Hi all,
Unfortunately, I am a flying road warrior and I'm hoping to revamp my card strategy to maximize points accrual with SFO as my home base. Any help would be appreciated.
- My primary goal is to redeem points on very frequent reward travel to NYC so that I pay as little as possible for this.
- I'm indifferent to JFK vs EWR, can't do LGA because of lack of nonstop west coast flights.
- I'm usually flying United/Jetblue/Delta/Alaska on these routes, but open to whatever makes the most sense
- I would like to have as many of these as possible be purchased with points. I can likely put a good amount of spend on cards each month, and am not opposed to targeting SUBs to make this happen.
- My secondary goal is to get seat upgrades as much as possible, so I think it'd make the most sense to seek status on one airline?
- I am averse to layovers, so I do want there to be a good amount of hubs/partner hubs for the primary airline (e.g. JetBlue might be out for that reason).
- My tertiary goal is to have a good availability of lounge access.
- In reality, I'm going to be minimizing as much as possible time in airports, so I won't be using it beyond a quick meal every once in a while. I haven't really missed not having lounge access like I used to.
- I'm not ranking highly hotel redemptions because I either won't need to pay for accommodations or I'm unable to pay on my personal cards.
My expected flight schedule will be:
- Personal: I will fly economy for all of these (unless upgraded)
- SFO to EWR/JFK: ~20 times a year
- SFO to LAX: 4 times a year
- SFO to HNL: 1 time a year
- SFO to somewhere in Latin America: 1 time a year
- Corporate Reimbursed and/or not paid for by me:
- SFO to NRT/HND: ~3 times a year
- SFO to HKG: ~3 times a year
- SFO to TPE: ~2 times a year
- SFO to Europe: ~2 times a year
**Using the template below**
- Current cards:
- Personal:
- Capital One Venture X (I plan to keep this)
- Wells Fargo Autograph
- Chase Sapphire Preferred
- Jet Blue Plus Card
- Amex Blue Cash Everyday
- U.S Bank Altitude Go
- Business:
- Chase Ink Cash
- Jet Blue Business Card
- Amex Blue Business Cash
- U.S. Bank Business Triple Cash
- Personal:
- Cancelled cards:
- Personal:
- Amex Platinum
- Amex Gold
- Bilt (converted to Wells Fargo Autograph)
- Business:
- Amex Business Platinum
- Amex Delta Gold Business
- Hilton Honors Business
- Chase Ink Preferred
- Citi American Airlines Business Card
- Personal:
- FICO Score: ~750
- Oldest account age: 15 years
- Chase 5/24 status: 3/24 until 7/27
- Average monthly spend and categories:
- dining: $200
- groceries: $300
- gas: $25
- Air travel: $3000
- Public Transport: $200
- Rent: Can potentially use cards to pay up to $6k monthly, with 3% fee. Only would do this if trying to hit frequent SUBs
- other: $200
- Open to Business Cards: yes
- What's the purpose of your next card? Travel
- Do you have any cards you've been looking at?
- All United Cards // Atmos cards // Chase Sapphire Reserved // Chase Inks // Amex Delta Platinum // Bilt's new cards? // Citi/American Airlines cards
- Since I'm 3/24, I thought about getting the United Explorer for Silver Status bump and then getting business cards to stay at 4/24 until next year, at which point I'd get another United Card.
Need help revising card setup: What is best for very frequent flights SFO to NYC/NRT/HKG/TPE/Europe?
byu/waituntilthecrowd inCreditCards
Posted by waituntilthecrowd