If you want to earn points faster, you’re going to need help by bringing in some reinforcements: Player Two.

Earning points is easier with two people

For convenience, we’re going to call your partner/spouse/friendly co-participant “Player 2”. Who is this other player? Anyone you’re willing to travel with. Travel is better if you can experience it with someone else, so bring along your bestie and work towards your goal—whatever it may be.

The one thing to remember in all of this is that some Asian airline loyalty programs do not permit you to book awards for someone not related to you. So, keep that in mind if you’re looking to boost your earnings quickly.

Credit card referral bonuses help immensely

The easiest way to earn points quickly is to use a refer-a-friend offer when signing up for a credit card. Sometimes the best deals don’t show up in refer-a-friend offers. Or, sometimes you need to wait a while before the offer becomes available. But when you can give your friend an excellent sign-up bonus for a new card, you might as well also get some extra points for doing so.

Frankly, we recommend it. Stop worrying about trying to help out your friendly neighborhood blogger and help your friend out instead. After all, you do your friend a favor and they might do the same for you. That’s the whole point of playing in a 2-player game after all.

Options include:

• American Express
• Capital One
• Chase

One thing to note about American Express in particular—sometimes the company doesn’t want you to refer others. Honestly, I don’t know why that’s the case. You can have a good record with American Express, spend a lot of money on their cards, and then still be blocked from referring others. That’s the case for me on my personal American Express cards. A bit of a shame as otherwise I might be recommending them more often. I guess they don’t want me to?

Don’t forget bonuses for authorized users

One other “easy” option for earning points with a Player 2 is utilizing sign-up bonuses for authorized users. Sometimes you can get bonus points and miles by adding an authorized user to your account. Remember that these authorized users doesn’t prevent them from getting their own card at some point.

This is sometimes easy miles that you might otherwise leave on the table. You could even sign up for the offer, give it some time (maybe a year), and then sign up again under a similar offer. What you don’t want to do is sign up for the offer so many times that it makes you look like you’re manipulating the authorized user offer. But if your authorized user leaves and then comes back, it could just be that Player 2 changed their mind and maybe finds value in the card again?

We want to stress that you shouldn’t look like you’re purely taking advantage of the offer, as that can lead to trouble. Don’t create authorized user accounts for your pets or multiple accounts for the same person. Take it slow—the offer will come back at some point.

Twice the power for meeting sign-up bonuses

If I want to sign up for a new card but don’t think I can meet the minimum spend, I can always ask for my wife Jenn to help out, and vice versa. The boosted spending power helps, which is especially true if you’re trying to meet multiple sign-up bonuses at once.

Typically, the spend that authorized users put on their cards helps count towards the overall spend to meet minimum requirements. Might as well take advantage of it, especially if you’re working towards a spend requirement that’s on the higher side.

Free transfers between accounts make things easier—but only for the programs that allow it

Some loyalty programs (like JetBlue True Blue) allow you to combine points from different accounts to power your earning potential. If you both earn points in your own accounts and then combine things later on to take that trip together, it can make things easier.

Let’s say you want to go somewhere that costs 75,000 miles per person and a credit card offer gives you 60,000 miles. But one of your friends got the offer and then earned some extra points via shopping portal or other activity and they have 90,000 miles. Just combine your accounts and voila you can both go on your trip together. Easier when both can contribute to the same reward, right?

Focus on different things

One of the nice things about playing in 2-Player mode is specializing in different awards. Have one of you earn airline miles and the other earn hotel loyalty points. Combined, the two of you can have a complete adventure together. I’ve certainly done this myself, with Jenn focused a bit more on airline miles and me focused more on hotel points. If one of you have hotel status, it makes sense to focus that person more on the hotel points.

Why? Because you don’t get that much more benefit from airline elite status when flying business class. But hotel elite status might give you some extra benefits like free breakfast, late checkout, lounge access, and an upgrade.

If none of you have status, perhaps have one of you focus on airlines and the other on hotels this time. Then, after the trip you take, switch your focus for the next trip. After all, it’s the considerate thing to do. Depending on where you are going and what you’re flying, point requirements can vary. So do your friend a favor and switch off each time to make it easier to rack up points.

What about taking the whole family along?

You’ve read our blog before and we’re not afraid to bring others in our family along for the ride. How exactly do you bring along others?

• The more the merrier when it comes to people earning their own points!
• Buy points to help supplement your stash, but be sure to do so at the right price.
• Pay estimated taxes, but only if you can afford the cash flow disruption and it’s cheaper than outright buying the points.
• Accrue points for a long time—but be mindful of the potential for devaluation.
• Earn elite status, which can sometimes give upgrades that makes things cheaper both for hotel stays and business class when flying.

However, you need to avoid ‘burnout’

You know those credit cards that have monthly, quarterly, and annual credits you need to use up? Those can be tough enough to keep track of on your own. But when you’re in two-player mode, it can be an incredible pain trying to manage it. Remembering which card was already used in a month and what credits are still outstanding is not easy. You might need to keep spreadsheets or frequently open your banking apps to know what you still need to charge.

Our recommendation is to not to open too many cards that have these credits. Annual credits are manageable–it’s the monthly credits that hurt the most. The more you “miss” by not using credits, the less value you get from each card and the more “two-player mode” will cost you.

Be slow to ramp up–start small and find out what works best for you. Don’t be afraid to scale down either–the point is to get points not to be exhausted before you show up for your vacation.

Do you already participate in two-player mode?

Suggested reading:

• How to Book Award Travel Like a Pro
• Overcome Your Travel Fears and Enjoy Adventure
• Travel Insurance: Do You Actually Need It?