5 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself Before Getting a Card

"What card should I get?" That's the wrong first question.

We get this question a lot, which makes sense. There are countless options with various perks and bonuses for various airlines, hotels and travel companies. Our short answer is always the same: it depends.

Before you even consider a card, you need to answer:

1. Where do you want to go?
2. What can you get?
3. How soon do you want to get there?
4. How do you want to get there (economy, business or first class)?
5. What cards are available?

How you answer is important because not all points are created equal. Take Southwest Airlines for example. Both Goo and I are fans of it, because we fly domestically along the west coast a lot. Southwest is great for that, but it's useless for hopping oceans.

And it just so happens, we love hopping oceans.

Here's my thought process two years ago on choosing the cards that eventually helped me book a three week trip later this year that will span four countries, seven flights and all three flight classes (economy, business and first) for just $147.32.

Isn't it beautiful?

1) Where did I want to go?

I went to Europe two years ago and did a wonderful job emptying my points. After this first taste of international travel as an adult, I wanted more but my points and miles needed some serious bolstering. Europe was fun times—I would definitely go back—but I knew I wanted to fly the other direction for my next big trip.

2) What could I get?

My Europe trip was booked with British Airways Avios and American Airlines AAdvantage points, which were earned by signing up for the BA and AA cards. Since I already had those cards, I couldn't apply for those same cards so soon. (I did eventually reapply and get the same AA cards later.)

Chase Sapphire had a sign up bonus of 50,000 miles at the time and their point system (Ultimate Rewards) offered—and still do—1:1 point transfer to several airline companies including United, Korean Air and British Airways, each with their own set of partners. All three airlines had routes to Asian countries.

United also had partners like Asiana, Thai Airways and Air China through the Star Alliance while British Airways had partners like Cathay Pacific and Japan Air through the Oneworld alliance. Being able to answer where I wanted to go allowed me to narrow down the most useful cards. 

3) How soon did I want to get there?

If I had it my way, I would have left for another vacation after doing the laundry. But realistically, I had to earn the bonus points, which would take three months. I also needed to accrue some vacation days so I gave myself at least a year and a half.

4) How did I want to get there?

In style. This kind of goes with Question 3: if I wanted to, I could have made a decent trip using Sapphire’s 50,000 points. I did the 8+ hour flights in economy class for my Europe trip and economy got old after the fourth hour. So I needed more points and I had the time to build up (see my answer to #3).

5) What cards were available?

A few months after getting Sapphire, I got a United Airlines card with a bonus of 50,000 points. I mentioned earlier in Question 2 that Ultimate Rewards (UR) transferred 1:1 to United. By getting the United card, I locked myself into flying United and its partners, but I was able to combine the 50,000 United points to the 50,000 Sapphire points. This meant I immediately had access to 100,000 points to be used on United.

It didn't stop there. A few months after that, I got the Chase Ink. Ink’s bonus was 50,000 UR points but it had a higher minimum spend, which I took care of with help from Vanilla Reloads, Office Depot and OfficeMax.

At the end of the day, I was sitting on over 150,000 United points, and that’s just purely from the sign-up bonuses. I’m not even including normal spending or the manufactured spending.

Key Takeaways

While it sometimes looks or sounds like Goo and I are just randomly signing up for as many cards as we can, that’s only half-right. What we’re actually doing is signing up for as many cards as we can to accomplish our travel goals.

You have plenty of options when it comes to "what cards to get," but knowing how you use those points will lead you to the best cards for you.