re: Credit Card Rewards and Points Discussion

Finally got my arrival plus card. Bout damn time.

If you choose to not do Sydney twice, then you can use ANA's 1 stopover allowance to get a free one way to Melbourne. IAH-SYD(stopover)-Melbourne(destination).

Plenty. But most will push whatever is most beneficial to them. Ask here for personal recs. Which is currently (for people new to this): Get 5 Chase cards first, starting with the CSP.

You mean apart from UA? UA itself actually has LAX-MEL on the 789. So IAH-LAX (layover)-MEL (stopover)-SYD (destination) - IAH. Also, UA has SFO-SYD if you wanna do Sydney first.

Just make sure the cash value of this trip is upwards of at least $1,300. Otherwise you are better off just paying cash.

You can also route through Asia on Air China. IAH-PEK (LO) -SYD (SO) - MEL (dest.) - IAH

I would go with the last option if you have enough miles to fly busines. CA business class is pretty nice. But UA will pass down fuel in asia. Air NZ business is nice too but award space is non-existent. I would give UA a miss.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I am not really following what y'all are saying for the stopover. We don't plan to "do" Sydney twice, my plan is to land in Sydney, never leave the airport, and catch a flight to go straight to Port Lincoln, where we will stay the night and get on the Rodney Fox boat the next day. If I do the "stopover" and get a free flight from Sydney to Melbourne, I will still have to loop back around at some point, to either catch the flight SYD->Mel, or our flight back home. Basically my plan is IAH->Syd round trip (ANA looks like best option right now), and then take a multi-leg flight to get around in country, ending at Sydney (Or wherever we fly into). As always, I am open to suggestions if there is a better/cheaper way to go, or suggestions on the best way to get around in Australia.

My other questions around the credit cards. I referred the wife for SPG yesterday and she was approved. As suggested, I will apply for the CSP and the Hyatt card when I get home, and then a few weeks later refer my wife for them. My question is, what do I do after I get all the sign up rewards? Do you cancel them as soon as the rewards come through? Keep them until the annual fee is due? Keep one and cancel the rest? How will this affect our credit score?

We both have good credit, and aren't looking to make any big purchases soon that would require credit checks, but I have never been comfortable having too many credit cards and would prefer to keep one, just the way I was raised. (The CSP seems like the one to keep, since I can't get the SPG sign up bonus ever again).

Thanks again to everyone for their help!

Honestly I don't think you will be able to use the stopover feature because star alliance has such limited flights in Australia. So leave the stopover aside for now because that is a bit advanced for what you are trying to do.

But, think about it this way. Because you are leaving Sydney immediately, it sounds like you will later pay for a flight to Melbourne and another flight back to Sydney. If you were to see Sydney upon arrival, then fly out to port Lincoln, then to everywhere else with Melbourne last, you have saved yourself one flight on the multi leg intra-oz flight by not flying back to Sydney. Then you could fly out of Melbourne back to Houston on United assuming mileage seats are available.

In the mileage game, you also want to minimize cash outlay in general. Your schedule may not always allow it, but we were just pointing out that your current itinerary does have you paying for an extra flight to Sydney.

When we went, we flew into Sydney on United, stayed for a few days. Then used qantas to get to Uluru, then to cairns, then to Melbourne. Flew United back from Melbourne. This way we never back tracked into a city twice.

Regarding credit card lines, my personal view is that I keep the card until the fee is due and then cancel it if I don't need it. If I know I'm not going to use the card, I lower the credit limit so I have more credit available with that bank for future cards.

If you spend a lot of money in general, it may be worth keeping several lines open. I travel a lot for work and I can run all my work expenses through my own credit cards. So I have an SPG card for SPG stays, a marriot card for marriot/ritz stays, a sapphire for flights, restaurants and any other hotel, chase ink for all my spending that falls into the 5x categories, a chase freedom for all of its rotating 5x categories etc. For me, it's worth having many cards so I can maximize the bonuses they offer on everyday spend. Even though that means a few hundred bucks a year in annual fees.

Does ANA allow open jaw or must the trip go to and depart from the same city? Just curious for my own knowledge.

I would appreciate the spreadsheet. I am trying to get organized with my cards now, as it has gotten unmanageable.

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It takes a lot of diligence to manage that "properly." Any mishaps and the repercussions are long term.

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With automatic payments, it isn't a huge deal assuming you can afford to pay it off. Credit score won't take a hit and you don't have to "remember"


Even if you do minimum payment, if you forgot to pay a $10k debt one month, that is about $150 at 20%. Obviously sucks but not back breaking