How Many Credit Cards Do You Have?

[Mrs. Gooch]

My aim is to get to Italy for free, and that is what I am trying to do.

Last night Gooch started telling me that the fees were going to be ridic even if we got points.....but I think he was looking at AA....and he never would look at United....and I haven't gotten any cards yet so I am exploring all my options first...

...and I clicked on the links in the Delta thread and they are either expired or only at 30K right now....except maybe the Platinum which is at 35K + 5K MQMs (What are MQMs?)....but I can't tell if the $195 annual fee is waived.

[steve dave]

The thing I dislike the most is people who come to me here or irl and say stuff like, "I want to go to Italy for free like you do, I have no points and want to go in 6 months."

[sys]

the gold on the link was 35k.  i have a 40k gold offer in my email right now that they obviously send out as their min. offer to anyone with a skymiles account and there were 50 and 60k ( ) offers mentioned in the thread.

flying transatlantic, the only carrier you're likely to access with really high fees is ba.  you can use aa to get to rome without crazy fees if you just avoid ba.  ua will get you there easy with low fees.  i think you said you wanted to go this spring, and you're not going to go from 0k delta to 120k without using bus cards, which you said you don't want to do.  and if you've changed your mind on applying for bus cards, then you should prolly focus on higher value biz cards like the inks, at least to start.

the delta personal cards are also not churnable, so you'd be burning your one chance to get that bonus at a time when the bonus is not at a historic high (unless you can access the 60k offer), basically because mocat happened to mention that rome is a delta hub.  which is a ridiculous reason.

[Trim]

The thing I dislike the most is people who come to me here or irl and say stuff like, "I want to go to Italy for free like you do, I have no points and want to go in 6 months."

You dislike that more than when you put in a bunch of work to guide someone to a bunch of points and miles and then it just occurs to them mid-pak that they let 150K AA miles expire earlier that week?

[chum1]

Is sys continues to do business with the people SD is too snooty to want to deal with, his plan to overtake SD as resident reward card expert might actually work.

[Mrs. Gooch]

I said within the next 3 years!

[Mrs. Gooch]

I'm telling you that I clicked on that gold link that said it was 35k but when I got there it was only 30k.Sounds like I need to do my own research on United fees and not listen to Gooch. He keeps trying I make me use Avios because he has a bunch of them.

[steve dave]

I said within the next 3 years!

I know, I wasn't talking specifically about you

[steve dave]

Also, i got the delta Amex at 70k twice (4 times if you count Mrs. Dave miles)

[sys]

I'm telling you that I clicked on that gold link that said it was 35k but when I got there it was only 30k.Sounds like I need to do my own research on United fees and not listen to Gooch. He keeps trying I make me use Avios because he has a bunch of them.

i clicked on it and got 35.  if you have 3 years, you can get the points to use delta, but you're still going to have to churn business cards.

you can use the avios, just fly the transatlantic on aa metal.  you'll have to look up all the stuff on how to use avios correctly.  it's possible, but you can't just book the first thing that ba's search spits out at you.

[chum1]

Also, i got the delta Amex at 70k twice (4 times if you count Mrs. Dave miles)

I'm telling you that I clicked on that gold link that said it was 35k but when I got there it was only 30k.Sounds like I need to do my own research on United fees and not listen to Gooch. He keeps trying I make me use Avios because he has a bunch of them.

i clicked on it and got 35.  if you have 3 years, you can get the points to use delta, but you're still going to have to churn business cards.

you can use the avios, just fly the transatlantic on aa metal.  you'll have to look up all the stuff on how to use avios correctly.  it's possible, but you can't just book the first thing that ba's search spits out at you.

Which one seems more like a guru? 

[pissclams]

i know it sounds nuts but i think sys is better at credit card stuff than steve dave.  steve dave is still pretty good though.

[Mrs. Gooch]

I said within the next 3 years!

I know, I wasn't talking specifically about you

Sys said I want to go in the spring.

[sys]

Sys said I want to go in the spring.

i may have confused you with michigancat.

[Trim]

30 min on the phone is way too much

Yeah, they should've given me the whole flight for free at that point.

I realized at the end of the day I hadn't gotten a confirmation email or anything charged to my card or my miles and I had to be on the phone with them for another 35 minutes.

[star seed 7]

This is why I don't mess with points

[steve dave]

This is why I don't mess with points

There are a lot of low/meds on here that make it seem more challenging than it is

[chum1]

This is why I don't mess with points

There are a lot of low/meds on here that make it seem more challenging than it is

You mean like your rival, sys?

[Tobias]

steve rake really rolls off the tongue

[star seed 7]

This is why I don't mess with points

There are a lot of low/meds on here that make it seem more challenging than it is

Well the phone calls are more of a potential reason, the real reason is I'm not very good at paying my bills

[GoodForAnother]

we're flying to Rome on AA and we did pay fees because I'm apparently stupid and didn't know I could avoid them but whatever it's already booked and it wasn't that much in the grand scheme of things and I'll just get a little better every day and try to do better my next time out

[steve dave]

You can search for travel on just aa metal if you don't want to see BA award flights

[sys]

we're flying to Rome on AA and we did pay fees because I'm apparently stupid and didn't know I could avoid them but whatever it's already booked and it wasn't that much in the grand scheme of things and I'll just get a little better every day and try to do better my next time out

you can still change it.  if you can find aa flights that will work.

[pissclams]

we're flying to Rome on AA and we did pay fees because I'm apparently stupid and didn't know I could avoid them but whatever it's already booked and it wasn't that much in the grand scheme of things and I'll just get a little better every day and try to do better my next time out

you can still change it.  if you can find aa flights that will work.

absolutely nailed it

[Trim]

This is why I don't mess with points

It wasn't the points, it was AA.  I suppose I wouldn't have committed to being in Miami at a certain time of day over 2 months from now w/o knowing I had gangs of points and something would work out, but fear of AA's site being f'd up for a day isn't a good reason to not get a bunch of free stuff.