@enharu wrote:Some of the cards you listed have an AF.
Not all AF are waived in the first year either.
Unless you plan to stay at those hotels or use those airlines a lot in the future, this is a very bad idea.
If you have to pony up for the AF, meet the spending requirements for the bonus, AND take a hit to your CR just for a few nights / flights, it's really not worth it.
You are pretty much better off either working for that money, get a 0% card to put your travel expenses on, or just change your plans entirely.
It sounds like you have a budget to stick to. Rather than staying at Hyatt or Hilton, why not just stay at a cheaper hotel? Not as fancy, but at least you're not jumping through hoops. And maybe you should reconsider about your destinations and be a little less ambitious.
Also, If you are able to meet the minimum spending to qualify for the bonus, I don't understand how you have trouble paying for the trip directly either. You probably will save a lot more time by just booking the trip via discount sites such as priceline. This is going to be better for your CR as well, especially if you plan to get a mortage in the near future.
Or alternatively, just apply for a card with 0% promo APR and put your travel expenses on it.
Thank you enharu, it's refreshing to read a post like yours. Many times people just agree with whatever the OP says. While I liked your analysis I just completely disagree with it. First, I don't just jump into anything. I research like crazy and double check then triple check things. It's a litte crazy but I enjoy it. So yes I know which cards have annual fees and which don't and I know how much the spend is and how I'll meet it. And no I don't get the same deal from places like priceline or expedia.
If you put in my trip to Expedia the flights alone are well over 5K. That is only in Economy. In my scenerio we'd be flying to Tokyo Business/first. If you add that in there then you're looking 15K. And the hotels I'll be staying at aren't holiday inn expresses. For instance, we could stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney overlooking Sydney Harbour for free. I looked it up in Expedia for some random weekend in January it's $1,826. We'd never be able to stay at a place like that on our own, at least not for some time. So AF is worth it to us. Maybe that doesn't mean that much to you but we'd like to do it and to us it's worth the $95 AF.
Next you talk about meeting the minimum spend. For us that's not a problem. First, the minimum spends aren't that much on most of these cards. it's between 1-2.5K for all the cards except the CSP. We pay everything on our cards and then immedately PIF. I have 40K worth of credit which I put 4K of spend on last month and I currently have a total balance of 550 (which is already paid). We put anything we can on cards including stuff like my books for law school which is about a 600 a semster. Our rent which is almost 2k. Anything for the car, food, gas, tickets, clothes, phones, plus my wife buys stuff for her job and is reimbursed. I do the same thing for my clinics in law school. I'm going to India this winter. I have to buy my ticket and they'll reimburse me. That's 2K right there. That doesn't mean we are rich we just strategically use our cards.
Lastly you talk about keeping the cards. We will keep some and close some. That's what credit is about. Figuring out what works for you. We will for sure close the Citi Hilton because the points are so devauled. We will also probably cancel the Hyatt card because we basically get all the same perks on the CSP. But we like intercons so we will keep our priotity club open (it doesn't hurt that we get a free stay every year). My wife will surely keep her CSP and we might keep the United Explorer open for the free bags as we fly United a lot.
So hopefully that clears things up a bit. We would basically be getting a 20K honeymoon for about 1,200 in fees and taxes. We are frugal and would never be able to stay in places like this but my wife is awesome and she deserves it. We will each cancel about two cards after the trip so I dont even think the credit hit will be that big.
@Anonymous wrote:Honestly.... I wouldn't even waste points on hotels in places like Thailand, you can find plenty of very nice local hotels for fraction of the costs. Save them for Europe and Japan/Korea expensive areas imo. In Thailand very clean and nice hotel with rooms that can rival Crown Plaza (without all the amenities) should run about $40 a night at max. $100 should get you a penthouse room in some nicer small places with Jacuzzi in your room with a nice balcony.
You are right. A sweet at the merridian is going for 134 a night and that includes breakfast. Places like the four season and the Conrad are also sub 200. Good catch.
@Anonymous wrote:
@unc0mm0n1 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Honestly.... I wouldn't even waste points on hotels in places like Thailand, you can find plenty of very nice local hotels for fraction of the costs. Save them for Europe and Japan/Korea expensive areas imo. In Thailand very clean and nice hotel with rooms that can rival Crown Plaza (without all the amenities) should run about $40 a night at max. $100 should get you a penthouse room in some nicer small places with Jacuzzi in your room with a nice balcony.
You are right. A sweet at the merridian is going for 134 a night and that includes breakfast. Places like the four season and the Conrad are also sub 200. Good catch.
That's good, remember the best part of being a points chaser/churner is getting the most out of your points/miles. In cheaper countries opt for cash! Honestly there's a trick you can use, in some hotels where you bring out cash, then act like you're changing your mind and put it on credit instead. I would say half of the time when they notice you had the cash, they'll offer you cash discounts. I regularly get 10% off when I go out with my friends to go eat at a local restaurant when I pool all the cash, then offer to pay on my card.
That is awesome. I noticed that in Argentina as well you can get anything cheap if you use cash. I will be using this trick.
Happy Honeymoon and good luck to you.
The baddie is a collection that I refuse to pay. It was from a cellphone that was placed on hold while I was in the Army. Cingular was sold to AT&T and by the time I came back to the states 4 1/2 yrs later and called At&T they told me they had no records of my account, so I figured it was just deleted. I checked my credit about a year later and there was a CO account on there that was already over 4 years old. I did inquiries sent in paperwork but no matter what I did the CO said they wanted full payment and still weren't going to remove it. Just mark it as paid. So I told them I'll just wait it out. The waiting stop this year 
.
@unc0mm0n1 wrote:The baddie is a collection that I refuse to pay. It was from a cellphone that was placed on hold while I was in the Army. Cingular was sold to AT&T and by the time I came back to the states 4 1/2 yrs later and called At&T they told me they had no records of my account, so I figured it was just deleted. I checked my credit about a year later and there was a CO account on there that was already over 4 years old. I did inquiries sent in paperwork but no matter what I did the CO said they wanted full payment and still weren't going to remove it. Just mark it as paid. So I told them I'll just wait it out. The waiting stop this year
i would wait till the collection falls off just to be safe. your wife can get started on the process now though as long as her utilization that is being reported is low.
Thanks for the advice so far guys. I'll keep you guys updated on this little journey. I was going to wait to apply for most of the cards but everyone said that my wife should apply for a few now. So I caved and went with it. She applied for the Priority Club and..... immediate approval plus 80K bonus points. Next, we applied for the Chase Hyatt and we got the 7-10 days message L. We called and reconed and were told to send in a her license and the customer service lady said she thinks it would be approved they just had to verify the address. Then we applied for the Citi Hilton. Once again we got the 7-10 day message called in and answered a few questions and had to send in address verification. We'll call back later today and check. Thanks again for all the help it looks like we're half way there for our cards. We both plan on waiting until December to apply again. We'll both go for the United Explorer, and she will go for the CSP. While I will attempt to get the Chase Hyatt. Then in February I'll try to get the Hilton. Then BTW, my DW's previous highest CL was 1000. The Priority club gave her a CL of $9100!