Your post contains somewhat confusing information--you describe yourself as a "poor college student," yet you discuss a payment you missed seven years ago. Of course, you could be a late 20s student on the 10-year plan through college but you could have been a poor college student sometime ago who missed a payment but now has been really good with your credit. If you've read enough threads here, you surely must realize that although CC issuers are liberal with credit right now, they're not likely to give it away if you can't prove you're creditworthy.

On the assumption that you're in your mid to late 20s and have a decent but not great credit score, I can only make the following recommendations. Although the CO award chart suggests you could make a coach-class roundtrip from SFO to South Korea for 65,000 miles, there are no award tickets available for this award level in November or December 2011. The only availability is for tickets that require 130,000 award miles. Figure that's your target.

Can you make it? There was a 50K Chase/CO card a couple of months ago, but that deal's done and not likely coming back given CO's limited life. As you've noted, there are 30K and 40K offers that are probably as good as you'll see from CO before your trip. The best part of this card for you is that getting the miles depends only upon a first purchase so if funds are tight, you're getting the miles for a minimal spend.

On the other hand, Chase is pretty tight on multiple applications in short periods of time, and I suspect would be more so given the financial position you've described. If you get the CO card in the next few days and Chase/United shortly come out with a card with a much bigger bonus, as has been rumored, then you're likely not getting another card from Chase for several months. I'm thinking Chase/United will at least try to match Citi/AA at 75K minimum and may try to match Chase/BA at 100K--levels that would get you much closer to your goal, but these cards have had a much higher spending requirement and so likely would any new Chase/United card. You have to determine whether you can afford that requirement.

Let's assume 75K rather than 100K. That leaves you 55K short of your goal. If, if you can qualify for an Amex card, you might get in on an offer that would provide you with 50K Membership Rewards points. If you can meet the minimum spending requirement and have the points posted, you might have 51 or 52K points available to you before CO withdraws from the Amex program at the end of September.

That might leave you needing to buy 3000 miles from CO at $35 per 1000 miles to reach 130,000 miles.

And, by then, the target for award availability will probably have moved again, and those tickets currently available for November/December will be gone, and you'll have to look at later windows to redeem your miles.

Get realistic. Figure out a budget, both for your overall finances and for the amounts you can run through a credit card. Understand that although there are a lot of stories here about folks who pile up a ton of miles, most times that happens with folks who have a really good and longstanding credit history. Adjust your expectations--don't believe you can just start your plans now and be on a plane to Seoul in November.

But, if you keep reading the threads here carefully and make realistic plans, it is possible that you could be on that plane early next year or next summer.