Stepping Up the Game, My Next Churn!

What's better than going to the airplane bathroom to change into PJs provided by the airline and coming back to your seat that has magically transformed into a bed?

PJ's received from my Cathay Pacific First class

Seat turned into a bed with down comforter!      

Sending your parents on that trip instead! As you can guess, it will cost me a good portion of my accrued miles, but hopefully it will be enough for them to finally stop bringing up the time I tried changing the grades on my report card in high school.

To keep my points balance at a reasonable level, I will need to do another round of applications. These are the ones I've signed up for and where I'd like to eventually spend them:

SPG American Express: Spend $3,000 in 3 months, $95 annual fee, which is waived the first year. This increased sign up bonus happens about once a year during the summer.

There is currently and increased bonus of 30,000 instead of 25,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points (SPG). What is SPG? It's the umbrella company that owns hotels such as Sheraton, Westin, W, Four Points, St. Regis and more. While there are other hotel card offers at 50,000 and even 75,000 sing up bonuses, why would I pick the smaller bonus?

The key factors:

• 31 airlines transfer partners—including one of my favorites, American Airlines (AA), which no other points program transfer to at a reasonable rate
• Every 20,000 SPG points transferred to a partner adds a 5,000 point transfer bonus

Essentially for the bonus 30,000 points + $3,000 in spend, you can transfer that into at least 38,000 points for a partner airline. AA runs a promotion where they would add another bonus 5,000 points for every 20,000 points trasnfered. This means transferring 20,000 SPG points to AA will net you 30,000 AA points.

SPG points are very flexible, so I keep them as SPG until I need to make a redemption.

Other benefits include:

• Free Boingo access
• No Foreign transaction fees
• Free wifi at their properties

There are more benefits such as "Cash and Points" stays at their properties that can yield you a redemption of 3.9 cents per point. That's a possible $1170 spent at SPG! That's enough for 15 nights worth of stays at a Category 1 hotel!

You can use the link above to apply for the card, but I would greatly appreciate it if you ask me for a email link so I can earn a referral bonus :D

Citi Prestige : 50,000 Citi Thank You points after $3,000 spend in 3 months. $450 annual fee. Not waived. Yes, I said $450 annual fee. It's totally worth it.

Key factors:

• $250 airline credit per calendar year. That means I can get credit in 2015, and 2016 for a total of $500 airline credit for the price of one annual fee. I'm already up $50 bucks
• Access to VIP lounges through Priority pass anytime you're at the airport. Flying on American Airlines gives you lounge access to Admiral Clubs.
• $100 reimbursement for Global entry. Allows you to skip customs lines, which can save you hours, and gives you TSA Precheck. You need this
• 4th night free at hotels booked through their concierge service
• 3 rounds of golf free internationally at $400 a round. This can really add up.

The first benefit already convinces me that the first year is a money maker. All of the other stuff is just a bonus. What can Citi Thank You points get me? Well, I plan to combine this card with the card below, the Citi Premier. It will help get me a bed in the sky done by Singapore Suites Class:

Okay, so maybe I signed up for these cards to treat myself.

Citi Premiere: 60,000 points with $3,500 spend in 3 months. $95 annual fee waived for the first year.

This card really has no key benefits besides the same earning structure as the prestige, which is

• 3x points on airfare and hotels.
• 2x points on dining and entertainment.
• 1x on other purchases.

This card was obtained solely for the purpose to accumulate enough points for a Singapore Air trip.

(side note: I actually signed up when it was 50k points, saw the new offer and secure messaged Citi asking for the bump up on promo, to which they happily obliged.)

American Express (AMEX) Platinum: Spend $3,000 in 3 months, $450 Annual fee. 100,000 Membership points.

Key Benefits:

• $100 Global Entry credit
• $200 Airline credit per calendar year (only usable on certain items, not including tickets)
• Access to AMEX Centurion lounges, Delta Skyclub, Priority Pass Lounges
• Boingo Wireless
• SPG Gold Status

I will now have two Global entry credits in which I can buy my parents Global Entry. Not to mention 100,000 membership points! What is that worth? Transferring to British Avios gives you three round trip tickets to Hawaii!

I originally only signed up for the first three cards, but a public link for AMEX's 100,000 points popped up. I've been waiting for the ability to sign up for this bonus for over 2 years (it was previously only targeted). Sadly like all good things, the public link only lasted 1 day and now is dead.

Net total of 240,000 points in one application cycle. Yes, this churn application cycle will cost me $900 in annual fees, sigh. I'll ask my parents after the trip if grades still matter.