funneling for points

My father called me yesterday to discuss a potential family vacation. At first it sounded a bit daunting and expensive, as the airline tickets were running about $600 each, but he had a great idea that one of his home-building buddies told him about.

Certain airline companies offer Visa cards that allow you to earn frequent flyer miles for each dollar spent, so my father had a great idea. As a home builder, it is a fairly regular occasion for him to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $60k for lumber, which would give him about five or six free airline tickets. What a great idea!

Personally, we've been doing something very similar to this ourselves. While we never actually carry a balance (we pay off our credit cards each month), we have been using our Priority Club card to earn free hotel nights with Holiday Inn Express. By funneling most of our expenditures through the card, we get points and an extra 30 days to pay them off. It works pretty well, and we end up getting a few free nights each year, which normally isn't heard of unless you've been traveling quite often.

If you think about it, as I hate the idea of having any credit card debt, it certainly makes sense to try and funnel all of your purchases through some sort of rewards program so that you can get something for your spending.