Originally Posted by
RobH
I've made my moves. I applied for the US card first, and AA second. I was approved for both.
Going forward my plan is:
- Use the US card once and pay the annual fee in order to get the bonus.
- Use the AA card for AA airfares and in-flight purchases only. I'll be flying weekly and I'll easily make the minimum $1,000 spend requirement.
- Continue to use my existing United Presidential Plus Card for everything else, in order to continue increasing my UA balance and earning United EQMs.
- Abandon all hope of getting any kind of meaningful status on AA. I'll be flying 2 segments a week on an RJ, so the status won't be that valuable. I'm starting out mid-year so there's no chance I'll get to a high level this year.
- Plan on moving back to UA when I move on to a non-DFW project. Use my EQMs to buy myself back to gold or possibly platinum, if I have enough EQMs by then.
- Since both cards will renew with an annual fee at the same time next year, reevaluate if I'll keep one or the other. It almost certainly won't make sense to renew both.
SIDE NOTE TO AA: Here's your chance to impress me. UA hasn't been too impressive lately.
I can comment only on my own experience, but my remarks may be relevant to your situation. About 2 1/2 years ago, I obtained an AA Citi credit card, mostly because of the bonus miles. The annual fee ($89, I believe) was waived for the first year. When 12 months passed and I phoned to cancel, AA made a new offer without my asking: I would pay the annual fee, but receive a refund of the total amount as well as a bonus of 750 miles for any billing period in which I spent at least $750. Twelve months after that, I received a similar offer to renew, though now the bonus is 1k miles for each period in which I spend $1,000. I don't always qualify for the bonus, but I have found it worthwhile to keep the card under the circumstances.