Transforming your College Tuition into a First Class Grad Trip

A Credit Card Churning Guide for College Students

As a college student, you drop thousands of dollars per term on tuition without really batting an eye; It’s an expense that inevitably has to be paid. With this guide, you will be able to accumulate more than enough points for a graduation/summer trip simply by paying your tuition.

Colleges that state they accept American Express as a payment option (YMMV):

Seneca College
Centennial College
George Brown College
Sheridan College
Conestoga College

Note: Unfortunately, this guide doesn’t seem to work for Humber College and a few others as they don’t have an American Express payment option. Please make sure you verify if your college accepts Amex before applying.

Note2: For those who are students at a different institution, you should be able to do everything on this guide through Plastiq; They act as a third party and will send your tuition payments to the university/college for you. I have verified that it works for the University of Waterloo a few weeks back. The American Express fees for doing that are around 3%, but the points are well worth it.

How does this work?

For those who are reading my blog for the first time, the idea behind credit card churning is to take advantage of the signup/spend bonuses that many cards offer in order to travel for (almost) free! Many credit cards offer a massive sum of points after spending a certain amount on it, typically within 3 months of being approved for the card. By applying for a new card a few weeks before each tuition payment is due will allow you to obtain the bonus without any inorganic spending of your own. Since American Express have dropped their income requirements on the cards, this is a great opportunity for students to capitalize on their high spends.

Your First Card: The American Express Business Platinum Card (Tuition Payment #1)

The idea to begin with this card stems from the referral bonus capabilities and large signup bonus it provides. The American Express Business Platinum offers a 75,000 point bonus after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months. If your tuition exceeds $5,000 per term, then there should be no issues with spend. Otherwise, you may need to do some of your everyday spending on the card. Click here for more details or to apply for the American Express Business Platinum Card.

What you need to know about the American Express Business Platinum Card:

$399 annual fee
1.25 points per $1 spent on the card
75,000 bonus points after $5,000 spend in the first 3 months

After spending $5,000 on tuition #1, you will effectively have 6250 + 75,000 = 81250 points.

Your Second Card: The American Express Business Gold Card (Tuition Payment #2)

As your next term draws near, use the referral link from your American Express Business Platinum account in order to apply for the Business Gold card. By doing so, you will receive a referral bonus of 25,000 points for free (Even if you don’t spend a penny on it)! This card also has a $5,000 spend bonus of 40,000 points, which again, your tuition should be able to cover for the most part.

What you need to know about the American Express Business Gold Card:

$0 annual fee (First Year is Free)
1 points per $1 spent on the card
25,000 referral bonus points by referring from the Business Platinum Card
40,000 bonus points after $5,000 spend in the first 3 months

After spending $5,000 on tuition #2, you will effectively have 81,250 + 25,000 + 5,000 + 40,000 = 151,250 points.

Your Third : The American Express Personal Platinum Card (Tuition Payment #3)

Your graduation date is coming up within the next year and this card will take on your final term’s tuition. The American Express Personal Platinum Card will also receive a 25,000 point bonus when being referred from the Business Platinum Card. Since you’ll only have a year with your Business Platinum, make sure that you’ll have tuition payments for 3 terms around the year (E.G. Fall 2018, Winter 2019, Fall 2019). On the other hand, this card only requires a spend of $3,000 in the first three months for a bonus of 60,000 points, so if there’s any other large purchase that you might make, it might be worthwhile to get this card for purposes other than tuition. The card has a $699 annual fee, but comes with a $200 travel credit per calendar year. The trick is to purchase a refundable hotel stay with the $200 credit, apply the $200 credit, and then call in to cancel the reservation. This way, your annual fee is reduced to $299.

What you need to know about the American Express Personal Platinum Card:

$699 annual fee (Effectively $299 after you redeem your travel credits)
1.25 points per $1 spent on the card
25,000 referral bonus points by referring from the Business Platinum Card
60,000 bonus points after $3,000 spend in the first 3 months

After spending $3,000 on tuition #3 (Or regular spend), you will effectively have 151,250 + 25,000 + 3,750 + 60,000 =240,000 points.

And… you’re done!

You’ve now successfully earned 240,000 American Express points with a total of $399+$0+$299 =$698 in annual fees.

What can 240,000 Amex points get me?

Marriott Flight and Hotel Package Redemption — My personal favorite method is to obtain one of the Marriott Flight and Hotel packages, which includes 120,000 miles to one of the qualifying airlines and a 7 night voucher at one of Marriott’s hotels. Depending on the category of hotel you’d like to live in and what class of flight you want to fly, you can redeem anywhere from 180,000 to all 240,000 MR points for the package. For a category 1–5 hotel, you’d need 180,000 points, 210,000 points for a category 6 hotel and 240,000 for a category 7 hotel.

Step 1: Transfer your Amex points over to SPG at a 1Amex : 2SPG rate (E.G: 180,000 Amex -> 90,000 SPG)
Step 2: Transfer your SPG points over to Marriott at a 1SPG : 3Marriott rate. (E.G: 90,000 SPG -> 270,000 Marriott)
Step 3: Redeem one of the Marriott Flight and Hotel Packages with your Marriott points. I personally pick 120,000 Alaska Airline miles due to their valuable fixed point redemption options.
Step 4 (Optional): If you have 40,000 American Express points left over, you can transfer them into 20,000 SPG and convert them into 25,000 airline miles to top up the 120,000 award miles from the Marriott package. for a total of 145,000 Alaska miles.
Step 5: Book your flights and hotel stay! If you completed step 4, you should have enough for a round trip first class flight, otherwise you’d have enough for a round trip business class ticket.

Example of redeeming 240,000 points:

Transfer 220,000 Amex points to 110,000 SPG Starpoints
Transfer 90,000 SPG Starpoints into 270,000 Marriott points (Still have 20,000 left in SPG Starpoints)
Redeem 270,000 Marriott points for a 7 night voucher at a category 1–5 hotel and 120,000 Alaska Miles.
Transfer the remaining 20,000 SPG Starpoints to 25,000 Alaska Miles

Result: Now you have a 7 night hotel voucher at any Marriott category 1–5 hotel, as well as 145,000 miles to redeem towards a round trip first class flight to Asia. Click here to take a look at some of the category 5 hotels offered by Marriott.

2. Aeroplan Miles — You can transfer 155,000 American Express points to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio to redeem for a round trip Business Class flight from Canada to Asia. You can also add a stopover or create an open jaw ticket for free if you want to do a multi-destination trip.

3. Statement Credit (Not Recommended) — Lastly, you can redeem the 240,000 points for a $2,400 statement credit with your platinum card. This may be the least valuable redemption option but works if you’re looking for cheap flights online or you’d rather go on a post-graduation shopping spree instead!

What if I can’t afford the annual fees (Or don’t want to pay them)?

Though you might not be ecstatic with the fees being charged to your account, you can always redeem 70,000 points for a $700 statement credit on the platinum card. This can be done the moment you receive your bonus from either the Business Platinum or Personal Platinum cards and effectively reduces the annual fees you had paid to $0. You are now effectively up 170,000 points or at least $1,700 in credit.

Enjoy your grad trip!

Many students tend to skip out on a graduation trip simply because they cannot afford to go any further into debt. However, having gone on my first backpacking experience after university, there are experiences and memories that hold much more than the price tag that comes along with it. This strategy is just another reason for you to pack your bags after graduation and get going!