And the best part of spg points s that it converts to airline miles at 1:1 ratio. That itself is valuable when you have many FF account and want to top-off any specific account with miles. Also when you transfer 20k points to miles you get 5k bonus miles. Thus 25k miles!!

Yes, thank you again. I'm actually familiar with the spg program. Have had the card a couple times to build accounts. When I asked about cash + points in post #40 I didn't know if iflyjetz was referring to hotels or another way to use cash + points (like merchandise). Probably my error in reading through his/her post too fast.

We often use travel packages from Marriott that are similar to the Nights and Flights. It's one of the many attractive options with the spg program. Thinking of getting the card again after reading another thread (on TUG) where the poster noted American Express discounts the fees if you get more than one card.

I don't know where to ask the following questions. And I don't know what words to use to perform a search. Please forgive me and route me to the right direction?

Why do credit card companies encourage you to open new accounts when you're already actively using one with the same company?

How much do credit card companies pay for the miles/hotel points they give as a promotion to open one of their card accounts?

Is it "disloyal" to churn cards?

You'll probably notice that all of the questions are geared to ask one very big question. . .is it harmful or helpful to a credit card company/airline/hotel to churn their credit cards?

Please don't take offense as I'm trying to find a way to explain this to my friends who question the "rightness" of churning credit cards.

Personally, I figure if a credit card allows you to get a new bonus after a certain time period they have made a business calculation that it is competitively worthwhile. I also notice credit card companies have placed their ads all over flyertalk so they are well aware of the churning practices and seem to promote it with their presence here.

Thank you,
gg

p.s. Every time I shop at Macy's they want me to open a new card to get a %age off the purchase. I tell them I want a %age off to use the card I have. Of course they don't so I use my other cards.:rolleyes:

Have you gotten the sign-up bonus on the SPG Amex multiple times? And if so, how long did you wait between account closure and re-applying?

As to the "rightness" of churning, your friends have been duped into thinking they owe the bank something. Do they think the bank would show them the same altruism? Do they think it's not "right" to use services such as Groupon unless they subsequently go back and patronize the business at full price? These are arms-length business transactions, it's not our job to run the banks.

You are spot on that the banks can make their own business decisions. Some banks only offer a sign up bonus once in a lifetime, some once in a year, some as often as you'd like, and so on and so on. If banks didn't want churners, they can (and do) use these limits. If we simply comply with the terms & conditions, what's wrong with that? I trust the banks make very deliberate decisions on this issue.

It's definitely not harmful to the airlines. The banks buy miles from them, so they do just fine. It's *possible* it's harmful for the banks, but only if the banks are so incompetent they can't properly calculate how to make the bonuses worth their while when factoring in churners.

There are plenty of unethical ways to earn miles and points, but churning is not one of them and most of us here at FT prefer to stand on the correct side of that line. Keep on churning, I say. :)

I looked at old acct. folders. I had an spg acct. 3/07 - 5/09. Couldn't find record of any bonus. I think at the time I wasn't clued in to spg sign up bonuses. DH had one 6/09 - 9/09 (10,000 pts.) and then 10/09 - 8/11 (15K pts.) Those were so close together but I don't remember why. I think it was because we left the first card at a restaurant in Italy and had to close it.

Do you think spg will give me a new sign-up bonus?


Does anyone know how much the banks pay for the miles?

Is there a way to generally estimate how much a cc pays for the miles in a promotion and multiply that by the percent they expect to gain from the minimum spending requirement? (I'm a gardener, not a banker).

Thank you, that's what I thought.