Newbie question: buying $4300 camera - maximize points?
 

I'm a newbie here - this whole world is suddenly opening up to me. I plunged in a month ago, posting looking for advice about whether or not I should just focus on my Delta Skymiles account, and quickly learned just how little I knew about the mileage racket.

Long story short, two weeks later, I had a new Capital ONe Venture card, and today I paid off my $1000 initial spend; net result: 80,000 Capital ONe miles.

I'm also now buying almost exclusively through the program-linked air malls, and racking up points nicely.

I think it's time to move forward. I'm about to buy a $4300 camera, and want to maximize my point accrual. I was just going to buy through one of the stores on one of the malls, get myself triple mileage points, but I'm thinking that I should add some credit card(s).

My situation: I use my miles mostly for upgraded plane travel. I've been a religious Delta flyer, and now have 70,000 miles in Delta. I learned about AwardWallet here, and to my surprise, learned I have almost 80,000 United miles, and after recent travel, I have just 3,000 AA miles.

I have the following credit cards, all had for years, other than the Capitol One:

AmEx Platinum
AmEx DeltaSkyMiles Gold
Citibank AAdvantage Gold Mastercard
Chase Mileage Plus Visa United Card
Capitol One Visa Signature

I was thinking of doing either the 2-browser 100,000 mile Citibank AAdvantage card trick, or the Chase Saphire Preferred.

I don't carry a balance on my cards, have solid credit, and don't think I'd find it difficult to cover the minimum spend requirements in the time allotted. I like the idea of an airline card because then I can do the air mall shopping thing when I buy my camera.

Anyone have any thoughts on which way I should go?

Thanks in advance!

Oh, I don't know if it makes a difference, but I probably make 4 or 5 trips a year domestically, and one or two internationally, generally to France or Asia.

I think you won't get the bonus on the AAdvantage cards because you already have one, but you might be able to get the Amex one at least. There's no reason you can't give it a try even if you go for the Sapphire Preferred, which is what I recommend.

The Ultimate Rewards points from the SP can be transferred to United 1:1 to add to your stash, and the card earns 2X on travel and dining. Make sure you get the 50K signup bonus.

The UR mall is currently offering 5 extra points/$ (6X total) at Buy.com, 3 extra/$ at JR Music World, and 4 extra/$ at Sears. So you should be able to get at least 16000 miles for the camera purchase.

If you just applied for the CapOne two weeks ago, it's probably advisable to wait before doing more apps, but as the 50K bonus on the SP is going away soon it might be worth it anyway. It probably will be OK if you have excellent credit and that's you're only recent hard pull.

BTW I think using miles to buy upgrades is usually not a great value compared to just getting a premium-cabin award ticket and saving the whole fare, but to each his own.

Thanks, Taliesin.

I have the AAdvantage Mastercard, and have had it for a good 10 years or so; my understanding (based on a thread on Million Mile Secrets) was that the current promotion is for AA Visa and AmEx cards, and that that would put me in the clear. I'll call to check.

The thing I'm buying is a brand new model, in high demand everywhere; it's listed on JR, but there'll be a wait for it - hopefully one that wouldn't outlast my timeframe for compulsory spending.

Perhaps I should reappraise my approach to buying tickets - in the past, I haven't been generating enough miles to cover premium award tickets on all the travel I do. The cost I paid out of pocket has usually been tax-deductible for me, plus I earned mileage. I shall give it some thought.

Is there a usual advised time period to wait between apps?

i think with buying such a high priced item..i would be more focused in on an amex deal.. if only for the protection & extended warranty...although i'm not sure if it covers 4.3k purchase

It's a good point, and the OP already has Amex Plat. MR mall is offering 4x for several stores that should have the camera, e.g. JR, Beach Camera, etc. It's just a question if you really want to stockpile a bunch of MR points, because right now the MR transfer partners seem to be having a race to the bottom. Which is worse? Delta, with its very tough award availability? BA, with sky-high fuel charges on trips to Europe and just plain high mileage charges to Asia? Or maybe Aeroplan, with the high fuel charges? SQ might actually be the best bet, but they're really only a good deal if you want to go to Asia in a premium cabin.

I suppose maybe since he's already got a bunch of Delta miles it could make some sense to go that route and get more of them.

There's certainly times when it could make sense; if you're on a refundable ticket, for example, usually the upgrade cost in miles is pretty low. But usually on a discount ticket a domestic upgrade will cost 15k each way (30k RT), while a business class award ticket will be 50k RT. Myself I'd prefer to save the miles for a transoceanic trip in a premium cabin and (if I didn't have status) just rough it in coach on the domestic trips. But of course it's all a matter of how you value various uses of the miles.

From the same issuer, I'd wait three months before applying for another card. For a different issuer, it doesn't matter as much, but the general FT consensus seems to be that if you want to apply for a lot of cards, it's best to do three or four apps all in one day, 3-4 times a year, spaced out. But for your case, where you have only one recent inquiry, (assuming your credit is excellent) it should be fine to grab that Sapphire Preferred while the 50k bonus is still available. But then don't apply for any more Chase cards for at least a couple of months.

In relation to your original question about maximizing miles for buying the camera, you should look into the possibility of double-dipping in the shopping malls. I used this technique when Sears were offering 10x on AA last September. I bought a Sears gift card and earned 10x on that and then used the gift card to buy a $3000 camera and got the 10x on that so 60k miles for a $3k purchase.

That said my only intention was the miles and I sold the camera for about a $450 loss, so effectively bought 60k AA miles for $450, which was worth it to me.

You may want to look at the best price you can get on the camera elsewhere and compare with the price you pay in order to maximize mileage. Also take into account extended warranty and consumer protection. If I want to buy something I am selling or something perishable like groceries or toiletries I don't mind using a gift card. But if I want to buy a camera or computer I tend to want to use card like Chase Sapphire Preferred or Amex Platinum that offer extended warranty. Or you can just factor in the cost of the extended warranty into the equation (and yes I have used an extended warranty on a credit card on an iMac where the hard drive failed and got fully reimbursed for the cost of repair)

jaze, you are correct in that you are clear to apply for the AAdvantage cards now.

I'd recommend applying for those two cards, using the cards to buy giftcards (if available) for the store from which you intend to purchase the camera from a source like cardpool or giftcardgranny. You'll get a discount on the gift cards and spending on the card. Then spend the gift cards through a mileage portal to earn the miles as you would spending on a credit card.

Yeah this makes things, but so does reading this forum.

I'd also get a couple of more credit cards while you're at it. Since you are making the minimum spend on the CitiAA cards quickly, throw another high value card in there such as the Chase Sapphire or Ink Bold. Also add in a couple of low spend cards such as the Barclay's US Airways, BOA Hawaiian or BOH Hawaiian, and a hotel program or two.

You'll be fine with Citi - they want 18 months between apps for bonus miles and since you haven't applied in the last 10 years you should be good.

3 month wait between apps is recommended

Thanks all for the excellent advice! Still learning the ropes here, so I'm dazzled by the ingenuity of people's approaches to earning miles/points.

Taliesin: MR = Membership Rewards, right? I didn't realize that they had an online mall - I thought that was for the airline programs. As far as upgrades go, I see where you're coming from, but I'm a big guy, tall and wide, and Coach travel is murderous for me. Thanks v. much for the credit card advice, too, as much for your thoughts on timing as for specifying the Chase Saphire Preferred. There are so many bloody products out there that deciding in the dark is miserable!

ma91pmh - That's a really impressive little trick! It wasn't an option for me, because this camera, an eagerly-awaited new model from Canon, was released on the 22nd of this month, and is sold out everywhere. But I look forward to buying my next washer/dryer...

jcmitchell - Thanks so much for the credit card strategy advice! I think I'm going to go with the Chase Saphire for now, then in 3 months go in for the Citi cards. Or maybe get one Citi card now, and go back for the business card in 95+ days.

A mileage portal is just another name for the online shopping mall? I'll google giftcardgranny and cardpool - I know nothing about these gift card tricks.

ANYWAY. I broke down and bought the camera. It might not have been strategically the most effective way of generating miles, but, y'know, it's NEW! And IMPROVED! And I just... wanted it. It's back-ordered everywhere now, but I discovered that there's a Canon store in the AA mall, and they had the camera in stock. Since this camera is being sold at MSRP everywhere (except on eBay, where there's currently a $800 premium), there was nothing to be gained by waiting for it to come back in stock, which probably means another month or more (especially since I'd be at the bottom of the waiting list). Buying directly from Canon generated 2 miles per dollar, plus the 1 mile I get on my AAdvantage card means I get about 13,000 miles - more if you get credit for the almost $400 sales tax.

So not the most lucrative approach, but, hey - I GET MY CAMERA!!!

Thanks so much for all your help - it's really appreciated.

With the British Airways Avios changes and the fuel charges, there are some issues with FF tickets being not worth it for redemption, but for upgrades that is where the Avios points can come in handy. You might want to spend some time in that forum, they have some great stickys. You can upgrade from economy to premium economy or from premium economy to business for not too much.

This is where flexibility of AMEX or Chase Sapphire points can come in handy.

Cheers.

Well if the camera can be had with a 6x bonus on Amex's MR mall that's 25.8k and if it's in time to get the 50% BA bonus (promo ends My 31), it becomes 38.7k avios which can then be used on AA domestically or to Europe and CX to Asia with low fees IIRC.

Thanks, wrxmom - I'm going to wait before I apply.

Thanks PWMflyer19 and sbjnyc - I guess I have to think more carefully about my Avios - I only have 12,000 or so of them, and recently got an email telling me that I have to use at least one Avio by the end of the year, or else I'll lose them.

I've been using Awardwallet, but is there some kind of spreadsheet blank or app for tracking one's credit card applications/spend obligations/ etc? If I'm going to accumulate a few of them, I figure I need to keep an eye on what I have and how much I have to spend by when.

UPDATE: I went back to Canon, cancelled my order. Then I went to the MR online shopping portal, where the Canon store is offering 4X miles, as Taliesin suggested. I bought the camera there, paid with my AmEx Platinum, got extended warranty and over 20,000 MR points - THANKS, all!

Just curious - which camera? Mark III? If so, I envy you...