KennyBSAT

Try reading through this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...l#post21733679 Getting to Hawaii from the West coast (soon to include PHX due to the ability to book US flights with Avios) is much different than most of the rest of the country.

FlightNurse

Well first why you asking for advice AFTER you did it?

To me I think you made a mistake, if you have LOTS of travel in the US, I would have gone after the SW cards, you and wife get the Personnel and Business cards, this way each of you get a companion pass. This will allow you to travel to all of your US cities.. Who cares what her company will allow or not, since these trips are personnel.

Freedom cards for each of you this will work well with the CSP cards. Look at the Chase INK cards, this is a great way of building up UR points... You need hotel points, look at the new Barclay Hawaiian Card, Hawaiian points transfer to Hilton 1:2 for 35K Hawaiian points = 70K Hilton points.

I don't get the appeal of the Barclaycard Rewards or Capital One Venture better cards for the credit pull. Club Carson card comes to mind....

405#Club

I agree. That slot will either be filled by the Amex or US Bank Club Carlson. Still trying to justify the points for Club Carlson. If the Amex PRG hits 50K+, I'd pull the trigger, no question. I'm hoping they'll have better offers in March.

405#Club

My advice request was in reference to the March 2014 AOR. ORD is closer to our house than MDW, hence the AA cards at 50K each. I will add SW to diversify, probably after we get BA miles for our short trips. Chase Freedom is also on the list too. Cap One Venture points were pre-AOR, so I'm sitting on those points now. Maybe cover fees on award flights in the future. The Hilton points will be huge later this year, so between Hawaiian, Virgin Atlantic, and Hilton HHonors, we'll use AORs in Q3 and Q4 to build up on them. Thanks for the advice!

itchyfeet123

I have six nights in Buenos Aires coming up. The 50k signup bonus on the Cap One venture would cover that, and the 40k Arrival would get pretty close if I hadn't used that bonus already. The only other cards that could individually cover six nights would be the UR earning ones if travel was booked through the UR portal, which doesn't seem like the best use of URs to me. If I got all four Hilton cards, I would still be short. If my partner and I both got new Hyatt cards, we would be short. We would be close if we both got Marriott, and we could do it if we both got IHG. But if just one of us gets Cap 1, it works.

woow14610

FlightNurse...you skipped on my question and reply. Could you kindly reply? Appreciate it.

FlightNurse

Some cards are "churnable" and some are not. Citi was, and is not now. Plus Citi will give you bonuses to keep cards when it is time for the fee. So if you want extra points, this is a great way of getting them.

Now with the BA card, chase will only allow you to have so many CC with them, keep the chase cards until you get a denial letter, then you can move credit from one card to another. In fact chase has been known to allow you to keep more cards if you move credit from one card to another. So for me between my UA and CSP I have 40K, so I can really keeping moving credit off those cards to new ones and not hurt my chances of new cards.

woow14610

Great advise....Appreciate it...So I have following cards..
Chase Freedom, Ink and United.

My wife got,
Ink and United.

I believe having Ink for both me and my wife is great with the second year fee given 5%. I am thinking of getting rid of One United card as It would be crazy to pay that many fees for the second year.

I would like to apply for southwest so wondering how I should manage This. Could you please provide your expert advice?

PainCorp

You're getting to the point of asking to be spoonfed answers. You really should do some research, these questions are very basic.

woow14610

For you it might be basic...for me it is not....I am at a point that I should manage my applications better rather than apply randomly from some information I read......you should read your own signature I would say...your opinion is not mine nor the majority. ...I was not putting pressure on you to answer anything....sorry to frustrate you. If I were you I would have not waste my time to type what you typed.

Thanks.

mintcilantro

Did an aor today given some nice offers. I try to minimize inquiries to improve chances. I have ~15 open cards. AAoA is 2 yrs and history is 7 years. I had balances reporting on 3 cards with <10% utilization.

All bureaus were frozen initially
Inq in last 6/12/24
TU: 0/1/6
EQ: 1/3/8
EX: 0/1/10


Unlock exp
- amex blue: instant
- wells fargo 5x: pending

Lock exp, unlock tu
- barclays arrival: instant

Lock tu, unlock EQ
- citi hilton reserve: instant
- chase fairmont: pending
- us bank club carlson business: instant

Waiting for the denial letters for wells fargo and chase for recon calls

FlightNurse

Why are you waiting for the letter, just call them up, How many Chase cards do you have?

mintcilantro

Just being lazy.. I hate the recon call and having to explain.. they auto approved my wife in 3 days after pending decision.


I have 4 personal + 1 biz.. I closed my SW recently.

FlightNurse

I find for the most part people get carried away and start going after cards for no real reason. The standard question I ask is what is you goal? Do you want domestic travel or International or a combo of both?

The newbie's don't know a lot of in's and out's of the transfer partners. Now if you want the companion pass, then go after both SW cards, as well as the CSP. These three cards will give you enough points for the companion pass, SW is a travel partner with UR.

So in three cards, you will have one of the best travel bargains in the US... We take one travel trip in the US a month because of this, our last one was to Key West.

I always suggest to go off the bloggers and find at least two that you life and go through their web sites LOTS of info to learn from.

No one can tell you what to go after, but educating yourself in this game is something YOU need to do. Asking questions to clarify a misunderstanding is different then wanting people to tell you what to do.

This is one hobby that takes time, take a weekend lock yourself in your room with snacks and drinks and read whole threads, yes some are a few years old, but understanding how the game has evolved will give you an understanding on how to play it.

FlightNurse

I think we need a wiki, never close a chase card.... The credit limit that was on that card was lost, that CL could have been moved over to the Fiarmount card with a simple call.

BTW, this game or hobby (whatever you call it) you can't be lazy, you have to be proactive, if not you could lose out so many offers...