I got into credit card churning a few years ago. We love it and our credit score is great.
The trick is to find something that offers a rewards YOU will use. I still haven't accummulated much in the way of United, American Arlines, Us Airways miles because they don't fly direct from my airport. So we collected Delta miles for some years (even though the miles community calls them Skypesos lol!). While I agree they are not as good a value as many other airlines, the fact that they are the airline I fly the most often and the one I am most likely to choose means that I get to consolidate my miles.
Also, be flexible and look for partner programs.
We are flying to Europe in March. Both my husband and I had 60,000 miles in each of our accounts - which is what it costs to fly to Europe at that time of year. (I know sometimes you can get 40,000 miles for coach on other airlines - but what's the point when I don't have 160K miles in that airline program and am unlikely to get it?). My kids had 40K miles each so both were short. Thankfully I had 50k American Express reward points from another credit card bonus. We transferred 20K to each of my kids accounts. With that we were set for 4 tickets.
A side note: 1st class is the best redemption - but when flying with a family of 4, its hard to justify the extra points. I can either fly 2 of us first class or all 4 of us coach. I went for coach.
In your case, I would think about what you need and apply for a combo of cards that will work together to get you your flights. Consider which airline flies from your city and research how many miles it would take to get you to Europe. (try pricing flying in/out of another city other than London - which tacks on more fees). Maybe you will come up with a couple of options. (e.g. both United and American Air will get you there).
Then, consider the best combo of credit cards. I like a combo of:
- the airlines card which typically gets you 35-50k miles.
- 1 or 2 Chase cards that earns you Ultimate Rewards - Chase Sapphire, Chase Ink Plus, and Chase Ink Bold.(the last 2 are business cards). You could earn 40k - 50k points each which you can then transfer for airmiles for the airline of your choice. Alternative to Chase is American Express points. But their transfers are a bit more limited.
I always calculate every step along the way so I understand what I have to do to get what I want.
Right now I am working on a complicated manuever. I want a Southwest companion pass (need 110,000 SW points) but we have mostly exhausted our applications for southwest credit cards. So we:
- applied for Marriott credit cards for DH (he got 2 of them) and I. Earned a combined total 140,000 points.
- DH applied for Chase Ink Bold (55k points) and Chase Ink Plus (55k points): 110,000 points.
- The Marriott and Chase cards together got us 250,000 Marriott points which can be redeemed for a Marriott travel package with 7 nights stay and 100,000 SW points.
- For the last 10k SW points, I applied for a Best Western CC for 20,000 points which became 4800 SW points and transferred 18k American Express points to Choice hotels which then transferred to 5400 SW points.
If all goes well, I'll have a SW Companion Pass with no money out of pocket (other than meeting minimum spends). Still in the middle of the maneuver - but you get the gist