kmandrew

I know this is Alaska but an update on VS. I called BOA all he had was the 20k offer plus 15k if you meet the 25k annual spend; I asked about 50k bonus after 6 month 12k spend, he said he could see it but I had to call VS customer service and route the offer through them. I did just that, was approved; I specifically asked to make sure the 20k-50k-15k plus 5k for spousal card = 90k total was in play, they assured me it was.

I guess I will find out when I receive the card and check with customer service.

maverick17

Any useful tips on getting this product change? I'd much prefer to keep my credit line and product change rather than cancel, but in 4 calls now not a hint of possibility, every rep has said it's not possible to go from AS card to BoA card. Just keep HUCA-ing? Not possible anymore?

As a data point on the biz card, I applied, got pending. I did not call. Email saying I was approved, if I recall, or I checked online in my account and saw it, within 3 or 4 days. 1st biz card with BoA.

sdsearch

How long have you had the card? Many banks no longer let you product change any (personal) card until you've had it for at least one year, due to the way they're reading the consumer credit act that was passed a few years ago.

And you're not going to apply for more Alaska cards? Because if you are, keeping the credit line is the last thing you want to do. For better success applying in the future, you want to reduce the credit line as low as you can.

If you keep product converting BofA cards (without lowering the credit line "all the way") and yet keep applying for new ones, pretty soon you'll start getting denied for having too much outstanding credit (or start getting only $1500 CLs with all that entails).

maverick17

Thanks, I'm very aware of the usual strategy of lowering CL thanks to this thread (which I've been following for 3 years closely), but it is not for me at this time, and won't be applying for cards soon as visits back to the US are rare lately. My annual fee is due tomorrow, so I've had the card for about 13-13.5 months.

coffee18

Does the Annual Companion Fare showing up in your Alaska account dependent on the AF being paid, or just within 1-2 billing cycles of the anniversary?

Happy

Here is a fresh thread on reddit that has proved something many already knew but some would still take the risk "just to save a HP". Suggest the OP to read it since he even considers a 3rd App...

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/co...pproving_card/

The comments part also is good to read if you have the time. (many pointed out the AOR concept or saving a HP concept is really passe - not working well with most issuers these days, particularly in light of the recent rapid rising of credit card debts and the corresponding default rate - hence the added reserves required.... of course there would still some people not keeping up with the constantly changing landscape and still operate on a very outdated "manual"....

Finally with the development of award seats on CX and JL are getting tougher and tougher to get, the AS miles are losing the luster quickly now everyone has been made aware by myriad of blogs since the devaluation of AA.... Those hoarding miles for a premium cabin redemption on the traditional choices need to keep that in mind to avoid bitter disappointment... (such as reported on the CX thread in the AS forum someone recently decided to just use his BA avios because AS could not see any availability for his dates.)

rustykettel

The annual code will show up automatically around the anniversary. I didn't pay enough attention to exactly when it was on my wife's account but I believe the code and AF both post at roughly the same time.

coffee18

OK thanks. I've reduced my credit line and wanted to close this card before re-applying, but wanted to see if I can grab one more companion code before closure.

JBG89

Hi folks,

Lowered my CL about 1.5 months ago and canceled my personal and business card last week. How long until i can reapply for either?

Thanks!

sdsearch

I'd say neither, in that it isn't dependent on the AF being paid but it seems to post right around the anniversary, not 1 or 2 billing statements after.

I applied for my last personal AS card in July of last year. I just noticed today that I got the Annual Companion Fare showing up in my Alaska account dated 7/20. My AF posted on 7/31 to my current activity, but the statement with that AF won't close until 8/20. So I can cancel after 8/20, and by that time I'll have had the Annual Companion Rate in my Alaska account for a whole month.

coffee18

Interesting, thanks. My AF has posted, but will not close until 8/15. However, I do not have a Companion Fare yet. I'm assuming these batch jobs don't necessarily coordinate with each other.

RobertHanson

Yep, AoR is now totally passe. In the past it could take days for the multiple HPs to show up on a CR, so your second and third apps could be approved before your first app was visible to the banks. Now those HPs show up virtually instantly, so doing an AoR is useless. Possibly worse than useless, since someone reviewing your app may see the previous apps, and worry you are intending to get a bunch of CLs with the intention of defaulting.

As for CX, I've been checking them out the last couple of weeks, in preparation for planning a trip in August 2018. I've seen lots of J availability intra-Asia, but virtually nothing in FC to/from anywhere.

It used to work to book J way in advance, then upgrade to FC within a week of departure. Not any more! I looked up a CX flight from HKG to ZUR yesterday morning that goes out today. The plane has 6 FC seats, 4 of which are open for sale. That means 2 are booked. Maybe one for a pilot rest seat, and one for a FA on vacation? Who knows, they might have actually sold 2 to paying passengers.

But how many, 17 hours in advance, are available for award booking? Not a one.... How many seats are available for upgrades from J to FC in the next two weeks? Again, not a one.

Similarly JAL LAX-NRT thru Alaska. Looking at the month of June thru the end of booking on July 2, there is only one day, June 20th, that you can book a N/S FC award for 2 people. Other than that, AS will let you book almost any day you want for 60K points p/p one way. As long as you are content with a J award, that takes 16 hours because you have to change planes in Osaka. N/S flights, only June 20th. FC, only June 20th. This is almost as bad as booking on AA metal thru DisAAdvantage.

Perhaps there is more award availability booking with CX miles thru their website. I tried to find out, but they want to charge me $100 to join the Marco Polo Club. Seriously? If anyone knows the answer to that, please let me know. But I'm not paying $100 to find out.

Will I still grab any award opening I find? Of course. But will I apply for, pay the AF, and do the min spend, for "sign up bonuses" I can't possibly use for FC, or even for Trans/Pac N/S J? NO !

RobertHanson

This is one of the things I hate, and I do mean HATE, about F/T. It splits topics into eleventy-seven threads, and you can read one of them for years without finding out the others exist. God forbid that the various inter-related threads would be listed in each wiki.

So I just read the AS/CX thread for the first time, or at least the last few pages of it. I'm now putting my AS miles up for sale on Ebay. Probably starting the auction at $35 for 300K miles.

Happy

This is somewhat OT but I believe it would still benefit for the readers of this thread if the AS miles are cumulated for redeeming premium cabins on partners.

The threads are for DIFFERENT purposes - they dont talk about CC sign up bonus or how to game the banks - they talk about actual booking!

I dont see them being overlapping because the focuses are completely DIFFERENT. Plenty of people dont get their miles from BofA AS card sign up bonuses yet they have the miles to use...

Why would award seat availability thread NOT in the AS forum? It is AS FFP after all! Just because you only focus in gathering credit card sign up bonuses, and dont ever set eyes on each individual airline / hotel forum, therefore you miss out the current information, does not mean FT set up is bad - in fact in most cases, it is very LOGICAL. It is the very narrow focus of the users who would find issues.

If you want to broaden your knowledge base (and that is a very relevant area because the whole purpose for you to sign up cards are for the bonus miles to use on award travel!) you would need to read the pertinent information in each respective forum.

As for CX - why would you try to sign up for Marco Polo?!

Asiamiles is completely free. It has the SAME access to CX award just like Marco Polo members who become members by elite status for the most part. All Asiamiles members can WAITLIST an award which can be booked 360 days out because CX is on Amadeus.

Besides, what are available to Asiamiles have NOTHING to do with what would be available to OW members. AS is NOT even a OW member but merely a partner of CX - it is at the bottom of the totem pole as CX goes. Therefore signing up a CX account to check availability has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with how CX releases seats to OW members, let alone AS.
In other words, what AS gets, really are "crumbs" from its partner, be it CX or JL. And that is the part those who are so gun-hold in getting the AS cards sign up bonuses need to be aware of.

However an airline has empty F cabin, does not mean it would release to award booking - do you not learn this from Disadvantage?

You may be surprised that there are indeed paying passengers for CX F seats - only if you venture out to CX forum to read about such - many of them only buy last minutes and often change their plans last minute too. On our Feb HKG-LAX, we initially were booked on 2 separate flights, 12:30 and 4:30. The 12:30 departure was wide open, but the 4:30pm was COMPLETELY FULL, so I moved myself to the 12:30 flight. There were a total of 3 passengers on the 12:30pm including us 2. Guess what? when we boarded, the FA told us we could sit anywhere we like as we were the only 2 passengers on this flight. I mentioned about seeing a 3rd seat booked. She said it was up till 9am this morning and the 3rd passenger changed plan.... Yeah, there are people who do NOT fly on miles but actually pay for those expensive seats!

CX pilot and FA do NOT take rest seats in F cabin. There are occasional violation of such and it would get reported by the passengers as many of them are darn picky as they do pay for those flights. There is actually a recent thread specifically mentioned about such violation on a flight. Pages of discussion on such... 90% of the posters said the OP should report this violation!

Go do some research / reading to understand how CX and JL programs work. As a starter - JL miles probably are the cheapest way to fly EK 380F on certain routes - bet you never know about that...

RobertHanson

I didn't say there should only be one thread. I said one shouldn't find out after reading a thread about acquiring AA miles for 3 years, as I have, that there is another thread that no one has mentioned, and that is not linkied in the wiki, that now tells you that you cannot actually book your miles for the purpose you got them in the first place.

How would I know that I can look up CX's own award availability on ASIA miles, when the CX website directed me to Marco Polo? I should do some studying? I check some 30 or so FT threads on a daily basis. But I do not read the ones I've never heard about.

I find it absurd that someone who comes to this thread to find out about applying for an AS card, is given no direction at all for finding out if those miles are going to do them any good at all.

In my case, I have read multiple blogs that say AS miles are great for getting Cathay awards, and the best place to look that up is the BA site. Which now turns out to be totally wrong. Which I only now found out totally by accident from a chance comment in your recent post. Which thread I still had to goggle, since you didn't post a link, and I didn't even know the actual name of that thread.

I was assuming that when I saw thru the BA site that CX has 8 flights a day from HKG to SIN, most of which have massive award availability with avios, that I could book those with my AS miles. I just checked the AS site, and the only flights they are willing to book are HKG-NRT-SIN, which instead of a 4 hour flight takes 15 hours. Why in the world should someone seeking advice on applying for a AS card not be made aware of that upfront. Especially since the travel blogs have most likely given that person totally incorrect information, as they certainly did in my case?