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Unless you travel a lot for business, credit card signup bonuses are the only realistic path to lots of free travel. Instead of waiting years for points to accumulate through paid flights and stays, or day-to-day credit card spending, you can quickly earn multiple credit card bonuses with very little effort. There are dozens of cards that offer signup bonuses worth $500 each or more.

If you want to frequently take advantage of free airplane tickets and hotel nights, the best strategy is to continuously sign up for new credit cards, meet their initial spending requirements, and collect their signup bonuses. Most people are surprised at the number of credit cards that banks are willing to give, and that they can do this without hurting their credit rating.

Typical bonuses for signing up for good travel and reward credit cards are very generous. Collecting the signup bonus for a typical hotel-branded credit card provides enough points for 2-3 nights at a nice downtown hotel in a typical city, 1 night at one of their fanciest hotels, or 8-20 nights at one of their less expensive hotels. The signup bonus on a typical airline credit card gives you enough points for 2 free economy tickets in the US, or a free economy ticket to Europe.

And it isn't very hard to signup for a dozen or more card every year, almost effortlessly earning hundreds of thousands of reward points per year. Probably the most valuable advice we have for most travelers is to start collecting credit card signup bonuses.

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Is it crazy to apply for new credit cards, just for the travel benefits?

Signing Up for Credit Cards Just for the Travel Benefits

Signing up for credit cards, just to collect their signup bonuses (or receive their travel benefits) is a good strategy for most people. Contrary to popular belief, it won't kill your credit rating—it is more likely to improve it. But, it is not for everyone. If getting a bunch of credit cards is going to cause you to spend more money, or you are too disorganized to avoid paying fees and interest, you'll need to avoid this approach, and focus on just getting good deals for airline and hotel reservations. For more detailed information, see our Credit Cards 101 guide.

Decide on which card you want to get next. In general, you are going to start with the best available signup offers and start making your way down the list to less valuable offers. However, there are several other considerations that are discussed in more detail below.
Apply for the card. Especially as you are getting started, sign up for one card at a time.
After you receive the card, set up automatic payments, so you are never late with a payment. And pay off the entire balance every month, so you don't have to pay interest expenses. If you can't pay off the balance each month, you want to focus on reducing your credit card debt and not on getting new cards. If you don't like setting up automatic payments, just make sure you don't miss any of your manual payments.
Until you've met the initial spending requirement, switch ALL of your credit card spending to your new card. You wan to be make sure you meet the initial spending requirement.
If, for some reason, it looks like you won't naturally meet the spending requirement during the allotted time (almost always the first three months), don't worry. There are some "tricks" that you can use to meet the requirement and not miss out on the bonus. Tips to Easily Meet the Initial Spending Requirements of New Credit Cards.
Collect your bonus.
Start the process over again. Ideally, you would apply for your next card a couple of weeks before you finish spending on the previous card, as it can take some time to receive your new card.
After the initial year, cancel the card. To preserve the best possible relationship with the bank, don't cancel as soon as you receive your bonus. But, you don't want to pay the second year's annual fee, unless you really want to keep the card to take advantage of its ongoing benefits. We like to set up a calendar appointment as soon as we get the card, to remind us to cancel at the end of the initial year.

For more details and tips for managing the signup process, see our step by step guides:

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Step-by-Step Guide: After You Receive Your New Card

Step-by-Step Guide: Getting Rid of a Credit Card

Signup bonus tips

Don't focus on the NUMBER of points; focus on the VALUE of the points. Every type of point or mile has its own value. Don't necessarily be swayed by a card that offers a lot of points; you need to calculate the total value of the points you'd earn. For example, Hilton requires a lot of points for each award night. As a result, their points are only worth about .4 - .5 cents each. So, a 100,000 point signup offer is only worth around $400 - 500. Hyatt only requires about a quarter as many points for a similar hotel. As a result their points are worth around 1.7 - 1.8 cents each. A 40,000 point signup bonus on the Hyatt credit seems a lot less valuable. But, is actually worth more (about $700).
Also, the type of points is important. Hotel points are easy to use. Frequent flyer miles can be hard to use, and aren't very valuable, if they are just going to stick around in your account, because you never get a chance to use them. On the other hand, if you highly value premium-cabin award tickets, and have the patience and/or flexibility to find award space, you can get much more value from frequent flyer miles. We provide more information on the different types of points below.
If you have any type of business, you can earn a lot more points with small business credit cards. As long as you have any type of side business (like selling stuff on eBay or doing some independent contracting), you are entitled to signup for small business credit cards. You don't need to incorporate and, in most cases, you don't need to have made any money yet. Technically, you aren't supposed to use these cards for your personal spending, so if you business is very small, you may not be able to meet the spending requirements. However, in practice, you can typically use any of your cards for any type of spending, so this isn't a problem. For more information see Unlock Extra Reward Points with Business Credit Cards.

Getting small business cards often allows you to double-up on your signup bonuses. Many cards come in a personal and a small business version. Rather than simply earning the bonus from the personal card, you could earn the bonus from both versions of the cards, and earn twice as many points. Some of the best cards are only available in small business versions. For example, the Chase card with the biggest bonus is the Ink Preferred card, and the small business Each adult in your household can collect their own signup bonuses.

Types of bonuses

While we provide a base "value" for every signup bonus, you may value different types of signup bonuses differently, based on how hard you want to work to maximize the value of your points and how you like to travel.

Cash. Some signup bonuses give you cash back. For example, the Capital One Spark Business card has a signup bonus of $500. Obviously, there is nothing more flexible.
Cash-like points. Other signup bonuses give you points or "miles" that you use like cash. Each point or "mile" has a fixed value, usually 1 cent per point. In many cases, to get full value from the points, you need to use them to purchase travel. For example, the Capital One Venture card has a 50,000 "mile" signup bonus. You can use these points, at 1 cent each, to offset travel purchases you make with card. In some cases, points are worth less than 1 cent each, or more than 1 cent each. So you always need to adjust the signup bonus based on the value of the points. The signup values on our site are always adjusted based on the value you can expect to get from your points. Pay for Any Ticket Using Credit Card Points, Regardless of Award Availability.
Hotel points. Every major hotel loyalty program has one or more credit cards. Each card's signup bonus is a large number of reward points. The value of hotel points varies wildly between different programs, as they require vastly different numbers of points to book similar quality hotels. For example, the same type of hotel room might require 4x more points with Hilton as it would with Hyatt. So, don't focus too much on the number of points you'll receive, focus on the value of the points. How Much are Hotel Points Worth?.

The good news with Hotel points is that they are very easy to use. With almost any hotel program, if a room is available, you can book it with points. You can get solid value from your points on almost every trip. And if room rates are expensive, because of a special event, holiday, or peak season, you can avoid paying sky-high rates, by using your points.

Airline miles. Dozens of airlines issue reward credit cards. You'll receive airline miles that you can use to book frequent flyer tickets. Be aware that unless you get lucky, are willing to spend a lot of time, and/or are very flexible, it can be hard to get good value from airline miles. When flights are expensive, the airlines often don't make any award space available. When flights are inexpensive, you won't get much value from your points. You might expect to get 1 cent or less per mile.

On the other hand, if you are flexible, or can book far ahead of time, you can often get 1.5 to 2 cents in value per mile on economy class tickets. And if you highly value business and first class seats, using frequent flyer miles can provide tremendous value, letting you get airplane tickets that would normally cost thousands of dollars.

Because of airline partnerships, miles from airlines that you may never fly are still valuable. For example, even if you never fly British Airways, you can use their miles for free flights on American Airlines, Japanese Airlines, Qantas, or many other airlines.

Chase's Ultimate Rewards. Several credit cards earn "Ultimate Rewards", Chase bank's own reward currency. These points are "the best of both worlds". You can transfer them to over a dozen frequent flyer programs, and then use them to book frequent flyer tickets on over 100 different airlines. You can transfer them to Hyatt points, which will value at 1.75 cents each. Depending on the credit card you have, you can use them for 1.5 cents each to purchase any hotel, airline ticket, etc. So, you have the option to easily use them at 1.5 cents or more per point, without having to deal with frequent flyer programs; as well as the upside to get even more value by booking frequent flyer tickets (with almost any airline). Ultimate Rewards Guide.
Amex's Membership Rewards (and other transferable points). Membership Rewards Guide. ThankYou Rewards Guide.