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Awhile back, my friend Pat Flynn<\/a> came to me with a problem: he wanted to fly Cathay Pacific business class round-trip from the US to a conference in the Philippines. He had only a few frequent flyer miles and wasn’t sure what to do.<\/p>\n In the words of Barney Stinson<\/a>: “Challenge accepted!”<\/p>\n I had two months to get Pat the 110,000 miles he needed.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve written about traveling business class for free<\/a> before, but as with everything in travel, methods and tricks that worked in the past might not work now, especially when it comes to airlines. They change their rules all the time.<\/p>\n As you may already know, I am an avid points and miles aficionado<\/a> because I hate flying coach. To me, there is nothing worse than being in coach on a 10-hour flight \u2014\u00a0and if I can avoid it, I will. When you are up in the air as much as I am, you want comfort.<\/p>\n So I collect points in order to upgrade or redeem for business- and first-class tickets, have a lie-flat bed, and enjoy some luxury before staying in my $10 a night dorm room. (Yes, I\u2019m a bundle of contradictions. I\u2019m a Gemini.)<\/p>\n Pat was a great test subject and let me take the reins. Here is how I made things happen for him:<\/p>\n Since Cathay is part of the one<\/strong>world Alliance, its US partner is American Airlines, so we worked on getting him American AAdvantage miles.<\/p>\n Pat has great credit and a lot of business spending, so it was easy for him to get the cards he needed. (Don’t worry. I write later on what to do when you don’t have a business!)<\/p>\n First, Pat signed up for an American Airlines Citi card, which offered a 30,000-point sign-up bonus when he spent $1,000 USD in 90 days.<\/p>\n Second, he signed up for the business version of the same card with the same deal. (Note<\/strong>: You don\u2019t need to be a business to get a business card. I used to sign up for these cards as a sole proprietor before I incorporated. Credit card companies don’t care.)<\/em><\/p>\n Third, I made him open a Starwood American Express card, which offers 25,000 Starwood points when you spend $5,000 USD in 90 days. He then transferred those points to American Airlines. Since Starwood gives you a 20% transfer bonus on 20,000 points, he got 35,000 points (30,000 from the bonus, 5,000 from the spending) to his AAdvantage account. (Note:<\/strong> Starwood was later acquired by Marriott, so if you’re looking for it, that card no longer exists.<\/em>) <\/p>\n After it was all said and done, Pat had 97,000 frequent flier miles.<\/p>\n But how to get those last 13,000 miles? <\/p>\n There were a couple of ways he could do this, but in the end, Pat used his business expenses as well as online shopping to get those final miles.<\/p>\n Within a month, Pat had 110,000 miles he needed \u2014 and I converted someone else to the world of points and miles (score!!!). He\u2019s already set out to earn miles for a family trip to Hawaii!<\/p>\n Now, you are probably thinking, “That sounds great, Matt, but I don’t want to open three credit cards, nor can I spend that much money! Is there another way?”<\/em><\/p>\n Good question! What if you don\u2019t want to open three credit cards?<\/p>\n What can you do that doesn\u2019t rely so heavily on credit cards?<\/p>\n I’ll tell you.<\/p>\n![\"business](\"https:\/\/media.nomadicmatt.com\/patbusinessclass1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSurely It’s Too Good to Be True?<\/h3>\n
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