Fly You Fools!!! A Rewards Lounge Chat with Gandalf About App Runs, Miles and More

This is an introduction to the world of Gandalf.

Every now and then he will take time from his busy schedule to help us decipher credit cards.

This week’s discussion is from Gandalf’s iconic line “Fly You Fools”.

You should fly, because in the World of “Someday I will…” the person who actually does the flying is doing it well.

Step into his library and let him teach you everything you need to know about Credit Card App Runs.

From the simple:

What is an application, What are the benefits of the card, What is the Bonus Offer.

To the Curious:

What Credit Agency does the card issuer pull in your state , Any why does he trust Hobbits so much?

What It All Means

An App Run is when you group together a set of credit card applications together at the same time in order to minimize the impact on your credit score and maximize your rewards miles haul.

By applying for a group of cards at the same time you can combine them into a unified front and this prevents the card issuers from knowing just how many new cards you are about to get.

In a sense you use the same credit report for 3, 4, 5 or even 6 different credit cards at once.

To maximize the amount of personal rewards cards you can apply for at once, the applications can and should be, from different credit card issuers.

However you can apply for business and personal credit cards from the same credit card issuer.

The same is true for some credit card issuers personal cards. Where if you apply at the same time, they will allow you to be approved for both.

The latter example is closer to a glitch in the card issuers system than a real rule setup in their credit card applications.

What They Are Not

An App Run is NOT Credit Card Churning.

I repeat NOT “churning”.

Churning is when you apply for a rewards credit card and then try to get the card and its signup bonus again.

If you have the Southwest Credit Card, got the 50000 Rapid Rewards, and one year later tried to apply for the Southwest Credit Card for the 50000 Rapid Rewards signup bonus again.

That would be churning a rewards credit card.

Churning can happen inside of an App Run but an App Run is not a churn.

Only a select few credit cards can be churned and even fewer can be churned within a year of being approved for the credit card.

Credit Card churning has many data points and anecdotal evidence supporting it.

But it is an inexact science, to be kind, and results will vary from fellowship to fellowship.

Building The Fellowship of An App Run Today

If I was going to create an App Run today there are several steps I would take to prepare.

First I would check the application history for the miles card on creditboards.com and whogavemecredit.com to see which credit score agency was used for which card in my State.

You can read more details on the process of Citicard applying and closing strategy but now we get to assembling the fellowship of the App Run!

American Express

The Dwarf of the Fellowship has got to be the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN.

I already earned and burned the Personal Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card and threw it somewhere in my sock drawer.

The Business card has the same low $500 minimum spend for 30,000 Delta SkyMiles as the personal version which is why you can definitely count on me getting this card.

Some people might say 30000 SkyMiles are worthless but if you are a member of the Travel Academy you know how valuable as few as 25000 SkyMiles can be.

Bank of America

This is where I crank up my hotel rewards earning power with an airline rewards credit card.

Hawaiian Airlines has the HHonors program as a 1 HawaiianMiles transfers to 2 HHonors points ratio.

That is favorable for anybody looking to turn a bench warming rewards program into a solid role player

There are two offers from Bank of American and Bank of Hawaii for 35000 HawaiianMiles each after $1000 in spend within the first 3 months of card approval.

That translates to a Boss level of 140000 HHonors points if you apply for both at the same time and transfer their respective bonus miles.

Downside is that their $75 annual fee is NOT waived for the first year and I would need to pay it.

Citicard

The Hilton Reserve Citicard and the Business American Airlines Citicard are the next two up.

I decided on the Hilton because I need to start building up on my Hotel Rewards while I have started to exhaust my airline options.

Hilton hotels are great for me for several reasons:

All of that and only $2,500 in spend for TWO free Weekend Nights is a great way to launch my Hilton earning swag.

As I approach the 18 month mark for my Personal Citicard AA cards, aka churning time, I decided to throw in the Business card for good measure.

The AAdvantage cards are not the sleekest looking credit cards but their miles program is a ridiculously valuable.

They are also in the best airline alliance for travel in South America, as I write this article I am in Argentina, and particularly well for Deep South America.

This is also one of the last remaining 50000 miles offers in the wild after spending $3000 within first 4 months of card approval.

Those are enough AAdvantage air miles to fly to Europe or Buenos Aires Roundtrip in Economy.

I could also earn $150 in statement credit after making an eligible American Airlines purchase within 12 months of card membership.

Alright then, that comprises the fellowship I would create for my big haul of travel rewards.

How would you build yours? Would you make anything different?

Let me know in the comments section below.

Photo: Gandalf & Fellowship