Best Credit Card Offers
Citi American Airlines American Express and Visa
Opening both the Citi American Airlines American Express and Visa cards within minutes of each other by using separate browsers to apply for each, will net $1,997 in value.
Each offer:
- 50k American Airlines miles after $2,500 in spending in 4 months
- 2 Admirals Club Lounge Passes
- 10% rebate on American Airlines awards up to 10k miles in rebate per year (opening both cards will only earn the 10%/10k once)
- No annual fee the first year
Note: The following links are “zombies.” The stated expiration date of the offer has passed. The application does not list the size of the sign up bonus. Hundreds or thousands of people have successfully used these links to get the offer I’ve outlined, but there is a heightened risk you will not get the offer.
Links: Looking for new links. The old ones are disabled.
Chase Ink Bold / Chase Ink Plus (business)
Chase offers two cards that are identical except for one thing. The Ink Bold is a charge card. You cannot carry a balance. The Ink Plus is a credit card. Feel free to run a balance if you like paying double digit interest rates.
Because I don’t carry balances on my credit cards, these cards are identical to me. The cool thing is that since they aren’t identical to Chase, you can get one on one app-o-rama and one on the next. I recommend starting with the Bold, so when you talk to the reconsideration line about the Plus, you can say you want it because it’s a credit card.
- 25k Ultimate Rewards on first purchase; 25k Ultimate Rewards after $10,000 in purchases in 3 months; total of 50k UR
- Ultimate Rewards transfer 1:1 to United, Korean, British Airways, Southwest, Marriott, Priority Club, and more
- 5X points on the first $50,000 spent annually at office supply stores, and on cellular phone, landline, internet, and cable TV service
- 2x points on gas and hotels
- No foreign transaction fees
- No annual fee for first year
I recommend getting the Ink Bold first because it is older, so it may disappear first.
Link: Chase Ink Bold (business)
Link: Chase Ink Plus (business)
Mercedes-Benz Platinum Card from American Express (personal)
The 50k Membership Rewards AMEX Mercedes-Benz Platinum Card comes with a 50k MR sign up bonus, while the regular Platinum cards comes with only a 25k bonus. The Mercedes-Benz card has all the same benefits as the regular card and is open to anyone.
The only drawback of the M-B card is the annual fee is $25 higher, but that $25 is buying 25k extra Membership Rewards–a no-brainer.
- 50k Membership Rewards after $1,000 in spending in 3 months
- Membership Rewards transfer 1:1 to Delta, British Airways, Singapore, Hawaiian, Flying Blue (Air France and KLM) and many more
- American Express often runs transfer bonuses–temporary periods when points transfer at better than 1:1. Recent transfer bonuses include 50% and 40% to BA, 50% to Delta, and 35% to Air France
- 5x points on Mercedes-Benz purchases, $1,000 Reward certificate toward a future Mercedes-Benz lease or purchase, $100 reward certificate for Mercedes-Benz accessories, 2,000 excess miles waived on leases
- American Airlines, US Airways, and Delta lounge access; free access to Priority Pass Select which gives free access to tons of lounges all over the world
- Up to $200 statement credit per calendar year for qualifying airline fees on the one airline of your choosing. Enterprising FlyerTalkers have used this benefit for gift certificates. If you got this card in June 2012, you could get $400 worth of credits before the 2nd annual fee came up by using the 2012 and 2013 calendar-year benefits.
- $100 Global Entry fee refunded
- No foreign transaction fees
- Annual fee of $475 due on first statement
Link: Mercedes-Benz Platinum Card from American Express (personal)
Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer (personal)
Sign into your United account that has a mileage balance, and you should see a small banner ad for this offer.
- 50k United miles after $1,000 in spending in 3 months
- $50 statement credit after a United purchase in the first 3 months
- Two United Club passes annually
- Priority Boarding
- Free checked bag for cardmember and one companion on same ticket
- 2x miles on United purchases
- 10k bonus miles for spending $25k in a calendar year
- No annual fee the first year
The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN
The 50k American Express Gold Card offer is fantastic. Every few months, American Express ups this offer to 75k for one day only. This 50k offer still rates as superior to that 75k offer on the rebate-percentage method because the 75k offer requires a $10k minimum spend.
- 50k Membership Rewards after $5,000 in spending in 3 months
- Membership Rewards transfer 1:1 to Delta, British Airways, Singapore, Hawaiian, Flying Blue (Air France and KLM) and many more
- American Express often runs transfer bonuses–temporary periods when points transfer at better than 1:1. Recent transfer bonuses include 50% and 40% to BA, 50% to Delta, and 35% to Air France
- 3x points on airfare and 2x points on gas, advertising, shipping
- Automatic OPEN Savings of 3% to 10% at Hyatt, Marriott properties, Hertz, Office Max, Fed Ex and many more
- No annual fee the first year
Link: The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN
Bank of America and Bank of Hawaii Hawaiian Airlines cards
Bank of America and Bank of Hawaii release identical Hawaiian Airlines cards for mainlanders and Hawaiians respectively. FlyerTalkers have found you can get both. Getting both the same day leads to the following, per card:
- 20k Hawaiian Miles after first purchase; 15k more Hawaiian Miles after $1,000 in spending in 4 months for 35k total per card
- Discounted awards, like 17.5k oneway from the mainland to Hawaii
- Ability to receive free mile transfers from other Hawaiian Airlines accounts
- Miles transfer to Hilton. 1 Hawaiian Mile equals 2 Hilton points
- Annual fee of $79 due on first statement
Link: Bank of America Hawaiian Airlines card
Link: Bank of Hawaii Hawaiian Airlines card
Chase Sapphire Preferred (personal)
Card features:
- 40k Ultimate Rewards after $3,000 in purchases in 3 months
- Ultimate Rewards transfer 1:1 to United, Korean, British Airways, Southwest, Marriott, Priority Club, and more
- 2x points on travel and restaurants
- 7% annual (calendar year) dividend on points earned from purchases
- No annual fee for the first year
- My full analysis
Link: Chase Sapphire Preferred
Chase British Airways Visa (personal)
This card has had 100k offers the last two years, so you may want to choose a lower card if it’s a close call and wait for a 100k offer.
- 50k British Airways Avios after $1,000 in purchases in 3 months; enough for two roundtrips from the West Coast to Hawaii
- 2.5 Avios per dollar on BA purchases; 1.25 Avios per dollar on all other purchases
- Earn a Travel Together companion pass after $30,000 spent on the card in a calendar year
- No annual fee the first year
Link: Chase British Airways Visa
Barclay’s US Airways Mastercard (personal)
This card is churnable. I have two identical cards that I got six months apart. I got the 40k sign up bonus on both.
- 40k US Airways miles after first purchase
- 5k discount on US Airways awards completely flown on US Airways metal (planes)
- I consider US Airways miles the most value mile because of their cheap award chart and off peak awards.
- 10k miles annually on your anniversary in exchange for the $95 annual fee
- Most cardmembers get a subsequent offer to earn 15k bonus miles by spending a certain amount in three consecutive months
- Two $99 companion passes good for flights within the domestic USA
- Complimentary non-transferable US Airways Club pass annually
- Zone 2 boarding
- No annual fee the first year
Link: US Airways Mastercard
I have earned millions of points, primarily though credit cards, to travel the world in first class for pennies. This blog will show you how to earn and redeem points to do the same!
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I’m not seeing the Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer offer when I long into my United acct, only a worse offer of 40,000 miles and a few other things.
Any idea how I can get the better offer?
BTW, I don’t currently have Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer card, though I do have a Sapphire.
Thanks
Do you have any miles in your United MP account?
Yes, I do have over 100k miles in the account…
love this man! you getting any moolah from this? i def want to help you out!
Not at the moment. Thanks for the sentiment.
You sure deserve to get some referral bonus. I have always been interested in learning how much the big guys get for the applications, like TPG or MMS.
@Rudy do you have points in your United account? I think that is one of the factors. Also try doing a dummy booking of a flight. In my case, if I just logged in, I only got the 50k offer, but if I did a dummy booking, I got the 50k offer with the statement credit.
So, first of all, when logged in with a balance in my account (over 100k miles), no matter whether I dummy book or not, I always only get the 40k offer and no statement credit.
I did try it again without logging in and actually got a slightly better offer of 40k, with a $50 credit.
But I still can’t get the 50k offer.
One question: do you see the offer on the home page of United or on the page which summarizes your current balance?
Thanks and BTW, I’ll call United later today to see if I can get the offer manually…
I don’t think United will offer it over the phone. I see it after logging into my account on my account landing screen.
After doing some research on the web, I’m reading that the 50k offer is now dead. Has anybody seen this offer in the last month??
UPDATE: I scoured the interwebs some more and found a post on FlyerTalk that somehow cracked the code…
Here is the post which explained what to do. A little odd, but I got the offer page for the 50k plus $50 credit:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz/1330475-ua-mileage-explorer-card-offer-up-60k-miles-now-65k-50-statement-credit-53.html#post19265620
Persistence pays!
BTW, thanks again for the original heads up on this…
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You did it again! Thanks for some extremely valuable information. I was completely clueless to the Hawaiian deal transferring to Hilton points. I had never considered it since I’m not really giddy about a return trip to Hawaii. Plus it’s a BOA and local bank card, not a major player. I think that has to add some non monetary value when it comes to churners.
Just a heads-up – you can get both the B of A and B of H Hawaiian cards in the same day, but you will get two separate credit inquiries that are not combinable, unlike the two AA personal cards. This is because one inquiry will show from B of A and the other from FIA card services. Which credit bureau this will go towards will depend on your state/location, but there is a good chance they will go towards the same bureau as FIA issues the B of A cards.
Agreed that the fact it’s from a different bank than Chase/AMEX/Citi is huge.
Why did you set the value you did on the two Hawaiian cards? I did a quick check and it looks like 70K Hilton points only gets two nights in an average Hilton. Thanks.
One of their worst uses is a wholesale transfer to Hilton. Use the miles for trips to Hawaii or Virgin Atlantic flights, and the value is ~ 1.5 cents per mile.
Glad to see the Hawaiian cards getting some love. I thought they were a great deal to get to Hilton points so I signed the wife up. I’ll get em on the next go round.
Don’t know if you had seen this but per FT the gold delta 70k mile offer is now dead.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz/1387014-gold-delta-amex-70-000-sms-100-statement-credit-expired.html
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I just discovered your blog — it’s great! Looking forward to all your upcoming posts.
Regarding the Mercedes Benz card, I dont see this information anywhere on the application page:
.
“Up to $200 statement credit per calendar year for qualifying airline fees on the one airline of your choosing. Enterprising FlyerTalkers have used this benefit for gift certificates. If you got this card in June 2012, you could get $400 worth of credits before the 2nd annual fee came up by using the 2012 and 2013 calendar-year benefits.
$100 Global Entry fee refunded.”
.
Are you sure the benefit is still included?
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FYI – the link to the Mercedes Benz card on the site is dead.
its says on the us airways link “only for preferred members”?
The Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Card is now 30,000 miles. You can get an additional 5,000 “after you add an authorized user to your account and make a purchase with your card during the first 3 months as a Cardmember.”
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The 32 point Airtran card from Chase is now a public offer (previously by invite only).
@Linda, thanks for the heads up. I found the link: https://creditcards.chase.com/credit-cards/airtran-credit-card.aspx
Regarding the Mercedes Benz card, I dont see this information anywhere on the application page:
.
“Up to $200 statement credit per calendar year for qualifying airline fees on the one airline of your choosing. Enterprising FlyerTalkers have used this benefit for gift certificates. If you got this card in June 2012, you could get $400 worth of credits before the 2nd annual fee came up by using the 2012 and 2013 calendar-year benefits.
$100 Global Entry fee refunded.”
.
Are you sure the benefit is still included?
Yes
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Just a heads up, there are links for lower spending requirements for the Ink Bold and the Ink Plus – $5000 in 3 months.
Scott- When might we expect best card offers by rebate percentage? Anytime soon?
Thanks!
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Just got the Chase Sapphire Preferred card .Just good for transfering points to SW which is good for 40k point………… I can do 3 rt to VEGAS ..
Thanks SCOTT and folks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Which links are affiliate?
I would wondering if you had any insight into Chase Presidential vs. Chase United Milage Plus? I already have the Presidential MC and the Sapphire, but I was wondering, in terms of long term benefits if the United Milage outranks the Presidential since you didn’t list the latter here.
I was not able to get the US Airways Dividend Miles card with the 40k sign up offer. They couldn’t find my application initially and finally they sent me a letter stating the offer had expired. They did not check my credit so I can apply for the 35k mile offer instead.
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