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My wife and I are thinking of a trip to Japan after COVID is all over, and I don't want to fly 16 hours in economy class. I'm looking at some blurbs about churning credit cards to get miles/points and converting them for travel usage. I'm curious about this if it'll help reduce the cost of business-class exit row seats. We've had a United Mileageplus credit card and have around 196,000 miles on it. We didn't fly too often, but we did pay for everything on the card and pay the balance down every month. My wife and I both have great credit but I don't want to go ruining it by chasing after a mileage dragon. Goons, have you churned? If so what was the experience like, good or bad?
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Dec 31, 2020 01:26
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 17:13 |
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It's non trivial work with some things to consider. First, opening a new account reduces the average age of your credit history, which hurts your credit score. Hard inquiries do as well, but less so. Also, if you don't intend to keep the cards closing an account hurts your credit score. Cards with annual fees can quickly add up. Read the terms carefully about inactive accounts as well. When I looked into this, it's possible to do this but it's a lot of time spent and there are landmines everywhere. At the end of the day, it's not worth it IMO, unless your time is worth near zero.
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Dec 31, 2020 01:57
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I know people who have all their bills autopay onto points cards which they immediately pay every month, but anything more seems like your time would be better spent on investing or something
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Dec 31, 2020 06:18
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Even if it's just two cards? I keep reading about one Amex offer that gives 100,000 miles after X months of spending, which I could easily do without changing habits, then the same for the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Do those, transfer the miles to ANA, repeat for my wife, and it's enough for two business class seats. It still seems like one of those things that's too good to be true - yeah, there's two Amex annual fees of $550 each, and two of however much Chase Sapphire Reserve charges, but for the cost and time it seems worth it. Maybe not as a hobby, but to help cut down $17,000 of airfare it seems worth it.
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Dec 31, 2020 14:54
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It's worth it to me. I have 20+ cards currently open and like 75+ in the past 4-5 years. I travel internationally 3-4 times a year and always fly business. There's definitely work involved as finding redemptions is significant effort unless you book when the calendar opens, 330 or 360 something days out, which I don't tend to do. The biggest key other than that is to make it near free by finding ways to use the various benefits, e.g. $200 airline credit x 3 more than pays for the Amex Plat though it's too late to do this now.
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Jan 1, 2021 04:01
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Basic credit card churning is absolutely worth it. For normal people, this is by far the easiest way to enjoy champagne and lobster at 40,000 feet from a seat that folds into a bed. It's not complicated or risky until you get to the point where you're worrying about things like 5/24 limits or manufactured spend. The only real requirements are that you always pay your balance off, you can meet the minimum spending requirements from normal monthly spending, and your credit is good enough to qualify for the cards you want. Opening a bunch of credit cards isn't going to screw up your credit unless you have other problems or you're doing it at the same time you're trying to qualify for your mortgage. I agree with asur that the hardest part is finding good redemptions. The high-fee cards are really intended for people who travel on a regular basis. There are ways to recoup most/all of the fees but they require you to be spending that much money on travel expenses in the first place. Start with the low/no-fee cards unless you can see a clear path toward offsetting a $500+ annual fee or it's waived in the first year.
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Jan 2, 2021 20:23
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It's global megabanks letting average people in a little bit on the kickback grift that fuels every other aspect of their business, you have a moral duty to take maximum advantage of it
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Jan 3, 2021 04:57
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My approach was a Delta Amex since I live near Atlanta and always fly Delta. I use flyer talk.com to find low cost “mileage run” flights on partner airlines that give large mileage bonuses (200%). For example on AeroMexico Atlanta to Mexico City (3 hr flight) business class was $530 with a nice mileage bonuses. In airport about 3 hours and flew back. Obviously not everyone is interested or can do that but as you increase status, your point earnings increase. Can then use a mixture of points, cash, and global upgrade certificates (get 4 with Diamond status) to reduce cost of more expensive flight destinations.
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Jul 16, 2021 16:15
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 17:13 |
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Canine Blues Arooo posted:It's non trivial work with some things to consider. Cancel the cards with big fees after using the bonus. From what I’ve heard the credit impacts are negligible. Probably stop if you anticipate needing a new mortgage in the next year or two but otherwise you really have nothing to lose
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Jul 26, 2021 05:45
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