What’s better than traveling around the world? Traveling because of a credit card that gives you airline miles and other rewards. Of course, it goes without saying that you can buy everything from a toothbrush to a Tesla using your card, but when the rewards are so meaningful, it becomes a habit one happily develops. Brad Wilson, founder of the deals site known as BradDeals, understood this concept, although he took a minimalist approach to it. He didn’t believe in spending all his savings just to collect miles, so he set a goal of collecting a massive amount of airline miles, 4 million miles, while spending as little as possible.
Instead of procrastinating swiping his card, Brad amassed an incredible 4 million airline miles by buying $1 coins. It is in 2005 when the United States government enacted the Presidential $1 Coin Act. The initiative was to introduce $1 coins into the US currency, with one ordering a dollar coin on the US Mint’s website. Thereafter the mint will ship the coins free of charge. The problem was that the $1 coin could only be bought using a credit card. What helped Brad take advantage of this loophole was to use his rewards card to buy large quantities of $1 coins.
American Express Starwood Credit Card.
The money bought helped top up the Reward Points meter while the coins went directly to his bank. The money deposited apparently paid off her credit card statement. Who said going in circles is a bad thing? Definitely not, when you buy a lot of money grants you have to pay back a lot of money to pay with the card. This process continued until Wilson had purchased $3 million in giant coins over the next few years using his American Express Starwood card. The advantage here was that one reward point was earned for every dollar spent, and Brad got a whopping 3 million.
American Airlines AAdvantage Program.
The fiscally savvy guy transferred those points to his American Airlines AAdvantage frequent flyer program and each transferred point accumulated 1.25 miles. His 3 million points turn into a total of 4 million airline miles.
American Airlines’ new business class suite
In addition, perks like lifetime platinum user status (for him and his wife) and at least 40 round-trip domestic flights were also given. In 2011, the Mint discontinued the dollar coin purchase program, depriving many people of this wonderful opportunity to splurge for peanuts!
Comment — As of the writing of this story, first class travel from NYC to Paris on American Airlines costs 201k points per person.
Source: luxurylaunches.com
