Folks,

Trying to go for my first app-o-rama and thought would document the process and get the feedback from everyone.

So here's my goal:
Take our family of 3 to Thailand (Phuket) for one week in 2016
Use United or American to execute that. I currently have about 100k in both these airlines
Based on this I am thinking of getting miles and points by applying few cards. The question is this:

So the big question #1 what cards to select?

Step 1 - Card Selection
My thought is to get cards that give me flexibility in both AA and UA miles. And at the same time get some benefits like free checked baggage.

So looking for some feedback on this:

What do you think? Here's my plan:
Apply for 3 credit cards on the same day to earn 150k points/miles
Chase Sapphire - 50k + 5K
Citi Plat. Select AAdvantage - 50k
Chase Ink Plys - 60k
(Not Planning) - AmEx Green Card - 50k Membership Points (transferable to Avios... not sure)
So that's a total of 150k+ points. The minimum spend is going to be

What do you think?

Question: What are other cards to consider? - SPG AmEx - due to the merger, is that a good option? Citi Thank You point cards?

Question: Read about lot of previous spending tools are no longer working. Serve? Bluebird? Vanilla? Lot of mixed information out there. My plan was to get gift cards from stores like Office Depot, Kroger et al and use it on purchases. What is your favorite strategy recently?

Will update this post with Step 2 on Meeting Minimum Spending Requirement soon.