Easy Three Year Plan for Points: Earn 1.5 million

For this post, I’ve mapped out a strategy for a one or two person household that will take you through your first three years. If you’re new to points, it can be hard to start to conceptualize how to map out a credit card opening strategy.

Which cards make sense when? How does being in a two-person household affect your strategy? How do you take into account bank rules?

My plan helps balance the cards between both partners in a household. You’ll be opening 5 cards each year. Each person will stay under 5/24 the whole time. And you’ll also earn a Southwest Companion Pass. If you don’t want a Southwest Companion Pass, you can substitute other airline cards!

This plan is for you if you want to spend less time deciding which cards to get.

You can move cards around and adjust as you need to. I’ll explain my methodology below so you understand my reasoning.

First Card: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

One common mistake is to just start earning credit card welcome offers randomly and then when you go to book a trip, points are scattered and it’s hard to pull them together into a trip.

In my plan, you’ll focus on earning with one primary bank program at the beginning. I recommend Chase Ultimate Rewards®. This is due to the ease of using the program, the wide variety of transfer partners, the large number of cards that you can open to keep earning Ultimate Rewards, and the generous referral bonuses. Chase also has some very clear restrictions (known as the Chase 5/24 rule) – so this plan takes that into account and lets you prioritize these cards first.

You’ll start with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. This is all around the best beginners card out there.

Learn More About Chase Sapphire Preferred

Application Notes

You’ll need to qualify under the Chase 5/24 rule in order to be approved for this card. Essentially if you have 5 or more newly opened cards showing up on your credit report in the past 24 months, you will be denied. That’s one reason this card is important to get early on.

Alternate Card Option

You could choose the premium version of this card in lieu of this one. That would be the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. It provides more perks like airport lounge access. Most people will get some airport lounge access with our 2nd card in the plan, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. But if your home airport has a Sapphire Lounge, this may be a better option. Read about lounges here and which airports have Sapphire Lounges.

If you aren’t sure — know that you can always get a Sapphire Preferred and upgrade later to a Sapphire Reserve.

Year 1 Continued

Add Travel Perks with the Venture X

The second card I suggest is the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.

If you’re in a two person household, I also suggest that the second person (P2 as we often call him/her) be the one to get this card.

The reason this is a good one to get very early on is it can be harder to get Capital One to approve credit cards.

Unlike with Chase, we don’t have a clear “rule” but generally it seems like Capital One doesn’t like to see lots of other recent credit inquiries. The more cards you get, it seems less likely you’ll get approved for this card.

This isn’t a hard and fast rule and I was approved for the Venture X when I was at 8/24.

The Venture X has the best all around value when it comes to perks compared to the annual fee. It will give you a credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck so you can start to shorten your wait at security and keep your shoes on. It has some of the most generous benefits on access to airport lounges (at select lounges). It gives you cell phone protection if you pay your cell phone bill with it. And more!

Learn More About Venture X

Application Notes

Capital One is finicky about approvals, especially if you have a lot of inquires on your credit report. Now this isn’t always true, some people with lots of new accounts do get approved.

Your chance of approval seems to increase if you check the box that says “I plan to carry a balance on this card.” Of course you should never actually carry a balance but this question is non-binding and seems to indicate Capital One prefers to approve people who they can make lots of money off of on interest.

Alternate Card Option

If you’re not ready to pay a higher annual fee — or if you already have perks like lounge access through a different card, you could look at the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card. Like the Venture X, you’ll find it much easier to get approved early in your travel points journey. The Venture has a lower annual fee and still earns Venture miles with all their different uses!

Open an Ink Business Card

The next cards I recommend are business cards. Think you can’t open a business card? You probably can! Almost everyone has some sort of side income that qualifies them for a business card in the eyes of the bank. Do you sell old toys on Facebook marketplace? You qualify. Do you have a rental property? You qualify. Are you a consultant, tutor, dog walker, writer, babysitter? You qualify. Read more here.

Business cards have some distinct advantages. First, they are good for your credit score. When you apply for a business card from Chase, you will see an inquiry on your credit report, also called a “hard pull.” But the actual credit card account won’t appear on your credit reports. That means if you cancel the card after a year, it won’t affect your length of credit history at all. Because these business cards don’t show up on your credit report, they also don’t add to your 5/24 count.

Again, I recommend that you stick within the Chase Ultimate Rewards ecosystem at first to learn the ins and outs of this one program. Besides the value of this program, it’s easier to plan trips when you aren’t dealing with lots of smaller points balances split across programs.

In the plan, I recommend the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card first. You could open any of the three Ink cards. I chose the Ink Cash first because you have a longer time to do the full spending to earn the offer.

Note: When you look at the welcome offer on the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card or Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card, it will show up as cash back. So it might show as £750 cash back.

Technically though, it really earns a version of Chase Ultimate Rewards® that can be only be redeemed as cash back. But there is an important exception! Pair your Ink card(s) with a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and you can transfer your points to any of Chase’s airline and hotel transfer partners.

After you earn either of these offers, you’ll combine your points with the Sapphire card you already opened.

Learn More About Chase Ink Cards

Application Notes

I have a video walk through of an application over on YouTube for first time applicants of a business card. People in my facebook group have reported being approved for a resale business where they make as little as £50 a year.

You do need to be under 5/24 to qualify for these cards.

Alternate Card Option

You can open any of the Chase Ink cards. I put them in order according to how easy I think it is for the average person to complete the spending requirements. But if one has an elevated offer, you may want to prioritize that one.

No annual fee options:

With annual fee:

Refer your partner to a Sapphire Preferred

When you refer a friend (or family member) to certain cards, you can earn a referral bonus. The “two person” plan includes a lot of referrals back and forth. The one person plan does not. If you are single, you may be able to team up with a friend for referrals back and forth! I did not add in referrals to the one person plan.

With the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the referral bonus is currently 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points.

You’ll refer your P2 (or Person 2) to this card so they can earn a bonus – and then the P1 (Person 1) will also get a referral bonus.

You’ll be able to combine your points across your household as well.

Year 2: Airline Miles, Hotel Points + More Ultimate Rewards

First Stop: Airline Points

Next, you’ll want to start earning extra points with a specific airline.

Our personal Favorite: Earn a Southwest Companion Pass

We recommend the Southwest Companion Pass because not only do you earn a bunch of points, you also earn a Companion Pass if you use our strategy! With the Southwest Companion Pass, you designate a person as your Companion and they fill with you for FREE (well the cost of taxes) anytime you fly on Southwest for the next year.

Whenever you earn a Southwest Companion Pass, you’ll earn it for the rest of that calendar year and the whole next year as well. While you can get a few more months of the Companion Pass by starting the process in November – that method requires some more planning. If you start in January, it’s easy to follow without worrying about timing.

I have a lot of resources specific to the Companion Pass. The short version of how you do it is that you’ll open one business and one personal Southwest card. This will give you more than 135,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points which also earns you a Companion Pass.

Most people are near an airport that Southwest serves and pursuing a Southwest Companion Pass really simplifies your decision making process.

Learn More About Southwest Companion Pass

Application Notes

If you’re apply in late fall, timing is really important to pay attention to with the Southwest cards. In the written plan below, I put the application for these cards in early January — but you could open in other months! Be sure you understand the overall Companion Pass strategy. That will help you confidently know when you can plug this into your strategy.

My free course also details a method for earning 2 Companion Pass by opening 3 cards and families will want to look at that information.

You need to be under 5/24 to qualify for these cards.

If you really don’t like Southwest, you can pursue other airline cards. But don’t go all over the place! Focus on ONE airline. Just like with Southwest cards, you could open a business card for that airline and then a personal card.

Don’t like Southwest? Earn other airline miles

After Southwest, my next recommendation is generally American Airlines. This is what’s included in my one person plan. If you’re just one person, you could bounce around a lot more with airline cards, especially if you’re just opening cards for your own travel. Most airline cards will typically cover at least one round trip ticket.

There are two banks that issue cards for American Airlines (Citi and Barclays) as well as lots of other opportunities to earn American Airlines miles via American’s eshopping portal.

If you’re going to earn American Airlines miles instead of Southwest, you could start with the CitiBusiness^® / AAdvantage^® Platinum Select^® Mastercard^®. Then move to the AAdvantage^® Aviator^® Red World Elite Mastercard.^®

Two Person Strategy: Refer back and forth for Ink Cards

Now that you have one Ink card in your household, the referral fun can begin!

Ink cards currently offer a 20,000 point referral bonus. Ink cards also offer “family” referrals which means if you hold ANY Ink card, you can refer a friend to ANY Ink card.

So when P1 refers P2 to an Ink Business Cash® Credit Card or Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card, you’re earning a 20,000 point referral bonus on top of the welcome offer.

Then P2 can turn around and refer P1 to an Ink card that’s different from the one he/she got the first time.

Open a hotel card

Overall, we recommend starting with Hyatt as your primary hotel program because it is easy to understand and has consistently good value.

I can tell you right now that the Hyatt credit cards (especially the personal card) usually have very boring welcome offers. Yet we consider this card a keeper because we earn a free night certificate (for a Category 1-4 hotel) each year on our account anniversary. We pay £95 for the annual fee but typically redeem this for a staycation in Chicago at a hotel that costs £250-£300 so we consider it a pre-paid, discounted vacation.

Opening other hotel cards (especially during elevated offers) can easily cover a 3-5 night stay. The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card is a popular option (The information related to the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Card was collected by Katie’s Travel Tricks and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this product/card. Product details may vary. Please see the issuer website for current information. Katie’s Travel Tricks does not receive commission for this product.), as is the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card. Ultimately, you need to go with a hotel program that has a place you want to stay. We have found hotels we like in every single hotel program.

You might want to prioritize business cards to stay under 5/24. You can also look at business cards from other banks that earn hotel points – like The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card from American Express, the Wyndham Rewards Earner^® Business Card from Barclays, or Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card.

I think it can help to be opening a business hotel card from a bank that isn’t Chase at first so you’re diversifying the banks you’re getting cards from.

Year 3: More referrals, More new Cards

Year three of this plan helps you to keep earning and referring each other. It also focuses on doubling down on the kinds of points you have and earning more of them.

You’ll open more Ink cards (yes, more – these are so valuable!).

This is a good time for P1 to get a Venture X card (with the P2 referral). This would enable P2 (the original owner of the Venture X) to downgrade the Venture X to a no annual fee version so you aren’t pay that annual fee twice.

Capital One sometimes won’t let you downgrade if you don’t call right before the date your annual fee is due, so watch this part of the timeline closely. P1 may want to apply a few weeks before the date that P2 will be charged the Venture X annual fee.

Alternatively, P1 could also open a Venture card if P2 wants to keep the Venture X.

I’d also recommend the P2 opens a hotel card this year. If you were happy with whatever P1 picked in Year Two, they can probably refer P2 to the same card! Or if you have a specific travel plan in mind, pick another hotel card.

One of the new cards I recommend this year is the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. This card is pretty similar to the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but in business version. It does typically require a higher spend to get the points – recently it has been about £8,000. This is one that you’ll want to time according to when you have a bigger expense.

One Person Plan Notes

The one person plan focuses even more on business cards since opening business cards helps you stay under 5/24 longer. It also gives you more flexibility to pick cards within a category.

How to Accelerate the Three Year Plan

If you want to move faster than my plan, you can! You’re just going to need to keep the following in mind.

Velocity With Chase

I don’t recommend you apply for more than 4 cards from Chase in any given 12 month period. Space out your cards and apply for cards from other banks, too.

Watch your 5/24 Count

My plan keeps you under 5/24 at all times so that you always have the option to apply for Chase cards. I love the flexibility to do this when a great offer comes out — especially it matches with some bigger spending I have coming up. You can add in personal cards to this plan, but just be mindful of how that will affect your 5/24 status.

Jump on Elevated Offers

Sometimes a great elevated offer comes around and you want to grab it! You can see all my current favorite offers here.

Apply for Business Cards from Other Banks

This is my personal favorite way to add more cards into my wallet (and more points into my loyalty accounts!)

You can look at the following cards, none of these should add to your 5/24 counts:

Capital One

American Express

Look for referral offers on business cards that earn Membership Rewards here.

American Express also issues co-branded business cards for Delta, Marriott, and Hilton.

Citi

Citi doesn’t have many business cards but does offer one that earns American Airlines miles that is a great one to get.

U.S. Bank

US Bank business cards generally offer cash back. These may still be worth it while you’re waiting to open other cards. See their offers here.

Bank of America

Bank of America issues a co-branded Alaska Airlines business card as well as cards with smaller cash back or points bonuses. See them all here. Bank of America is most likely to approve you if you have a checking account with them.

Barclay

Barclay has a few co-branded cards. You can see them here.

Chart of Three Year Plan: Two Person Mode

Sample Plan: Two Person Three Year Plan

Download/Print Two Person Mode

Chart of Three Year Plan: One Person Mode

One Person Three Year Plan for 1.1 Million Points