I've used this thread as motivation to get into the cc/miles earnings. But I've got a question if anyone might know off hand. I'm flying to palau in spring/summer of 2015. Would absolutely love to be able to go from zero to enough miles to fly for free. Is this even possible in that time span (my research is pretty limited at this point in time). The likely airline everyone is traveling is United.
to fly economy it's 130k miles (plus $27.50 fees).
The standard chase offer is 30k, sometimes 50 or 60k. They are Chase cards, so they should be churnable within that time frame. They also have seperate business cards, so you can also get those.
Should be doable, with a plan.
It's a 26hr flight though, so economy would suck.
*edit* forgot about sd's point on UR transfers. If you can make the spends, and flying solo, I'd go all out and blitz for first class.