I’m hoping some of you are willing to help a newbie in the churning game. I’m a long time DISer (first joined in ’03 under a different name) but I haven’t been around in a while, other than briefly posting again last year on some of the trip boards prior to our 2018 WDW vacation.
I’m looking for suggestions on the best cards to get/use to reach our goals for future travel. My main interest is to churn to get the big sign up bonuses, with less interest in using certain cards for certain categories for 2x or 3x points (use credit card A for groceries and B for gas, and C for restaurants). I’d much rather put all our purchases on one or maybe two cards at any given time. I don’t want to make it too complex because I just don’t have the mental energy to keep it all straight, and my DH even less so. I realize we might be leaving points on the table this way, but that’s ok – simplicity trumps optimization for us.
I don’t have the time to read the whole thread (although I will be going back as time permits), but I did read the sticky. So here goes!
Family info: Family of 3 – Me, DH and DD7 – we’re the only ones traveling.
Travel Goals: Two future Disney trips
Trip 1: DLR June of 2020. Plan to pay cash for airfare (1st class if I can find a good deal but economy otherwise – will fly either AA or UA) but use Marriott points for Courtyard Inn Anaheim (50k points per night for 8 nights, 1 night free so 350k points – which I pretty much have on hand already). Because I already have the hotel points and plan to pay cash for the flights, my main concern is with trip 2, however if anyone suggests changing up how we approach trip 1 in order to assist with trip 2, I’m all ears.
Trip 2: WDW May of 2022. Original plan was to use airline miles for flights (economy) and Marriott points for Swan/Dolphin for 10 nights (50k points per night, 2 nights free so 400k points). THAT SAID – also open to cash back/travel statement redemption credit cards (or any other strategy you might suggest) to cover cost of ANY on-property Disney moderate/deluxe or villa – open to renting points for DVC (actually really interested in this idea since it’s such a long trip – although I have no experience in renting points so yet another thing I’ll be researching!). Zero interest in staying off property, and strong preference NOT to change resorts mid-stay, although would consider one resort hop if necessary.
Important Note: With the Marriott merger with Starwood being so new, one big concern I have is, assuming I manage to earn the 400k points needed for a 10 night Swan/Dolphin stay, that I might not be able to actually get 10 nights. Starwood’s old rule was as long as a single hotel room was available for sale, you could use points to reserve it. I have no idea how Marriott’s program works in practice, or how it may work 3 years from now (and even under Starwood, 10 nights might have been a tall order at Swan/Dolphin). So my fear is that I’ll be sitting on 400k of points that I can’t actually use, when I could have been earning cash back or other useable rewards another way all along. It’s the big reason I’m thinking of just going to straight up cash back rewards and/or travel statement redemptions, no worries about blackout dates or other restrictions. I just book the lowest rate I can find and use my cash back/travel redemptions to cover the cost. I’m not quite as worried about the DLR stay as I can book that as soon as July of ’19 before they can mess with the program too much (plus the BonVoy points I need for the DLR trip have already been earned in any case so too late now!).
Home Airport is O’Hare. As I mentioned the plan is to pay cash for flights for Trip 1 and miles/points for flights for Trip 2. Really only want non-stop flights so we’re looking at UA or AA.
Credit Scores – high 700’s/low 800’s for both of us. No plans for needing loans anytime in the near future so no fear of churning negatively affecting our scores/ability to get credit. I mean I hope it doesn’t but we won’t be affected if it did.
Average monthly credit card spend (last 24 months) $3860
We don’t own a business so I don’t think we qualify for any of the business cards, unless there is something about them I’m not aware of where non-business owners can get them?
Current open cards in both our names:
- 8/14? Chase Slate - could be longer. Haven’t used it in ages but too lazy to close it since it has no annual fee – happy to close it.
- 4/16 Chase Freedom - don’t currently use it, just too lazy to close it since it has no annual fee – happy to close it.
- 8/18 Chase United Airlines, earned 65k mileage bonus. Hope to keep open until mid-June ‘19 to get free checked bags for upcoming trip but not a deal breaker if you suggest I need to close it sooner. After trip will close to avoid annual fee.
- 8/11 AMEX Marriott BonVoy (formerly Starwood). Earned some sort of bonus back when we opened it. This is how I earned all of our past and current Starwood/Marriott points. With the Marriott merger my current AMEX really isn’t the best way to keep earning points I feel, but not sure if I should get the new AMEX BonVoy Brilliant (except holy heck that annual fee!) or go another route, plus again my fear of the future ability to redeem points with the BonVoy program.
In my name only 7/18 Blain’s Farm and Fleet – used to get a 10% off your current purchase (bought a riding lawn mower). Never use it so happy to close if needed
In DH’s name only – nothing new in the last 2 years
Current Reward Programs
- Marriott BonVoy current point balance 339,981
- United Airlines miles current balance 99 (not a typo, just booked 3 free tickets for summer 2019 travel a few days ago!)
- Chase Ultimate Rewards is at about 1700 points I think, I don’t go out of my way to earn many and I cashed a bunch in a while back for some reason or another.
Other than vacations (which are mostly booked with points), we don’t travel so won’t earn hotel points or airline miles in that manner (with the exception of airline miles for Trip 1).
So that’s it! I figure getting an AA Citi Platinum card for the 60k sign up bonus would be in play for the 2022 WDW trip, but not sure how to proceed beyond that. THANK YOU in advance for any advice you can offer!!!
And thanks for the DISchurners invite!
I just don’t know that you’ll get much value out of a CP.
