MannyCPA

We have a couple trips planned next spring and summer, one to Europe and one to Asia, and I'd love to travel business or coach and pay with points. What's the most efficient AOR/churn I can run over the next few months to earn these points?

We're new to the game, but this past year we've done the following:

Jan - Chase BA 100K (me)
Aug - Starwoods personal 30K (me)
Aug - Starwoods perosnal and business 30K*2 (wife)
Aug - CitiAA 50K*2 (me and wife)

No relevant history prior to then.

And for those keeping track from prior thread I'm going to avoid the heavy BA fees to London by transfering my BA points to AL along with some AA points.

mia

Chase is the only issuer in the USA of cards which earn, or are 1:1 transferable to United miles.

jdtravel

Chase is very good. The SPG Amex does not convert at a good rate.

MannyCPA

Well that's unfortunate. I was hoping I could transfer some Barclay's US Air points to United since they're in the same alliance.

ramosz83

No, but you can use your usairways miles on United flights still.

jordandawg05

get some ink cards , united cards, and sapphire preferred from chase.

dukerau

Yes, and if your trip is to what US calls "North Asia," which includes China, HK, Japan, and Korea, it costs only 90K US miles to fly biz. United charges 120K for same route in biz. For coach it's 60K with US and 65K with United. You can get US miles with the US card (35K sign up) or SPG (25K sign up, 1:1.25 transfer ratio) and use the miles to book your flight on United, as long as US remains in Star Alliance.

mnscout

Not with SPG. SPG to United is 2:1, and I think I've read the US Air has "fixed" their J rates to Asia.

mnscout

To maximize your loot, your wife could go for 50K Chase BA with no AF for the first year right now. You could also grab SPG Business. Both of you could go for Citi AA biz for the same reason.

Also apply for Barclays Arrival -- that's extra $800+ in your coffers. I don't know how heavy you guys are willing to churn, but these are pretty good for the starters. If you value hotel points, you could (and should) go for the US Bank Club Carlson personal and business for 340+K points. That's a lot of free stays, too. And if I were you, I would use SPG points for stays, not transfer.

SeeBuyFly

I'm a newbie to UA churning. I read somewhere that you can only get each of the Chase UA cards once. So personal, business, Sapphire, Ink Bold, Ink Plus, about 250K in bonuses and you're done for life...is that right or am I clueless?

smilinganddialing

OP this is quite simple. Jordandawg05 alluded to it.

For both you and your wife:

• Chase UA Explorer Personal - 55K (50K signup + 5K for AU)
• Chase UA Explorer Business - 50K
• Chase Sapphire Preferred - 40K UR points (transfer 1:1 to UA MP)
• Chase Ink Plus - 50K UR points
• Chase Ink Bold - 50K UR points
• Chase Ink Classic- 20K UR points (must have Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold/Plus first to be able to transfer)
• Chase Freedom- 10K UR points (must have Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold/Plus first to be able to transfer)

That leads to 275K UA miles each for a total of 550K UA miles. If you have great credit, and don't apply for too many at the same time, this is totally doable. Chase cards are generally not churnable (except folks have mentioned being able to get signup bonuses for both MC and Visa versions) so you'll have to wait for "new products" to come out once you're done but 550K UA miles is a very, very good start.

KennyBSAT

Simple answer: be in the mileage run forum for the half hour or so that United decides to give away tickets, fly a bazillion miles. More here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milea...l#post21441414
I can't believe I missed it

KennyBSAT

I booked Caribbean-N. Asia last week all in J with a stopover in NY. 90K. US-N. Asia would have been the same. Nothing to fix there :-)

mnscout

So, this is still working. That's great. I could swear there was something about US Airways recently that caught my attention (no , not the merger).