I’ve been collecting American Airlines miles via the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Card since 2015. However, 2018 is the year when I transitioned from a casual to a serious points and miles collector.

After doing some research and being completely convinced in the positive outcomes that collecting points and miles can provide, I jumped head first into the hobby. Over the course of the year, I accumulated a lot of points in a short amount of time, took a few fun trips, and redeemed some points and miles. This year helped set the foundation for future vacations I previously could only dream of taking.

I thought it would be fun to look back at what I’ve accomplished in the last 9 months of 2018!

Credit Cards

• Credit cards opened: 6 (including 2 that my wife, Annie opened)
• Sign-up bonus points earned: 305,000 points
• Referral bonus points earned: 10,000 points
• Everyday spending: 138,776 points

In 2018, I opened a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Chase Freedom®, Hilton Honors Aspire and United Explorer card. I was able to earn the sign-up bonus on all cards, although the United miles won’t post until my January 2019 statement.

Annie also opened a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the no-fee Hilton Honors card. She earned the sign-up bonus on both.

Between the sign-up bonuses, referral bonuses and everyday spending, I earned a total of 453,776 points this year!

Let’s take a closer look at each of the new cards we opened in 2018.

How We Use Our New Cards

We use the Chase Sapphire Preferred card for dining and travel and the Hilton Aspire card also for dining. I would normally use the CSP for all dining but we’re trying to rack up Hilton points to earn a free stay in Hawaii in 2020.

We use Annie’s no-fee Hilton card to earn 5x points on groceries and gas. Sometimes we use our Costco Anywhere Visa for gas since it earns 4% cash back.

The Chase Freedom card, I use at the specific categories each quarter to super charge my Chase Ultimate Rewards points earning. I then transfer those points to my Chase Sapphire Preferred card for future use.

Finally, I only applied for the United Explorer card for the bonus miles and expanded award availability. So after I achieved the minimum spending requirement, I don’t foresee using the card very much in the upcoming year.

Trips: Flights and Hotel Stays

• Flights taken: 10 (6 business + 4 personal)
• Miles flown: 10,034
• Miles redeemed: 33,750
• Individual hotel stays: 7
• Total hotel nights: 13

For business purposes, I stayed 2 nights at the Courtyard Houston The Woodlands, 3 nights at the SpringHill Suites Houston The Woodlands, and 1 night at the Hilton Garden Inn Frisco.

Personally, I stayed 1 night at the Hilton Chicago/Oak Brook Hills Resort, 1 night at the TownePlace Suites Champaign Urbana Campustown, 1 night at the Kalahari Resort, 1 night at Sand Valley Golf Resort and 3 nights at the InterContinental Stephen F. Austin.

I redeemed points this year for a round-trip flight from Chicago to Austin. I splurged for business class on the flight to Austin to have a fun experience since this was a 40th birthday trip for my wife, Annie.

Points earned off airline flights and hotel stays:

• American Airlines: 4,403 miles
• United Airlines: 3,515 miles
• Hilton Hotels: 11,748 points
• Marriott: 1,090 points

Promotional Activity

Many times throughout the year airlines and hotels will offer promotions to earn extra points and miles. Hilton, for example, ran a double points promotion from May 1 through September 9, 2018. My stay at the Hilton Chicago Oak Brook Hills Resort earned me double points since I registered for the promotion before my stay.

In October, Marriott ran a 29 Ways to Stay game. You could play once a day for 29 days and earn instant points prizes. I managed to play most days and earned 1,700 points total. It’s not much, but every bit helps and the game took a minute of my time each day, so why not play?

This past November, IHG offered 5,000 points to the anyone who posted to social media using a designated hashtag. This was open to a limited number of people on a first come first served basis and I was able to snag the offer.

The last six weeks of the year, American Express ran an awesome promotion on their Hilton branded cards. For my Hilton Aspire card, for every $2,000 spent, I’d earn 20,000 Hilton points. For Annie’s Hilton card, for every $1,000 spent, she’d earn 10,000 Hilton points. In total, we earned 40,000 points!

Points and miles earned via promotional activity in 2018:

• American Airlines: 685 miles
• Hilton Hotels: 61,825 points
• Marriott: 2,075 points
• InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG): 5,000 points
• Hertz: 6 points

Surveys

I find surveys to be a very easy, although somewhat boring, way to earn points and miles. Whether it’s clicking away while watching bad TV or while waiting in line somewhere, surveys are a simple way to earn some extra points and miles.

I earned points via 6 different survey websites. Points and miles earned via surveys in 2018:

• American Airlines: 33,270 miles
• United Airlines: 8,442 miles
• Alaska Airlines: 2,127 miles
• Hilton Hotels: 64,345 points
• InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) : 1,025 points

Shopping and Dining Portals

Shopping and dining portals are another easy way to earn extra points and miles.

I already do a lot of online shopping and if I simply go to a shopping portal first instead of directly to the merchant, I can earn bonus points/miles on my purchases. Since I use multiple shopping portals, I always check Cashback Monitor first, to see which portal will give me the most bonus points for the merchant I want to shop. I then choose that shopping portal to use.

With dining portals, any restaurant participating with the Rewards Network will earn bonus points or miles when you dine there. As long as I enroll my credit card before dining, I earn points or miles each time I dine.

This past year, I also found the United MileagePlus X app. With the app, you essentially buy gift cards for merchants and receive United miles. For example, at one point in the year they offered 10 miles per $1 spent at Panera. So I bought a $50 gift card and earned 500 miles. And if you’re a
United Explorer cardholder, like I am, you get a 25% bonus on top of that. If I had just used my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card at Panera, I’d earn 2x Ultimate Rewards points and that’s it. I still used my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card to make the gift card purchase, so I got my 2x Ultimate Rewards points plus all those United bonus miles (625 in total). Any time I’m at a retailer, I will check this app to see if it’s advantageous to buy a gift card via just making a regular purchase.

Points and miles earned via shopping and dining portals in 2018:

• American Airlines: 9,480 miles
• United Airlines: 4,128 miles
• Hilton Hotels: 1,837 points
• Chase Ultimate Rewards: 40 points

Bottom Line

2018 was a big year for my points and miles hobby. In total, I earned over 670,000 points and miles. I only redeemed 33,750 and plan to continue to do more accumulating than redeeming in 2019.

This past year also marked the birth of this website, TopTravelonPoints.com and it’s been a lot of fun so far to create content.

In the next year, I expect to apply for fewer credit cards overall. I’ll continue to monitor new offers and sign-up bonus promotions on cards that I’ve been eyeing and apply whenever possible. I’m currently at the Chase 5/24 credit card limit, so if I do apply for something, it’ll have to be with another bank.

As far as trips go, I already have one planned to Orange County, CA in late January and a 2-week trip to Israel in June. I’ll make sure to write about all my travels in 2019!

I may also tag onto my wife’s business trip to Beijing, China in February. I’m sure there’ll be a few weekend trips here and there as well.

2019 will also be when I start planning for my 5-year anniversary trip to Hawaii. It’ll be my first time redeeming points for an entire trip, from airfare to hotels to car rentals. I’ll be sure to share any tricks I learn along the way.

Overall it should be another exciting year for my points and miles hobby. Here’s to 2019!