At the time of this writing, I am sitting at Gate 12 of LAX waiting for my (delayed) Southwest flight back to Portland for the weekend. This trip was purchased last minute partly because of Goober's terrible planning, but mostly because I didn't mind spending ten bucks for the roundtrip ticket.
And since this blog is about cheap travel and not fail travel, I guess I won't go into the details of why Goober won't be meeting up with me in Portland or on Mt. Hood for snowboarding. (To be fair, his schedule wasn't entirely within his control. Also, he has admin privileges on this blog, and I don't want him to delete this post.)
I've made a few of these $10 flights this winter, and I'm pretty sure I acquired the taste for inexpensive trips. Unfortunately, my miles are running low, and it's time to get more. I usually work on one card at a time, so I'm stepping out of my spending comfort zone for a triple helping of cards: two American Airline cards (Visa and American Express) and one Southwest card.
And since this blog is about cheap travel and not fail travel, I guess I won't go into the details of why Goober won't be meeting up with me in Portland or on Mt. Hood for snowboarding. (To be fair, his schedule wasn't entirely within his control. Also, he has admin privileges on this blog, and I don't want him to delete this post.)
I've made a few of these $10 flights this winter, and I'm pretty sure I acquired the taste for inexpensive trips. Unfortunately, my miles are running low, and it's time to get more. I usually work on one card at a time, so I'm stepping out of my spending comfort zone for a triple helping of cards: two American Airline cards (Visa and American Express) and one Southwest card.
Since this blog started, you guys have been reading how we've done this or completed that. Now I'm inviting you to start at beginning of a churn period and see how I'm going to attempt it.
The Cards
- AAdvantage (Visa)
- Discovered on the forum, FlyerTalk (link to actual forum post)
- Sign up bonus:
- 40,000 points after spending $2,000 within 4 months
- Additional 10,000 points after spending $5,000 within 12 months.
- $100 credit on first statement
- Two admirals club passes
- AAdvantage (American Express)
- Discovered on the forum, FlyerTalk (link to actual forum post)
- Sign up bonus:
- 40,000 points after spending $2,000 within 4 months
- Additional 10,000 points after spending $5,000 within 12 months.
- $100 credit on first statement
- Two admirals club passes
- Southwest Premier (Visa)
- Discovered on Million Mile Secrets
- Sign up bonus:
- 50,000 points after spending $2,000 within 3 months
- 3,000 bonus points each anniversary
Signing up for the two AAdvantage was somewhat of a risk. (No risk, no gain!) I learned of this promo on FlyerTalk. While there wasn't any definitive proof that these applications would honor the sign up bonus, there were recent posts by people who claimed that they worked. That was really all I had to go on; but with a possibility of getting 100,000 points, I figured it was worth the risk.
Southwest was straightforward and featured the card features right on the application page, so there wasn't any question as to what I was getting.
I employed two strategies for this sign up:
The double browser trick is handy for two almost-similar cards that are offered by the same lending company (in this case, Citibank). If I were to apply one at a time for the AAdvantage Citi cards, I would most likely get approved for only the first one I applied to. By utilizing the two browsers at the same time, I trick the online application process into thinking that I am only applying for one card.
UPDATE: There have been reports that the double browser trick is getting fixed and that the majority of people cannot get this to work anymore. I was fortunate enough to get in before the fix. This is another example of why you need to jump on deals as soon as possible.
Same Day Apply
The Same Day Apply strategy is to ensure that I can get all three cards. Each time I apply for a card, the lending company makes an inquiry through one of the three credit bureaus to check my credit score:
Your credit score takes a 3-5 point hit each time a lending company makes an inquiry. In this triple apply, my credit score would lose about 9-15 points (critical hit!) if I applied on different days.
My credit score is most likely getting double teamed and getting hit twice. Once from Citibank (for the two AA cards) and another from Chase (for the SW card). There's a chance that I can get lucky if both Citibank and Chase make the same inquiry through the same credit bureau. I won't go into detail about which lender uses which bureau, but the information is out there if you really want to know.
Southwest was straightforward and featured the card features right on the application page, so there wasn't any question as to what I was getting.
Time to Get Technical
I employed two strategies for this sign up:
- Double browser trick (for the AAdvantage cards)
- Firefox for the Visa version
- Chrome for the American Express version
- Same day apply
The double browser trick is handy for two almost-similar cards that are offered by the same lending company (in this case, Citibank). If I were to apply one at a time for the AAdvantage Citi cards, I would most likely get approved for only the first one I applied to. By utilizing the two browsers at the same time, I trick the online application process into thinking that I am only applying for one card.
UPDATE: There have been reports that the double browser trick is getting fixed and that the majority of people cannot get this to work anymore. I was fortunate enough to get in before the fix. This is another example of why you need to jump on deals as soon as possible.
Same Day Apply
The Same Day Apply strategy is to ensure that I can get all three cards. Each time I apply for a card, the lending company makes an inquiry through one of the three credit bureaus to check my credit score:
- Equifax
- Experian
- TransUnion
Your credit score takes a 3-5 point hit each time a lending company makes an inquiry. In this triple apply, my credit score would lose about 9-15 points (critical hit!) if I applied on different days.
My credit score is most likely getting double teamed and getting hit twice. Once from Citibank (for the two AA cards) and another from Chase (for the SW card). There's a chance that I can get lucky if both Citibank and Chase make the same inquiry through the same credit bureau. I won't go into detail about which lender uses which bureau, but the information is out there if you really want to know.
The Result
Got all three cards! 
No comments:
Post a Comment