I never signed up for this! All 4 quadrants needed gum surgery, bone grafts on 2 of these, 2 adjacent teeth pulled, implants are next. Send me on a vacation when this is over! ^

I'll put the next $6,000 spending on either BA, AA, Fairmont, Hyatt, or IHG, all set up thanks to FT. We have limited experience in finding award availability and assessing the relative values. We like business class for long distance travel and know a fine hotel when we see one.

From reading FT my understanding is that best value is maybe on international airfare, so if I lean to putting this spend on BA or AA cards, who would you choose, if you could use either?

Fairmont, Hyatt and IHG are all well regarded on FT. On the Fairmont card this spend would get me to $12,000 later this year for another free night from the card. Is the spending on a hotel card or the possible extra free night at Fairmont worth more than 6,000 miles toward an overseas trip? How is award availability for business class to Europe these days?

I would appreciate any thoughts on this. Do not dare tell me to brush and floss my teeth. I did that but my number came up anyway.

Seems to me it may be time to think about a new card.

For example: A new AA card may earn much more (BAs recent Avios devaluation could have implications, but for domestic US it's still a better redemption.)

I'm not sure of which card offers what, but say I use an existing AA card, and earn 6,000 miles for a $6,000 spend. :sob:

Now I find a card that offers new holders 30,000, 40,000 or even 50,000 for a $3,000 spend within the first three months of holding that card.

It's now 36,000 miles or more.

You can buy 30,000 miles via aa.com, but it would cost you (a ridiculous) $885 plus a "modest" service fee.

If you can find a 50,000 mile offer, those would cost about $1,185 right now with AA's bonus offer, or $1,475 normally. (Citi AAdvantage Executive card, $450 includes full Admirals a Club membership and AA perks, prorated if terminated after a couple of months, 50,000 miles.)

Time to check out card offers, IMO. Then use those miles for a nice holiday after all your dentistry. Good luck.

Link to current Citi AAdvantage cards on offer

Link to Citi AAdvantage Platinum (30k bonus, perks like free baggage and priority boarding on AA),

Ten best listing: http://www.comparecards.com/issuer/citi?

And there are others, but this is an example.

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The very best use of charging $6,000 would be to satisfy the minimum spend requirements to get the sign-up bonuses on one or two new credit cards. If you are unwilling or unable to get new cards, then I would probably put the $6K on one of the airline cards or on the Fairmont card.

In terms of AA and BA, they have very different redemption schemes. Where would you be flying from/to?

Award availability to Europe varies considerably, depending on carrier, route, and time of year. Business Class seats are often tough to find than Coach seats. Note that if you redeem for travel on BA TATL flights, you will be hit with hefty cash surcharges, regardless of whether you redeem AA miles or BA miles. You can easily go on aa.com to check availability for TATL flights on AA/AB/AY/BA/US. Redemption rates using AA miles will differ from redemption rates using BA miles. Also, keep in mind that both AA and BA have TATL partners whose award availability cannot be checked on line: TN and 9W for AA; EI for BA.

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Depending on how many AA/BA miles the OP already has, if new cards are a possibility, I would look for those that could earn miles in other programs, to increase award redemption options. AA, BA, DL, UA, and Aeroplan all offer one-way award redemptions now. It might turn out that the OP can only find Business Class award seats in one direction using AA/BA miles; being able to redeem on Star Alliance or Sky Team in the other direction could prove useful.

I already have the AAdvantage world elite Citi card. Will they let me get another bonus, other than the $450 card? (Its hard to see anther $450 card as a good idea, but maybe it is considering 50,000 miles). We could fly out of TPA (closest) MCO or MIA fairly easily. Delta is Amex. Any other star alliance or sky team ideas if I apply for a new new card?

The terms for the Citi AA Platinum Select Mastercard only exclude people who have had the Platinum Select Mastercard in the past 18 months, so you should be eligible. 50K. See Credit Cards > Citi forum.

Two others to consider: Amex PRG 50K or Chase United 55K + $50

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In your first post, you talk about "we." Is your spouse/significant other credit-worthy? You can be made an authorized user on someone else's card, and help the cardholder meet the minimum spend requirement by charging your dental bills.

There are different Amex cards that can be used to acquire DL miles. In addition to the DL Amex, any Amex card that participates in the full Membership Rewards program earns MR points that can be transferred to DL, BA, Aeroplan, and several other FFPs.

To use BA Avios for low- or no-surcharge TATL flights out of Florida, look at AB's RSW-DUS and MIA-DUS flights (no surcharges), and EI's MCO-DUB flights (low surcharges). You must call BAEC to check award-seat availability on EI flights; they will not show up on a ba.com award search.

I don't think they will let me have another sign-up bonus with the Platinum Select card, will they? They just sent me a flyer for my current world elite card's last 4 digits describing the cards benefits and noting they were now available for USAir flights. The flyer has a picture of the Platinum Select card, not the world elite card. My thought is they are renaming the current card. I could call and ask, but how do you rely on that?

Or I could cancel the current card and just apply for the new one right? Another thought is since I'm already paying $95 for Chase AA card, the $450 card is a difference of $395.

Thanks for the ideas on flights using AB and EI

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Many FTers have reported getting Citi to issue a credit of $95 to an account, as long as you make at least $95 in new purchases on the card after the annual fee hits.

There's no need to cancel an existing Citi/AA card to apply for a second one. Whether you will get approved for the second card (and its associated bonus) will likely depend on how long ago you applied for the first card. You should be able to find a lot of information about this in the FT Citi forum.

But it's very risky to rely on just AA/BA miles if you're hoping to find two TATL Business Class award seats on the same flights. Star Alliance has far more TATL partners (and seats) than oneworld does.

As this thread is not specific to the Information Desk we're relocating this to the CC forum.

~beckoa, co-moderator Information Desk