I just applied and received 1 sw-chase and 1 united- chase
Husband both sw-chase personal and bus.
So what should we do next and how long should we wait?
Experian pulls everything here
Goal 4 tickets Florida- done (sw)
4 tickets united 1st class
Within next 18 to 24 months 4 tickets and hotel to somewhere good like Hawaii or australia
Also will be needing 3 tickets to indianapois but don't know which airline until aug. Traviling w school kids so depends on travel agent.
Credit great on both ends. Any help on how to do this would much appreciated

First I want to say that I hope you got the 65k + $50 United Explorer offer.

Now.

Where are you based? This will dictate which airline cards will work for you.

Hawaii vs. Australia have VERY different mileage costs.

If you want to pivot off of United airlines you can apply for Ink Bold 50k and Chase Sapphire Preferred 40k deal.

Then your husband can get 50k Ink Bold and 65k + $50 United Card.

Good Luck and welcome to FT.

If you want Australia then you may want to both do the AAdvantage card 50+50 apps (Visa/Amex)...Oneworld has good redemption options to get there.

Credit pulls are not that damaging to your credit - just a few points each. People worry about them too much.

Chase does not give cards out like candy, you should anticipate that they might turn you down because of total credit limits that are too high - don't hesitate to offer to reduce your credit limit on one of the existing cards.

You seem to need cards that will get you United points, so Sapphire Preferred seems like a sensible next step.

Rather than using points for hotels, book them on Priceline's "Name Your Own Price" area. I am working on a document on tips to get the best prices there (PM me and I'll send you a copy when it's finished); generally you will save 40-60%. A much better deal than using points.

However, consider getting the Hyatt card, which comes with 2 free nights at any Hyatt. I think though that it has to be used within 12 months of getting the card. Obviously this is most useful if you want a very high-end hotel. My wife and I each got one and are using our 4 free nights at the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris, which would usually set us back $700 a night. However, there are not Hyatts everywhere, and if you're going on a longish trip, you will probably have to change hotels because you're probably not going to want to pay for nights at a hotel that expensive.

You must have not redeemed said award before. It is about THE most difficult award to get with AA miles, just fyi. Unless of course, you are only looking for coach seats. Still, QF is the ONLY OneWorld member that flies the routes between US and Australia and its awards are opened up for redemption for most OW members at 360 days mark but AA members can only book at 330 days mark - a full month after everyone else.

FF wise those are different as possible.

Hawaii is the most popular ff reward and all airlines have good rewards there with good availability.

Australia is one of the hardest ff rewards to get and always takes a lot of ff miles when you can get it.

I've only flown CO & UA to Australia. There are plenty of opportunities right now to get oodles of miles from Chase cards for United- besides the UA card there's Sapphire, Ink Bold, and Freedom.

Hawaiian cards from Bank of America and Bank of Hawaii are churnable every 90 days or so for 35K miles each. Hawaiian flies from California and soon New York for 35K RT coach.

Virgin Atlantic cards from Bank of America are also churnable for 50K each time and VS miles can be used on Hawaiian. In reverse, Hawaiian miles can be used on Virgin Atlantic for tickets to Australia avoiding most fuel surcharges.

By all means, you and hubby need to both get the cards to get enough miles for all you want.

great help everyone!! I had no idea how hard aust. would be so it's Hawaii for us. We have to drive to get to any airport United is about an hour as is AA. SW is about 3. So i should wait about 6 months then apply for new chase cards and if denied offer to move credit around? I am going to apply for the 2 AA cards for both the hubby and myself along with bank of Hawaii next week.

One has to know their stuff to book US-Australia on award. I helped my sister & her husband with an award from Michigan to New Zealand & Australia back to Michigan. I subscribed with expert flyer and was mid/top tier with AA so I was able to piece together their trip. They had to go via Fiji on the way back to USA (Los Angeles routing) & then 3 RJ's from Los Angeles to Michigan. All in coach. Made for a long trip.

If you don't want to do all that work, there are at least 3 or more people that do award bookings for clients for a fee. I met most of them and they do a great job from what I'd heard from others.

Bottom line: The award booking services may be an option for your Australia award.

I understand it is a long flight but you are knocking AA.

They have tons of award space on Qantas for 75,000 AAdvantage miles and without the fuel surcharges of their oneworld partners.

It is hard to get any class but economy across all airlines.

If you are on a tight cash and miles budget I would say AA is the way to go. More frequent flights and cheaper.

I would also so that BA Avios are great for Hawaii award flights.

Although I still don't know if any of this helps because you never said which airports are around you.

our closest "big" airport is LBB(no giggling, please) our two 1 plane airport is ROW and HOB. An update to our card applying. Hubby has applied and approved citibank hilton and amex hilton. I have the gotten the BofA alaska.
So should we try for one or two more for him or time to rest a few months?
I was going to do the Amex hilton and a citi AA, or a hyatt( for a couple of weekend trip this summer). Am i setting myself up for DENIED or do
I wait a month or so? Thank You for all your help!!!

But the job ain't over until the BofA Alaska debit card is in your wallet. PM me on that one.