I have decided there is only one credit card you really need

I just did another Aviator and the miles posted quick…first one was back in 2020 and closed a year later.

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But AmEx is the “once-in-the-life” bonus and isn’t that around 5 years mark for “life” cap as well as Chae with 5/24 rule that I have to remember? CapitalOne has always denied me - for some reason they don’t life me and I don’t blame them:) BoA has nothing to offer of interest and Citi has only churning AA card going for it. I have yet to see it same way you do vs years prior :thinking:

Yea you can get multiples. Issue is Barclays can be tough to get approved for. I have a few of the Biz Aviator.

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I don’t even try capital one now, with 800+ score they still rejected the application few years back.

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once in lifetime

Yes if you use regular links, they send out offers very regularly now without the restriction. If you want one for the Biz Plat, Pm me.

Chase 5/24

Oh boy, that’s just the number of personal accounts OPEN in 24 months. Only personal, biz doesn’t count.

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Thoughts

As in do you want to churn through hundreds of cards? 10 cards?

Either way, read through this flowchart and figure out what you want to do.

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There is absolutely no reason to keep a Plat open after the first year when you can get the bonus over and over again.

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Yeah Capital One does not want the perfect score, pay it in full every month client.

Thanks for the guidance. Are you referencing the retention bonus or do you mean just cancel the card completely and apply again for another new account bonus?

Should also add I have no problem with the cost of the card. I easily make the annual fee back in the credits but would like to maximize points in the process.

For Business Plats, AMEX is sending out offers with no lifetime language(NLL) pretty regularly. If you didn’t get one, PM me for the link.

Before this, you could just call Business Management reps directly(if you had their direct numbers) and then get the bonus over and over.

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The platinum is for benefits more than spend with a few exceptions. Cjw may considering adding that to his wallet and then also adding a cheaper amex card like one of their everyday cards, while cancelling his gold card, to maximize per dollar rewards.

I’m waiting to see what the centurion club at DCA looks like. If it isn’t horribly overcrowded I’m jumping on the amex platinum bandwagon.

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Even if you want to upgrade… you should:

  1. Wait until it offers some bonus to upgrade, now it could be 100k points.
  2. Open the upgrade page, but don’t proceed
  3. Open brand new Platinum card with the opening bonus, now it should be 150k+ points
  4. After opened the new Platinum card, upgrade the old one.
    This way you double dipped and close/downgrade one platinum next year, with 250k points
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What website is this?

https://seats.aero/lifemiles

You can change to different programs.

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Nice, thanks for sharing. There is a Q-suite available for today from ATL-DOH if anyone is interested lol

Just to be clear, even though I don’t believe you’ve stated this explicitly yet, you cannot churn the personal Amex Plat annually, just the business one…yes?

I am 7 months into my personal Amex plat (w/ 150k signup bonus in Nov 2022) and I plan to cancel this Nov. even though the card is “worth it” in that the coupons (200 Uber, 200 flights (~400 due to it being rewarded annually), and 240 on entertainment) covered the annual fee with 0 hassle, even without including other benefits I don’t use (ex. Walmart, Equinox). On an earnings basis, however, 5x on flights and 1x on everything else is pretty horrible compared to almost every other card out there.

Also, I am shocked that no one has mentioned the Capital One Savor yet, this is by far my most lucrative card given that I get 4% on restaurants which people don’t realize includes 99% of alcohol at bars and the rewards can be redeemed as cash… no transfers necessary. I’ve had the card for 4.5 years and have earned 3K in cash to my account (and only paid 4 x 95 in annual fees). 500 bucks a year to swipe a card is pretty great IMO. Anyone spending over 1k a month on food (not grocery) should have this card unless they prefer the hassles of points transfer bonuses discussed here. I’m actually similar to the OP in that the hassle of transfers is not something I want to be bothered with (even though I know its not that laborous) so this one has been outstanding for me.

do you find this better than expertflyer? I used to just drop what i was looking for in there but so many airlines stopped working that it didn’t make sense to keep it anymore

while i did have the savor for a bit, the amex gold also does 4x on dining and it also does 4x on groceries + more transferrable currency. But fair if you want straight cashback on dining, probably one of the better cards you can get.

I don’t really use the platinum unless it’s a flight or I have an amex offer (which can be pretty lucrative), given the 1x earnings. Sometimes I use it for car rental or other protections, but generally swipe it to start with and then swipe something else to close the account if no damage.

Yeah I didn’t mean to hype the 4%… I think most premier dining cards offer that. It was moreso the fact that the whole purpose of this thread was the OP mentioning that a lot of the credit card churning/management hassle comes from tricky transfer policies and changing valuations, and the associated time lost with dealing with those. As far as I have been able to tell, CapOne is one of the most straight forward in terms of allowing cash back (and not only as a statement credit either)

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Not sure I follow…what’s their option?

US Bank is easy just to redeem to any travel at 1.5c/point and you do not need to book from them, just have to be booked directly from Airline/Hotel, (e.g. expedia doesn’t count)