With that much annual spend, using a couple different cards would benefit them greatly. Do you think they would put the effort into splitting up the spending on various cards, or do they just want the ease of a one or two cards? Are you sure they have 250k in annual spend that is chargeable to a credit card? They might not be able to put certain expenses on the card (like mortgage).

I'd look into some of the cards that offer bonuses for meeting annual spend requirements. Two that came to mind are below, and I'm sure others know of some more. I left off ones that offer only elite qualifying miles for the bonus, since it sounds like your parents would mostly be doing award trips and not earning extra EQMs.

• AMEX Premier Rewards Gold (PRG) - 15k bonus points for $30k spend. Points are very flexible and can be transferred to several different airline programs (covers all the alliances) and hotel programs. $175 annual fee
• Chase Ink Bold - 47.5k bonus points for $50k annual spend. Points are also very flexibly and can be transferred to some airline and hotel programs. Note that this covers United which AMEX does not. $95 annual fee
• Chase British Airways - companion voucher with $30k spend. This can be used for an award ticket, so potentially worth a lot of points if booking a business or first class award. $95 annual fee
• Chase UA Mileage Explorer Plus - 10k bonus miles with $25k annual spend. $95 annual fee.

I'd also throw in the Chase Sapphire Preferred (points will pool together with the Ink Bold). I don't really think the United card's 10k bonus miles is worth the $95 fee. With several cards, they would have a lot in annual fees, but would be getting. Here's how they could split it up:

• AMEX PRG - put all gas and groceries on this card (2x points) as well as any airline purchases or award ticket fees (3x points). Plus other misc spending to reach $30k in annual spend.
• Chase Sapphire Preferred - put all dining, hotel, rental car, other non-air travel on this card (2x points).
• Chase Ink Bold - miscellaneous spending to reach $50k in annual spend.
• Chase BA VISA - miscellaneous spending to reach $30k in annual spend for the companion cert.

Once you met your minimum spends, just spread the spending around where you are short points.

The AMEX points can be transferred to BA (often times for bonus), so that can help fill in for your biz/first award ticket. The BA Avios program has it's issues, but if you only redeem once per year using the companion certificate then it's well worth it, in my opinion. Chase points are good for United as well as other airlines, but since only Chase can transfer to UA I'd save those points for UA miles. Left over AMEX points can be used for other airline transfers for example Delta when they offer transfer bonuses, and can also be used with hotel programs.

Sapphire Preferred also gives a 7% bonus on all points earned during the year, which would be pretty nice at that level of spending.

Supposedly the min spend has gone up from 250k so they may not be invited.

edit: and, if they have no Amex currently and no history with Amex, they won't even be considered.

Wow, thanks to all for the amazing feedback!

To answer some questions:

- @ drsaith: I already signed them up for the 5% cashback at AARP, and they bought an '06 Toyota Sienna for their business, straight cash with the rebates from the past year's spend. :) It took me forever to convince them to do it, but I think that was the push to get them more interested in these types of programs.

- @ Partyboy: If what you say about Restaurant Depot is true (being categorized as supermarket) then I'm probably going to have to look at the PRG again. Looking at their books, they've spent YTD $170k at Restaurant Depot in 2011, which would be a great annual haul in MR points, devalued or not. Plus $80k spend at Costco, it looks like it'd be a combined 420,000 MR points a year.

- @ Moremilesplease: I don't think Centurion is an option. My folks like comfort, but I think that the annual spend and sign-up charge would have them saying "no way". Knowing them, they'd probably balk on the $450 for the Platinum card. Plus, no guarantee that they'll be invited. As for their current Korean Air Skypass card, there are so many blackout dates and the awards chart is horrendous, I definitely want them in a more favorable program.

- Would love to sign my folks up for multiple credit cards to get the most out of all these programs (BA Companion Ticket, Ink Bold 47.5k bonus, AMEX Platinum 50k bonus) but they're old school and I think it'd be a constant battle for me to have them put the appropriate spend on each card... then have them complain to me when annual fees kick in, etc. Better just to have one card (Amex) for Costco and one card for Restaurant Depot. Maybe even one card for both (PRG?)

Still leaning towards the SPG Amex for use at Costcos and for flexibility in airline transfers, as well as much needed hotel points (need to stay somewhere when they fly over to Korea) and the Ink Bold (47,500 UR point bonus on big spend) with its ability to transfer to Korean Air (still terrible) or Continental/United (thus Asiana). Thanks very much for all of your input, it's really appreciated!

Ya, I didn't think that many cards would work out for parents that are old school and just getting into the points game. I would recommend two cards though, one of which is not an AMEX since it isn't always accepted. Also having one card with no foreign transaction fee would be wise.

What is their spending profile like, will a lot of it qualify for the bonus categories for the AMEX PRG? Also consider the business version which replaces groceries with advertising and shipping, but doesn't offer the 15k bonus with $30k spend. If the majority of their spend doesn't fall into those bonus categories, then the SPG AMEX with a lower annual fee might be better. Plus with them being new to this whole thing, they will really appreciate the flexibility of the points.

I made a mistake on the Ink Bold, and it is 47.5k bonus points with $100k spend (not $50k). If they spend $47.5k a year on dining and travel then the Sapph Preferred would break even with the Ink Bold bonus. The Sapphire Preferred has no foreign transaction fee, so that would be a nice feature to have in one of their cards.

I think you have it narrowed down pretty well, and the final decision I think will depend on what categories their spending falls under.

gleff had a blog post yesterday on precisely this issue.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfr...-big-spenders/

They eat out quite a bit roknroll, but it's mostly KFC and casual dining. *sigh* If what partyboy said still holds up and Restaurant Depot is categorized as a "supermarket", then PRG sounds the best way to amass major points.

Ink Bold is looking more and more attractive!: 47,500 bonus points on over $100k spend (no problem), and an additional 20% UR points on all purchases if they get a Chase checking account. It's going to be another hassle trying to get them to open up a bank account, but on $200k annual spend at Restaurant Depot, 40,000 UR points are up in the air.

Think I'm going to go with SPG Amex (strictly for Costco) and Chase Ink Bold. Might sign them up for a couple of Sapphire Preferred cards as well to get them combined 100k warchest of UR points to start with. Great input, thanks for talking it through with me! :)

Yeah, I got a lot of good info from him and after seeing the post in my RSS reader, I thought it was perfect timing! Thanks for the heads up, SanDiego1k.

Newbie with $10,000-$35,000 CC spending/week.
 

Hello Fellow Travelers!
I'm new into the whole flyertalk thing. I didn't realize there was such a "following" to earning rewards points. I always just used my card, got what I got, and kept on living. I spend anywhere from $10,000 in the Winter to ~$35,000 in the Summer, per week. I do enjoy AA and Hilton cards but the points max out early in the year. I'm going to open other CCs and am curious about what the community here thought. It's all a bit overwhelming. It seems like if I give due diligence to all possible cards, I'll never get around to actually getting one!!! I just want to max what I can get back I suppose.

I'm most interested in Travel I guess, but am open to everything.

Please excuse me if this message belongs somewhere else.

I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Where u flying from or what airline you focusing in on? Do you want to focus in on more hotel status?

Large purchase advice
 

I have a large purchase coming up with a vendor that only accepts Visa and MC. I'm currently trying to hit a spend threshold with an AMEX card. I was considering getting a prepaid Visa or MC and loading credit on via AMEX.

Does anyone have experience with this? All advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

You can buy prepaid Visa/MC gift cards at your local pharmacy (ie: CVS), however $500 is the max. So it depends on how large your purchase is, and if the merchant is willing to split it into multiple transactions for you.

Depends on who the vendor is. There are special situations such as Sam's club that only take VISA/MC. To get around that, buy a Walmart GC with an AMEX and use it at Sam's. Vice versa; you can only us an AMEX at Costco, but can buy a Costco card online with a VISA. I'm sure there are other similar special cases.

If you have an amex with open saving, you can get one at OfficeMax and you will get a 5 percent cash back on the card