My Airline Miles

Initial Research 

All my life, people have been telling me to travel while you're young, it's more difficult as you get older; and, experience is more valuable than money, you'll never regret it.

Absolutely, without a doubt, I agree with them. And so far in my life I've managed to see a great deal of the world without having a lot of money to finance it.

• In 2008, I traveled to El Salvador for a two-week community art project with my school. I paid for most of the trip with a loan, which I paid off immediately upon graduating. 
• In 2010, I joined the Peace Corps and traveled to Niger and Morroco as a volunteer. The government footed the bills and I even got a small stipend after my service (we were evacuated after 6 months so the pay was only a fraction of the usual $6K)
• In 2011, after having just returned home from Africa, I used my PC stipend to buy a one-way ticket to Japan. I've been working for an English school to earn a living, and except for a regrettable 8-month detour to Colorado, have been here ever since.

Thus, I've managed to work for my travels and had some really great adventures along the way.

But I'm not single anymore, and a traveler's paycheck is certainly not enough to get me out of debt right away. So after some research, I've decided that airline miles are a good way to go.

Okay, I know what you're thinking: credit cards are the LAST thing I need when I'm aleady in debt! But there are a lot of different card programs out there, and unless you're hoping to rack up million-mile-inaire status, you don't need to spend anymore than you're already spending. Here's what I've learned after some sleuthing.

1. PROS

Airline mileage points are a credit card company's way of attracting new customers and rewarding old ones for their loyalty. They are fairly easy to earn depending on the program and can help you pay for part or all of your travel expenses. If you are aware of where, when, and how to earn miles, it's a piece of cake!

Or so it seems. I have just applied for my first card, so as of yet I cannot speak from experience. But as someone who has never owned a credit card because of fear of more debt, I made a strict set of rules before ever signing up.

Rule 1: Never spend more than I currently have in my bank account. This keeps me thinking of the card as a debit card, and will not allow me to get in over my head. Of course, I'll need to keep track of both my bank balance and card expenditures daily… This is the hard part!

Rule 2: Pay off my balance in full every month. This is easily doable if I stick with Rule 1. In addition, most credit cards offer direct withdrawal from your account so you never have to worry about missing a payment. The benefit of paying everything off each month is to avoid interest accruing; at least with a Japanese card, interest gets added on after the second payment period. For example, a television that costs $1200  bought with a card at 14%APR and paid over a period of 10 months could (according to my math) end up costing over $1400 by the time you're through. That's $200 or more dollars that I, and probably most of you, can't really afford to throw away. 

Rule 3: Use the credit card only to pay for daily-use items. Now this is a bit tricky, because it can be difficult to distinguish between "daily use items" and "crap I would buy anyway," but for the purposes of this rule I'm sticking to the true basics: Gas, groceries, and going home. (For the last one, I've mentioned that I'm currently living in Japan, and so every two years I'd like to fly home to the US to see my family. It's expensive, but it's a priority for me.) One problem that I can foresee is being tricked into big spending by point offers at the credit card company's affiliated shops. It might be easy to think, "Well, I wasn't planning on buying a backyard Jacuzzi, but if I can get a couple thousand miles...." WRONG, Sticking to shops I'd go to anyway that offer points might not make me a mileage millionaire, but slow and steady wins the race here.

[Tune in later for more!]