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C H A P T E R T W O

Casual or Obsessive: The Choice is Yours!

The great thing about this hobby is that everything can be done at your own pace. Maybe you’ll start
and get totally immersed in it, taking advantage of every signup bonus you can, utilizing online shopping
to take advantage of great promotions, and spending way too much time analyzing which card will earn
you the most points while buying a $1 loaf of bread at the grocery store (spoken from experience).

You’ll earn enough miles each year that you can’t even spend them all (a great problem to have, by the
way). Frequent flyer miles will not only be a way to travel anywhere you want to go, but also a fun hobby
to get involved in!

Or maybe you’ll be more casual about it. You’ll earn miles pretty passively by opening a credit card here
and there. You’ll use your card for regular purchases, but not give it too much thought. You won’t be
found scouring frequent flyer forums or participating in small promotions, but with minimum effort, you’ll
still be able to travel to a few places each year for free.

While I’m a prime example of the first situation, my father is a great example of the second type. He
doesn’t think about it much, but he does take advantage of a few great opportunities each year that earn
him enough to take a couple vacations (sometimes in first class) each year.

If you want to travel to so many places that you can’t even begin to list them all, you’ll most likely start
taking a more active approach. If you enjoy a more infrequent traveling schedule, preferring a vacation
or two a year, you’ll probably take a more passive approach. Neither is wrong, and you may even find
yourself flipping between the two at different times.

Either way, do what works best for you. This guide is written for both the casual and the obsessive; it
contains enough tips for even the most hardcore miles junkies but also making miles easy and under-
standable enough for those who wish to take a more passive approach.

With that in mind, let’s start digging in to the meat of the guide. Before we can do anything else, you’ll
need to understand what frequent flyer miles are.

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