Free plane tickets

[Texan in Jiangsu]

Hi everyone,

 

So someone I went to school with has married a nice Chinese lady. He was separated from her for over one year while he was living in USA. He told me that he was given free trips to China given by credit card companies that he signed up for and cancelled (for example, the Delta Miles credit card. He told me that When he signed up and spent $5000, he would get enough miles for a free plane trip to China. After getting the ticket, he would cancel the card. Is this legit? Is it possible? Would your name be put on some blacklist for these credit companies?

 

Thanks,

Texan in Jiangsu

[Randy W]

http://www.creditcards.com/airline-miles.php?a_aid=1004&a_cid=1025&a_did=177369&adused=41750592420&gclid=Cj0KEQjw3cKeBRDG-KKqqIj4qJgBEiQAOamX_cjZ25n5gSorRzWbYM5mPHzEKW5hg3BgoukjdoUUjJoaAnJ18P8HAQ

[Scott@Hong]

Keep in mind you need to spend the money to qualify for the miles, so if you are already planning to buy something large 5000-10000 dollars. You could put it on the card and than pay it off before interest hits to get the miles. I avoid having balances on my credit cards, but I will routinely buy items on cards I have for cash back bonuses and than pay the card promptly the day after I purchase the item. Bank of America has several revolving deals where you can get 15% cash back from stores if you use at right time.

 

The process of opening a new credit account and than quickly closing it will defintily hit your credit ratiing for a time. Closing accounts actually hurts your rating, stupid as it sounds.

[amberjack1234]

Does he understand that 20,000 air miles does not equate to 20,000 actual ground miles?

 

Larry

[Randy W]

Does he understand that 20,000 air miles does not equate to 20,000 actual ground miles?

 

Larry

 

 

Like it says, 20,000 air miles gets you a $200 credit - and nowhere near China.

[yuehan123]

From a site called Nerd Wallet- "Redemption Options

As we said above, CapOne’s a bit evasive about its No Hassle Miles program until you’ve already got a card. A login is required to view the redemption options, and the rewards program description is vague, but this is how we determined the 100-miles-per-dollar reward rate:

Travel – According to CapOne, “add two zeros to the price of your travel purchase, then trade in that number of miles to pay for it”. For example if your statement shows a $109 hotel bill, trade in 10,900 points. Or for a $224 plane ticket, trade in 22,400 points. You can either book the travel on your own, and then redeem points for a statement credit against your travel expenses, or you can book through Capital One’s Rewards program. Generally speaking, we prefer to find the cheapest flight first using sites like (omitted) rather than rely on a non-transparent travel agent."

 

Therefore, as stated above, 20,000 earned points gets you a $200 ticket. Said in a way I understand- A $1,500 r/t ticket to somewhere would require a credit card mileage program redemption of 1,500 (the cost of the ticket) plus 2 zeros = 150000. Sounds like $150,000 in spending to me.

 

By contrast, Alaska airlines will give you 25,000 miles plus maybe a bonus of 2,500 miles on approval right now and guess what? You can fly to China r/t for:

 

70,000 miles and $64 on almost any chosen day in Nov 2014. Oct too. Sept too. Which card is in your wallet?

 

where to look? http://www.alaskaair.com/planbook?lid=nav:planbook-flights

 

And yes, Delta credit card gave my wife 50,000 bonus miles after meeting the spendiing/time requirement. She found a r/t ticket to China, on Delta, for 67,000 miles, as I recall. Travel time sucked, of course.

 

Southwest just gave us 50,000 points on approval. enough to fly several places free on SWA.