CC strategy to maximize miles/points

Old Sep 4, 2018, 7:34 am
  #16  
mia
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Originally Posted by Green_eyes
what would be the best strategy...
Without knowing the route (to judge award availability), and the cost of the tickets in money (to judge the number of points required) it isn't possible to give meaningful advice. Typically a single $5,000 ticket could consume 500,000 points when using a Pay-with-Points.
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 9:53 am
  #17  
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Originally Posted by robchow
Yes. I would close the Plus and apply for the Cash for the sign up bonus.
What do you think about closing PLUS and opening Ink Preferred for 80K sign up bonus?
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 10:54 am
  #18  
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Originally Posted by Green_eyes
what would be the best strategy in your opinion? I need 5 award tickets in J, or I can "buy" these tickets with premium card points, such as Citi thank you, BofA (just did that a month ago)
Originally Posted by mia
Without knowing the route (to judge award availability), and the cost of the tickets in money (to judge the number of points required) it isn't possible to give meaningful advice. Typically a single $5,000 ticket could consume 500,000 points when using a Pay-with-Points.
I think the "buy" is meant to convert points to miles, not buy using points as currency. mia's post demonstrates how expensive that would be. Those 500K points would "buy" several trips in Biz if transfered to an appropriate airline.

I am impressed that OP was able to "buy" five Biz tickets - from what I read on FT that is exceptionally rare if on a single flight (perhaps I'm assuming too much).
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 1:35 pm
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by Green_eyes
What do you think about closing PLUS and opening Ink Preferred for 80K sign up bonus?
The Ink Plus has a different earning structure than the Ink Preferred; the Ink Cash most closely resemble Ink Plus. If you want the sign up bonus and not concern about the earning, then sign up for the Preferred. Why close the Plus?
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 2:31 pm
  #20  
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Originally Posted by robchow
The Ink Plus has a different earning structure than the Ink Preferred; the Ink Cash most closely resemble Ink Plus. If you want the sign up bonus and not concern about the earning, then sign up for the Preferred. Why close the Plus?
correct, not concerned about the earning structure much.
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 9:59 pm
  #21  
 
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Originally Posted by EmailKid
I think the "buy" is meant to convert points to miles, not buy using points as currency. mia's post demonstrates how expensive that would be. Those 500K points would "buy" several trips in Biz if transfered to an appropriate airline.
Given that OP referenced BofA for that purchase, pretty sure the purchase was denominated in dollars, not airline program miles.

Originally Posted by Green_eyes
what would be the best strategy in your opinion? I need 5 award tickets in J, or I can "buy" these tickets with premium card points, such as Citi thank you, BofA (just did that a month ago)
The important question is whether you want all five seats on the same flight or not. If yes, then transferring to airline program miles is not likely to be relevant. Rather you should focus on the total dollar value you can generate with sign up bonuses. You may also consider getting a premium card CSR, Citi Premier, or AmEx Business Platinum if you have a lot of points with a specific card issuer. Those cards can multiply your earnings by 1.5, 1.25, and 1.54 respectively when used for travel purchases. Regardless, the strategy would be to look for cheap J fares to Asia out of US airports likely not MIA in conjunction with cheap positioning flights from MIA. The Premium Fare Deals forum could be a good resource. Current examples include:
  1. China Southern : $1,853 RT Business Los Angeles to Beijing
  2. KL/AF/DL: NYC-KUL $2300 rt in Business
If you don't all need to travel on the same flight, then it could make sense to try to purchase a couple tickets with airline program miles and the rest with cash. But honestly if you can find a <$2k J fare ex-US, and a cheap positioning flight, it's going to be hard to beat that with airline program miles, especially after considering taxes/fees and the miles that the paid fare will itself earn.

Finally, given the large number of points you hope to rapidly generate, this thread seems relevant: Used almost all my points...credit card strategy advice?
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Old Sep 5, 2018, 6:26 am
  #22  
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BofA points for the purchase of several J tickets - each cost about 320K points. No transfer to miles.

Thank you for the link to the thread. Yes, I need to generate as many points as I can at the moment.
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Old Sep 5, 2018, 4:29 pm
  #23  
 
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If you product change your Chase Sapphire Reserve to a freedom card, you will no longer have a no transaction fee card. The product change is fine if one of your new cards has no foreign transaction fees.

The Nordstrom card has no annual fee. There is no reason to close the account. In fact, there are reasons not to close it. The Nordstrom card adds to your credit age. It is not the time to close one of your older cards when you are about to open a lot of credit cards.

Originally Posted by Green_eyes
BofA points for the purchase of several J tickets - each cost about 320K points. No transfer to miles.

Thank you for the link to the thread. Yes, I need to generate as many points as I can at the moment.
As you switch to earning cash bonus on your cards, do not disregard Chase's ultimate rewards. You can use your points at the travel portal at a 1.5 rate (80,000 points -> $1,200).

Originally Posted by robchow
Yes. I would close the Plus and apply for the Cash for the sign up bonus.
Getting the Chase ink Preferred sign up bonus is great. However, I would product change your existing business card to a no fee Chase Ink business card (Chase Ink Cash or Chase Ink Unlimited).

Last edited by EmailKid; Sep 5, 2018 at 5:08 pm
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Old Sep 6, 2018, 3:00 pm
  #24  
 
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Originally Posted by Explore SE Asia
Getting the Chase ink Preferred sign up bonus is great. However, I would product change your existing business card to a no fee Chase Ink business card (Chase Ink Cash or Chase Ink Unlimited).
I concur.
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Old Sep 7, 2018, 8:19 am
  #25  
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I am confused. Why would I not sign up for Ink Preferred to get bonus, which is exactly what I need, and sign up to another product?
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Old Sep 7, 2018, 10:14 pm
  #26  
 
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Originally Posted by Green_eyes
I am confused. Why would I not sign up for Ink Preferred to get bonus, which is exactly what I need, and sign up to another product?
I agree with the others, signup bonuses are nice but having no fee Ink(s) and Freedoms steadily earn URs on an going basis.
This is how people accumulate mid to high six figures of URs.

Looking at the SUB only is shortsighted.
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Old Sep 7, 2018, 10:21 pm
  #27  
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Originally Posted by Green_eyes
Please share your thoughts on which cards to close/open in order to maximize ?
Simply forget it.

I admit this advice is difficult to accept in reality. With all the offers nowadays, even earning for self-travel can be difficult. When you have 6 people to travel and only 2 people "earning", the chance is points/miles won't help you much, i.e. either you won't be able to finish enough award seats, and/or you will end up using your money to buy tickets somehow.

In that case - a cashback card is more practical.
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Old Sep 9, 2018, 2:51 am
  #28  
 
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Airbnb is probably your best bet for rooms. However, hotel cards might be worth considering. In addition, you might picking up the Capital One Venture card. This has 10% cash back when booking at hotels.com plus 10% from hotels.com. I would downgrade to the no fee Venture One card in year 2.
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Old Sep 9, 2018, 3:02 am
  #29  
 
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I would cash out the Bank of America Premium Rewards card as a statement credit. You could put the flights on your Chase Sapphire Reserve for both the travel protections and 3x points. You could also use the Chase business preferred. It also has 3x on travel. In fact, you could use the tickets to meet your spend requirement.
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Old Sep 9, 2018, 9:33 am
  #30  
 
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IMO your time frame is too short given where you want to go, the preferred cabin (J), and the number of people traveling. If one of these factors were to change, that could change the equation. However, given these constraints, Summer of 2020 might be a better timeframe to amass the points needed.
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