Originally Posted by
AimClickShoot
I'm in a long distance relationship with someone in NC (I'm in MI). AA happens to fly to all 4 of the little airports around him, and often they are on the reduce mileage charts as well. YAY us! I've got the Barclay AA card (as does he). But I'm sure I'm going to burn through those points this summer. I'm thinking of applying for the business version of that card as well (got to love that no min spend). I have a legit photography business and I have a few biz cards for it, so I would think not too hard to get it. After that I'm looking to possibly apply for the AA Citibank cards to get the miles from them. I'd likely keep one of the ones that offers the reduced mileage awards, and the free luggage. Is there one that is better than the others? No need to have 4 cards all with annual fees, lol.
Almost all of my spending (unless I'm trying to meet a minimum offer, or it's brand specific, Hilton on Hilton Amex, Delta on Delta Amex) is done on my Chase Sapphire Reserve. I've been eyeing up the Ink card, but I'm sitting at 6/24 right now and won't drop to 5/24 until 10/18 and I don't drop to 4/24 until 4/19. To be honest the only reason I was looking at the Ink was the UR points, and the cell phone "perk" but it looks like my Amex SPG will have some sort of cell phone offer with it in the fall now. So is there a reason to hold off to get a Chase card first?
Do you understand what counts toward 5/24 and what doesn't?
5/24 is calculated by looking at your credit report (EX or EQ or TU) and counting all the bank cards (open or closed) that have an 'opened on" date in the past 24 months. Have you looked up your credit report (free sortable by open date at
Check Your Credit Report & FICO® Score | Experian, though due to a bug there it doesn't show day of the month correctly, and free non-sortable at Credit Karma) and counter?
Business cards from most banks don't count. No one has reported this new business AA card from Barclay as showing up on credit reports. And the business AA card from Citi has never shown up on credit reports. So you could get either (or both) of these business AA cards without affecting your 5/24 status.
Meanwhile, what annual fee are you talking about? Ie, are you aware that most people seem to be getting their annual fee waived year after year by calling up Barclay retention? And some (though perhaps not as big a fraction of) people can get a credit (not the same as a wavier, but same net effect as a waiver) for some spend from Citi.
However, I'd say the personal AA Aviator card from Barclay is the one to keep if you're only going to keep one. First, it seems easiest to get the annual fee waiver on each year. Second, the personal cards enable the 10% rebate on up to 100k of AA miles redemptions each year, the business cards don't. And there may be some other features that the business cards don't offer that the personal cards do.
Meanwhile, the Aviator card has the best worldwide "chip" technology in it, better than CIti's. So if you travel internationally and want to use the card the most places possible (including unattended kiosks in France that balk at most other USA-issued cards), the Aviator card from Barclays is the one to keep (at least if you don't have not-possible-to-apply-for Diners Club USA card).
So I'd say apply for the business cards first, so that you can get under 5/24 for Chase, but keep at least the personal Barclay AA Aviator your already have, and read this thread to find out how to possibly keep it for free:
Barclays retention offers (all cards)