Originally Posted by
NationalCCW
Thanks for the advice.
12 years ago took working the system. Bonus here bonus there.
I'm not against cards with annual fees. I just don't like paying annual card fees out of principle. But I have no problem getting a fee card with the fee waived the first year and then downgrade to a no fee card before I am charged the fee. I also don't mind pocketing the sign up bonuses from those fee cards that I ultimately don't pay the fee on.
For 3 business class seats from the USA I might have to get creative again transferring miles to airlines.
I'm wondering if I should sign up for the Premier Rewards Amex Gold Card get the 25K bonus, use the card, and downgrade to the Every Day card before the fee hits. Do they allow that particular downgrade?
You may want to get yourself familiarized with the various policies each bank has put in place to prevent EXACTLY what you have in mind.
Namely, Chase has a new rule placed on Aug 27 to make the downgrade strategy a NO GO for their best Sapphire card family.
AMEX has put out in NO LESS explicit languages to warn cardholders that the sign up bonus or bonuses of any kind would be CLAWED BACK if the cardholder downgrade the card right at 12 months mark to avoid paying annual fee. It even uses the word "game" the system, on top of the usual "abuse" and "misuse".
You may want to read up those first before you plan on a downgrade route to avoid AF.
If your knowledge of this "game" is from 12 years ago, you have A LOT to play catch up on.
Finally and not least unimportant - the US-Australia award is one of the toughest to get in premium cabin even just for 1 person, let alone 3.
It would be almost certain you would need A TON OF POINTS just for 1 R/T reward, not to mention the difficulty in finding that availability.
Have you thought about just WHICH airline's program you intend to use, and how much the award would cost? Plus the reality of securing such an award?
As others have mentioned, your goal is quite unrealistic based on your current assumption and criteria. You really need to figure out WHICH FFP(s) you plan to use, then figure out WHAT "currency" you would need to achieve that redemption.
Also dont overlook foreign airlines programs for some of them actually have competitive charts, even sometimes you need to pay the YQ but the miles requirement might be 30% or more LESS than the US airlines.
Again, you have tons to play catch up on based on whatever you have mentioned so far. Do some catch up work, figure out the target FFP(s) then start from there would be the most logical approach, just my thought.