Credit Card Signup Bonuses: The Easiest Path to Free Airplane Tickets and Hotel Nights

Unless you frequently travel for business, the way to earn really large quantities of reward points is to "collect" credit card signup bonuses.

Instead of waiting years for points to accumulate through paid travel or day-to-day credit card spending, you can quickly earn hundreds of thousands of reward points via multiple credit card bonuses. There are dozens of credit cards that offer signup bonuses worth in excess of $500 each and you can earn these bonuses one after the other.

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 them, how little effort this takes, and that it won't kill their credit rating.

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

Signing Up for Credit Cards Just for the Travel Benefits

Getting new credit cards, just for their signup bonuses (or 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's not for everyone. If getting a bunch of credit cards is going to cause you to spend more money than you would otherwise or you are too disorganized to avoid paying fees and interest, you'll need to avoid this strategy and just focus on getting good deals on your airline and hotel reservations. For more detailed information, see our Credit Cards 101 guide.

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Managing the signup process
Signup bonus tips
Types of bonuses
Which cards to get first

Decide on the next card you want to get. In general, you want 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, which are discussed in more detail in our Which Signup Bonuses to Get First guide.
Apply for a card. Especially as you are getting started, keep things simple and sign up for one card at a time.
After you receive the card, set up automatic payments, so you'll never pay your bill late. Pay off the entire balance every month, so you never have to pay penalties and high interest rates. If you can't pay off your balances each month, you should be focusing on reducing your credit card debt, not on getting additional cards. If you don't like having your bills paid automatically, no problem. It will just take a little extra effort to manually make sure you are never late with any of your payments.
Until you've met the initial spending requirement, switch ALL your credit card spending to your new card. Each card requires a certain amount of spending before you qualify for the signup bonus, usually during the first three months you have the card. You want to complete this initial spending requirement as soon as possible. This ensures that time doesn't run out for earning the bonus and also lets you more quickly move onto the next card.
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 make sure you get the bonus.

Tips to Easily Meet the Initial Spending Requirements of New Credit Cards

Collect your points or miles.
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. That way you'll have received the new card as soon as you finish the spending requirement on the previous 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. On the other hand, 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). It is good practice to set up a calendar appointment on your phone to remind yourself to cancel at the end of the initial year.

For more details and tips for the best way to manage the credit card 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 large number of signup bonus points; you need to calculate the total value of the points you'd earn. For example, Hilton requires lots of points for each award night. As a result, their points are only worth about .4-.5 cents each. In contrast, Hyatt only requires about a quarter as many points for a similar hotel, making their points worth around 1.7-1.8 cents each. A 40,000 point signup bonus from the Hyatt credit card seems a lot less valuable than a 100,000 point bonus on a Hilton card, but is actually worth more (a total of about $700 versus $400-500).
We calculate a "Net Signup Bonus" for every interesting credit card. This is the value you get from the signup bonus, minus the costs of earning it. First, we calculate the value of the points that you'll receive and add the full or partial value for any travel (or other) credits that you get during the initial year. Then, we subtract any annual fee that you'll need to pay (some cards waive this fee for the first year). Finally, we subtract the opportunity cost of the lost reward points you didn't earn, because you needed to use the new card to meet the initial spending requirement, instead of using a card that earns a higher reward rates.

For example, the Sapphire Reserve card normally has a bonus of 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points. We value those points at 1.7 cents each. So, the total value of the signup offer is $$850. The card comes with a $300 travel credit that pays for the first $300 of travel expenses you put on the card on each year. Since this credit is so easy to receive, we value it at its full value, increasing the total value you receive during the first year to $1,150. But the card has an annual fee of $550 (which isn't waived the first year). And you'll earn about $40 less in rewards by using the Sapphire Reserve for the required $4,000 in spending, instead of using one of the best available reward cards (unless you can meet the spending requirement with restaurant and travel spending). Subtracting the $590 it costs to get the bonus, the "net signup bonus" is around $550. Note that we don't count the extra benefits of the card that depend on your particular usage, such as its great bonus category reward rates, airport lounge access, etc. We just count the bonus itself and some percentage of any direct cash credits.

Also note that we use relatively conservative values for points. Many other sites use higher point values. As a result, our point values increase the relative value of sure-thing cash-based signup offers. If you know that you can get good value from frequent flyer miles, the net signup values of many credit cards will be higher than our listings.

Each bank has different rules that govern how many of their signup bonuses you can receive and how quickly you can sign up for cards. To make sure you get started on the right foot, see our information on which cards to get first. As you start getting more and more cards, you'll want to make sure you understand the rules for the major banks, which are discussed in our advanced signup bonuses guide and in the guides for each individual credit card.
If you have any type of business, you can earn a lot more points by also signing up for 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 sign up for small business credit cards. You don't need to incorporate and, in most cases, you don't even need to have made any money yet. 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 both 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 receive twice as many points.
Some of the best cards are only available in small business versions. For example, the Ink Preferred card has the biggest Chase Ultimate Rewards bonus (normally 80,000 points), and the Business Platinum card has the biggest Amex Membership Rewards bonus (normally 75-150,000 points).
Small business credits don't usually show up on your personal credit report, letting you get a larger overall number of cards. When you signup for a small business credit card, banks will check your personal credit report. But when you get the card, it won't be added to the cards listed on the report. That means that banks (which are sensitive to the number of cards you have) won't see them, and you are more likely to get approved for additional cards. However, the credit inquiry will be added, so banks which are sensitive to the number of credit inquiries will see those.

Each adult in your household can collect their own signup bonuses. Often one person will take on responsibility for managing the process for any less-interested participants. Signing up for multiple copies of the same cards gives you access to double the signup bonuses and twice as many free night or companion certificates. Sometimes, banks will give you a "referral bonus" when you get someone else to apply for the card, so you can sometimes earn one of those as well.
For airline and hotel cards, you can sometimes get an additional credit or better offer when you are in the process of making a reservation. You will be prompted to sign up for the card when you are part way through making the reservation. When you are ready to get the card, you can start to make a "fake reservation". Choose a random city and set of dates. Then see what credit card offer you get. Just make sure you don't take the final step and complete the actual airline or hotel reservation.
Larger promotional signup offers are often available. Before you apply for a card, make sure that you try to find the best available offer. We always try to list the best available offers on our best offers page and in each of our individual credit card guides. But you might want to check a few other websites as well (discussed in more detail in our step-by-step guides).

Advanced Strategies

Earning signup bonuses can be addictive. If you want to maximize the number of points you can earn, make sure to look through our advanced strategies.

Advanced Strategies for Collecting 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.

For example, Chase's Ultimate Rewards points, hotel points, and fixed-value points are very easy to use and are good options for almost everyone. Membership Rewards points, ThankYou points, and most airline miles are much harder to take good advantage of. If you aren't willing to make the effort to learn how to optimize frequent flyer programs or don't have the flexibility or patience to find good value award redemptions, they may wind up sitting unused in your account or you may have to settle for only around 1 cent per point on alternative redemption options. On the other hand, if you highly value premium-cabin award tickets and are able to find award space, these same types of points can be much more valuable than our standard point values.

Cash and cash-like points. Some signup bonuses give you actual cash. For example, the Capital One Spark Business card has a signup bonus of $500. 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, rather than getting straight cash back. For example, the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve card has a 50,000 point signup bonus. To get the full value of these points (1.5 cent each) you need to use them to offset travel purchases you make with card. Point values vary per card, with some worth less than 1 cent each, some worth exactly 1 cent, and some worth more than 1 cent. Pay for Any Ticket Using Credit Card Points, Regardless of Award Availability.
Hotel points. Every major hotel program has one or more credit cards. Each of these cards offers a large number of points. But the value of hotel points varies wildly between different programs,. How Much are Hotel Points Worth?.

Card	Typical Bonus	# of Free Nights
Card	Typical Bonus	Least expensive Hotels	Typical Hotels	Most Expensive Hotels
Hilton Surpass / Aspire	150,000	30.0	3.7	1.5
Hilton Business	125,000	25.0	3.1	1.3
Hilton No-annual-fee	100,000	20.0	2.5	1.0
Hyatt	50,000	10.0	3.3	1.7
IHG Premier	125,000	25.0	4.2	1.8
IHG Traveler	60,000	12.0	2.0	.9
Marriott / Marriott Biz	75,000	15.0	2.1	.75
Marriott Brilliant	75,000	15.0	2.1	.75
Choice	32,000	5.4	2.0	0.9
Radisson Premier Rewards	120,000	13.3	3.0	1.7
Radisson Rewards	30,000	3.3	0.75	0.4
Sonesta	65,000	4.3	2.4	1.3
Wyndham Earner Plus / Business	45,000	6.0	3.0	1.5
Wyndham Earner	15,000	2.0	1.0	0.5

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, having points allows you to avoid paying sky-high rates.

Airline miles. Dozens of airlines issue reward credit cards. Typical signup offers are between 20-60,000 frequent flyer mile per card. You can often sign up for multiple cards (from the same airline) to put together larger balances you can use for more expensive frequent flyer tickets.

However, 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. On a typical flight, you might expect to get 1 cent or less in value 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, you can get values of 3 - 10 cents per mile, for free 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 of British Airline's partners. So don't shy away from a good signup bonus just because it is from a card affiliated with a foreign airline.
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 covert them to frequent flyer miles in your choice of a dozen different programs and then use them to book frequent flyer tickets on over 100 different airlines. You can convert them to Hyatt points to book award nights at values typically over 1.75 cents each. And, depending on the credit card you have, you can use them at 1.5 cents each, to purchase any hotel, airline ticket, etc. through the Chase website or with Southwest airlines (without having to find award space).

In short, you have several options to easily use your points, at values of 1.5 cents or more, without having to deal with the complexities of frequent flyer programs. But unlike fixed-value point programs (such as the Barclays Arrival Plus), you still retain the the upside to get even more value per point by booking frequent flyer tickets (with almost any airline). Introduction to 'Transferable' Reward Points.

Amex's Membership Rewards (and other transferable points). Other transferable point programs, such as Membership Rewards, also give you the option to convert your points into frequent flyer miles in your choice of a large number of different airline programs. As a result, point in these programs are more flexible and more valuable than any single airline's frequent flyer miles. But to get good value from these points, you'll need to eventually use them to redeem frequent flyer tickets. So, the value of these programs is essentially linked to the value you feel you can get from airline miles. Introduction to 'Transferable' Reward Points.

Which cards to get first

You might be tempted to just start working your way through our best offers list, starting with the most valuable offer, and working your way down the list.