Award Travel with Chase Credit Cards
If you have been reading my blog, first I know it won’t take you long to get caught up. I have started award travel earlier this year around the March time frame. I reflect on what I could have done better, especially as if relates to applications for Chase credit cards. Chase has a policy rule 5/24. It means you cannot have been approved for more than 5 “personal” cards across all different banks in 24 month time frame. Most business cards do not show up on credit reports. I think this is meant to limit some of these big time credit card churners.
If I Would Have Known
If I would have known this more early on, I would have more strategically planned my applications for credit cards to be 5 Chase cards first. Please note that if you are an authorized user that this counts towards 5/24 rule as well. If I was to do it all over, here are the 5 cards below which I would have applied for from Chase first (of course you want to have some combination of what travel is composed of i.e. airfare, hotel, rental car, food, etc.):
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- Sapphire Preferred – $95 annual fee (waived the first year)
- Southwest Airlines – $69 annual fee
- Marriott Rewards Premier – $85 annual fee
- United Mileage Explorer Card – $95 (waived the first year)
- Freedom Unlimited – no annual fee
If you are going to be traveling mostly domestic, I would suggest substituting the United Mileage Explorer card and double up on the Southwest and get Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus Card – $69 annual fee. This is because if you achieve 110,000 Rapid Rewards in a calendar year, you can get companion pass for that year and the next year (means a guest flies for free with you). If you take aim at the companion pass, try to apply for this as early in the beginning of the year.
If you would like to apply for some of the credit cards that I used, visit my Affiliate and Referral link here and find those cards from there.
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