Hello:

I am about to get nailed with an $11,000 moving bill and want to make sure that I bank the most miles for a future vacation.

Me and my wife want to travel to Amsterdam at some point. Having recently traveled to Thailand in Cathay Pacific business class, I must admit that we were spoiled as hell and would not mind a similar experience again.

Does anyone have any advice on how to fly business class from either IAD or DCA (Washington, DC) to Amersterdam using frequent flyer miles? We are at least 2 years out, so there is plenty of time to plan.

I know the BA trick where we fly to Boston and take Air Lingus to Dublin and connect throughout Europe via RyanAir. However, we want to save that trick for when we travel to Ireland, Scotland and England.

I already have the following cards: Chase Sapphire, Amex SPG, United, Southwest Personal and US Airways. I am looking for a card that offers a solid sign-up bonus.

...

As a follow up question, please help me choose the best personal AND business credit cards. I will be opening a new business in October. If all goes well and actual sales meet or beat projected sales, I should have enough cash flow to bank some serious miles.

Thanks!

Help me get to Amsterdam from DC in Business Class w/ Points
 

UA through EWR?

AMS is the main hub for KLM, Delta also considers it a hub due to their close partnership with KLM (Both are Skyteam). There is a non-stop flight between IAD and AMS.

You have a few options:

1) Build up a big Skymiles balance or transfer AMEX MRs and travel out to AMS direct by booking a seat on the KLM flight

2) Build up Citi Thank You, AMEX, and/or SPG point balances and transfer out to Flying Blue and book your flights directly through the KLM FF program.

3) Build up a balance with another SkyTeam Member (Korean Air an option if you have a lot of Chase URs) and go that route through to KLM again.

Either way, you end up on that KLM flight unless you want to connect in NYC or ATL. My suggestion would be a few AORs to get the AMEX and Citi TYP balances nice and healthy then transfer over.

It will cost you 125k miles per person.

I have somewhere around 30k UA points. The goal is to sign up for separate personal and business cards to get the most sign up points possible that can be applied to the airline that provides the best business class experience to Amsterdam. Recognizing that no two Business Class experiences are the same, I want to make sure that we experience something similar to that of Cathay Pacific.

KLM is certainly an option, but I would go with United miles if you can, mainly because in my experience, *A has the best US-Europe availability. UA flies IAD-AMS, but there are some other options that aren't bad at all - UA and SN both fly IAD-BRU (short train/flight to AMS, include flight in award if you want), or do a 1-stop with any of the tons of *A flights IAD-Europe (LH to FRA/MUC, SK to CPH, UA to LHR/CDG/tons more). Remember that SN award flights don't appear on united.com, so use ANA to get an idea of how their availability is.

Sounds like you've got a lot of the major airline cards already. May be time to look into biz cards - Ink and United business, both currently 50K sign up bonuses. Did you get CSP and/or United > 24 months ago? If so, you can cancel and be eligible for bonus again. If you can get a solid offer for Amex PRG (50K is best I've seen), it'd be worthwhile. Amex points to ANA/Aeroplan could be a good play here, as you will avoid fuel surcharges as long as you fly on UA, SK, SN, TK, and SR, so plenty of options.

Help me get to Amsterdam from DC in Business Class w/ Points
 

No US airline will provide that. Don't think any European either.
FJK to FRA with Singapore and then train to Amsterdam?
I would not make that extra stop.

Get a Chase Sapphire so that you have some flexibility ( as who knows what happens in 2 years).

Nonstop is always the way to go:
Delta
KLM
United
Lufthansa
Take your pick :)

Help me get to Amsterdam from DC in Business Class w/ Points
 

I agree with the other posters that you're not going to find anything similar to Cathay business on East coast to amsterdam.
I'd try and get Washington to Brussels on Brussels or Washington to Vienna on Austrian, and then to AMS.

Help me fly to Amsterdam from DC with points
 

To save taxes try to book on Delta Flights out of USA. Even with indirect flights
Though availability is better on KLM

Lufthansa and Delta do not fly nonstop from Washington to amsterdam. United and KLM are the only nonstops. All other options involve at least one stop in the US or Europe, but one stop options are a lot more than you indicate: Swiss, Brussels, Austrian, American, Air France, Aer Lingus, SAS, Air Canada. The vast majority are Star Alliance carriers, you'll note.

Citi TYP earned from new credit card account bonuses are not transferrable. Only TYP earned from actual spending can be transferred.

What is your source for this?

Yeah, would like to know that too. Checked the T&C just in case and didn't see any mention of such provision.

https://www.thankyou.com/tc.jspx

27.Points Transfer:
In order to use the Points Transfer feature, you must be a ThankYou® Rewards Member with a ThankYou Member Account, have a Citi ThankYou® Premier, Citi Prestige® or Citi Chairman® credit card enrolled in ThankYou Rewards ("Card Account") and agree to the following terms and conditions in order to transfer your available and qualifying ThankYou Points to participating Travel Loyalty Programs (defined below).

•Your ThankYou Member Account and Card Account must be open and in good standing at the time you use Points Transfer.
•The participating Travel Loyalty Programs are: Asia Miles; Etihad Airways Guest; EVA Air Infinity Mileage Lands; Flying Blue Air France KLM; Garuda Indonesia Frequent Flyer; Hilton HHonorsTM; Malaysia Airlines Enrich; Qantas Frequent Flyer; Qatar Airways Privilege Club; Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer; Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club (each "Travel Loyalty Program"; collectively, the "Travel Loyalty Programs"). ThankYou Rewards has the right to remove or add Travel Loyalty Programs from or to Points Transfer at any time without notice.
•In order to transfer your Points to a participating Travel Loyalty Program using the Points Transfer feature on thankyou.com, you must have a valid membership account with the applicable Travel Loyalty Program ("Travel Loyalty Program Account") and the first and last names on both your ThankYou Member Account and Travel Loyalty Program Account must match.
•The Points Transfer feature may be modified or terminated at any time without notice.
•Each Point Transfer must include a minimum of 1,000 Points and any additional Points must be in increments of 1,000. There is a maximum of 500,000 ThankYou Points that you can transfer per transfer. All points transferred are 1 Point = 1 mile, except for Hilton HHonorsTM Worldwide where 1 Point = 1.5 Hilton HHonorsTM Bonus Point.
•Upon completion of a Points Transfer request, the transferred Points will immediately be deducted from your ThankYou Account Point balance. The resulting rewards currency will be posted to your Travel Loyalty Program Account. Following the Points Transfer transaction the resulting reward currency will be subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable Travel Loyalty Program. Timing of posting may vary depending on the Travel Loyalty Program and may take as long as 14 days to process.
•A submitted request to transfer Points may not be canceled and the Points may not be returned to your ThankYou Member Account.
•Taxable Points (defined below) and Points made unavailable for redemption due to signs of fraud, abuse or suspicious activity on your ThankYou Member Account or due to your failure to make the required minimum payment on the Card Account by the payment due date are not eligible for Points Transfer. "Taxable Points" are Points received for a Citibank® checking relationship, Points obtained through activity unrelated to purchases made with your eligible Card Account, as well as bonus Points that may be awarded with no spend requirement.

Bolding is mine.

I made too many recent applications and forgot that current Citi TYP new credit card account bonuses come with spend requirement (confused it with the Barclays cards) and should be eligible for transfer. If Citi were to offer new credit card account bonuses come without spend requirement, those would be ineligible for transfer.

I apologize about the confusion.