Travel Card Domination Strategy – Churn-ability

**All of this information will be added to the sub-category Travel Credit Card Resources  in my tab Best Credit Cards for Travel**

You can take over the world of travel credit cards without needing to be a finance expert.

There are a plethora of credit cards to add to your arsenal and the process of applying for a new card can be overwhelming. There are cards for personal use and business, for Hotels and Airlines. I added a new tab in my header called “Best Cards for Travel” to help you find the best card and bonus offer for you.

But after you apply for the card the games are just beginning. The real heavy bonus miles come from churning your credit cards. But not the “churning” we have come to know in the modern miles & points game. The original churning is when you apply for the same credit card multiple times within a year.

It is not applying for multiple credit cards at once. That is known as an app-o-rama or app-run.

Current jargon in the miles & points community can be confusing and I hope I helped to clarify this distinction. Do you understand the differences?

Hypothetical example:

Apply for Citi Visa AAdvantage card every 90 days is churning.

Applying for Chase Freedom, Delta Gold AMEX  and Citi AA at same time is called an app-run or app-o-rama. NOT CHURNING.

This is expert terrain and should be used only by those who have achieved that status. You need to be micro manage your credit and be willing to take the risk of a big hit on your credit score. Be warned churning is the dark underbelly of credit cards for free travel and is not for the feint of heart .

Disclosure: All of these are general data points and Your Mileage May Vary.

Churn-able Credit Cards

Hawaiian Airlines —  Both the Bank of Hawaii and Bank of America credit cards earn 35,000 HawaiianMiles after $1,000 in purchases within 4 months. This offer may seem unremarkable but you can transfer those 70,000 HawaiianMiles to 140,000 Hilton HHonors points. These cards have a history of being churn eligible every 95 days. Charged Annual Fee on card activation.

US Airways — Keep cranking out this signup bonus every 95 days and you will be flying for free all the time. The Personal MasterCard offers 40,000 Bonus miles but you can also get the business card version with 25,000 miles after first purchase. There are also lower and higher branded versions of these cards and that may add a new layer to this churning onion. Most commonly people get this card twice a year. No Annual Fee. Example 1

Alaska Airlines — Another card that you can earn the signup bonus after 95 days of your most recent application date. Good churning card if you are based on the west coast. Current best offer is 25,000 miles , not worth it even if you can churn. This has been around 35,000 miles and I would wait until it returns to that level. Charged Annual Fee.

Hilton Hotels — Hilton cards offered by Citibank are still able to be churned. There are currently two different cards, that you can do the two-browser trick to get them at the same time, and then you wait to churn.  The trend of all gathered evidence suggests waiting 95 days between application dates and to cancel previous card before applying for a new card. No Annual Fee. Example 1 

Abstract:

That concludes the list of credit cards that have proven their signup bonus can be awarded multiple times a year. There are other cards that can be churned over the long-haul, 12+ months, but that is not what we are looking for in this post.

All of this information and the churn schedule for all other travel cards is now available in the sub-category Travel Credit Card Resources  in my tab Best Credit Cards for Travel.

##I welcome your thoughts and insight in the comment section below where we can continue the conversation##