Advice on getting to 200k UA miles
 

I'm planning on taking a trip with my wife summer of 2013 and am aiming for 200K UA miles to get two roundtrip biz class tickets to Europe. I currently have around 50k miles from the Explorer card bonus, plan on getting another 50k via the Sapphire Preferred. After those, with a rough spend estimate I'd get to ~120k total in about a year. So, 80k short of the goal. The kicker: the wife's not so enthusiastic about signing up for new cards, so the more I can keep her from having to do so, the better.

Any bonuses I'm missing out on? Any more 100k-type bonuses coming down the pike? I appreciate the advice, thanks!

You can get 50k UR points from the Ink Bold with $5000 spend in 3 months (which seems to be about your limit for spending).

You can also get 30k Freedom points which (as of now) transfer to UR points by signing up for the freedom card.

There is also a 32k Amtrak offer and if you spend $200 on Amtrak travel in the calendar year you can transfer Amtrak points 1:1 with United... actually now that I look I think this may be impossible since the beginning of 2012.

Sadly these are all Chase, if this were last summer you could have signed up for the Amex Plat 100k offer and gotten it all in one app.

Why not fly there Coach, and home business?

Two benefits, you'll use less miles, and your wife will get hooked on the flight home and sign up for 2 cards right when you land?

This is what I've done several times and I like it. I'm usually so excited about vacation going to Europe that I can't sleep and lack of creature comforts doesn't bother me, but it's nice to mitigate the depression of ending a vacation by knowing you'll be flying home in style.

That said if it were for business or if I wanted to get acclimatized quickly business class is actually more important flying TO Europe since the time change that way and the night flights means that if you don't sleep on the plane you're well and truly screwed. Coming back from Europe it means just staying up an additional 4-5 hours when you're sleepy, as opposed to arriving at 8am exhausted.

In addition to credit cards, you could get another 75k UA miles by leveraging the Fidelity (50k) and TD Ameritrade (25k) bonuses for funding new brokerage accounts with each of those firms (AND another 50k DL miles, if you play your cards right). There are a couple threads on the front page of MilesBuzz that have all the info you need. If you've never had a Fidelity account, you can have those 50k miles within a month or two. For TD Ameritrade, you'll get half the miles up front and the other half after leaving your account fully funded for 6 months (although really it's 9 months, since they may claw back if you withdraw before 9 months).

I would be looking at the Chase INK Bold if you have anything that can be called a biz.

And, if your wife doesn't cooperate, leave her home @:-) -- just kidding. :D

Wife doesn't really have to DO anything. Just get her okay to apply and follow, with you filling out the apps and monitoring spend requirements, paying bills, the path you have blazed. You will soon have more than enough miles for both of you to fly biz.

Could also consider getting some Citi AA cards, SPG Amex (converts to AA with a bonus) and going one way UAL one way AA or BA.

I agree with others that the Ink Bold is probably your best bet. That would give you 50K bonus points plus at least 5K due to the minimum spend requirements. Here's the really cool part: since the Ink Bold gives 5 points per dollar for office supply purchases, you can follow this strategy to meet your minimum spend and get many more points:

First, go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Staples. Staples sells gift cards online. With your Ink Bold, buy as many gift cards this way as you can actually feasibly use. Except for bank Visa cards, there are no shipping or service fees when purchasing these. You will get a total of 9 points per dollar for these purchases! (5X from Ink Bold + 4X Ultimate Rewards Mall). If you meet your minimum spend entirely this way, you would get an extra 5000 X 9 = 45,000 Ultimate Rewards points!

Unfortunately, Staples.com doesn't carry a great selection of gift cards, so the next best option is to go to nearby office supply stores and find their gift card racks. Buy Amazon gift cards, gas cards, etc. These will net you 5 points per dollar.

Another option, with or without the Ink Bold:
You can also do things like "Buy Ultimate Rewards Points for 1.1 cents each".

Good luck!

I great suggestion Frequent Miler. I'll be using this strategy when I need to hit the minimum spend on my 2nd Ink Bold card (I got the "old" one in November). Thanks for the heads up!

Since Europe is only 50k AA in business class one way, you could get the Citi AA cards (50k each) and then your problem is solved in one fell swoop. Enough miles to get you and your wife to Europe! But DON'T redeem them on BA flights; you'll pay a huge fuel surcharge! Use your AA miles to redeem on any other OneWorld carrier (Iberia for example, as you're flying to Europe) and you won't pay a fuel surcharge.

And you're likely to get approved for both of these at the same time, seeing as one is a biz card and one is a personal card. If you don't go the Citi/AA route, this is the way to go!

my wife didn't want to play along either until I took her to Paris and Germany in the front of the bus. 4 hours in the FRA FCT didn't hurt either.

off to prg, vie, and bud in BA F this summer too.

I now have free reign to apply for as many CC as I want for her as well

Thanks everyone, great tips all around!

Like the OP, a friend needs 300K to get 3 people to Europe in 2013. He has not played the CC game and is starting from scratch so he has lots of opportunities. This is my plan for him. I think you can still get the Onepass card then the explorer card. Please correct me if I am wrong. The OP may want to consider this too.

Another thing they are doing is not applying for the exact same card at the same time. This is in case a better deal comes along at least one of them can get in on it. Also, he can not do Fidelity or TD Ameritrade due to his job.
One issue is this plan is all cards are with Chase. Even if he applies 60 days apart, this will take about 8 months for the miles to post.

Husband:
One pass card – 30K
Sapphire – 50K
Explorer – 50K
Freedom - 30K

Wife:
One pass card – 30K
Explorer – 50K
Sapphire – 50K
Freedom - 30K

Any other suggestions are appreciated.

What do you mean by "Freedom" points? I have a Freedom card, and it earns Ultimate Rewards points. I've never heard the points called "Freedom" points.

However, I know that the Ultimate Rewards points earned with the Freedom card cannot be transferred to UA or other partners (though they can be transferred to another Ultimate Rewards account, which can then transfer to UA or other partners). Perhaps that's what you're referring to?

Let me add that many people have been successful in getting the 30 K Chase OPP bumped to 50K by SMing Chase and telling them a friend received 50 K

They are very good about matching if done within 60 Days. I asked for and got the match the day I activated my card.

There, I did my good deed for the day. GL

Good deed appreciated. We will try. Thanks

Yes, correct.

You will get it. Let us know please. :)

Is he comfortable getting the Ink Bold Business card? I know it has been mentioned here before (even by myself) but it really is the best, quickest way to build Chase points. This is because you can almost always get approved for business card at the same time as a personal card, meaning that you can pull in 100k at one point instead of just 50k or 30k. Something to definitely consider, and it is only my opinion, but I highly doubt that a bigger bonus will come around for it, since it is a biz card. Usually, the big offers are for the personal cards, so they can rest easy getting that card now. And if they both go it, that would really help.

This is pretty sick. I should have done this when meeting my Ink Bold spend....

I agree. If he can meet the spend required, the ink Bold is a great way to go. It might even be possible to follow up with the Ink Classic for, I think, a 25k bonus.

Use UR Mall
 

Any big purchases via UR Mall can add up quickly as well

That is an awful lot of Chase cards at once. I doubt you will get them all. You need to apply for 2 same day then wait 90+ days to get the next round. Then you will probably run into having maxed out credit they will lend to you.

They will have to space them out at least 2 months apart. I figure the 1st 2 are easy, the 3rd may need a call and the 4th may need a call and a need to cancel a curent card.

Another option is to substitute one card for a business card so they are only going for 3 personal cards in a year.

Sounds like you need a new wife or you need to figure out the proper way to motivate her to quit ruing your travel plans!

I agree with the business card part. It is easy to get one.

The quickest obvious way is to get her to sign up for her own UA and Sapphire cards.

But I agree that making sure you are maximizing shopping mall points for online purchases can be an easy way to multiply your points. As long as it is stuff you would otherwise be buying anyway. The UR mall has some very good bonus opportunities. The UA MP shopping mall does as well. You just have to remember to use the portals when you are shopping online. It can be a tough habit to get into though...at least it was for me, but I am a lot more vigilant about it these days.

open a Fidelity account for 50K miles:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-airlines.html

business cards will trend with the personal card bonus offers, REF citi AA, Amex gold.

ink bold had targeted offers of 80k too.

I do agree that 50k is a good offer and if you need the miles now, go for it. If you are willing to wait, or travel is not imminent, maybe you will see a higher bonus offer down the line.

Another benefit of the Chase Freedom card is the quarterly revolving 5x points bonus categories. They advertise it as 5% cash back, but really it's 5x points that can be redeemed for cash. But if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can just transfer the points from your Freedom card to the Sapph Pref card (easily done online). This was recently explained on Deals We Like's blog:
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/dealsw...chase-freedom/

Right now it's 5x on Gas and Amazon.com purchases. Starting in April it will be grocery stores and movies. July-Sept is Gas and Restaurants. Oct-Dec is Hotels, Airlines, Best Buy, and Kohl's.

It's a great way to boost your points earning, and assuming you spend $1.5k per quarter in the categories, that's an extra 24k UA miles in your wallet. One thing to realize, however, is that only $1,500 in spending each quarter is eligible for the 5x points.

Looking at this summer, having a hard time finding any flights from Dulles to Rome for less than 110,000 RT in COACH. How far in advance do you suspect you'll need to book to find those flights in business class at 100K per RT?

of course availability depends on lots of different factors. If you know when you want to go for sure then looking when seats first become available (330 days out or whatever) is certainly worth looking at. But inventory is constantly changing based on all sorts of things. It seems like booking way ahead or close to departure are usually more open than in the middle. But there's no hard and fast rules about it. Being flexible with dates and having alternate destinations in mind can also increase your chances. And sometimes you can look at each leg individually to fill out a trip rather than looking for only non-stops or just letting the online engine build the trip. For example, can you search IAD-FRA and then FRA-Rome to see what pops up? Or IAD-BRU or CDG or ZRH... You may need to call to book in situations like that. But it can be worth the phone booking fee to get the seat you want, or you can ask them to see if they will waive the fee if your itinerary was not bookable online.

My friend is about to start the process. It is so nice to have a willing student in the points game. My other friends could care less.

Just to confirm, he you can still get the Onepass card bonus then the Explorer card bonus later. Onepass is not my first choice of cards but it floats to the top since it will go away soon.

Start looking 330 - 332 days in advance, then keep calling until you get what you want.

I used to be able to redeem 6000 Ultimate Rewards points ( 1 point for $1 charged on Freedom Card ) for 5000 United MP Miles. Certificate would come in the mail and needed to be submited/registered on United site.
Don't know if it still available.

6000 for 5000? :/

If you hold the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold you can consolidate any UR points, previously called Freedom points/whatever in the SP or IB account and transfer 1:1 to UA, CO, KE and BA.

Please take a look at Million Mile Secrets blog post of 2/24/12.

Have you tried going thru the UR mall to purchase Staples GC cards and then another time to purchase other gc's with the Staples GC's?

Yes and that won't work. You cannot buy other gift cards with gift cards.

Staples won't even let you use their gift cards online for any purchases. They can only be used in-store. Crazy policy.