Playing Your (Credit) Cards Right

You can learn how to really maximize credit card rewards from users who have mastered the rules

- Miriam Cross

In January 2015, Kyle Zuvella and  Andrea Cortina took off on an around-the-world trip. Their 10-month journey took them to more than 40 countries on five continents. They studied Spanish in Chile, explored Lord of the Rings landscapes on New Zealand’s North Island, swung by the Great Wall of China, and went on a South African safari before visiting the Middle East and more than a dozen European countries.

The remarkable part of their excursion: They funded most of their flights and two months’ worth of hotel stays with credit card rewards. After a year and a half of diligently racking up points and miles, they had stockpiled nearly 2 million points and miles between them.

Zuvella and Cortina, who are now engaged and live in Santa Monica, Calif., are part of a breed of credit card users—often called travel hackers—who milk the system by “churning,” or applying for cards on a regular basis, to take advantage of hefty sign-up bonuses. (To make the trip, Zuvella quit his job at Visa, where he made his first foray into the world of travel hacking. Cortina was in culinary school at the time.)

Zuvella, 27, was recently approved for his 61st credit card—although he uses only two to three cards regularly for everyday purchases, keeps a few more open to prop up his credit score, and has cancelled the rest. The majority of his miles came from sign-up bonuses. Cortina, 27, followed a similar strategy to bulk up her stash of points and miles, and the two of them used their rewards to pay for various legs of the journey in turn. “The highest return you can get from this hobby is just to target bonuses,” Zuvella says.