miles here and there, never getting enough for a redemption. Within a few years, all those miles would expire and disappear from their accounts. I wrote an article on how to pick the best FFP to credit your flights to.

The credit card method

This is the easiest way to accumulate miles/points even if you spend as little as $300 a month! Aim to achieve 4 miles for every dollar that you spend by using the right cards for each category. You should not spend more that you already do. Instead of getting absolutely nothing by using cash, you are paying for a future flight. If you are completely new to this, check out our Getting Started guide.

Conclusion

Unless if you do not enjoy travelling, earn at least $30,000 per year or simply do not have time to track and pay for your credit cards on time, this opportunity is too good to be missed. Come join us in the Miles Game!