Interview with Award Travel Expert

Last week I sat down with Masha and Rob Glanville of the soon-to-be Dancing Pandas [travel blog].  Masha and Rob have an interesting travel history, from touring through Central America in an old ’79 Volkswagen Westfalia to extreme adventure racing across the remote wilderness of Patagonia!  Recently they learned to master the miles and points game–and haven’t paid for a flight since.

Today, Rob shares some insider tips and secrets from the world of award travel.

How did you first become interested in collecting miles and points for free travel?
First of all let me clarify there is no such thing as ‘free travel’. In this hobby there are costs for everything. Your time is the big one. There are always some fees/costs, but knowing the true value of what you are working towards makes it worthwhile.

For example, we have a flight coming up on Emirates in their A380 First Class. There is a bar and two showers for the First Class cabin. Today, this flight costs $24,520/each on their website. It cost us $640/each worth of ‘Manufacture Spending’ on specific cards. Of course, I should include the travel time to the certain stores to accomplish this, but I assure you, the anticipation of us being able to shower at 40,000 feet…well worth it!!

How many miles a year do you fly? Is it entirely on points?
Last year according to GCMapper we flew about 60,000 miles. All on business class, all on points.

What do you recommend as a good starting point for beginners?
Start slow. This hobby is not a race. Follow a few popular blogs. FlyerTalk is a very popular forum for all the latest news and tips. We hope to have our site DancingPandas.com up and running soon, so stay tuned! The learning curve is steep, and even after a few years I’m still discovering/trying new things.

What are your favorite travel credit cards at the moment?
I like the Citi Prestige for it’s many perks. $250 annual airline reimbursement, 4th night free stay, 1.6 cents/point towards American Airlines, etc. I also like Amex Business/Personal Platinum for its Centurion lounge access, $200 annual airline fee credit, and $100 global entry reimbursement.

Many people are concerned that owning and applying for multiple credit cards will hurt their credit score. What do you say to this?
Masha and I have about 15 cards each and a FICO score near 800. The more credit that you have access to and manage responsibly, the better your score gets. It’s important to have at least one card with each of the banks you deal with kept open for a long time. 35% of your FICO score is based off Payment History. If you have a card with an annual fee that you don’t want to pay, consider calling their retention line and ask if there are any offers to keep the card. Often we get these fees waived or a generous bonus offered if we make some kind of minimum spend within a certain amount of time. I’ll try this a few months before [the annual fee payment date] because if I get a ‘no’ then I’ll call back later and try again.

How do you manage to meet the minimum spend on bonus offers?
I will usually find a way to ‘Manufacture Spend’. This is when you make purchases on your card to meet the minimum spend or just to accumulate points. Usually gift cards are the easiest way to accomplish this. Using the PIN# that comes with the gift card, I’ll unload them by buying money orders or loading up my Target RedCard.
MillionMileSecrets wrote a great post on 40 ways to meet minimum spend requirements.  MileValue has another great article with step-by-step directions on how to manufacture spend with gift cards.  

Great example of Manufacture Spend!Gold ATM that dispenses real gold bars in the Emirate’s Palace in Dubai. Think of all the points I’ll get using my AMEX Business Gold card!

Do you cancel most of your credit cards after 1 year or do you keep them? How do you decide which ones to keep?
Some cards are worth paying the annual fee because of the perks that come with the card. Most hotel cards include enough points for a free stay at any hotel within their chain. Others cards have lounge access, airline fee reimbursements, and companion certificates that justify the annual fee.

View from our suite in Lombok, Indonesia!View from our suite at the Sheraton Senggigi in Lombok, Indonesia. At only 3,000 points/night, it “cost” us $24 to manufacture spend and earn those points. Not free, but darn close!

Besides accumulating awards and points through credit cards, what other aspects are there to this game? (manufacture spend, mileage running, flight bumping, etc.)
We don’t do much, if any, paid travel at this point. We travel mostly on points. I’ll apply for 3 cards every 95 days with different banks and focus on Manufacture Spend to accumulate miles/points. If we were more flexible with time I would definitely take advantage of mistake fares and heavily discounted offers. They come and go so fast. I find that subscribing to Twitter alerts for these offers is helpful.

Is there any tool or trick that you’ve found especially useful?
Being up on all the current offers. We typically only apply for increased bonus offers. If the usual sign-up bonus is 40k and an increased bonus offer comes out for 25%+ more, which most usually do, then we pounce. Again, following blogs, Twitter, etc. is the most efficient way to stay informed.

Mastering the points game has allowed you to travel the world practically for free (Rob & I agreed to call this “heavily discounted luxury travel”). What’s your most memorable travel experience?
Most memorable? I’d have to say volunteering at the Bifengxia sanctuary at Ya’an, China. It was nice for us Dancing Pandas to be with our peeps! ☺
Bifengxia Panda Sanctuary , China

Thanks again to Rob for providing an insider’s perspective into the world of miles and points!

As a beginner, I’ve started by signing up with 2 cards that are great for newbies: Chase Sapphire Preferred and Citi Prestige. I’ll keep you all informed of any new tips and tricks that I learn along the way!

Do you have any tips on how to maximize points for travel?

About the author

Rachael Evans

Hi, I'm Rachael! California girl at heart, currently living in the Land of the Rising Sun. I have a serious travel addiction and I'm not looking for the cure.