I love credit cards so much!

[SouthFayetteFan]

My plan for SW CP at the beginning of 2019 was foiled by the requirement for 24 months between bonuses.
So I kind of have a new plan. Goals include Universal and Disney in 2020 (undecided on which coast) maybe a 3 day weekend at WDW fall 2019. China in 2021 or beyond.
Fly mostly SW & AA out of MDW/ORD. Always love more URs

DH has
CFU 10/16 (was CSR)
CSP 5/17 (will upgrade to CSR this fall)
SW 7/17
CIP 5/18
CitiBiz AA 2/17
BOA Premium Rewards 1/18

I have
CitiBiz AA 7/18
SW 7/16
Marriott 3/17
Disney 7/17
Hyatt 9/17
Hilton Amex 5/17
SPG Biz 2/18
Discover 12/17
Barclay AA 9/17

Working on MSR for CitiBiz and Hilton Amex(upgrade) now
Tentative plan is for DH to get CIC in a few months, and maybe CIU.
I’m thinking I’d be able to get CP before DH, so maybe SW cards for me. In the meantime, maybe I should get Amex biz cards for MR? No MR earning cards yet. Suggestions?
I need a long term plan like @SouthFayetteFan lol.

I reordered your cards so I could make sure I understand correctly where you stand with 5/24... Is the below picture correct?

HUSBAND (4/24)
CFU 10/16 (was CSR) (1/24)
CitiBiz AA 2/17
CSP 5/17 (will upgrade to CSR this fall) (2/24)
SW 7/17 (3/23)
BOA Premium Rewards 1/18 (4/24)
CIP 5/18

YOU (6/24)
SW 7/16
Marriott 3/17 (1/24)
Hilton Amex 5/17 (2/24)
Disney 7/17 (2/24)
Barclay AA 9/17 (4/24)
Hyatt 9/17 (5/24)
Discover 12/17 (6/24)
SPG Biz 2/18
CitiBiz AA 7/18

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I reordered your cards so I could make sure I understand correctly where you stand with 5/24... Is the below picture correct?

HUSBAND (4/24)
CFU 10/16 (was CSR) (1/24)
CitiBiz AA 2/17
CSP 5/17 (will upgrade to CSR this fall) (2/24)
SW 7/17 (3/23)
BOA Premium Rewards 1/18 (4/24)
CIP 5/18

YOU (6/24)
SW 7/16
Marriott 3/17 (1/24)
Hilton Amex 5/17 (2/24)
Disney 7/17 (2/24)
Barclay AA 9/17 (4/24)
Hyatt 9/17 (5/24)
Discover 12/17 (6/24)
SPG Biz 2/18
CitiBiz AA 7/18

Yes. I do have a few other cards and we have one card with account length of 31 years, so don’t need any of these for that. So by 6/19, I should be able to apply for SW Biz, then SW for CP.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Yes. I do have a few other cards and we have one card with account length of 31 years, so don’t need any of these for that. So by 6/19, I should be able to apply for SW Biz, then SW for CP.

Wow - that will require a lot of patience

Your husband could:
1) go for a personal card now (5/24)
2) then in Nov go for CIC (since he’ll be back to 4/24)
3) then in Mar go for CIU (still 4/24)

You could hit some Amex Biz in between (maybe MR cards?) - and now you’ve made it to June. You hit your SW cards and husband drops to 2/24 a couple months later. You’re not in a bad spot but I agree you need to have a careful strategy because any misstep could lock you out of some cards for awhile.

 

[amalone1013]

I am big in the Early Retirement movement which is largely focused on keeping expenses low and saving A LOT of money. Our average TOTAL annual expenses per year over the past decade are $42,000 (for a family of 4). AND I project our expenses this year to be < $40k. We are able to run approx. $25k of those expenses a year through cards so I am very strategic to ALWAYS be working on an MSR. (Mind you...included in those annual expenses is our expense of taking 4-5 vacations a year...because vacations cost us nothing ).

#goals

 

[trenty]

I just saw an offer for a United Explorer card with a 60k sign up bonus, no annual fee for the first year! It expires Aug 16 and would be perfect for dh/p2. However, I am waiting to hear back from his application for his CIP, which still says will notify in 30 days. I can't have two applications going at once, can I? Just applied for the CIP last week.

Is this a targeted offer? This is going to be DH's next card. Would love to get this offer for him.

 

[mefordis]

Is this a targeted offer? This is going to be DH's next card. Would love to get this offer for him.

Yes. IT came up for him when he logged into United.com .

 

[farmerswife]

It’s a pretty good obsession - saving TONS of money on travel

Having him double dip would be awesome! Make sure you refer him to the CSP (you’ll get 10k URs for that). If you’re interested, you could join our Reddit group and support another DISer by using their link for CSR.

ALSO, have you considered getting a CIP card (Chase Ink Preferred)? We talk about that card a lot here and it’s got a very lucrative signup bonus.

I have considered the CIP but I'm leary of opening too many cards at once and meeting the MSR. Could you send me a link to the reddit group?

 

[calypso726]

You know what's so cool. @calypso726 and I are probably two of the most hardcore churners in this thread... And we live VERY different lives and yet both find a way to generate the points needed to do the travel we love! She's a woman, I'm a man. I have kids, she doesn't. I think her and her plane princess are a bit older than me and my plane-fearing wife. I'd guess she spends significantly more annually than we do, BUT she has the means to do so and certainly has a grasp on her finances. She enjoys big international trips, we don't leave the country. She doesn't seem to ever fly SW, I only fly SW... She pays A LOT of annual fees, I avoid them like the plague... The list could go on and on...

BUT we both are able to harness the power of our spending to generate maximum points return and achieve amazing, memorable trips! Look at what others are doing different - see if you can learn from them. IF it's not your style, don't judge, just be you! We have a lot of newer folks in this thread and it's super important to NOT try to be somebody else here. Find your own churning path - you may find you're similar to me, you may find your similar to @calypso726 OR you may find you're someone else entirely, and that's ok!

I think you are right @SouthFayetteFan which is what makes this game so cool. Everyone can utilize the strategies we employ to suit their needs no matter what the goals are and no matter what end of the spectrum they fall. Most know that I will be turning 50 in January which I think is definitely older than you and Mrs. SouthFayetteFan. I'm older than the Plane Princess by 4 years. Hmmm, does that make me a cougar? Gosh I hope so!

Annual fees, schmannual fees it's all about what can that card do for me (I'm a poet and didn't know it). If the AF is worth what it does, then I keep it. If it isn't then I don't. Granted, I do tend to keep more with AFs than most But I do cancel some of them you know.

As for yearly expenses, I'd say our biggest expense is travel. Disney related travel to be more specific. The mortgage is paid off. We both drive Toyotas which last forever and we won't get a new cars until the current ones are dead. IRAs are fully funded each year and we are on track toward retirement. If we spent less on travel we could likely retire earlier than we are striving towards. However, I prefer to hedge my bets and would rather travel today and retire tomorrow than not travel and find that tomorrow never came. It has happened to a number of people I know. There's a balance and middle ground to be found between YOLO and early retirement. We found ours.

We are fortunate as far as to where we are financially, but it wasn't always like this. When DH and I met, I was living on my own, waiting tables putting myself through college one class per semester since it was all I could afford. DH was in college and coached volleyball part time. Sometimes, I was making more in one night than he was making in one week We still didn't have two nickels to rub together. We both had been brought up very poor and our families did not take vacations or dine out. I can recall times when my mom did not eat so that my brother and I could. I believe growing up that way plays a big role in why we do what we do with points and miles and why it still blows us away that we can do what we do. There is still a 10 year old little girl inside of me wearing clothes from a thrift store staring at the plane she is about to board in awe over the fact that she is actually getting on a plane. That doesn't go away for me. Nearly 50 year old me is always going to indulge that little girl inside if possible. I think DH has his own inner 10 year old and will hand him a sparkly tiara when boarding a plane too I mention this because the "who you are" today can change into "who you are" tomorrow. If DH and I had discovered this hobby when we first got married, we would likely have been playing it very differently than we do today. If we were starting out now, we would be all over the SW CP which is a program I greatly admire despite the fact that I rarely fly SW.

The other wonderful thing about this hobby, your strategies can evolve as your circumstances evolve. This thread is awesome in that we have every end of the travel hacking strategy spectrum. Today, you may want as much cash back as possible and @SouthFayetteFan is the man for the Amex MR/Schwab return. Tomorrow, you want to fly to wherever for your 10th, 20th, whatever anniversary on Singapore Airlines in suites class and stay at some absurdly priced frou frou hotel, or castle and I'll have your back.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

You might be excited to know that since 2011, my wife and I have opened 65 cards in this game. AND we are debt averse, AND we are not big monthly spenders, AND we don't have a true business to run expenses through.

I am big in the Early Retirement movement which is largely focused on keeping expenses low and saving A LOT of money. Our average TOTAL annual expenses per year over the past decade are $42,000 (for a family of 4). AND I project our expenses this year to be < $40k. We are able to run approx. $25k of those expenses a year through cards so I am very strategic to ALWAYS be working on an MSR. (Mind you...included in those annual expenses is our expense of taking 4-5 vacations a year...because vacations cost us nothing ).

The only expenses I don't run through CCs are Mortgage, Life Insurance, 1 Utility that won't take card, car payments (which we now have none) and medical insurance premiums (which are a direct payroll deduction).

If we play our cards right (haha, get it?) - we can turn that $25k in expenses into > $6k in travel credits, cash back, points, etc. I'd be happy to work more specifically on a strategy with you, if you want to share some details. Don't hesitate to PM me if you'd like

I need to look into Plastique, which was mentioned by so many posters. I just entered this game when I was looking for ways to trim the budget for our London/South Africa trip next July. I have a paltry 3600 Delta skymikes and 1675 AA miles. One points chart I saw shows a ticket to South Africa with AA miles in economy is 80,000 rt/240,000 in first class. I need 4 tickets! Those point #s are not even considering the 3 day stop over in London. I read that some airlines have fuel surcharges on top of the points. The AA card offer DH just got has a 60,000 miles bonus. Hmmmm. I may not be able to get all 4 tickets free but I could maybe get 1 or 2.

 

[miztressuz]

So planning a quick trip to Philly for a weekend in September...driving from RI to meet friends coming up from WV. What things are there to see in Philly? Food?

Big question...thinking about Airbnb for the first time. I was going to signup but does anyone know if they have referral links that I could help someone out with here? I didn't see any over on our other reddit group.

What are your interests? Historical spots it has in spades, museums, parks, theatres. If you can handle crowds the Reading Terminal Market has all kinds of food; but it's very popular and next to the convention center so every time I've been it's crowded, like wall to wall. Must have's food wise is the soft pretzel and a cheesesteak if you've never been before Otherwise it's been a while since we've eaten in the city so I'm not even sure if some of the places are still around or if they're as good as before. We only go down for dim sum now cuz that's the one place we haven't been able to find in the 'burbs

If it's the first full weekend of the month, and you have either credit or debit from BoA, they have free museum entrance. The art museum (the steps from the Rocky movies) and the Constitution Center are on the list. (https://about.bankofamerica.com/en-us/what-guides-us/arts-and-culture/partners.html#fbid=cQMKcBNXIs2) If you have littles still the Please Touch Museum gets really good reviews (and does look fun), for all ages the Franklin Institute (as adults we still go!).

Even if you're not into historical stuff I think everyone should see the Liberty Bell at least once in their life. (yeah it's just a bell, with a crack no less , but it's The bell, ya know?)

Fairmount park is great for nature stuff, trails for walking or biking, plus it's near Boathouse row which is kind of iconic. I think they have a trolley tour or something for the mansions within the park and they have an outdoor concert space.

If you have a general area you planned to stay or particular interests and I can narrow it down. Good place to start looking is the HOHO bus routes, that pretty much hits a lot of the highlights. So even if you don't have the time for the HOHO it at least gives a list of popular attractions you can dive into. We could let you know what's worth it or if there's alternates, but helps to know what interests you about a city.

 

[powelweb]

a great site to check out is awardhacker.com this site will basically tell you how to get there on which airline and what points u need to get.
so for example Boston to Sydney award hacker link here. The best way get points is either using UR. UR with United.
as for your second leg, link here
For hotel stays, check out this site to give u a general idea on what hotels require what points and so on. link here i think Marriott and SPG are a bit more complicated currently as they are going through a transition.
100k BA is great, but i find BA best for domestic flights. You could get some for repositioning... ie fly from Boston --> LA, then LA --> Sydney.

hope that helps!

Thanks-

after checking out those sites, and trying to read through the last 20 pages on this site (wow, do you guys post a lot...), it looks like our best bet would be to enroll in a program in the SPG rewards, so I'm looking at their 75,000 starwood preferred guest card which is an amex.

Since I'm still learning this game, my next question would be when should DH apply? Also, I'm assuming i should not request him as an authorized user on my card- is that correct?

Appreciate the guidance

 

[DisneyMandC]

As for yearly expenses, I'd say our biggest expense is travel. Disney related travel to be more specific. The mortgage is paid off. We both drive Toyotas which last forever and we won't get a new cars until the current ones are dead. IRAs are fully funded each year and we are on track toward retirement. If we spent less on travel we could likely retire earlier than we are striving towards. However, I prefer to hedge my bets and would rather travel today and retire tomorrow than not travel and find that tomorrow never came. It has happened to a number of people I know. There's a balance and middle ground to be found between YOLO and early retirement. We found ours.

So, so true. I know I could travel less or not have my horse and knock out my student loans, but I'm not going to be miserable and have no hobbies at all just for the sake of being debt-free and retiring early. I pay more than the minimum on our student loans, don't have a car payment (after paying one off over a year early), and am maxing our matched retirements at work (9% for me matched up to 7.5%, woohoo!). I still need to get the ball rolling on my IRA. I have started one, but only have $20 a pay period going to it. Tough to get motivated on it when I can't get the write-off filing our taxes separately.

 

[Albort]

Thanks-

after checking out those sites, and trying to read through the last 20 pages on this site (wow, do you guys post a lot...), it looks like our best bet would be to enroll in a program in the SPG rewards, so I'm looking at their 75,000 starwood preferred guest card which is an amex.

Since I'm still learning this game, my next question would be when should DH apply? Also, I'm assuming i should not request him as an authorized user on my card- is that correct?

Appreciate the guidance

SPG may have the best program with a ton of airline but its got a really bad earning power. You should see if UR works for u too.

 

[Limes96]

So it’s not normal for the Chase UR travel booking site to only show flights 270 days out? That’s all it has shown for me since I started looking a few weeks ago. I wanted to get an idea on early June flights to London for 2020 and wanted to check the same time frame for 2019 just to get an idea on how many points to budget for.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

However, I prefer to hedge my bets and would rather travel today and retire tomorrow than not travel and find that tomorrow never came. It has happened to a number of people I know. There's a balance and middle ground to be found between YOLO and early retirement. We found ours.

This is an excellent point. My dad worked for the same company for years, looking to retire early. The company was sold, his $1 mil plus in stock made worthless. He continued to work in an unrelated field until 65 and then retired. Many of the stocks he had invested in tanked in the tech crash. He got cancer at 67, beat it. Got cancer again at 72, passed away at 74. He never really lived his retirement goals, didn’t travel much (he and my mom wanted to see the country in an RV and revisit Hawaii) and only had a few years with the grandkids. YOLO indeed.
My point is not the sad story, but that while early retirement is great, enjoy life now while saving towards that retirement.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Wow - that will require a lot of patience

Your husband could:
1) go for a personal card now (5/24)
2) then in Nov go for CIC (since he’ll be back to 4/24)
3) then in Mar go for CIU (still 4/24)

You could hit some Amex Biz in between (maybe MR cards?) - and now you’ve made it to June. You hit your SW cards and husband drops to 2/24 a couple months later. You’re not in a bad spot but I agree you need to have a careful strategy because any misstep could lock you out of some cards for awhile.

Patience says the man who just did a double dip. Lol
Any suggestions on the MR cards? Only Amex I have are SPG personal, SPG Biz and Hilton Ascend. DH has none. Maybe and SPG/Marriott, we have stayed at Swolphin yearly. Can’t think of any personal cards DH needs/wants except Barclay AA
The other reason to slow down is I’d like to move next spring/summer if the market is good for us.

 

[miztressuz]

Not sure what you're interested in but I would start at visitphilly.com Lots of info on there about the city. If it's your first time and you like history, definitely check out independence hall and liberty bell (both free but you can reserve tix to IH for a small fee). If you do the LB, get there early since the line gets long quickly. Do you like Benjamin Franklin? On Market street a few block from independence hall, you can visit the first post office (He started it!) and also where his house once stood. There is a small museum on the property about him that take an hour or so to do. There is a great ice cream place (Franklin fountain) a few more blocks down Market. If you're into museums, we have one for whatever you're interested in, I swear! Franklin Institute (since museum), Natural History museum, many art museums (Philly art you can run up the steps like Rocky!, Barnes foundation, Rodin musuem, etc etc etc). The PhillyZoo is the first zoo, you can wander around center city and see the famous LOVE statue, South street still has a fun, unique vibe with lots of shops/restaurants/bars, the riverfront (Penns landing) has been overhauled to have more things to do, and from there you can take a ferry across the river to Camden where there is an aquarium, and also an old ship (I think an aircraft carrier?). Also, there are the traditional boat dinner rides up/down the Delaware.

Whatever you end up doing, have fun!! I love my city and I think it offers so much to do!

ETA: Not sure what your food budget is, but we have some awesome restaurants. My favorite are the Steven Starr restaurants. Amazing food and varied menus. A few to name arr Buddakan (asian fusion), El Vez (mexcan inspired), Parc (french inspired), and the Contintental (2 locations, amazing martinis!)

Can't believe I forgot the mention the Zoo! I thought about it and didn't type it
Haven't been to South street in forever, good to hear it's still unique. (they had a blah period it seemed where it was mostly bars, we stopped going) We may have to take a trip again.

There is just so much to do, if you like everything it's hard to do just a weekend there.

 

[trenty]

Yes. IT came up for him when he logged into United.com .

Not targeted.

 

[mmmears]

So planning a quick trip to Philly for a weekend in September...driving from RI to meet friends coming up from WV. What things are there to see in Philly? Food?

Big question...thinking about Airbnb for the first time. I was going to signup but does anyone know if they have referral links that I could help someone out with here? I didn't see any over on our other reddit group.

I've been to Philly 3 times as a tourist (well, always with something else going on like last time DH had a business trip and I tagged along, once was on a college visit, etc.) so I can give you the tourist perspective (bowing of course to those who live there). We have stayed at the Four Seasons (which is no longer a 4S), the Ritz Carleton, and the Aloft (which was really really inexpensive for the center city location).

Things I have seen off the top of my head:
Liberty Bell, Independence Hall
Revolutionary War Museum
Constitution Museum
Hop on Hop off Bus
Philadelphia Art Museum
Science Museum (ack can't remember the name now)
Reading Terminal Market
USS New Jersey (across the river in New Jersey) along with the aquarium next door.

There is so much to see and do there. It's a fun city and quite walkable as well. Have a fantastic trip!

 

[amalone1013]

So, so true. I know I could travel less or not have my horse and knock out my student loans, but I'm not going to be miserable and have no hobbies at all just for the sake of being debt-free and retiring early. I pay more than the minimum on our student loans, don't have a car payment (after paying one off over a year early), and am maxing our matched retirements at work (9% for me matched up to 7.5%, woohoo!). I still need to get the ball rolling on my IRA. I have started one, but only have $20 a pay period going to it. Tough to get motivated on it when I can't get the write-off filing our taxes separately.

Happy balance. I could sit and be sad, or not go anywhere/do anything while we stay with the ILs to maximize our savings... but I don't want to! Though it does get frustrating sometimes, because occasionally good friends will act a little judgy... as they sit and receive large amounts of cash for down payments from family... I try not to let it get to me, because it's great their families can do that! Our families can't, so this is like their version - what we've saved in rent this whole time. At the rate I'm going this year, I'm going to have to back off my 401k % to keep under the IRS limit. But DHs % is small, we need to balance that out and figure out if IRAs are better than our 401ks (after the match ). We've paid off our student loans, saved a good chunk towards a down payment, have a good start to retirement savings overall, and we're on track to pay off my car by the end of the year. The friends who get judgy can't say any of that... I think they are assuming we haven't done any of that, and just spend all of our money traveling I even got a little attitude from someone for flying home a few weeks ago. Like how dare I think I'm too good to drive back, or even pay the 3x more cash price to fly into Lincoln vs Omaha. I was like, I had credit card points I used. (not that it's really your business )

As I said on another thread last week:

I have been doing it for about 2 years now and we've had free flights (DH and I) for 6 trips, and for 3 more trips before the end of this year. All in it is about $4200 in flights, instead we pay $22.40 each time. Without points we would not have taken as many trips, we would have taken 3-4 of them and it would have cost us $1400-$1800. I've also covered a large chunk of hotel costs with points. Our credit scores were in the 740s when we started and are now in the low 800s.

The trips we would have taken were our wedding trip, the April CA trip (because of BILs wedding), and this September. Also maybe back in January before our APs expired. But I couldn't have even justified that if we'd been paying full price for everything, or even extending BILs wedding trip to go to DLR. Or be looking at that cruise trip with DHs family next summer... Going to Nashville for a concert... thinking of going to Orlando waterparks over Labor Day...

And it's basically thanks to this amazing group I think we all know how great this hobby is, but we also know it still takes work and being organized! And some of us do re-selling, swagbucks, etc to earn more. It's not just