I`ve been a long time lurker planning for my first mini AOR. I`m probably going for just 2-3 cards due to my avg. account age and oldest account age.

This is my current status:
Experian score - 749
Creditkarma - 759
Hard pulls - 4 in last 2 yrs. last one was 92 days ago
Credit Cards:
CSP - 9200$
Chase freedom - 8500$
BofA travel rewards - 3000$
Citi AA visa - 10k$
Citi AA amex - 10k$
Average account age - 10 months
Oldest account age - 2yrs 6 months
Current utilization rate - 7%


I`m thinking about applying for a few of the following cards in my first round:
1. Amex Delta - 45k offer
2. Chase southwest premier- 50k offer
3. US Airways Premier - 50k offer
4. Amex SPG

My goal is to diversify my portfolio and open lines of credit with different banks/issuers. AMEX being the priority. Please advise. Also, I`ve a lot of travel coming up in summer (domestic and international)

Which airlines are you going to be traveling on this summer? Do you want to use points or is it being paid for by an employer? Do you just want miles, or are hotels of interest to you as well?

My parents are visiting from India so I "might" use my miles for the international travel from DEL to NY. I found cheaper tickets without using miles so I`ll save these miles for there domestic travel. They`ll start from NY, and end there journey in SF covering Washington, Orlando, Vegas and LA. So any domestic airline should be fine. I`m just interested in using miles, dont need hotels. I can probably use one hotel card since I don`t have any.

Amex Starwood is a good candidate, for both flights and hotels.

If you are applying for southwest premier, apply for southwest business premier as well at the same time and get the SW companion pass.

Unless you are looking at premium seating (Business or First class), paying for the ticket is cheaper than using miles for it.

If they are visiting so many cities, go to United.com (or kayak) and price the entire itinerary, it might be cheaper than using miles. I have family coming from India (end of May, leaving end of June or so) and here is their itinerary
DEL->Chicago->LAS->SFO->LAX->EWR (Newark)->DEL and it came out to about 1550$. Just a round trip DEL-EWR-DEL will be close to $1200 or so.

Thanks rambo. I am gonna give this a shot.

I don`t have a legit business and I`m not comfortable with faking a business just to get a credit card. Thanks for your advice though

Another question I`ve is about the credit pulls if I apply for 2 Amex cards. 2 revolving /1 revolving and one charge. Would I get two hits or one? From what i`ve read, it seems like a YMMV