55k UA miles, $50 statement credit, 1k spend

Cool, where is the link to sign up?

There is a whole thread dedicated to it not far below this one. UA Mileageplus Explorer is in the title. Sorry using phone app or would have linked it...

I'm more conservative than most, but I see two personal and one business from Chase, which I think will be problematic as in if you do get approved you will be on the reconsideration line. I don't think your spend will justify you being extended this amount of credit by Chase. I'm not trying to be offensive, but I would modify. There is a thread on Chase applications here for you to decide for yourself. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...solidated.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...day-chase.html


I would also consider/research what you plan to do with those accounts when the fees come due. Do you have other open cards to keep your credit history in good shape? If not, do you plan on keeping some of these? I think there are a couple here that are clearly in the category of the fee being worth the benefits, but you may not agree. Below may help you consider further.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...dit-score.html

1) You will not get status from credit cards. A few cards give 10K status miles if you spend in the range of $25K/yr, but that's it.
2) Focus on business class. Some airlines have eliminated international first class, and on many others it's quite hard to get with miles. Some of your intended destinations don't even have it.
3) I'm not that familar with the award charts, but international business class starts at 100,000 miles. Say you get cards from Delta, USAir, United, American Airlines (two with 2-browser trick), Chase (Sapphire Preferred) and American Express (Preferred Rewards Gold). You're just under 300K miles, enough for 2-3 trips. But it's still not that simple because some of your pieces are not combinable. For example, your 40K US points can't really be combined with anything - you'll have to wait a few more years to either churn the card or get the 10K each year on renewal to get to 100K for a trip.

I don't mean to be negative, just trying to help you understand the dimensions of what's possible.

Also, once you have your miles, you have a whole new skill to learn, which is finding award space. You don't just log in, pick your flight, and go. There's quite a lot to learn there.

You may want to tackle some of the larger spends that get the bigger bonuses. Just get fewer cards each AOR. You are filling up valuable slots with lesser cards. Also, read (and decode) the "get spending up w/o the mint" thread, and (cough) amazon payments (cough).

I'd go US AIR 40K
UA 55K for $1K in 3 mos
AA 50K x2 for $6k in 4 mos (w/a little help)

Hopefully when you clear that spend the CSP 40K for 2K will be back, and then you can look at where else you can grow your portfolio.

Not a bad list to start, but there are some deals on your list where you are selling yourself short.

For example, the Citi/AA cards have a signup bonus of 50k and you can get both a Visa and Amex for a total of 100k. Yes, the signup bonus is a little high, at $3,000 in 4 months (so $6,000 in 4 months for both cards) but they are BY FAR the best signup bonus out there right now in terms of racking up a huge chunk of miles at a time.

Also, you can get a 65k offer for the United Explorer (which is really 55k since 10k is for spending $25,000 in a year).

There may even be a way to get 70k Marriott points instead of 50k, although some have reported success with it and others haven't. Anyway, before pulling the trigger, make sure you are attempting to get the highest bonus for each, and I'd definitely reconsider and think about going for the big Citi/AA bonus since you can only get it once, and 100k is a nice windfall of points!

I'm sorry, but I should have clarified that I am not planning on applying for all these credit cards. This is just a list of candidates. I will only be applying for 1 credit card per issuing bank.

Thank you much; I will check it out.

Well, I was thinking that I could get status by banking my miles with, say, United (by combining miles from them and USAir) and flying on their metal with these miles (for example).
I know I can't directly gain status with cc's, but I can use them as a vehicle to gain status indirectly.
I wholeheartedly agree with you about the combining miles issue. In fact, a few months ago, when I was totally clueless about the miles game, this is one of the first things that raised a red flag in my head.
While everyone was boasting that they had 100k, 250k, 300k miles, I wondered 'but how are these people going to use these miles if they are scattered throughout 9 different programs?'.
I feel the same way now.
This is why I am being very strategic about which credit cards I will bother applying for. I am trying to find the most cards that have miles and points that are combinable. I don't want 300k miles dispersed like dust in several programs, none of which have nothing to do with each other.
As for the redeeming issue, I am pretty aware at this point that the airlines will not make this easy for me, even thought I tend to travel between mid-Jan to mid-Mar on weekdays. The only thing I can do is try it out, and if I find that these ff programs are run by dishonest, dirty dogs, I will dump them like a bad habit that's about to kill me, then spread the word like wildfire that they are not worth a dime. Let's just see what happens.

Haha! Funny.
The only problem with Amazon Payments is:

a) the only person/people I trust to send money to are my mother and father

b) even if I do send it to them, they live in the same address as me (in a different apt.).
And then there is the issue of taxes.
Won't it be recorded as income if I send 1k to each of my parents? Won't this potentially raise their taxes?

c) even if the above hurdles are overcome, and I do somehow manage to send 2k to my parents, I will still be short of the 6k spend for the two AA cards alone.
Keep in mind that this is only 2 cards, there are others which I need to apply for that require $500 spend in 3 months on top of the 6k, which I can't even handle. This is exactly why the cards that I am considering all have a relatively low spend. Large spending requirements is the major hindrance of all.

Yes, I know that the cards I chose are not the very best deals, but they are pretty good, considering my low spending.
If I spent a lot more money I would definitely go for the top deals. Unfortunately, the high spend requirement makes them a deal-breaker.

Well if you reach go for the 50K, then go for the 40K Mastercard for 1K spend. I'd do it x2, but up to you.

http://creditcards.citicards.com/usc...r2/default.htm

there is 0 harm done in doing it x2. If you don't make the spend, you dont get bonus miles. If you don't apply you don't get bonus miles. HOWEVER, if you DO make the spend, you get 50k miles! Either way it will be 1 credit pull.

In regards to the spend requirements....it really shouldn't be an issue. There are many multiple ways of "increasing" spend w/o much or any out-of-pocket costs. Examples include Amzaon Pmts, prepaid visa/mc/amex cards,etc. You can find more examples in the aforementioned "getting spend up w/o the mint" thread.

Nope, that's the Blue Cash Preferred.

On Blue Sky Preferred, you get a 2x on airfare, hotels, and car rentals. To be honest, if I was OP, I would just get the regular Blue Sky if available and sock drawer that once the minimum spend has been reached.

The Blue Sky program has value in that his bonus offer is worth up to $400 for $500 of spend. The caveat is that it's a fixed value program. It works much like US Bank FlexPerks. You can redeem in 7500 point increments for $100 of TRAVEL statement credit. If you buy a $201 plane ticket, it's the same as a $300 one... Theoretically, if you get the max value of your points each time, the regular no annual fee card nets 1.33 cents per point.

Of course, you can also redeem for other things like gift cards, but the conversion is terrible.