Questions and Answers

If main goal is travel to Europe and we only want one new credit card each: should my husband and I get Chase Sapphire Preferred or Citi Thank You Premier or should he get one and I get the other?
Thanks

Are you ok flying Y? Is there a specific place in Europe you’re planning on going to?

Y is fine. Mostly western europe — Germany, France, Austria, etc.

With the current offer, CSP sounds good to me.

Using United and travelling to FRA, CDG, VIE has always good options. UA charges 60K for RT with option to have a an open jaw and stop over. When the stop pver is leveraged with in the US, you can tag in a free one way domestic ticket.
With the current CSP offer you will get 59K – 50K + 5K(addnl user) + 4K (minimum spend) That one card will almost get all the miles needed.
Transferring to Avios and travelling on Aer Lingus is an option too but I am not sure if Aer Lingus goes to your destination of choice or not.
If the flying blue promo works in your favor, TYPs come in handy.

In your case CSP sounds like a very good option to me.

Another option would be to keep your eyes open for another big sign up bonus offer on the Amex Platinum or Gold and sign up for those and then transfer the miles to Aeroplan. The signup bonuses for those two when they’re at their highest are more than enough for a roundtrip on a variety of Star Alliance partners. A roundtrip Y with Aeroplan from the US to Europe 1 is 60k and they allow 2 stopovers or a stopover and an open jaw.

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the input.

[USER=809]@Jane[/USER] you have some great suggestions here. The only other thing I would suggest is to get a 2% cash back card. Once you meet your sign up bonus spend, consider just earning cash back and putting the money towards your travel budget. If you are okay traveling Y, that will give you the greatest flexibility in grabbing cheap fares.