I love credit cards so much!

[Haley R]

Don’t think of BOA card as “points” It’s a cashback card. It earns 2% on travel and dining, 1.5 on everything else.
If you meet the MSR without spending on any dining or travel, you will have $545. If you spend some of the $3k MSR on dining or travel, you will have more that $545 (like $560). We used it for a few months at the beginning of last year and ended up with $700+ which I used to buy discounted Disney GCs (I actually bought the Disney GCs with my Discover at Sam’s Club, deposited the money from the BOA card into my account and paid the Discover Card from that account)

That makes more sense. Thank you! I think I was just overthinking everything.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I don't know Dh's social otherwise I would try it now. I just did mine and the Venture wasn't one of the cards listed for me. We almost always try to apply under his name because he has a full time job.

Well, maybe you can still get approved but idk... Cap1 will hard hit all 3 bureaus if that matters to you. I've tried twice for 2 different cards and never any luck, just more hard hits As far as DH having the full time job a credit card company shouldn't see any difference besides your credit history. Income is done by household so it includes you + DH.

 

[Haley R]

Well, maybe you can still get approved but idk... Cap1 will hard hit all 3 bureaus if that matters to you. I've tried twice for 2 different cards and never any luck, just more hard hits As far as DH having the full time job a credit card company shouldn't see any difference besides your credit history. Income is done by household so it includes you + DH.

I think Dh's credit score is still higher than mine. I'll have him try the tool tomorrow and see what happens!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Honestly I think I'm just confused on the whole travel "erasure" idea. So we plan to get our rail passes from JTB USA. They are a Japan travel agency. I'm not really sure if we should be buying these with a certain card or how we should be doing this. I found out the Barclay card won't work because the Japan Rail Pass doesn't count as travel. I don't think we could use any of these cards to directly buy the rail passes. Does it make the most sense to just apply for a card and take out a statement credit?

I guess we should just focus on the card that will give us the best points for travel. Both the Venture and BOA cards are 2x points for travel right?

Don’t think of BOA card as “points” It’s a cashback card. It earns 2% on travel and dining, 1.5 on everything else.
If you meet the MSR without spending on any dining or travel, you will have $545. If you spend some of the $3k MSR on dining or travel, you will have more that $545 (like $560). We used it for a few months at the beginning of last year and ended up with $700+ which I used to buy discounted Disney GCs (I actually bought the Disney GCs with my Discover at Sam’s Club, deposited the money from the BOA card into my account and paid the Discover Card from that account)

That makes more sense. Thank you! I think I was just overthinking everything.

@CyndiLouWho gave a fantastic explanation! It can be easy to overthink things on some of these other cards that aren't as straightforward as airline miles or ultimate rewards. It happens to all of us! One word of advice (and I think you do this well) - just don't apply for anything until (1) you understand how the card earning works (2) how you receive your points or signup bonus and (3) if it's travel related, that you have a viable use for the points or program. If you're ever confused just keep asking questions here...we will keep answering

I've done some super strange things with cards...probably my strangest move was signing up for a Delta card, redeeming it for a Target Gift Card and then using the target card to buy Disney GCs (back when that was still allowed).

 

[WVMomof3]

I can't remember who asked about the Hyatt Card and getting the offer by emailed link, but my link I mailed to myself finally came and it says use by Feb 1 for the 60,000 point offer.

 

[Haley R]

@CyndiLouWho gave a fantastic explanation! It can be easy to overthink things on some of these other cards that aren't as straightforward as airline miles or ultimate rewards. It happens to all of us! One word of advice (and I think you do this well) - just don't apply for anything until (1) you understand how the card earning works (2) how you receive your points or signup bonus and (3) if it's travel related, that you have a viable use for the points or program. If you're ever confused just keep asking questions here...we will keep answering

I've done some super strange things with cards...probably my strangest move was signing up for a Delta card, redeeming it for a Target Gift Card and then using the target card to buy Disney GCs (back when that was still allowed).

Lol that is pretty strange! So Dh and I need to just decide between the BOA Premier card or the Capital One Venture card. I'll have Dh try the pre-qualify tool tomorrow to see if the Venture shows up. We will most likely be using the cashback from either card to help offset our Japan Rail Pass. We could also use the Venture card to book our Airbnb, but I think we might just use gcs for that.

Thanks both @SouthFayetteFan and @CyndiLouWho for your help!

 

[wendow]

I've done some super strange things with cards...probably my strangest move was signing up for a Delta card, redeeming it for a Target Gift Card and then using the target card to buy Disney GCs (back when that was still allowed).

It was you posting about opening up your Delta to redeem the points for Target to buy Disney that prompted me to open a Delta Haven't flown Delta in 20+ years but I opened a card, and shortly after that, the Target GC>Disney GC closed.

BUT, they do have Walmart that I could use at Sam's, and they also now have Disney GC's May just do the Disney since I let my Sam's membership expire, and I'm unsure when I will join again. I have enough for $400 in Disney. Not bad!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

It was you posting about opening up your Delta to redeem the points for Target to buy Disney that prompted me to open a Delta Haven't flown Delta in 20+ years but I opened a card, and shortly after that, the Target GC>Disney GC closed.

BUT, they do have Walmart that I could use at Sam's, and they also now have Disney GC's May just do the Disney since I let my Sam's membership expire, and I'm unsure when I will join again. I have enough for $400 in Disney. Not bad!

I'd also be happy enough with a Target card still, lol. We would shop there enough to use it and I'd just allocate the expense into the appropriate category and credit the savings towards a trip

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Is anybody in our group churning AA cards? Are people looking for personal, business, or both offers? I'm continuing to read up on this personally as it could become a minor part of my 2019 strategy and just want to know who else wants to be kept up to speed on things if I find anything out OR anything changes.

 

[wendow]

Is anybody in our group churning AA cards? Are people looking for personal, business, or both offers? I'm continuing to read up on this personally as it could become a minor part of my 2019 strategy and just want to know who else wants to be kept up to speed on things if I find anything out OR anything changes.

I'm definitely interested. I've not received any mailers yet and just slowly adding more AA accounts right now. My cup runneth over with all the cards I'm working on MSR's right now but I hope to get some AA mailers soon and start working on those also. It will be a minor part of my strategy as well

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I'm definitely interested. I've not received any mailers yet and just slowly adding more AA accounts right now. My cup runneth over with all the cards I'm working on MSR's right now but I hope to get some AA mailers soon and start working on those also. It will be a minor part of my strategy as well

I haven't heard back on my SM about a match to a higher offer yet on my AA biz. I also haven't bought the $250 gift card yet (which will be reimbursed)...but I will report back on both when I know more!

 

[wanderlust7]

I guess we should just focus on the card that will give us the best points for travel. Both the Venture and BOA cards are 2x points for travel right?

Venture is 2x everything.

ETA: Forgot to mention it also has 10x on hotels.com

 

[Haley R]

Venture is 2x everything.

Yeah I think that's the one we will end up going for. Thanks!

 

[gottalovepluto]

So- troubleshooting when Cathay Pacific cancels flight 1 of 2 booked via Alaska with Alaska miles... (I know this is very specific, but it's known to be a great Alaska miles redemption so I'll pass this along...) Cathay cancelled my flight next May from JNB to HKG, re-booked me on a flight 1 day earlier and I found out because the AS app had a notification that when I clicked on told me "there's been changes, you need to call us". I researched found out the flight was cancelled and saw the only flights for the day I wanted to leave JNB that were bookable with Cathay were via DOH on QR (the only direct flight was cancelled). The direct was still running one day earlier or one day later. The QR connected flight was not allowed on the AS award. The AS rep said they had flights via Heathrow and I said "won't that incur a bunch of extra fees and a new booking and won't it still take forever to get to Hong Kong?" and she said "yeah...". Definitely not helpful. I knew from looking at Cathay's website that Cathay rebooked me 1 day early but I preferred 1 day later so I asked her if it was available, she said she saw one seat available and I said "I'll take it!" she put me on hold and came back and said everything was taken care of I was now on the later flight. Immediately my AS app updated to show the new flight and when I checked my booking on Cathay it had been updated (I was even able to select my seat).

At the end of the day I'll eat about $60 to re-book my Cape Town - JNB flight to something later in the day (I had a very early morning CPT departure to catch my JNB flight) and the cost of the hotel (prob do 8k URs for the JNB Hyatt Regency). Considering I had an international flight shifted by 24 hours I think it could have been a lot worse!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Is anybody in our group churning AA cards? Are people looking for personal, business, or both offers? I'm continuing to read up on this personally as it could become a minor part of my 2019 strategy and just want to know who else wants to be kept up to speed on things if I find anything out OR anything changes.

Count me in! I've only done some but I'm definitely aboard this train. I'm into both personal and biz. I've done Barclay AA personal twice, denied Barclay AA Biz (twice, I even put spend on my other card before the 2nd app so that hurt), 1 Citi Biz, 3 Citi personal. Considering another Citi AA by hitting the MSR via tax payments but I'm undecided on if I want to float that much right now and I keep seeing $6k MSRs which is obscene considering at this point I'm trained that MSR on Citi AA cards is $3k

Citi personal AA was the first cc I got a couple years ago with sole intent of using it's bonus and discarding it ...yeah, I took a 5/24 slot for a Citi AA card. Bad decision? No actually. It enabled me to go back East and see my brother when I didn't have the cash to book even a basic economy ticket (Podunk, CA to Podunk, CT = $600). I wasn't traveling much at the time so I blew 25k miles and got a 1st class/biz ticket back to see him and a super discounted (like 8k AA miles) economy ticket back home. I guess I've been on this train since I started churning!

 

[wanderlust7]

Yeah I think that's the one we will end up going for. Thanks!

Good luck! As @gottalovepluto mentioned, CapOne is hard to predict. DPs suggest that they like high utilization and a high credit score may be a negative.

 

[magickingdomprincess]

Is anybody in our group churning AA cards? Are people looking for personal, business, or both offers? I'm continuing to read up on this personally as it could become a minor part of my 2019 strategy and just want to know who else wants to be kept up to speed on things if I find anything out OR anything changes.

I'm interested! So far I've gotten one emailed code for a personal card but it expires this month and I don't want to use it until I get more Chase cards. Hopefully more will be on the way. This is a good reminder I should probably sign up a few more "family members" for AA accounts! I'm thinking I might try to use the points for Hawaii for 2020 but not sure if I'm being delusional on that or not. I have 125k AA points currently.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Is anybody in our group churning AA cards? Are people looking for personal, business, or both offers? I'm continuing to read up on this personally as it could become a minor part of my 2019 strategy and just want to know who else wants to be kept up to speed on things if I find anything out OR anything changes.

I’m interested in the business cards, but haven’t received any mailers

 

[570traveler]

Is anybody in our group churning AA cards? Are people looking for personal, business, or both offers? I'm continuing to read up on this personally as it could become a minor part of my 2019 strategy and just want to know who else wants to be kept up to speed on things if I find anything out OR anything changes.

We’d be interested in AA personal cards. (Not sure about business unless they have a low spend. I have sold on eBay and also do contracted work through our local IU and receive a 1099 which I think might qualify me as well). Now that we found BWI has web economy saver to Orlando my husband is like we need to get more miles (this is coming from someone who hated credit cards coming into our marriage because his previous girlfriend left him with a large credit card debt). We currently only have the Barclays AA which we opened on a recent flight. He thinks we could swing a $3000 spend over 3 months. So please keep me in the loop on any offers!

Edit to add- I did receive a citi AA mailer for 50,000 points after 3,000 spend but wasn’t sure if this is a good offer or if there’s better out there.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Is anybody in our group churning AA cards? Are people looking for personal, business, or both offers? I'm continuing to read up on this personally as it could become a minor part of my 2019 strategy and just want to know who else wants to be kept up to speed on things if I find anything out OR anything changes.

Me! Used to get a ton of mailers but haven’t gotten any recently. Need to sign the dog up. I need to get a Biz for DH soon. I also need to do my $200 AA credit on my Biz before I close it. I can just buy a $200 gift card direct from AA to trigger the credit, right?

Also, it’s seeming like maybe an AA gift card isn’t that useful unless I want to fly a domestic AA flight. I don’t have any planned for the foreseeable future. Thinking maybe I’ll just sell this GC. I’ve never tried Raise or anything like that. Advice on best place to sell without getting burned?