This is my first post

I am really excited to do my first churn, and I want to make sure I do it right. Hoping you all can help! Here are my details:

In my wallet right now:
Chase Disney card from many years ago (my oldest card)
Chase SWA card from 2 years ago
Virgin America/Elevate Barclay's card from 18 months ago
AmEx (second card - on my husband's account) from 7 years ago

Just added two weeks ago (before I learned of the churn):
Chase Sapphire Preferred

My credit score is 778.
Current yearly spend is around 50K

I'm working towards free flights to Hawaii for 4 of us (would love first class!) and a hotel stay at the Grand Wailea (HHonors points).

Here's what I'm thinking:

Chase Ink
AmEx Gold Rewards
Hawaiian Air Bank of America

I'd love to add on another card for good measure but don't know which would be most beneficial. Advice, thoughts, comments welcomed

Thanks so much!

AMEX Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) is a good card because it allows you to transfer Starpoints to airline miles with bonus (eg transfer 20K Starpoints for 25K airline miles). There's a promo going on right now where you can get up to 25K Starpoints. There is an annual fee however, but it's waived for the first year. And since you're churning, I'm assuming you won't keep it for long

Since you are wanting to fly to Hawaii and stay in the Hilton...there are a couple options that I would consider.

Hilton Points (you could probably apply for all of these at the same time):

2x Hilton Citi Cards using the multi browser trick (50k and 40k apps): 90k total points
2x Hawaiian Airlines cards (1 from BoA and 1 from BoH): 70k Hawaiian Airline miles which you would then transfer 1:2 to Hilton for 140k points.
1x Hilton Amex card: 60k points

This would give you a total of 290k Hilton points. There is also a Virgin Atlantic card that you could sign up for which gives ~50k miles on signup which can then be xfered to Hilton for another 100k points.

As an alternative to signing up for the 2 Citi cards, you might consider doing the Citi Thank You Premier card, which is similar to Sapphire and has a $500 bonus. That card bundled along with the Chase Ink Bold card (which you should be able to get by closing out one of your current Chase cards), would yield $1000 signup bonus total which would then be good for roughly $1250 worth of travel. If you factor in the Sapphire card which you already have, that would be $1875 worth of travel.

For the first class trip to Hawaii, you could again sign up for the 2 Hawaiian Airlines cards and use the miles to fly, but then you wouldn't be able to transfer to Hilton.

There are numerous other airline credit card offers out there right now, but I don't think any of them would give you enough miles to fly 4 people first class.

If you are leaving from LAX i would recommend united as there is great availbility in first class. Alos you might consider hilton waikoloa village, its great for families and near half the price on weeklong stays.
There for I would recomend the citi visa hilton card since you can get it over and over. and the hilton amex card, I would wait at least a month after the saphire prior to getting the united card

Thanks for the info! Are the Hilton Citi cards different cards (should I look for different offers for the same card, or are the actual cards different)?

the cards are the same, some are applying for one of each offer on the same day and getting a 50k card and a 40k card. I have been applying for the citi card overy 3 months, apply, meet spend, get points, cancel card, reapplyfor new card, repeat. i will make my 4th attempt next month on the citi cards

There is only 1 Citi Hilton card, but there are 2 offers. The first offer is for 50k bonus points, and the 2nd offer is for 40k bonus points (you can find the links under the master credit card offers thread).

It is possible to sign up for both offers at the same time using 2 different browsers. You have to sign up for them both at the same time (no more than an hour apart) or it will not work.

You will receive 2 of the same identical cards but with different signup bonuses attached to them. You will also only receive 1 hard inquiry on your credit report which is a plus.

Fabulous! You guys are great!

Would I use the 2 browser trick here as well? And would both only count as one hit on my credit?

These are from different banks, so the 2 browser trick doesn't work. It will count as 2 hits on your credit report. These cards also both carry a yearly fee ($79 I believe) that isn't waived. So you would be paying roughly $160 for these 2 cards.

Womanofaction, sorry i forgot my manners,
Welcome to Flyer Talk

Surprised no one has mentioned this...

2x Citi AA cards. Offer is 50k right now. So two cards would get you 100k. Each first class ticket is 75k. One ticket right there.

If each of your 4 people could do that, everyone flies first class.

The spending requirement is a little rough... but who knows how much spending you do? (you didn't tell us)

EDIT: Hey look at that, you did tell us. It's doable in your spend level, depending on how quickly you need the miles.

Welcome to FT!

Make sure you keep track of your points - I had to fight for mine. My best advice for churning: print out every offer that you apply for. I wouldn't be able to fight for my points if I hadn't kept the evidence. They tried to say I applied for some 30,000 point offer but I applied under a much better offer.


If you would like a referral for a 40,000 point HHonors Amex - PM me! This will give you access to AXON rates

Here's what I'd do:

1) 2 Citi AA cards each for 50K miles so 100K miles. Depending on which version you apply for you could also get 2 lounge passes and a $150 credit for any AA purchase. So buy $150 gift cards and get a statement credit to cover it for free.

2) I wouldn't waste a Citi application on the Hilton cards - at least not on your 1st churn. Consider the BOA Virgin Atlantic which offers 50K Virgin Atlantic miles (different from Virgin American) and can be transferred to 100K Hilton points.

3) Any Hilton AMEX card which will get you access to the discounted AXON awards so that Hawaii stay will cost you less points.

Good luck!

Not sure the two browser trick is needed, but better safe than sorry.

This will count as 2 inquiries. One for BoA and another from FIA Card Services (BoH).

Edit: You should probably expect a phone call confirming that you did intend to apply for both cards since BoA manages the application processing for BoH. Don't be alarmed by this, just explain that you are planning a trip to Hawaii and would like both cards.