Questions and Answers

All,
My current situation:
Marriott Platinum Member with 172,843 points
American (no status): 83,401 miles
Delta (no status): approximately 28,000 miles
Less than 10,000 points/miles in United, SPG, and Hilton.

I used to travel weekly for work, but no longer travel at all (new job). Currently we use the Chase Marriott card as our daily/primary spending credit card. I also have the SPG American Express and AA Citi Card (signed up for bonuses). I’m looking to take my wife to Europe in the next year or so, or possibly to Hong Kong/Singapore (Europe more likely). What’s my best credit card earning strategy going forward? I’m thinking the Chase Sapphire for the signup, then using it as my primary card – but I’ve got so many Marriott points and their flight/hotel packages tend to be a great use of those points. Any thoughts? My wife is also open to signing up for cards to get bonuses.
Thanks in advance!

Few Qs:
Where are you based out of?
Which cabin class do you want to fly in?
Where in Europe you want to fly to?
How many cards have you applied in the last 24 months?

Marriott’s Flight/hotel packages are the best bang for your buck. But for the sole reason of putting your spend on Chase Marriott is not a good strategy at all.
You have better cards like SPG Amex and AA Citi where you should shift your day-day spend immediately. I would start using SPG Amex right away considering the transfer options.

If you can pick up any of the Chase cards you should seriously look in to those.
My top picks would be:
Chase Sapphire AND Chase Freedom
If you can maximize the quarterly 5X categories on Freedom you could be sitting on a good stash of UR very soon. Then you can top up your Marriott account to meet the flight/hotel package.

If you have applied for more than 5 cards in the last 24 months, it is not recommended to apply for the Chase cards at all. I strongly recommended you to look in to Doctor Of Credit’s posts about the chase 5/24 policy (look for the most recent post. There are multiple).
One word of caution is – Chase seems to be considering authorized cards from Chase AND other banks in your name as recent apps. This happened to me but YMMV.

Thanks for the detailed response. We want to fly business class or better, and the trip is likely to be a tour of Austria, Northern Italy, down into Croatia – at least that’s the early plan. We’d ideally depart from PHL, but anywhere east coast would work, opening up JFK, EWR, and IAD. I have not applied for any new cards in a long time – over 2 years.