what is churning?
#3
In memoriam
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 4,020
Churning is one of the most wonderful activities known to humanity. In churning, you apply for and get a credit card which are offers bonus miles (say 25K), use the card, get the bonus, reapply, use new card, get another bonus, etc. Then use miles to fly 1st class to Paris and enjoy.
Unfortunately, while churning was pretty easy until eighteen months or so ago, the credit collapse has made it pretty tough, and a lot of FTers have stopped for a bit--others fight on!
Unfortunately, while churning was pretty easy until eighteen months or so ago, the credit collapse has made it pretty tough, and a lot of FTers have stopped for a bit--others fight on!
#4
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Land of the parrots and parrotheads
Programs: Several dozen
Posts: 4,820
Delta AMEX Churnworthy
Experience says Delta AMEX is still churnworthy. However, use those Skymiles to pay for hotels as they are now worthless for flight.
#5
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: PHL
Programs: HH Diamond, SPG Plat; no plans for chasing any more airline status.
Posts: 880
Also, as somewhat of a newbie, what is the official/proper/best practice for waht to do with card #1 after applying for and getting the bonus for card #2?
THanks everyone!
#8
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM
Posts: 768
Caveat emptor. Read around the Delta forum a bit and you'll find dozens of examples of people that have had signup bonuses not awarded owing to having had the card previously for every one who has successfully churned one.
#9
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: Food Lion MVP
Posts: 114
From what I've read on FT, successful delta churners do not supply there ff# when signing up for the card. Let delta/amex assign you a new ff# for the additional bonus miles. If you have a high balance of miles on your current delta account I would avoid this because delta could close your account and take away those precious delta pesos
#10
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Santa Cruz, CA USA
Programs: AA, UA, WN, HH, Marriott
Posts: 7,288
FWIW, I recently redeemed Skymiles for 4 domestic tickets for my step-daughter, her husband, and 2 kids to fly from MHT to LAS roundtrip.
#11
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 126
Churning is one of the most wonderful activities known to humanity. In churning, you apply for and get a credit card which are offers bonus miles (say 25K), use the card, get the bonus, reapply, use new card, get another bonus, etc. Then use miles to fly 1st class to Paris and enjoy.
Unfortunately, while churning was pretty easy until eighteen months or so ago, the credit collapse has made it pretty tough, and a lot of FTers have stopped for a bit--others fight on!
Unfortunately, while churning was pretty easy until eighteen months or so ago, the credit collapse has made it pretty tough, and a lot of FTers have stopped for a bit--others fight on!
#12
Join Date: May 2008
Programs: Marriott Titanium, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, AA Plat, UA Silver, Delta Silver
Posts: 453
#13
Join Date: May 2003
Location: CA
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 2,879
Remember, the CC companies are not the same companies that hold your FF miles / points.
#14
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: India
Programs: Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, IHG Plat, HH Gold, Trident Plat, DL Diamond, AI Maharajah
Posts: 29,598
its a good idea to not cancel the card within the first 6 months....after that all your points/miles should be safe....
#15
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Madison, WI, USA
Posts: 14,162
I've successfully churned the UA card three times, with a minimum two years between each card, for 100K total I think. I've now done AA twice for 60K, but with more than three years between. I did the NW card twice, I think, and the the Delta card twice, but I received only half the offered miles on the second Delta card, probably because it was less than two years between the two.
I'm now waiting to see if Starwood will send me an offer for a second go-round.
I'm now waiting to see if Starwood will send me an offer for a second go-round.