StartinSanDiego

You could just weed them out according to miles per spend-- start with the special offers like the AMEX PR Gold, as philemer suggested.

What about the BA Visa? The first 50K comes pretty easily.

Also, I don't see any Biz cards on your list... you could double up on some of the offerings with an Ink, a AA biz (90 day wait), the US Air biz, etc.

I especially like the business cards because the balances don't show up on your personal credit report.

jatink129

Mother of God!

30 inquiries! And you still got approved for more cards? That's awesome! ^

jatink129

What He said about the business cards! ^^

I'd only apply for the Hyatt card if you're a hundred percent sure of your travel plans. If you are, then get the Hyatt by all means!

The 80k Priority Club offer is good deal if you're willing to stay at Holiday Inns. If you're looking for higher end stays then 80k won't get you much...TO be honest, I haven't really taken a look at the PC devaluation closely but you might want to take a look at it and see where you want to stay and then calculate how many nights will 80k get you?

I'd definitely get the SPG card, it's an amazing card to have. Since you already have enough airline miles, IMO you should stay away from BA...

jatink129

Hilton has some good bets if you're staying at low/mid level hotels...on the other hand, if you're looking for the big ones (Bora Bora etc)...it's not going to be worth it at all.

Spending limits can be easily achieved with AP and VR...why can't you use their help?

Chase Freedom+checking account is an excellent idea. ^

Let's assume that minimum spend wasn't a problem, what kind of points would you want to focus on? Airlines? Hotels? anything specific?

floyd777

gloreglabert - thanks for the link - much better than my link.


jatink129 - I am looking for low end properties. I like to travel more and stay more days in a hotel rather than spend less days on aspirational awards. whenever I travel we hardly ever stay in the hotel because there is so much do to outside the hotel.

I never got the hang on AP or VR - from what I know AP needs two people to transfer money back and forth and VR was all pulled out from most office depots etc?

If there is a primer on these that a beginner could use, I would appreciate some links.

I love united miles - and definitely ultimate rewards (I'm sitting on about 200K UR points) and have a bunch of Marriot (150K) and AA (150K) - so not too bad but want to boost UR and Hilton at this time.

I love the BA Avios offer but had and cancelled my last BA more than a year back so not sure if I could reapply and get the bonus.

PainCorp

BA Visa is kind of in the back of my mind, the first 50k spend is hit really easily, you're right. I'm just hitting my upper limit with Chase and with getting the SWA (and possibly the AirTran, a late edition last night) I don't think I can have many more cards with them, since I'm going to keep my CSP.

I've never looked into business cards because honestly, I don't have a business. One of my jobs 1099's me a couple hundred dollars every year, but I don't really have anything I can count for that. Then again, I don't know how strict they are. Would just saying I want to keep expenses for work separate work?

PainCorp

I'm never against having more airline miles. I'm one of those crazy ones that loves to fly, and have looked at doing some MRs just to be able to get back on a plane. The only airline I won't fly anymore is Delta, which isn't a huge loss.

It doesn't seem like there are many good hotel cards right now, except maybe the Hilton Reserve with the 2 nights. I was looking at the SPG card, it's on my list eventually, but I want to wait until my income picks up a little more so I don't trigger any FRs right now.

I saw the same thing with Priority Club, which is why I still had a Hilton card on my list, while they just lost a lot of value, they still have a crap ton of hotels. I was thinking of using that PC for a local vacation in a nice hotel in the LA area, I think they have the SLS in Beverly hills.

Any input on the Citi Hilton situation? I haven't been able to find any information about it. I didn't even know the Citi Hilton Gold existed before it came in the mail.

PainCorp

Doh! Sorry! Thanks!

punjabi2

Wow that's impressive aor...congrats!!

punjabi2

Will take a look. Thanks for posting here too.

punjabi2

Subscribing to the thread to know ideas for next aor

punjabi2

There is no primer as such, but they have threads for those things. Just read those, and hopefully you will learn what experts here do, and will not make mistakes that I did when I started

PainCorp

Yeah, people got called out for spelling the steps out in plain detail, its really frowned upon because it makes it so easy that it will get even more abused. There were posts for VR where people would take pictures of the Gift Card stand and put arrows saying "THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT?" and generally making it WAY too easy. Now look how hard it is to find VR.

brownie20

if you apply for amex charge + credit cards you might be able to get 2 instant approvals and one hard pull (someone reported getting 3 cards at once instantly recently!). the PRG 50K is a nice offer and you can combine it with a SPG, but then again SPG's offer usually goes to 30K in august i think? btw i dont think the spend on the SPG is 3K, it's 5K in 6 months. and it would be interesting if current plat/select AA members are able to get the citi AA gold bonus but i dont think we know for certain if it's possible yet. if its been ~4 months since your us air barclays app you can always try for #2 and combine it with the nfl offer (is it still available?) for one pull... good luck!

WhateverDude

I'm in the middle of this $5K/6-mos now, (for 25K), so I believe you are correct. Maybe he's got a better deal, but that's the offer I found a few weeks back.