We love to hear stories from our readers about how our passion for collecting miles and points has affected their lives. Honeymoon plans in the works, a gift to their parents, a vacation to Srinagar or Singapore or just that premium airline seat that they secured on redemption. We’ve heard many such stories, and this year, we will try and bring more of these stories to you.

This week, I want to share with you the success story of our reader, Glenn. Glenn has been reading LiveFromALounge for a year and attended the Mileage Mentor Masterclass last September. He put all the MasterClass learnings immediately to use and is now close to earning lakh miles in less than a year’s time.

---

About a year back, I chanced upon and started reading LiveFromALounge. It introduced me to a wondrous world of airlines miles and hotel loyalty programs. Even though I don’t travel extensively, with one domestic and one international trip in a year, the Mileage Mentor MasterClass I attended last September was illuminating. One of the most important things we had discussed in the MasterClass was to diversify the method of earning miles and points.

Ajay and Shipra explained the importance of remaining patient and to avoid using miles for instant gratification such as a short-sector upgrade or redeem them for a domestic trip. They focused on treating miles like an investment and shared how to plan trips and use them from a year or two and work towards it. That learning really stuck with me.

I was determined to put the learnings of the class to use. I installed the Jet Scout chrome extension, I registered for various hotel promotions and an online tool that would help me track all my miles and points in one place.

I also started to take a close look at all the benefits of the cards I had. For example, with my HDFC Regalia, I got a Club Vistara Silver tier membership along with a one class upgrade voucher.

In January 2019, I collated all the miles and in a span of 7 months, I have earned 78,000 JPMiles. This was a massive jump for me as before joining the Mileage Mentor Masterclass I only had 5,000 JPMiles.

So how did I earn all these miles?

An article published on LiveFromALounge detailing the benefits of the ICICI JetPrivilege co-branded credit card drove me to apply for one. I got 18,000 bonus JPMiles and I have been using this card for all my expenditure to maximize the miles that I get.

I also use the Jet Scout for all my purchases on Amazon, Flipkart, and BigBasket. It helped me earn more miles too. Even though it may sound like a drop in the bucket, but every drop counts. Furthermore, I extensively use HDFC SmartBuy for booking tickets as earns me 2X points which help me increase my JPMiles balance once I transfer them to JetPrivilege.

A few months ago, I purchased a car using on my credit cards without paying any additional surcharge. I transferred all the cards points for JPMiles when JetPrivilege had a 25% bonus on partner point conversions. I got approximately ~30,000 JPMiles during that conversion window.

I also added the Citibank Premier Miles to my card portfolio. This added another 10,000 PremierMiles to my balance just to get the card. On my recent family vacation to Singapore, I was staying at an Ibis hotel. I signed up for the Le Club AccorHotels loyalty programme and the few points I earned, I transferred them to JetPrivilege.

My goal is to earn 2 lakh miles by end of this year, 2019 and then use them for a family trip to Australia.

---

I love this story. In fact, last year I wrote about how I earned 54,000 Avios by moving my home expenses on my credit card. You do not have to step on a plane to earn miles. Miles and points can be earned every day. If you’d like to learn more join our next Mileage Mentor MasterClass.

Just got an email from Jet privilege mentioning that i had crossed 50k miles. To move from literaly 0 miles to about 70k miles within about 7 months is because of the Mileage mentor class by @LiveFromALounge and @ShipraAtALounge Thanks a ton. pic.twitter.com/8r24phSOv3

— Glenn (@Glenn_Phillips_) January 3, 2019

We wish Glenn all the best in his quest for earning miles and that Australia trip he is planning. For sharing his story, we are sending Glenn an INR 1,000 Gift Card.

Also, we would love to hear more from you, our readers.  Tell us about your success stories with scoring a great redemption, a fantastic hotel deal and everything in between, please share it with us, on ajay @ livefromalounge.com and shipra @ livefromalounge.com and we will pick the best stories and publish them for everyone to read. Also, you get a prize to share your stories from our side as well.

Tell us the different ways you earn miles and points in the comments section below.