Questions and Answers

Hi- Maybe a more experienced travel hacker can help me. I just started out.

I just got the Chase Sapphire 7/1. Almost to the spend min and my husband just applied and got his. He should reach his spend limit inless than a month. We have about 400K in United miles and will have around 140K with UR.

Planning two trips — LA for Christmas and Spain/Portugal for April.

I applied for the IHG card through Chase and was surprisingly rejected bc of “too much credit outstanding.” I only have TWO cards with $56k credit limits. Maybe the real reason was bc I applied for the Sapphire 2 weeks prior?

What should be my next move? I know about the 5/24 rule so I thought I should apply for Chase Freedom (don’t have a business for Ink) but will I just get rejected again and have another inquiry on my account?

Should I hang it up with Chase and apply for a different bank’s hotel card?

Not sure what my next move should be to accumulate points for the above vacations. Airfare to both are reasonable right now – $320 to LA at xmas and $400 to Spain over Easter so I’m thinking we’d pay for airfare and save the points unless there’s something I’m missing.
THANK YOU!!

It’s not “travel hacking” because no one is getting rules bent for them and no one is booking travel via unpublished methods. It’s more of maximizing travel by understanding the rules, and how utilizing credit cards, paid travel, and purchasing miles/promotions to fly in premium cabins at a fraction of the cost.

You could call up Chase and ask if they’ll reconsider/approve you for the card if you shift some credit around. As in – if your Chase Sapphire card has a limit of $20k, request they lower that by $5k or something, and put it on the IHG card. Chase normally only approves someone for two cards in a 30 day period.

You could diversify points. Amex or Citi also have valuable transferable points. Holiday travel, especially when trying to book awards, could be difficult. Personally, I’d pay for the flights to LAX. jetBlue Mint is worth considering, if you live near/can position to JFK/BOS. You may be able to find award options for Spain, thru United.

[QUOTE=”sammydog, post: 65580″]Hi- Maybe a more experienced travel hacker can help me. I just started out.

I just got the Chase Sapphire 7/1. Almost to the spend min and my husband just applied and got his. He should reach his spend limit inless than a month. We have about 400K in United miles and will have around 140K with UR.

Planning two trips — LA for Christmas and Spain/Portugal for April.

I applied for the IHG card through Chase and was surprisingly rejected bc of “too much credit outstanding.” I only have TWO cards with $56k credit limits. Maybe the real reason was bc I applied for the Sapphire 2 weeks prior?

What should be my next move? I know about the 5/24 rule so I thought I should apply for Chase Freedom (don’t have a business for Ink) but will I just get rejected again and have another inquiry on my account?

Should I hang it up with Chase and apply for a different bank’s hotel card?

Not sure what my next move should be to accumulate points for the above vacations. Airfare to both are reasonable right now – $320 to LA at xmas and $400 to Spain over Easter so I’m thinking we’d pay for airfare and save the points unless there’s something I’m missing.
THANK YOU!![/QUOTE]

Wait until 8/2 and reapply for the IHG card. I am doing the same (waiting until 7/30 to apply for the no AF Chase Bonvoy card).

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 65590, member: 29″]It’s not “travel hacking” because no one is getting rules bent for them and no one is booking travel via unpublished methods. It’s more of maximizing travel by understanding the rules, and how utilizing credit cards, paid travel, and purchasing miles/promotions to fly in premium cabins at a fraction of the cost.

You could call up Chase and ask if they’ll reconsider/approve you for the card if you shift some credit around. As in – if your Chase Sapphire card has a limit of $20k, request they lower that by $5k or something, and put it on the IHG card. Chase normally only approves someone for two cards in a 30 day period.

You could diversify points. Amex or Citi also have valuable transferable points. Holiday travel, especially when trying to book awards, could be difficult. Personally, I’d pay for the flights to LAX. jetBlue Mint is worth considering, if you live near/can position to JFK/BOS. You may be able to find award options for Spain, thru United.[/QUOTE]
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Thank you, David. Talked to a different person at Chase…she said they wanted to “see how I handle the credit they just extended to me with Sapphire first”…odd bc I have a 750 credit score, have a 25 yr history of credit and checking accounts with Chase with no problems, and more $ in my checking account than my credit limits…but whatever.

Any one have an estimate of how long I should wait for them to check out “how I handle their credit? 3 months? BIGGER questions is — Should I wait that long or start accumulate hotel points via a Citi or Amex card now? But then possibly burn through another card that will count against me for 5/24 for Chase?

Looks like I’ll be paying airfare so I guess I’d like to get some hotel benefits before xmas and April…but not sure what next move is…

Oh, she also told me that Chase does NOT have a 5/24 rule and that “is something that is erroneously circualted around one the internet.” ?

[QUOTE=”OCTinPHL, post: 65599, member: 4556″]Wait until 8/2 and reapply for the IHG card. I am doing the same (waiting until 7/30 to apply for the no AF Chase Bonvoy card).[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the reply! We’re you rejected originally? Do you think 1 month is long enough?
Is it not good to have so many hard inquiries into your credit report? Lessening the chance another bank will approve?

[QUOTE=”sammydo12, post: 65623, member: 5846″]Thanks for the reply! We’re you rejected originally? Do you think 1 month is long enough?
Is it not good to have so many hard inquiries into your credit report? Lessening the chance another bank will approve?[/QUOTE]

Nope, I did not apply because I just received a Chase Biz card. Just waiting the 30 days to apply. I don’t need the Bonvoy card until the end of August. Not that really *need* it, but..

As for credit: I don’t think Amex did a hard pull for my Business Platinum application. And I haven’t looked at my report to see if Chase did. The last hard pull was 14 months ago. But in your case I would think Chase would just rely on the prior check.