2014 App-O-Rama (AOR) and Churn Advice Archive
 

MODERATOR NOTE: This thread is a consolidated archive of many threads and discussions. See the wiki for an overview.

I am helping/managing my wife's AOR and would like your input. I was going to apply for 2-4 cards for her (she hasn't applied for a card in a year - Amex was last one).

Bummer: I just realized that Chase's application is based on her income (not household income) which is practically non-existent so the answer is 2 at best.

Ironically they were all going to be chase cards:

UnitedPlus Explorer
Southwest Premier
Southwest Business
Chase Sapphire

Which brings me to another question: What credit card companies still do applications based on household income, not individual income?

Actually, you can used combined household income now as long as she has access to it in order to pay the bill.

And you won't get 3 personal Chase cards in 1 day.

Ok I have applied for the following cards after extensive reading and am new in the app-o-rama field. Let me know if I have committed any mistakes.

1. Chase Sapphire Preferred (50K + 5K bonus) - Already have a Chase Freedom since 4 years. Will use this card to build up on miles and transfer to Southwest or UA.

2. Alaskan Airlines BOFA (50K - includes $99 companion pass) - Planning to use this for India travel (transfer to Cathay Pacific or Emirates or Air France). Or will use this for Hawaii trip for honeymoon.

3. Amex Blue Cash (Unlimited 5% after 6.5k spend - NO FEE card) - I thought I should mix some non fee card that I will never cancel. Already have a Amex BCE.

4. Chase Southwest premier (50K - $99 annual with 6k points on renewal) - This is the card I am thinking I might regret as I am hesitating to apply for the business card and go for the Companion pass. But I am suddenly scared as I never applied for Business. I guess I need some prodding. Can someone point to me if I am scared uncessarily? I don't have any home or mortagage plan for next 2-3 years for sure.

I tried to mix banks (Amex, Chase, Bofa) and cards(Amex, visa) and airlines (hawaii, southwest and ). Did I do good? Are my goals realistic? I would be grateful if someone could chime in and review my app-o-rama. I want to lie low for a quarter before I jump to newer avenues such as delta, UA specific and Chase BA.

Am i underachieving or overachieving and hurting myself? TIA :)

rampartmovie - you could do more if you want, but the other cards will still be there. The Alaska 50K offer is dead; the best AS offer is 25K with a $100 statement credit. If you want to add one more, I would consider AA.

Not "transfer"... "redeem" is the word you're looking for. You don't transfer Alaska miles - you redeem them directly for the flights you want, if there is availability. This is an important distinction, since it means you won't be combining any existing miles in those other programs to redeem for a single ticket.

Thank you for your feedback KennyBSAT. The above list that I provided I have already applied. I got the Alaskan 50k last week when it was up for a short time :)

Which AA would you prefer?

Is this the goto thread for AA Citi based cards - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...ost-first.html ?

Also looks like the business cards from Citi AA which were churnable earlier are no longer happening :( I am assuming that the Citi is the only best bank for AA? or anything else? Thanks once again.

Yes sorry. What I meant was redeem :) True, looks like we need to call and redeem. I was planning to use Alaskan for an India trip as the Cathay pacific/air france can be achieved for 40k miles one way. If that turns out to be too costly, then I guess the hawaii trip would be always on the table.

fly out of RSW but can use MIA or TPA

need help for long term plan, 750+ FICO, have side business with annual 25k +/- revenue. thanks in advance, got lots to learn still

Travel goals -
lie flat seats for 5 rt Australia summer of 2016 - willing to split between 2 airlines
annual domestic rt to west coast for 5 (125k)
annual first class for 1 to Alaska (50k)
annual for 5 to Grand Cayman or Turks/Caicos (use Avios on AA metal for short hop out of MIA) (75k avios)

need to generate 175k miles, 75k avios per year plus build balances for Australia 2016

2014 award travel already booked

Current Cards
Citi Visa ( 1yr), MC (5 yrs), Citi Business (4 mo), just cancelled Citi Amex

Delta Amex, Amex PRG, Amex Business Gold (cancelling next month)

Chase Sapphire Visa, Sapphire MC, BA, Hyatt, Ink Plus, United Mileage plus, United Business Mileage Plus, Hyatt, Fairmont

Bank of America - US Air MC, Alaska Air, Hawaiin Air

BOH, Hawaiin Air Biz

Points balance
BA 120k avios
UA 225k
AA 220k
Delta 120k
Alaska Air 58k
US Air 45k
Hawaiin Air 75k

most recent cards November BOA Alaskan Air, Citi Biz

prelim next cards planned for March Barclays Lufthansa (50k?), Ink Bold (Biz), Barclays US Air (35k), Chase SW

seems like I am running out of good bonus options 40k +) but realize it is probably just information overload for this noob, sorry for long post, trying to provide all pertinent info. All advice appreciated. Happy NY to all

That makes sense then, good catch on the AS.

AA miles all taste the same to me :) If/when you want to get one, I'd go for the best available personal first, and then the best available business later. Citi rules seem to vary and change more than any other bank, so the AA thread is worth keeping an eye on.

Cool. I see. Will take a look and apply for the personal. many thanks!

Also on a side note do you know how to get an alert when someone replies to you here in Flyertalk threads? Right now I keep all windows open and refresh each page.. :( So dumb of me. I can never see where the notifications to people who respond or quote me is.

You should go after the Chase Southwest RR business card. Make sure u tell them u r the sole proprietor. Look around a few sites and they'll explain you how to sign up for one. Once u have a total of 110,000 miles, you'll get a companion pass until Dec 31st 2015. So the sooner u reach 110,000 miles, the more time you have to use it. The pass is redeemable even when you use points to book the 1st ticket. It's value is around 1.8c/mile so that's $1800 for your 110,000 miles + $1800 for your companion = $3600!!. And since you have the chase sapphire preferred card, once you are out of points, you could transfer some points from your chase account to southwest and get 2 tickets out of it.

Planning AOR
 

My last AOR was more than 6 months back - have a good credit history

750+ score with 6+ years credit history

More interested in airlines (compared with hotels)

Had/have
united personal, sapphire, ink, freedom
citi personal card (only one in lifetime) & 1 business
amex plat, gold & spg
US airlines & lufthansa M&M

Need some advice - below are some cards I am planning

US Air 35K
Citi Business 50K
Chase Mileage business 50K
Club carlson 85K

3 is doable, 4 wont happen, my last AOR I got three, IHG, CSP, UA MP, all were instant approval.

The best way to figure out what to go after is list out what you want to do with the miles. For a versatile cards, the CSP and AMex SPG cards you can't go wrong, since you can transfer to many different programs.

I think the holy grail of cards that any collector should have are the Freedom Card, CSP, Amex SPG and Ink Bold. Of course there are more ways to play this game, but those are the cards I think anyone in this game should have the others are gravy.

Thank you very much. True, I need to figure out what my aim is before I apply for cards blindly. I applied for CSP and Chase SW business/premier. Like you said, I will apply for Amex SPG and INK and a AA card in my next AOR. Thanks once again.