Credit Card Thread - Now with a Beginner's Guide to free travel/FAQ

Chase is currently waiving the annual fee on the United MileagePlus card but the bonus is only 40k miles. Card offers some other decent benefits though so could still be worth the lower mileage bonus

 

A waived annual free is always worth 40k miles. But, it's more worth it to pay the annual fee and get 60 or 70 on the offer

 

Took the plunge on an AF card and went with the CSR, been flying so much lately I’m kinda kicking myself for not getting it earlier.

 

did you have a referral?

we should have referrals in the OP probably

 

No referral, not sure I wanna know now but does the referree get any benefit or just the referrer?

 

C'mon MAN!

 

just us, your friends.

 

and then people are likely to return the favor when they need a referral

i think ohhai and i have referred each other on like 5 different things it seems like

 

I'd go platinum Amex. You have to pay for bags or get reimbursed? Also assuming you will hit medallion?

 

Assuming you are going to be staying in hotels you get gold with Marriott SPG and Hilton with platinum plus the uber credit

 

Well if you need a referral, I'm all ears

 

I'm dumb and forgot about points I had on American Airlines. I already booked a flight through Chase UR two weeks ago...however I would rather use these points through AA that I forgot about. It would save me about $400. Am I screwed and just have to use those points on some other flight or will Chase let me cancel the transaction/flight? I don't travel enough anymore to have any idea.

 

You'll need to use the AA points on another flight unless you can do the following:

1. Cancel flight from chase
2. Now you will have airline credit for that airline
3. Now you will need another flight to use that credit towards in the next 6 months (I think it's usually 6 months)
4. Use the credit you have and pay a $150 change fee and any difference in fare

So that nets you 250 assuming you'd be able to use it on another flight and you're only changing one ticket

 

So basically not gonna happen. Might just have to hope I can use the points on AA for another flight in March. I have a flight in Feb to Reno out of Charlotte then a flight to Grand Rapids in March out of Charlotte. Hopefully I can make use of the points for my flight in March I haven't booked yet. That's probably the easiest thing sounds like.

 

Yeah I would just hold them and use them when you can instead of jumping through all those other hoops probably

 

Problem solved. Went ahead and booked flight for wedding in March. Those points covered both passengers. So this worked out better anyway. I forgot I had these AA points anyway until they sent me an email reminder today telling me I had 50k points to use before Feb sometime.

I primarily use Chase SR, Amex Blue Cash Preferred and Chase Freedom. I need a new goal to work towards though. Anybody great offers as we head towards that time of year?

 

CIP probably

 

If you're trying to maximize UCR points you should get a Freedom Unlimited in the mix. I use mine for all purchases that don't fit a category on my CSR/Freedom and Amex BCP when I'm not working on a new card.

 

CIP's bonus would outweigh years of freedom unlimited use

 

Tell me more. Believe it has been discussed in here before but how does one apply without really having a "business"?

 

You almost certainly have a business

This should help, it's a bit dense though

 

How many legs a year do you think you'll have?

 

This is enticing to me. Do most people that regularly post in here have this card as well?

 

I just got the ink preferred 3 months ago saying I sold stuff on ebay. Got approved and just recently got the sign up points. Also I convinced my gf to sign up for the sapphire but forgot about the referral

 

I have ink preferred, just got it for sign up bonus and also switched cable and cell phone bill over to it as you get 3x points for those categories

 

I do not

 

Might be pulling the trigger on the JetBlue 60k offer. $99 for 60k points is pretty great. Only $1k spend.

 

Unfortunately, i signed up for the 40K offer (which was the highest ever at that time) & Barclays refused to match since it was 30+ days of signing up. Ahh well - still a great bonus

 

How are JetBlue points IYO?

 

Is the JetBlue 60k a targeted offer? They only fly to NYC and Boston from PHX so my options are limited but that's $700+ worth of points.

 

I just signed up. Approved with a 22k limit immediately.

 

Public offer.

you can redeem JetBlue points from .97c to 1.89c a point with international redemptions being better than domestic. I plan to use it on a mint booking next year - the best thing about them is that they don't expire & no blackout crap. I believe you can club them with the jetblue promos that come around and there have been rumors of JB flights to europe next year or so.

Also, you can get 3x points at Amazon if you click through their link before shopping..

 

I applied and it went to pending. Hopefully just need to move some of the credit limit from my AA card.

 

mfw jet blue doesn't fly out of KC

 

Ind either. Really could've used it, too

They have 9 south/Central American airports and I'm going to 7 in 12 months

 

Took like 3 minutes to get it approved.

 

I just called to downgrade my citi thankyou premier to avoid the fee next month and they waived the fee with 95 dollars in purchases in the next two cycles. also, there is an offer for a bonus 1000 thank you points for the next 16 months when you spend 1k in a month

 

Best way to use the Amex $200 travel credit is buying 4 $50 eCerts. You will also get free checked bags when you can gain status with DL.

Also make sure you get the 100k sign up offer if applying for the Amex plat. It is one and done signup bonus.

I personally get a ton of perks with my DL platinum status but it has definitely devalued compared to the peak status days of 5-10 years ago. But that is across all airlines.

 

Technically Amex says no, but have done this with no issue for the last 4-5 years and just did it last week to cash out the last $117 for this year.

 

American Airlines gift cards specifically, or whatever you have chosen as your airline to be reimbursed.

 

Reddit recommends that you do all the transactions as $50 gift cards until you meet whatever your number is

I just upgraded my seats to exit row with my prg bonus

 

What I'm most excited about medallion for. Free exit row

 

Follow up to this...if you go through the Chase website to this card it shows the 40k bonus after $2000 spend. I was looking on the United website and went to the cards through there and it's showing 50k bonus with $3000 spend, both offers waived annual fee in the first year. Any clue why they'd be advertising different offers like that? I was already leaning towards jumping on the 40k offer so the 50k makes me want it even more

 

That happens a decent amount with cards.

 

Right, I know they have targeted offers and what not. I'm confused how it seems like both cards I'm looking at a Chase advertisement just in different places

Additional question: anyone know if there's a way to pay on two cards when purchasing flights? If I were buying through United I'd rather book most of it on my CSR for the triple points but it'd also be nice to be able to put part of it on the MileagePlus card for the priority boarding and free checked bag perks