AnthonyGT

After several weeks of reading/learning/researching on this board and several blogs, I am ready to building points for future trips. But I'm still too wary to make the leap without some feedback first! Here's my info:

Family of 4, just north of Baltimore. Frequently use BWI but can also use PHL or Newark. Try to avoid the DC area airports, but they are possible as well.

We've almost always just taken short haul flights on SWA from BWI. Usually to Orlando and other east coast destinations. Have a trip for 4 to Orlando planned for Summer 2013. Want to go to Hawaii in Summer of 2014. Also would like to start seeing some of the west coast.

My wife teaches so right now we are primarily limited to Summer travel for anything more than a long weekend. We would like to start taking trips to Europe in the Summer and when she retires in 5 years add in trips to Asia. For the long haul flights we would prefer to fly Business or First Class (who wouldn’t!). We will also need to build up hotel points.

Our credit scores are both in the 780+ range. Current cards in use are Discover, AMEX Blue, Chase Freedom and BOA (rarely used). Currently have 40k in UR points.

My plan
1) I will apply for both Personal and Business SWA cards. Hit the spend on both in January to get the Companion Ticket a few months later.
2) Both of us apply for the BOA and BOH Hawaiian Airlines cards. Use the points for Hawaii or transfer to Hilton points.
3) Both of us apply for the AMEX Starwood Preferred Guest card.
4) One of the many Chase cards. Open to suggestions!

Then next month I’ll cycle in Citi AAdvantage cards.

Does this seem like a good start? Thanks!

Tony

birdseye

Your plan 1-3 sounds good to me as long as you can meet all the minimum spends. I would hold off on number 4 since you are already applying for a Chase personal and business SWA card, and a third Chase card is unlikely to be approved unless you are extremely persuasive during your call to the reconsideration line. 5 cards should be enough to start with anyway, plus the 3 for your wife. 3 months later, assuming you have finished meeting the minimum spend requirements, you can start on the Citi AA cards and another Chase card.

I would recommend eventually collecting UA miles for a trip to Europe (lots of flights departing EWR and IAD). US and AA would also work for Europe, but I think UA would give you better options. Delta would be my last choice as it is difficult to find low level availability, especially for summer travel to Europe.

Keep in mind that you will find the most options when booking 11 months out, and that it is sometimes difficult to find 4 seats on the same flight. Often airlines only release two award seats on a flight at a time.

sucklingpig

Hi Tony,

I think we have some similarities. I'm based in US but travel to Europe and Asia a lot so my preference is for Star Alliance airlines and Hyatt/Starwood hotels. In particular, I like US Airways for their cheap redemptions to Europe and Asia. Hyatt has great hotels and coverage in Asia. Starwood is great for Europe.

This is what I keep in my wallet and reasoning behind it.

SPG Card is an excellent choice. u get 25k points after $5k spend. The flexibility of the points to use for air miles (transferring 20k Starpoints, SPG gives u an extra 5k air miles so 20k = 25k miles for most airline miles) or starwood hotel (best redemptions with cash and points, 5th night free) make this a very useful card for flights and hotel. In fact, try to get the SPG business card if you have a side business to run expenses through. Starpoints is the most valuable travel currency for the above mentioned flexibility, 5k air miles transfer bonus, and great starwood hotel redemptions.

if you are accumulating points for long haul flights, u got to go with us airways mastercard. they have lower redemption rates than other airlines. and if u can swing it, 35k miles from US to Europe in off peak season (jan 15 to feb 28). anyways, u get 40k points after 1st spend and yearly bonus of 10k points for just keeping the card and its $89 annual fee.
http://www.mostmiles.com/Chairmans <-- best offer at the moment.

chase sapphire preferred is another good one. 40k chase UR points after spending $2k. u need to apply at your local chase branch for this offer. usually its $3k spend. pretty easy to earn extra points with this card since they have 2 points per dollar for restaurants and travel. best redemptions for chase UR points is converting to United or Hyatt points.

also, think about getting the hyatt chase card for the 2 free nights with only $1,000 spend. that could be 2 nites at PH Paris or Milan. i like to keep this card for the long haul because of the annual free night at a category 4 for paying the $75 annual fee.

MDtR-Chicago

Let's all remember the context that this is a long term strategy.

Personally, I would WAIT on the SPG Amex. Generally, once a year the card will be offered with a 30k signup bonus. It's already happened this year so I would wait until next year.

The Citi AA cards are probably better than the BoA and BoH Hawaiian cards. You can use the AA miles to redeem on Hawaiian flights anyway, and you can apply for two at the same time, totaling 100k miles.

You can later apply for pairs of Citi Hilton cards (100k HH points each time) or any of the excellent Chase hotel offers. Best value right now is probably the Priority Club card at 80k points or, if the offer comes back around, the Marriott card at 75k points.

And remember, both you and your wife can apply for each of these sets of cards.

In my opinion, the best thing you can do right now is to start to pare down some of your choices. Find the exact cities you would like to visit and the particular hotel properties. Then try to put together a plan that will allow you to accumulate over the next few years targeting those specific vacations. There's risk that the points/miles will devalue but it's probably your best plan. You could also set out a second choice backup plan and accumulate to fulfill that too.

dcpilgrim

Don't forget the no-brainer US Air 40K, first purchase card. Good add for Philly flights. They have been sending targeted offers for an extra 15K with additional spend a few months after you get it. One for each you and your wife may get you your tix to Europe, or who knows may eventually become AA miles if that merger ever goes through.

I'd substitute the HHonors Amex (read about AXON rewards in the HHonors forum, plus decent category multipliers) for the SPG and wait until August-ish 2013 when for the last few years SPG has gotten the 5K bump during the summer.

Also +1 on AA>Hawaiian, although perhaps you are ordering this for min spend?

jdtravel

I like the spg amex with a 25k bonus as it can be used for hotels or miles.

AnthonyGT

Thanks for all of the helpful suggestions! I'm going to revised my spreadsheet after looking into some of these suggestions.

Based on our current card usage we spend about $2,000 a month. We could probably move that up with some minor tinkering. So we each can probably hit $1,000 a month without being really creative.

Right now all of our current cards have one of us as the Primary and the other as an authorized user. If we remove the authorized user will it increase the available credit for each of us?

Good ideas on these. Especially the advance booking info.

I'll take a look at swapping the Citi AA cards for the Hawaiian cards. And waiting on SPG makes sense.

I completely missed this card option. Thank you for pointing it out!

I'll take a closer look at these as well.

StartinSanDiego

I like the idea of focusing on specific programs... get the business and personal cards x both you and your wife, then really reaping in the points that transfer to your mainline programs.

So let me just think out loud here (I'm positioning for my second app-o-rama and my SO's first one): IF, for instance, you focus on AA points... then you'll each get 2 Citi AA cards now and 1 card later... 300K points for those 6 cards, plus the various perks. If you ALSO get a Chase BA offer (50K x you and wife = 100K) and a AMEX premier Reward Gold (biz and personal... at least another 100K points there x you and your wife = 200K transferable to British during a promo at 240K, and all the BA points can be used for AA bookings... well, I'm coming up with 640K points for that alliance. Add some eshopping, edining, category bonuses and the required spending... oh, that will be sweet!

Then, my plan is to repeat the whole thing with United... go for the transfer partners and really try to bump up the points in consolidated program strategies.

I am booking for a family of 4, so air travel really eats up the points and we usually rent an apartment that sleeps 4 instead of an hotel.

tomsam

For planned trips to Europe and Asia it's good to have a long-term base card that combines what you're trying to do with miles/points bonuses with not charging foreign transaction fees - like the Chase SP, Chase Marriott Rewards, Chase Hyatt or Chase Priority Club Rewards.

AnthonyGT

Just wanted to update the thread with what I ended up doing.

I applied for and received:
Chase SWA Personal
Chase SWA Business
AMEX Hilton Rewards
AMEX Business Gold OPEN
Citi AA VISA

Still waiting for a decision:

Citi AA AMEX

Tried the 2 browser trick for the Citi cards but maybe I didn't do it correctly?

Once I make sure we can meet all the spend requirements, I will go ahead and look into the US Air cards and get SPG the next time they offer the 30k signup bonus.

Tony

Campath

You can get the US Air card right now. There is no minimum spend and you haven't applied for any other card from Barclays.

MDtR-Chicago

You may want to call in. If it goes more than a few days, they might need something as simple as an address verification.

There are some numbers linked at the beginning of the AA cards thread.

AnthonyGT

I applied for the Barclays NFL card several weeks ago, before I decided to try an app-o-rama. I'll grab it in my next round. Thanks!

I'd like to call again but I'm not sure what to say if they ask me why I've applied for 2 cards on the same day. I want to at least have something that could be considered reasonable in response.

MDtR-Chicago

Yes, that is an excellent idea... there are plenty of valid reasons for two cards... are there any aspects of your spending pattern that are easier to manage with two cards? or any aspects of Visa vs. AMEX that are important to you? Etc.

AnthonyGT

I called again and was told the applications was still under review. I pressed the agent twice to see if there was any additional information needed and was rebuffed both times. She just said they being thorough and I should get a decision soon.

I'll update again (and on the Citi thread) when I finally hear something.

UPDATE
Checked online and I was approved for the Citi AMEX card!

That makes it 6 for 6 on my first go-round. I've already hit the bonus on a few of the cards. After I see how the spend looks in January I may do a smaller set of cards for my wife.

Thanks for the help everyone!