Card Tricks Win Big Rewards for Some Travelers
Want a free trip to Paris?</br></br>Just sign up.</br></br>Hard-core collectors of frequent-flier miles are turning credit card sign-up bonus offers into vast stashes of miles, points and expensive trips by opening new card accounts by the dozen. Some practitioners call it travel hacking, and at a time when travelers are frustrated by declining service and growing airline fees and fares, it represents a rare travel bonanza.</br></br>Card sign-up bonuses rocketed onto the free-perk scene a couple of years ago, then waned. Now they've come back strong, with some companies advertising bonuses of up to 50,000 miles for people with good credit. Others are offering even more miles directly to high spenders in unadvertised deals.</br></br>In March, Capital One Financial Corp. gave away one billion miles by offering bonuses matching customers' airline frequent-flier account balances of up to 100,000 miles.