So I finally broke down and, for the first time ever, applied for a DL Platinum Amex that had 35k w/10k status miles. It was easy to meet the $500 spend threshold, and sure enough, 35k were posted to my account. I cancelled the card and they even sent me a refund check for the $150 annual fee I paid. Easy! This encouraged me to get bolder. So four weeks ago I applied for eight cards. Here are the results:

Bank//Airline//Miles
Citibank AA 75k (personal and business): approved for both
Chase CO OnePass Plus 25k+5k for additional cardholder: approved
Chase CO Business Mastercard 25k: approved
Chase UA 25k (personal & business): declined for both
Barclays US Airways Platinum 40k: approved
BofA Alaska 40k: declined, downgraded to lesser 6k platinum card
Total mileage gained: 251k

CO/UA: I applied for both CO and UA cards (both their personal and business). I figured with the merger I could get 100k in my UA account. Unfortunately Chase didn't like me applying for four cards in one evening, so I took the two CO cards (because CO is gone soon) and will be applying for UA cards later on, hopefully with a bigger bonus than the 25k I was going to get anyways.

US Airways was probably the easiest 40k out of the bunch. Card came within 3-4 days, one spend and it was posted.

AA was the biggest bump. Harder because of the $1500 threshold on both, but amazing nonetheless.

Alaska: The worst. I pleaded with BofA multiple times, both times their callcenters reacted quite rudely at my request to be reconsidered for the 40k card. Its hard not to judge BofA after this experience...

Credit Score shtuff: CreditKarma.com has me at only 4 hard pulls after all that. Crazy eh? But my score has gone from 740 to 688. Go figure.

Future habits: I hope to reapply in smaller doses after today. I realize 8 cards (9 with the DL Amex) was probably a bit much at once. I hope to apply for only monster cards (anything 50k or more) at sporatic times over the next year, and maybe do another churn in a year from now. Also, I'm not going to cancel cards right away anymore (cancelled both the DL and the BofA card after miles posted). I'll instead try to talk with them to go another year w/o annual fees.

Thanks FT community!

Was this all done in the same day?

over 2 days... maybe dumb, but it worked (mostly).

Good job ! Now your addicted. This is the longest hobby I've ever kept.

The other pulls will be on your other bureaus. I've found that someone with a CK score similar to your has a 12 point drop per inquiry added. Your plan was good and efficient as you spread your inquiries over more than 1 bureau. Remember you still have a chance at reconsideration with Chase.

What surprises me most are the two Chase approvals.

Do business/personal apps not step on each others' toes with Chase? That is, does the one card in 30 days rule not apply?

Also, any general comments about Chase business cards? I've never had a business card with them.

This "rule" is not set in stone. I have received more than one. Chase card in a 30 day period.

Stupid companies trying to make money, .... them!

You can get 2 within a month if you don't have to many other Chase cards. You might have to adjust one of your other credit lines to make way for the second one. You are declined automatically usually when you apply to the second card and then you have to call for reconsideration. Ghats how it worked in my situation.

When did you apply for the CO cards? The CO and United have new T&Cs against getting the bonus for both CO and United cards if you applied for one after a certain date (July, I think?? It's in the thread for the CO card, I think).

Don't be so hard on BoA - they were a receptive business partner with The South Texas Coin Laundry. In fact there are still deep wheelbarrow ruts in front of my local branch from all those dollar coin runs.

Congratulations on your first churn! Enjoy the benefits of your efforts.

A couple constructive criticisms for your next churn to improve your results:

1. Read more and plot

I think you had some opportunity with the Citi apps. If you read that thread you have a one time chance of hitting two personal accounts with one credit pull. What's done is done but that could have yielded 225k (2 personal + 1 biz 90 days later) with a little research.

Same for the Continental/United apps. Bonus after 7/19 will be considered the same for United and Continental. Knowing that would have saved you some credit pulls and declines for a false premise.

The Special Credit Cards Master Thread stickied to the top of this forum is an excellent resource maintained by UA Fan.

2. Be concious of your credit score/impact

Credit Karma is based solely on Trans Union data. It does not reflect the pulls on the other two national reporting agencies, Experian and Equifax. For future churns you'll want to know you FICO of FAKO for all three and more importantly where each application is pulling from to reduce your churn impact on future churns.

Don't mean to take the shine off the apple. Just some tips I hope help.

Great tips! Thanks.

I'm a noob here. My questions is, after you get the miles and decide to cancel the card, how do you retain the "points/miles?" For example, if I have a Chase Visa and I get XXX Points after a certain amount of purchase, then I cancel the card, how to I still have it? Are the points still posted online without the card?

Thanks!

Incase you had sapphire or ultimate rewards card, then one thing you can do is transfer the points to airlines or order gift cards before u cancel... incase of OP, his points went directly to airline so the bank will not take them back in the even he decides to cancel...

I depends on the program so you'll want to research each program individually. This information will be in the program's terms and conditions mailed with the card. But generally they break down into two categories:

Cards that earn for another company's program

These include Citi American Advtange, Chase United, etc. Since the rewards earned on these cards are transferred each month to the frequent flyer program closing the credit card sponsoring account generally does not impact the awards as they've already been transferred away to the airline or hotel program. Many will advise waiting 6 months, esp w/Chase, before closing but reports of card companies taking back awards from airline/hotel programs are not common.

Cards that earn for their own reward program

These include Chase Sapphire, Capital One Venture, Citi ThankYou, etc. Since the rewards are with the company program of the credit card company, closure of the sponsor credit card usually means loss of the points. Some will have a X number of days to use. Most will delete your points when you close. General rule is to use them or transfer them before closing.

These cards are a good reason to never close an account in anger as well. If a membership fee is creeping up on you look for a no-fee version of the card you have with the same rewards program in order to maintain the balance.