A Guide to Earning Points in Two-Player Mode

In sickness and in health, till an unworthy points redemption do us part…

You might have heard of two-player mode and how it can help you amass thousands of additional points. Teamwork makes the dream work, and the world of points and miles is no exception.

But what exactly is two-player mode, and is it the right strategy for you to pursue? And if so, what’s the ultimate two-player mode strategy when it comes to applying for cards and managing your 5/24 counts?

In this ultimate guide to two-player mode, we’ll answer all of your questions and show you and your P2 how to maximize your points on every dollar, nickel and dime you spend.

What is Two-Player Mode?

Essentially, two-player mode is where two people work together to earn, maximize and redeem their points.

It’s usually couples that pursue a two-player mode strategy, as they tend to have a lot of shared spending and go on vacations together. However, there’s nothing stopping you from pursuing a two-player mode strategy with a sibling, parent, your (grown-up) child or even a friend, particularly if these are the people you travel with the most.

It’s often the case that one “player” is the points and miles expert, while the other is just along for the ride. Typically, we refer to the person more thoroughly involved in points and miles as player one and the other person as player two—P1 and P2 for short. Of course, both P1 and P2 may be equally informed on points and miles.

By carefully planning which cards you both hold, when you apply for them and how you use them, your P2 can help you earn even more points than you’re currently earning.

Two-Player Mode Strategies

When planning your two-player mode strategy, there are different avenues you can pursue.

Let’s run through some of the most common ways you can maximize your points with your P2.

Make Your P2 an Authorized User

One of the easiest ways you can get your P2 aboard the points and miles train is to add them as an authorized user.

You can add an authorized user to your existing credit cards, usually for free up to a certain number of supplementary cards. Your P2/authorized user will receive their own credit card—the same one that you hold—that allows them to earn points on their everyday spending. These points will post to your account, meaning all your joint earnings are kept in the same place.

For instance, you could add your P2 as an authorized user on the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, enabling them to earn an easy 2X points on all purchases. This makes it simple for them to earn points without needing to remember when and where to use their card.

Since all the points they earn on their spending will post to your account, redemption is much easier, as you won’t need to worry about combining points between separate accounts to meet award rates.

Adding your P2 as an authorized user also enables them to get a credit card without having a hard inquiry on their credit score. This can be beneficial if your P2 either has a lower credit score than you or if they’re trying to avoid any hard inquiries due to other ongoing credit applications.

Additionally, your P2 will be able to build their credit score through spending with their supplementary card and paying their balance off before its due date. This will put them in an even better position to later apply for cards with higher credit score requirements. However, ensure that your credit card issuer reports authorized user account activity to the main credit bureaus, as some don’t do this.

Lastly, do keep in mind that the primary account holder—P1—is responsible for paying off all balances on the card, so ensure you can do this before adding your P2.

Apply for the Same Cards Separately

While the life of an authorized user might sound rosy, it’s not all sunshine, rainbows and the ability to earn points and build credit without hard inquiries. Namely, authorized users miss out on one of the most important aspects of travel rewards credit cards: welcome offers.

Credit card welcome offers give you the opportunity to earn the highest number of points per dollar spent. For instance, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has a typical welcome offer of 75,000 to 100,000 points after spending $5,000 within the first three months of card membership. If you were to earn 80,000 points after spending $5,000, you’d have an effective points multiplier of 16X points per dollar spent—a rate you won’t find on any bonus category of any card, ever.

For this reason, it’s not only essential that you earn your cards’ welcome offers, but also that your P2 starts earning welcome offers. At some point, your P2 will want to wave the cushy life of an authorized user goodbye and start applying for their own credit cards.

Using the example above, if both you and your P2 applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred when the welcome bonus was at 80,000 points and both hit the minimum spend, you’d have 160,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to use for your next redemption—instead of just 80,000 points. That’s easily the difference between flying first class or flying economy.

The only caveat to applying for the same cards at the same time—when the welcome bonuses are running high—is that the minimum spending requirements are effectively doubled.

This increased spending may be manageable, but depending on your situation, hitting two welcome bonuses simultaneously might be a challenge.

That said, there are ways to get creative and hit high minimum spends without needlessly (and counterproductively) overspending. For instance, you can prepay insurance premiums, vacations, utility bills and other upcoming expenses. You can also consider using your card to pay your taxes and rent. That way, you can leverage your natural expenditure to hit the minimum spend and earn those welcome offers together.

You can also stagger your card applications so that you’re only working on earning one card’s welcome offer at a time.

Use Referral Bonuses

Once your P2 has decided they’re ready to start applying for their own credit cards, ensure that you—as P1—take advantage of credit card referral bonuses.

Credit card referral bonuses enable you to invite your friends and family (and more importantly, your P2) to apply for the current credit card you hold. If your P2 applies using your referral link and is approved for the card, you’ll receive a bonus in the form of points, miles or cash back.

Referral bonuses vary depending on the card and card issuer. You can earn anywhere from $50 to $500 worth of points, miles or cash back using referral bonuses, with annual limits that are much higher (so don’t forget to invite your friends and family members too).

That way, you can already score hundreds of dollars worth of bonus points before your P2 has even earned their welcome offer.

This strategy works both ways. You can refer your P2 to apply for cards you own and they can refer you to apply for cards you don’t yet hold. This squeezes even more value out of every new card application, further maximizing your points earned.

Leverage and Protect Your 5/24 Count

While applying for the same cards at the same time and using referral bonuses to do so can be a great strategy, you can also use two-player mode as part of a “trade-off” strategy.

This can be particularly useful when managing your 5/24 count.

Chase’s 5/24 rule prevents you from opening a new credit card if you’ve applied for five or more credit cards with any issuer within the last 24 months.

You can use your two-player mode strategy to ensure either you or your P2 is always under their 5/24 count—in other words, one of you will always be able to apply for a Chase credit card.

This is important, given that Chase offers some of the most lucrative credit cards on the market as well as a valuable rewards currency, Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Keeping one of your 5/24 counts—either P1’s or P2’s—within the limit means that one of you will always be able to score a lucrative Chase welcome bonus when it comes up.

This two-player mode strategy gives you greater freedom and flexibility.

Reduce Annual Fees and Diversify Your Card Perks

If you want to reduce the number of annual fees both you and your P2 have to pay every year, you might prefer a strategy in which you and your P2 hold cards with different perks, essentially each holding a different card rather than having multiple of the same type of card per household.

For instance, if you hold The Platinum Card® from American Express for its statement credit perks and lounge access privileges, your P2 could hold the Chase Sapphire Reserve® for its $300 annual travel statement credit perk. That way, you’ll only have to pay one Amex Platinum annual fee of $695 (see rates and fees) and one Sapphire Reserve annual fee of $795.

In most cases, there’s nothing stopping you benefitting from the perks offered by your P2’s card and vice versa. While this may not be true of every benefit, perks such as lounge access typically allow you to bring a guest with you, making it unnecessary for both players to hold a card with this perk.

Similarly, certain co-branded airline cards, such as The New United℠ Explorer Card, enable you and your companion to check a bag each free of charge as well as benefit from priority boarding. This makes it necessary for only one “player” to hold a card with such perks, as both of you can benefit from them.

Likewise, it can make sense for each player to pursue different travel goals in their card strategy. For example, earning the Southwest Companion Pass enables you to fly your nominated companion for just $5.60 in taxes and fees each way. It’s easiest to earn the Southwest Companion Pass—which requires 135,000 points earned in a calendar year—through Southwest’s co-branded credit card welcome bonuses.

Once either you or your P2 has earned the Companion Pass, the other one of you will become the nominated companion, making it redundant to try and earn a Companion Pass each.

The only exception to the above strategy is if you have kids. In that case, you can save a significant amount of money by both earning your own Companion Passes, enabling each of you to fly one of your kids for just $5.60 in taxes and fees each way. This can significantly reduce the cost of a family vacation on points and miles.

So, while one of you focuses on earning the Southwest Companion Pass, the other one could focus on earning a minimum spend-based free night award on a co-branded credit card, diversifying your perks and points while reducing the number of annual fees you have to pay.

Combine Your Free Night Awards for Longer Stays

A surfeit of co-branded hotel credit cards offer free night awards either as annual perks or based on hitting a minimum spending threshold.

If both you and your P2 hold the same co-branded hotel credit cards, you’ll effectively have double the number of free night awards than you would have from just holding one card.

While you can’t technically combine free night awards from two separate accounts, you can either book two separate but consecutive reservations using them or speak directly with a hotel booking agent to see how best to use them together.

This can save you a significant amount of cash and, in the best case, could end up making your hotel stay entirely free.

Combine Your Points

When it comes time to redeem your points, it’s typically easiest to book award fares and award stays from a single account. This avoids the hassle and cost of transferring points from one account to another. Some rewards programs also prevent you from combining your points in the first place, particularly airline programs.

However, certain hotel programs allow you to combine your points with your friends and family, making it easy to combine with your P2 for award bookings.

Likewise, you can transfer and pool your Chase Ultimate Rewards points with another family member, allowing for bigger redemptions with your P2. Capital One also allows you to transfer points to your P2 free of charge.

And while Amex doesn’t allow for direct point transfers to your P2’s Amex account, you can transfer your Amex Membership Rewards points to your P2’s hotel or airline loyalty account as long as they’re an authorized user on the card account you’re transferring from.

Final Thoughts

Scoring yourself thousands of points and miles on your everyday spending that enables you to take the trips of your dreams is an addictive hobby. And doing it together with that special person, friend or family member in your life—your P2—is even better. You can earn double the number of points you would earn on your own, save on annual fees, optimize your perks and shoot for even greater redemptions, all with the help of your P2.

And with the help of the My10x app, you can manage your two-player mode strategy effortlessly, tracking all your cards, your 5/24 count, eligibility for card offers and more, all in the one place.