WWYD, credit card experts? I think I'm going to apply for the new United Quest card. 80k United miles after $5k spend, and another 20k when you spend $10k. $250 annual fee. $125 United purchase credit. 5k in bonus miles for up to 2 award bookings after your first anniversary.
I primarily (exclusively) want this card because we will be flying United to Switzerland in July 2022. This is a rescheduled trip from July 2020, and I've got 180k in United miles (transferred from my CSR/CSP) from our cancelled flights (that covered 3 of our 4 flights; the 4th we used an old United credit). I'm thinking the extra 80k (or 100k) miles will cover the 4th ticket and maybe let us upgrade our seats a bit (or cover any increased miles needed to book for next year).
I'm debating if I should apply now or wait until July. If I apply now, I'd have to pay the annual fee twice in order to have the card be active during our trip (to get the free checked bags, priority boarding, and also the 5k bonus miles on award bookings). If i wait until July, I only have to pay the award fee once, but I lose out on the 5k bonus miles on award bookings - I'm not that worried about that piece, because we never fly United, and they offer very few flights from our home airport. My bigger concern, now that I am typing this out and thinking it through, is that this opening offer won't still be available in July.
So WWYD? Roll the dice and wait to apply in July? (Do you think Chase will give a "heads up" as to when the opening offer will be gone, or will it just disappear one day?) Apply now, and suck it up and pay the annual fee twice so that the card will be active next July? Or apply now and cancel it when the annual fee comes around, and not worry about having the card for free checked bags, priority boarding, the bonus miles, etc.?
Thanks for your thoughts!