I hoped to do it Tuesday as the backlog of applications is gone from the processing centers, but alas, I’ll be floating on the Atlantic on the $222 Royal Caribbean Cruise to Nassau, the Private Island and Sea day until next Friday. It will have to wait until the following week.
My two for sure cards are the Citi AAdvantage Platinum World MasterCard for 25K and the CitiBusiness World Mastercard for another 25K. Gary at the View from the Wing Blog is recommending the USAirways cards as there are three of them worth getting. His reasoning is very sound in that United blocks award travel on its Star Alliance partners. US Airways it appears does not. I hate the idea of paying a annual fee for these three cards, but it may be worthwhile. They are the personal and business cards from Barclays Bank and Bank of America.
That makes 5 so far. I need several more. I’m tempted to go with the Citi Platinum Amex card with Thank You points, for the sign up bonus but already have all my bonus categories covered with my existing TY Point cards. They do offer one extra point on non bonus category purchases which is nice.
It pays to research your past as well. I called Amex and found out that I have had a Delta Gold Business card, but never a personal one so there is another possibility. I’ll make the same call to Chase when I cancel the newer of my Marriott cards (I have two) and the same goes for my United personal cards (two). The next United card appears to be the United Chase Business card although Chase gave me a whopping $500 limit on my Continental card.
I’ve checked creditboards.com and the data pulls forum to assure that the cards I apply for will be checked through Experian or Equifax (still carrying 19 inquiries on TransUnion)
Chase is just too exhausting to collect on. I did finally get my 21K Continental miles from Chase from JUNE. I have a preapproved offer for 21K more for the business card. I’ve already had the Southwest cards, Marriott cards and United cards.
US Bank is soon out of the picture, with the Delta merger, and that makes some sense, but I’ve already had both the Northwest cards.
The lineup looks like Citi Aadvantage personal and business, 3 US Airways cards, The Delta personal card, and United Business card (ugh) for about 175,000 miles.
Updates to come.
