Travel-hacking and airline milesFollow

I've been hunting for a new credit card recently in an effort to boost my own credit and maybe get some benefits. Since college I have had and used but one credit, an American Express Hilton HHonors Platinum card, procured for me by my father when I just got out of high school. I've put books, gas, and meals on it during my school days, and now I use it for utilities in my apartment. It's in my name, but it's the only thing on my credit history (see Kao's post in the OoT topic about credit history for links to check yours for free once a year - super awesome). So yeah, a new card would be nice, especially since my benevolent parental unit has used all the perks from the card for his own use (well, and for us when we would travel with him).

So I'm looking at cards that give airline miles. Articles have been popping up online that talk about the fun game of flying for more miles and upgrades, but what really kicked off this motivated is my high school friend's brother, who is traveling around the globe for 9 months and only spending $418 on airfare. His travel route looks like this:


He calls it travel hacking, and recommended the e-book "Frequent Flyer Master," but I don't have an e-book reader so I'm thinking of ordering it off of Amazon. But before I do I was curious if anyone else has experience with this, or good suggestions for cards or resources. I'm not planning on doing anything in the next year, but saving up would be fun. I figure I'm 25 now and in the next few years I'll likely be tied down with a family and a career, but taking some months off to travel could be a blast. Thanks!

Not one to set foot into the OoT, I went there and got the link from Kao's credit card post and just printed out some of my credit info. Thanks for the lead.