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Hello,
I'm looking to revise my current FICO Score / Credit Card Holdings / Rewards plan and I need your help deciding what to do. I don't like all the annual fee's, but some pay for themselves. Also, if I can churn some of the cards in order to get more bonus points from other programs, and get rid of or downgrade a few cards to avoid having to pay annual fee's that would be great. We spent $3,650 last year at supermarkets ($219 back if we would have used AMEX BCP every time). Never have used the Alaska companion fare, and probably won't, esp. now that it's coach. Also I hate BOA. We use the Chase Hyatt night, and Chase Ink Bold two free airport lounge passes every year. Will fly Delta & United probably 2-4 times each in 2015. Also, we are trying to save on airfare to Hawaii each year for vacation (just us two). Our strategy has been to transfer points from Chase to Korean Air or British Airways for inexpensive travel RT to Hawaii for about 25 - 34k airline miles per person (Chase points @ 1:1).
Flew AA one time in 2014 (Spent $0, redeemed one free flight) 31,000 miles available
Flew United 3 times in 2014 (Spent $2000 in airfare, redeemed one free flight) 49,000 miles available
Flew Delta 3 times in 2014 (Spent $1650 in airfare, redeemed no flights) 23,606 113,000 miles available
Here are my current cards (not including store cards) and limits and AF's and due dates:
My Cards (AGI: $65k) | Credit Limit | Annual Fee | AF Due Date |
AMEX BCP Perks: 6% supermarket, 3% dept. stores | $20,600 | $75 | 8/2015 |
AMEX Delta Gold Perks: Priority Boarding, 1 Free Bag/trip | $4,900 | $95 | 12/15 |
BOA Alaska Visa Sig Perks: Annual Companion Fare $121 | $5,000 | $75 | 2/15 |
Chase Hyatt Visa Sig Perks: Annual 1 Free Night (Category 1-4), Hyatt Platinum status | $13,600 | $75 | 11/15 |
Chase Ink Bold MC Perks: 2 free airport lounge passes, 5x points @ office supply, cell phone, internet | $6k flex | $95 | 12/15 |
Chase Sapphire Pref. Visa Sig. Perks: 2x points @ travel, dining / and 1:1 points transfer to air, hotel | $9,900 | $95 | 8/15 |
Citi AA Visa Sig. Perks: 1 free checked bag, Group 1 boarding, Annual $100 flight discount | $4,000 | $85 | 2/15 |
Discover IT 5% back rotating categories, no interest until April 2015 | $8,500 | No AF | NO AF |
PenFed Plat. Rew. Visa Sig 5x points @ Gas | $7,500 | NO AF | NO AF |
Spouse Cards (AGI: $30k) | Credit Limit | Annual Fee | AF Due Date |
AMEX Delta Perks: Priority Boarding, 1 Free Bag/trip | $9,900 | $95 | 7/15 |
Chase United MPE Visa Sig. Perks: 1 free bag/person/trip, priority boarding, two united club passes/year | $18,000 | $95 | 7/15 |
Good question, and thanks for listing out all the details, it makes it easier to compare options
I would suggest that you are using too many airlines. With Delta, once you make Silver Medalion ($2,500 in Medallion Qualifying Dollars Spent and 25,000 miles flown) you get a miles bonus every time you fly, it's 25% added miles in Silver Medalion, 50% added miles in Gold Medalion. By not focusing your mileage, you don't stack those benefits. I'm sure these different airlines are from sign up bonuses for their co-branded cards? That's fine, but the maximization strategy from your actual spend is that you want to work with one airline.
Now, it may be that you aren't going to hit the $2,500 per person annual ticket spend, to get Silver, in which case, you may decide the ancillary benefits of having three airline cards is OK, I'm just suggesting that picking one airline is something to consider. In many cases, that airline should have partners where you can get the miles from say an AK flight credited to your DL Skymiles account.
Once you decide on the airline, then the rest of the CC you use need to be checked whether they support that miles program. Chase UR, for example, does not transfer points to DL. AMEX MR points do transfer to DL. The BCP doesn't provide MR points, but the EDP does, and those points grow with a "swipe accelerator": if you use it 30x each month, you get 50% more points for that month, for an AF of course, but it can add up to a lot of points of you are focused.
Regarding the PenFed "5%" if I read the rewards fine print correctly, it's not really 5%, but something like 80% of 5%. Not bad, just not as good.
And for clarification: With Delta, you earn Silver status and it is good for the next year, so that 25% miles bonus affects purchases for the 12 months after you reach Silver, not just the tail end of this current year. Once you get on that Silver status, it's easier to maintain going forward, if you fly regularly.
Thank you, that's helpful. I probably should stick to only Delta for flying, but sometimes the routes available are better on United and sometimes better on Delta, so I usually take my preference there. It's a good point for stacking up miles on one airline however.
You're right about Pen Fed. I don't really use the PenFed for gas anymore because it's too inconvenient chasing all the cards down to pay them off each month for the little they reward you with. But with no annual fee, I'll keep it in the sock drawer. AMEX Delta and Chase Sapphire are my primary cards at the moment.