Author Topic: Travel Hacking (Credit Card Signup Bonus')  (Read 3159 times)

onecoolcat

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Travel Hacking (Credit Card Signup Bonus')
« on: March 09, 2015, 08:26:47 PM »
Is it worth it to get the US Airways credit card just for the signup bonus?  My wife wants to go to Peru and I read in another thread, cant find it now, that you can get a roundtrip flight to Peru with just the US Airways signup bonus.  That seems extreme but if its legit I want in. 

Also, my Chase Sapphire Preferred card is approaching its 9th month of activation.  I milked that bad boy for so many points and will hate to see it go.  Has anyone had any luck getting Chase to waive the 2nd year's annual fee?

MountainBeard

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Re: Travel Hacking (Credit Card Signup Bonus')
« Reply #1 on: March 09, 2015, 08:53:01 PM »
Yes on the USAirways card, 50k miles for $89 in fees is a no brainer.  Plus no foreign transaction fees once you get to Peru.  With their program combining with AA in the near future i just signed up for the card this month when it was time to select something new.

ninjaneer

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Re: Travel Hacking (Credit Card Signup Bonus')
« Reply #2 on: March 09, 2015, 09:05:54 PM »
Agreed on the US Airways card.  Just got this a week ago myself, but I didn't plan ahead, though.  I had just gotten the Citi AA card at the beginning of Feb before I realized that the US Airways card was probably not going to last too long.  I applied within a couple of weeks of just opening the Citi card and I was put on a 10-day review period, but they approved me anyway.  I haven't read that the US Airways card has a hard date that it is disappearing, just vague mentions that it'll be sometime this year.

With the US Airways card, you pay the $89 annual fee and after your first purchase you get 50k miles (awarded on a later statement).  There is also the Citi AA card which waives the annual fee for the first year and gives you a 50k bonus when you reach the $2k spend in 3 months.  If you want both, I would recommend getting the US Airways card first because it's issued by Barclays and they seem to review their applications more thoroughly.  If you want the cheapest, are only interested in the one trip, and you can meet the spend, the Citi AA card is the way to go.

johnny847

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Re: Travel Hacking (Credit Card Signup Bonus')
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2015, 09:06:40 PM »
Yes absolutely you should get it. Here's my take on it: http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/50-000-us-airwaysaa-miles-for-$89-and-how-to-use-them!/msg490199/#msg490199. The most important point being this card will disappear soon (rumors are it will disappear by the end of the month). So if you miss this chance, you'll never get this bonus again.

Both you and your wife are going to need to apply for the US Airways card to get the miles.

If you check the award chart http://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/free-ticket-award-chart.jsp you can see you can get to Peru for 15k miles one way in the off season, and 17.5k miles during the normal season. The off season is (found at the bottom) 1/16-6/14, 9/7-11/14. Which is more than half the year, so I don't know how you can regard that the "off season" but I digress.

I too have plans to go to Peru sometime with AA miles, preferably in the off season.

P.S. If you feel like doing me a favor, PM me your email address so I can send you a referral link - I get 10k miles for referring people.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!