Well after reading up on the site for the past week or so, I decided to put my well earned to good use. Sadly I missed out on all the 100k's, but as I live in Bali and United has been amazing to use for to/fro with FF miles, I'm trying to max-up my United (and CO->United). So no waiting around for deals! Churn!

Since everyone here helped out, I thought I'd describe my experience

So tonight I applied for 7 cards. It was recommended to apply all in the same day, so woosh, I didn't mess around.

1. Amex Premiere Gold. Got the 10k link. Looks like there's a new code that I'll bump later. Applied and was not approved, instead it asked me to call up some number. I called, the lady was quite friendly, and said, "hold on while I sort this out." She was gone a bit. I asked her what was up and she said, "Well it wasn't approved because you had two addresses on your credit report but then your credit report only shows one address." Hm, something to look into I suppose

2. Chase Sapphire Preferred. I've already got 2 Chase cards, the last one being the One Pass from a few months ago. Woosh, this one sailed right thru. Approved. I'll bump with the $750 spend code when I get the card.

3. AA Citi Amex. I recently got the AA Visa with 75k. Perhaps I was double dipping here, but it wasn't auto-approved. We'll see. Also not sure if I'll get the miles as people said u should apply for all 3 AA cards concurrently.

4. Amtrak 30k Chase. This one wasn't auto-approved. I figured I'd gone to the well one to many times, but I do need the Amtrak->CO miles.

5. Alaska Airlines 40k Bank of America. Not sure what happened here. I've got 2 BOA cards already. It populated my stuff. Then at the end, it said something about offer not available, but it wasn't clear if it rejected the application or took it. Ah well, sort it out later. Figured I'd go for a BOA card while I was at it.

6. AirTran Barclays. Auto-approved. Hopped right into the online site and things looked funny. Only $3k? I wrote them a note and got speedy replies:

Me: "hey is this the Signature Card I applied for with 16 credits after $750 spend?"

ATB: "Your card has been approved for the level of credit as we evaluate it. You will receive 2 credits after the proper spend" (thanks for being so clear)

Me: "If this isn't the Signature account with 16 credits, I'm not interested, cancel my card."

ATB: "You may cancel your card, just reply that you want it canceled."

Others have complained about Barclay's. I might try calling in - they seem to be a bit unreasonable here. I like how AirTran is rollin into SWA, figured I'd get these while I can, tho apparently the gettin' ain't so easy.

7. Hawaiian Airlines Bank of Hawaii 35k. This one sure looked exactly like the BOA applications. It didn't auto-approve, so we'll see. I'm not a resident of Hawaii, but others have had OK luck.

So all and all pretty good. Not sure what was up with the BOA Alaska app just kinda fizzling.

But I did score 60k for sure, another 65k likely (Gold Amex bump) and who knows what else.

As for the spend - I really don't spend much so I'm just runnin' the cards thru my Google Checkout account. I lose 3%, but getting, say, 75k miles for a $1500 spend is worth the $45 transaction fee to me. Anyone had issues with this, please drop me a note as I need to know!

Any advice for next time appreciated, and I'll be happy to drop back in with an update if people are interested.....