Originally Posted by
thebill0322
1. Convert that BOA cash rewards to the one that gets you 25$ quarterly statement credits.
2. Apply for the freedom, you should have this card and spend the categories. 1500 x 4 x 5% = 30,000 UR points. Try to max each category out, at the very least gas. Buy gift cards if need be to shift spending.
3. IHG is nice and you will never close the card for the free annual night. May jump on this for easy spend to.
4. Southwest I would plan if you can swing 2 cards for companion pass, i made the mistake when i first started of not doing it...
5. After the freedom and IHG (consider hyatt?) at the same time try another bank like citi or amex. It will really depend on your monthly spend to see what you can do.
6 Don't forget about the us airways card, 0 spend needed (I put 15$...)
7. Hawaiian airlines cards are not a bad way to get miles for partners and Hilton. What are your 1-2 year travel goals (even if they aren't solid plans you should always have a goal...)
8. I need to get on the starwood one personally but with limited monthly spend and I am not a crazy MSer as some people I need to dedicate a good chunk for this. If you can go for it.
Thanks for the tips.
I don't really want to convert the BoA card to anything right now because I'm grandfathered in with 0% foreign transaction fee and I'd rather not lose that if I alter it.
Does the freedom ever have better signup offers that are worth holding out for? More than the 10k?
I won't be able to swing a companion pass with the Southwest card, so that's a downside. Is there a concern if I go for the Southwest & IHG cards (in addition to the CSP, and potentially the Freedom)? How much can I push Chase at once?
I'm interested in the Citi AA card to help diversify me away from just having United points. Plus I'm hoping to get back to South America soon and AA is much better for that than UA.