Thanks for clarification. Certainly want to respect the community. I am amused by your money making comment, though. I am glad some bloggers do, but I am fortunate to have a highly more lucrative career :)

I guess I can just repost the relevant parts :)

Anyway, here's a few relevant sections for the explanation. Since I own the copyright, I assume it's ok to repost about 25% here:

If I had to pick just one card, the Chase Ink Bold Busi.ness Card would be it. It’s the best com.bi.na.tion of all-in-one for every.thing you need to rack up the points for free travel:

1. access to the Ulti.mate Rewards Mall to get bonus points for all shopping
2. 5 points per dol.lar at Office Sup.ply stores (to buy gift cards to Sephora, Macy’s, Home Depot, etc before shopping)
3. trans.fer to top air.lines and hotel pro.grams such as United Air.lines, British Air.ways, South.west Air.lines and Hyatt Gold Passport.

Important aspects:
Earn 5X points per $1 on the first $50,000 spent annu.ally at office sup.ply stores, and on cel.lu.lar phone, land.line, inter.net, and cable TV services
Points can be redeemed for 10,000 points = $125 toward travel or trans.fered 1:1 to air.line and hotel part.ners such as United Air.lines, British Air.ways, Hyatt, Mar.riott, Pri.or.ity Club, Ritz-Carlton, Korean Air, South.west and Amtrak.
No for.eign transaction fees
$95 annual fee, waived the first year
Access to the Chase Ulti.mate Rewards Mall for bonus points on all online shopping

Chase Ulti.mate Rewards Mall

The Chase Ink Bold Card gives you access to the Ulti.mate Rewards por.tal where you can shop online and earn bonus points for reg.u.lar mer.chants such as drugstore.com, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, etc. Given how lucra.tive shop.ping through the Ulti.mate Rewards Mall is, I think access to the shop.ping por.tal is cru.cial for any miles col.lec.tor who shops online.

I earn about 60,000 points a year by shop.ping through the Chase Ulti.mate Rewards Mall. This is enough for a roundtrip ticket to Europe or almost enough to visit Sin.ga.pore, Phuket and Tokyo on a sin.gle roundtrip ticket with United miles.

You don’t have to just get office sup.plies at stores that mainly sell office sup.plies. They also sell gift cards to many mer.chants as well as Amex/Visa/MasterCard gift cards. When I want to shop (through the Ulti.mate Rewards Mall, of course!) at places like Sephora, Macy’s, Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond, I first buy a gift card at Sta.ples to that mer.chant. For every.thing else, I buy an Amex/Visa/MasterCard gift card and use it for every.day spend.ing. There is no rea.son to earn less than 5 points on any dol.lar you spend!

Summary:

- The Chase Ink Bold Busi.ness Card is my top card, allow.ing me to earn points quickly by buy.ing gift cards at office sup.ply stores that earn 5 points per dollar.
- It also gives access to the Ulti.mate Rewards Mall por.tal for online shop.ping, where I can use the gift cards I bought for a total of 10+ points per dol.lar on all my online shopping.
- With the Chase Ink Bold card, I can trans.fer Ulti.mate Rewards points 1:1 to part.ners such as United, British Air.ways, Hyatt and South.west Airlines.
- The card cur.rently has a 50,000 Ulti.mate Rewards points signup bonus, no for.eign trans.ac.tion fees and no annual fee for the first year.

Too many things change in the miles and points world so long term planning is not recommended. Closing some cards allows you to get bonuses after some interval (e.g. SPG, Citi AA) so a lot of us don't keep those cards long term. Long term cards should be cash back cards or flex points cards (e.g. sapphire preferred).

As of today, Chase priority club is definitely a hotel card to keep long term as it has lower fee than most and no category restrictions on annual free night. Other cards (SPG, Hyatt, Fairmont, Citi HH reserve, Club carlson) have a cost/benefit calculation that varies from person to person and travel goals .

For airlines, it really depends on your location and destinations of interest. The BoA Alaska card offers a companion pass that is worthwhile. Barclays US Air has 10k annual bonus but it's hardly a long term card now. The AA cards are good because of the 10% rebate on miles redeemed. Chase United card has primary rental insurance and trip delay insurance that can be valuable.


A lot of us approach the game this way: pick a card appropriate for your next trip, meet redemption thresholds and move on to other cards that are lucrative at the moment.

Thanks. I didn't know that.

Just want to thank everyone that has replied. There is so much to learn here and everyone has been really helpful.

To my surprise when I told my wife today that I was planning a trip for us to HI she said she wasn't sure if she wanted to go without the kids. Thought I was planning a nice romantic getaway for us but I guess not. So its either 2 HA cards for her to get the kids tickets (though I heard its pretty hard to get 4 awards tickets for the same flight) or transfer the HA miles to HH (Did the 50k for $750 spend today) and change the FL trip to PHL to MCO to SJU. At least Puerto Rico is a good use of the SW miles.

Why are you not thinking of your wife applying for the 2 SW cards and get a companion pass herself. This will give you the best value for domestic trips for your family of 4. CP is valid till end of next year.

Both you and your wife can apply for BofA Alaska airlines cards with the companion certificate. Although you have to buy one ticket, companion can fly for $110 to Hawaii. Alaska has flight to SEA from EWR and from SEA you can fly directly to any of the HI islands.