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Originally Posted by HonkyChateau
guv - I can charge 1-2k per month. My credit score is 725 according to creditkarma. I don't care where in the states I leave from. I live on the east coast but would happy to take a cheap flight to visit friends on the west coast if it made sense to leave from there.
benze - Thank you for the quick and detailed response. I don't know what most of that means, but I'm googling now.
redtop- Thanks for the tip, I'll look in the AC option. Does that mean that any AMEX card signup bonus would transfer 1 to 1 onto AC or is it more complex than that?
Assuming that: A) you can get the cards; B) you can meet the spend requirements; C) you want three
separate inter-continental trips; and D) American Airlines survives its bankruptcy reorganization; here is what I would do:
1) Apply for
two Citi/AA credit cards (one Visa, one Amex) on the
same day to maximize your chances of getting both cards -- and their associated bonuses. Check here in MilesBuzz! for the best current offer (I think it's 50K bonus miles per card), as well as what procedure to follow when applying for both cards on the same day. If you are able to get both cards and meet the spend requirements, you should end up with 100,000+ AA miles.
2) If you can, wait several months after getting the AA cards, and then look for the best offer for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa card. Chase points can be converted to BA or UA miles, and Chase typically waives the first-year annual fee on the Sapphire Preferred card, but
not on the Chase BA Visa card mentioned by another poster. I got the Sapphire Preferred card last year, and the offer was 50K bonus points after $3,000 spend within the first three months. Dining and travel charges earn two points/dollar spent.
3) Use the AA miles for award travel to Europe (preferably during the mid-October to mid-May off-peak season, when the roundtrip only costs 40K AAdvantage miles), and to Asia (50K-70K miles for a roundtrip, depending on destination and time of year). Use the BA miles for travel to/from South America on AA or LAN. A roundtrip using a
direct flight from the U.S. (typically JFK or MIA) to deep South America will cost 50K BA miles.
Note that international awards obtained with AA miles permit a free stopover at the North American "gateway." So, for example, 20K miles can get you back to NYC from Europe, but for the same 20K miles you could fly Europe-JFK, stopover for months in NYC, and then continue on to someplace else in North Amnerica, like Hawaii, Alaska, or the Caribbean (all subject to award-seat availability, of course). To get back to NYC, you could use the first part of your U.S. to Asia award, and then continue on to Asia months after your return to NYC. (There are some fine points and limitations to this strategy, but for now, you just need to know the gist of it.)