My elderly mother has been using a credit card which gives her 1% cash back. Fortunately, the 1% does not affect her lifestyle one way or the other. A couple of weeks ago, after I took a last minute wonderful trip to Cabo over the holidays with my 2 daughters (all free with spg points for the hotel and delta points for the flights), I explained to her that the 46000 points I used for the hotel would yield her $460 on her card but netted me a room (with club access for breakfast and liquor/snacks in the evening) which would have cost close to $2500 with all taxes/fees (high because it was over Xmas). I offered to fill out the application and contact the 6 merchants she has set up to automatically charge her old card and have them charge her new spg card. I got 5000 referral points and she'll get 25000 points (plus 5000 for the $5000 spend required which she's more than happy to let me use as her traveling days are unfortunately over). I plan to monitor the spend to make sure she complies with the requirements and offer helpful suggests should she fall short. The funny thing is my mom felt guilty about the time I was spending taking care of changing the automatic merchant billings, but I reminded her that the only reason this was necessary was because of her generous willingness to switch cards and of course it would be ridiculous for me to then expect her to make the calls. Depending on one's parents/grandparents ages, I think it's a good idea to start small with one card. I certainly don't plan to get my mom on a churning schedule. SPG points are what I need most, so this works well for me.

Rick,

I love your blog, but I disagree with this post. I chose to make my case on milepoint on this thread: http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/giving-the-gift-of-travel-to-your-parents.26764/

You can edit this out of your comments section, I'm not trying to promote anything, just wanted to respectfully share a different view point. I am not asking you to come to milepoint to respond. I just didn't want to come across as taking a shot at you and hiding.

Thanks for all you do, I enjoy reading your work.

Rick,

I introduced my parents to this concept about 3 years ago, and since they'd had awful (to put it mildly) experiences w/credit cards in the past, they were VERY reluctant to go along w/my ideas. But, after introducing them each to the 75K AA Citi cards & 1 75k AA Biz cc since they were buying a new furnace/central air system anyways, they haven't looked back! They've been to Hawaii twice ($10 each) and are taking a trip (5 people) on AA miles ($50 total)to San Juan for a 7nt cruise. They've nailed the Continental 50k offer, the 2 Barclay's US Air 40k, and the Chase Sapphire 50k.
In fact, Dad called the other day and asked if there were any new "free travel" cards since he'd met the minimum spend on all of the new ones. "Teach a man to fish…." and now I can't get the poles into his hand fast enough! Once they finally "get it" Rick, boy oh boy do they ever get it.

My parents, who were older, brought us all over the world. I always recommend to my everyone to travel while you are able– which is now. Rick, your blog is great with a morning cup of coffee. It would be great if you could hold a seminar to help someone with the ins and outs of helping to explain this to older generation. I for one would definitely attend!

I recently talked my Mom into getting the Chase Sapphire card so that she could go on more vacations with my Dad. She was so excited to receive this and also ordered a card for my Dad on her account. I explained to her that if my Dad gets his own account (which he thinks he already has) then they would get 50k extra points. It has taken some time to convince them that getting credit cards is worth it, but they are coming along. And surely after my free 16 day trip to Europe coming up in 2 weeks they will be true believers!

My Mom actually loaned me 10K chase points as I was just a little short for my award stay in Paris. Sure came in handy. I will definitely be paying her back with more than she loaned me and helping them plan a trip of their dreams! She opened a credit card for me 6 yrs ago when I was in college and paid my student loans on it so that I could have a credit history. Without this I would not have been approved for the cards I do have. Now it is my turn to try and repay her!

I'm currently in the process of trying to get my mother to adopt travel hacking. She has been set in her ways, but is slowly becoming warmer to the idea after seeing it practice.

Mike1625, I think you've misunderstood. Rick is not advocating that you encourage your relatives to give you free travel. He's advocating that you encourage, teach, cajole your relatives into getting themselves free travel.

Haha. This post reminds me of my neighbors from my youth. The dad sold FORDs. The mom drove a Thunderbird. And when baby girl turned 16, they gave her a 1965 Mustang! That was the best present of all.
It doesn't surprise me that the family of The FrugalTravelGuy would be travelling; but my family just doesn't "get it". As long as I come for a visit, they don't care if the passage is first class or coach.
And yep, I only got past that after I went through the codependency class

This may be a rookie question, but I'll ask anyways. When getting "gift miles" is the person signing up for the CC putting the miles on their account and you use those miles, or can you use your FF number and receive the miles if your own account, even though the names will not match?