TheMilesProfessor

Agreed.

Kay_nyc

I absolutely love the Barclays USAirways card. No minimum spend, and I gottne targeted twice for an easy 15k bonus miles after $750 in min spend for 3 months. 10k bonus on 1yr anniversary posts before the annual fee hits. Just make sure you apply for the no fee version of the offer.

pricesquire

For what it's worth, just checked my credit, and it's actually gone from a 705 to a 725 in the past 2 months (since I started with all this credit business).

PainCorp

You're getting there, but the number I keep seeing when people are comfortable churning is 750. Mine has almost bounced back to that, I'm less than 10 away, I might also hold off to give a few other cards a chance though. I'm still hung up on adding one or two since it would put me over what I could easily manufacture/accelerate.

pricesquire

Since this is a "newbie's first churn" thread, I guess I may as well ask:

1) is it technically still "churning" if these are my first cards? Or is churning technically come after you start hitting the same card again and again?

2) Is there any reason to get a card when you are not foreseeably going to use the brand? For example, the Marriott 70k points offer. 70k points is a lot, even after the devaluation. I don't plan on staying at a Marriott anytime soon, but those 70k of points are basically a free weekend in Charleston, SC for me. I may not get to them for the next 6 months...but...am I just wanting them because I'm going down the rabbits whole of addiction?

PainCorp

It becomes churning when you apply and get the bonus for a 2nd time.

It's a trade off. I try to limit myself to 5-6 cards per churn, and that, to some, is a bit aggressive. It's all about trade off. Is there anything that has a higher bonus right now, or that you would want to churn again later on that you would want to start the clock on sooner? Don't just look at this AOR, but the future ones as well. When putting mine together I keep all the offers I'm interested in and pull out the ones from that to make my AOR, carefully picking based on past and current offers.

Sometimes there are only 3 cards you can get, and that can be low for an AOR, so there might be fillers put in such as the Freedom card or something else, just to get the points. It's never suggested to churn/apply blindly, but to have some idea of where you want to go and where you want to stay. For my trip I sat down and looked at the different cards, bonuses, and what that would get me where I wanted to go. From there I know I need so many points in a certain program, and it gives me a goal.

It's a good idea to have an idea of what cards you want/need to reach your goal, and keep an eye on them. That way if a huge bonus pops up, say a BA 100k, Amex PRG 50k or AA 75k, you can jump on it if you are in the window for your next churn. It's really a timing game, you need to make a plan, but that plan is always changing and evolving. It takes a lot of time, and as you know, is quite addicting.

For me, I have an 8 page spreadsheet I keep in Google Docs. I use that to keep track of the next cards I want for my AOR, what the offer I see is, and any notes, etc. This way I know if the current bonus is the best, or if I should wait, and have all my links ready to go when I feel the urge to apply.

I know this was a bit more than you asked, but hopefully it helps.

pricesquire

PC, that was fantastic. Can't thank you enough. FlyerTalk is great, but it's almost impossible to get concise and clear info as easily and accessibly as your post.

More an FYI/observations:

1) This is indeed extremely, extremely addicting.

2) It's also really fun.

3) My goal with this "game" is flying business class and staying at nice hotels. That's it. I don't need to fly business all the time, and I don't need to stay at Park Hyatt's and Le Meridiens every time I want to go somewhere. I'm still young (26), so I figure the sooner I start bulking up on the miles/points, the better.

4) Going to Sicily in August for 2 weeks (flight already paid for), but it looks like most of the hotels there are independent. Don't think I have many options there.

5) The main trip I'm looking to rack up miles/points for is a honeymoon I'm planning for in December. The honeymoon obviously takes priority, and it's what got me into the churning/miles/points thing in the first place.

PainCorp

Awesome, do you know about how many points you need in certain programs to do this?

jatink129

You don't have to wait ANOTHER 65 days...Just 65 days since that CITI inquiry.
Actually there's no set number, to be honest.
There's nothing in the T&C that prevent you from applying after you've just gotten a CLI.
The 65 days is just a ballpark figure of the amount of days you should wait so that you'd have a higher probability of success with CITI.

There's no reason to skip #2,6 and 7.
Obviously there's no way I can predict this, but IMO you have a good chance on getting the Club Carlson card simply because you've not had any inquiries in quite some time!
If you do Carlson with the rest, It'll not going to take away from the other cards.
If you do the other cards and then try getting Carlson later, you may find it difficult.
#6,7 are easy to get. Is there a specific reason why you want to avoid them?

And yes, Hyatt certs are good for a year.

Tronic

Is it just CITI I should be concerned with? I don't mind holding off on a citi card for a bit but would like to apply for the others ASAP. I was under the impression that the CITI CLI would affect all apps.

jatink129

I'll be honest, there's so much changing with CITI that it's tough to give sound advice. Getting the card is not difficult, but if they decide to decline you for whatever reason, then you've wasted an inquiry because it's not easy nor simple to get approved via the reconsideration dept.

Any reason for the hurry?

These offers have been around for a while, I don't think they're going to disappear in a week or two.

I don't follow...Why would the CITI CLI affect any of your upcoming apps? The other issuers couldn't care less what your CL with CITI is.
All that matters is
A. Excellent credit score.
B. Few/none RECENT inquiries.
I'm sorry. Maybe I just didn't understand your question.

Tronic

Will my recent CITI hard inquiry for a CLI affect my chances to be approved for non-CITI cards (US Air, CSP, Hyatt, United)? I so, I'll wait until 65 days pass, if no, then I'll apply for the other cards now and wait a bit on another CITI card.

PainCorp

This is why I've had such a hard time explaining things in this thread. Citi is kind of evolving right now, and their rules are constantly changing, so it makes it hard.

jatink129

I was reading that CITI thread constantly, but now I've just given up. Now, I wait for a week and read the 7-10 pages that built up, all at once, and try and figure out what works and what doesn't.

Did you see the post by MMS? He did a good job clarifying some of the newer rules.
I'd like to go through that CITI thread and make sure MMS hasn't gotten anything wrong.

IMO that thread REALLY needs a Wiki. It's unbelievable how chaotic everything is out there.

PainCorp

The problem is people would still jump to the last page and ask their question, without reading the wiki. I've seen so many posts asking for information that is in the OP that is regularly updated by mods.