Bumming a bit, just got my first personal decline. I have a long time citi visa and have been churning two other citi's for the extra miles. At the 13 month point on the two (visa & AE), I applied for the 50k visa (May 23) and got same day approval through the online chat. On May 29, I requested a 30k AE, which I found a home page doing a google search. Only made it to 3rd level so I knew I was probably in trouble. Got the dreaded letter, which said "You have submitted multiple applications for credit." Called in and they told me I could only have one or the other, but since I had already used the visa, it is too late to get the AE and they can not change the denial. I don't know if the AE is more sensitive than the MC, etc, but since Costco only takes AE, this is why I went that route.
Looks like I'll stop doing two at nearly the same time each year and start pacing them 6 months apart. We'll see if that works better.