Question
Dear FT'ers
This is my first post and I hope that I don't come off as a goof. I am traveling to Costa Rica in late January and will likely fly US Air. I can buy a coach ticket for about $600, but would like to fly first class, which would cost an additional $600. I can also upgrade with 30,000 miles. I have quite a few AMEX Rewards plus miles, but they do not transfer to US Airways. To my surprise, I discovered that I have 13,000 miles accumulated with US Airways, due to its prior affiliation with America West. I also saw that I can apply for a US Airways Signature Visa Card and get 25,000 miles after the first purchase. That amount, along with the 13k I have accumulated, would allow me to upgrade.
I have never obtained a credit card solely for the miles. After years of very careful credit stewardship, I have an Amex Gold Rewards Plus card, and an MBNA Platinum (which I guess is now BofA) affinity card with a $37,000 credit limit. I also have an 816 FICO score. Given all of the above, do you see a downside to my obtaining the USAIRWAYs Signature Visa, solely for the miles? I acknowledge that there is a $90 dollar annual fee.
I welcome any of your input and thank you in advance for your insight.
Numexbigjim
Answer
Make sure that you get the US Airways card from Juniper and not BOA. BOA lost the US Airways credit cards shortly after the merger. I think that sometime this year, BOA has to stop issueing them, and Juniper is the sole credit card company for US Air.
I have always had an airline affiliated credit card. If you use it enough, then the annual fee is justified by the return in miles.
Answer
Or get both...
I've got both the BofA and the Juniper card (got the Juniper card first). My experiences:
Juniper has far better customer service, far shorter hold times, and no annual fee for the first two years (plus higher bonus miles on purchases than BofA).
BofA offered 0% interest and more miles, but with a $90 annual fee.
Both provide some very nice benefits (may or may not help you out given your specific concern):
Miles for first purchase (25k for BofA, 15k for Juniper)
Club Pass (gives one person only access to any domestic US club once)
$99 Companion Certificate (valid for 48 or 49 states, depending on terms printed on the back)
I know you're concerned about good stewardship of your credit rating, so maybe you just want to stick with the BofA, but if you're not averse, getting the Juniper card in addition will give you some more miles, another go at the club, etc.
You could also request a "challenge" from US Airways shortly before your scheduled flight and hope for a complimentary upgrade to First. If you post on the US Airways forum on here, many of us would be happy to provide information/guidance and/or check seating availability for your flights.
Good luck!
Sean
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Your FICO is 816? That's fantastic. I wouldn't worry about how another credit card would affect your score at all.
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Oh, I forgot to welcome you to the forum.
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With your score you may wish to get both cards to get more miles. In addition you may wish to consider on the top of the personal cards the business card for even more miles.
Answer
Dear FT'ers
This is my first post and I hope that I don't come off as a goof. I am traveling to Costa Rica in late January and will likely fly US Air. I can buy a coach ticket for about $600, but would like to fly first class, which would cost an additional $600. I can also upgrade with 30,000 miles. I have quite a few AMEX Rewards plus miles, but they do not transfer to US Airways. To my surprise, I discovered that I have 13,000 miles accumulated with US Airways, due to its prior affiliation with America West. I also saw that I can apply for a US Airways Signature Visa Card and get 25,000 miles after the first purchase. That amount, along with the 13k I have accumulated, would allow me to upgrade.
I have never obtained a credit card solely for the miles. After years of very careful credit stewardship, I have an Amex Gold Rewards Plus card, and an MBNA Platinum (which I guess is now BofA) affinity card with a $37,000 credit limit. I also have an 816 FICO score. Given all of the above, do you see a downside to my obtaining the USAIRWAYs Signature Visa, solely for the miles? I acknowledge that there is a $90 dollar annual fee.
I welcome any of your input and thank you in advance for your insight.
Numexbigjim
If you don't think that you will fly US beyond this flight, then you only need 17,000 miles. The cheapest option would be to get the Juniper card (15,000 miles free) and either (a) charge $2000 on your card to get the remaining 2000 miles or (b) transfer $2000 from another account ($60 charge) to get the miles. Either way, this is less than spending $90 on the BOA card. However, if you anticipate using US in the future, I would opt for getting both cards.
Answer
Thank you all for the thoughtful responses. Because I do need an airline credit card, and because I already have an affiliation with BofA (albeit involuntarily because they took over MBNA), I opted to go with the BofA signature visa and the 25K instant miles. The USAir website has a direct "apply for this card" connection, so I clicked on it. The link took me to a BofA site, which recognized me and suggested I log in to apply, and that they could get me a result in 60 seconds. So I logged in, applied (gave them mortage, employment and salary info), and surprisingly, they told me that they needed to verify my info and would give me an answer within "a few days." I mentioned earlier that I had an MBNA with a large (over $36,000) limit, raised since BofA took over. Although I understand why a card issuer would be cautious, I was a little bit piqued that there was even a slight delay.
Anyway, I will let you know what happens and whether I am able to upgrade to FC after all.
Answer
Thank you all for the thoughtful responses. Because I do need an airline credit card, and because I already have an affiliation with BofA (albeit involuntarily because they took over MBNA), I opted to go with the BofA signature visa and the 25K instant miles. The USAir website has a direct "apply for this card" connection, so I clicked on it. The link took me to a BofA site, which recognized me and suggested I log in to apply, and that they could get me a result in 60 seconds. So I logged in, applied (gave them mortage, employment and salary info), and surprisingly, they told me that they needed to verify my info and would give me an answer within "a few days." I mentioned earlier that I had an MBNA with a large (over $36,000) limit, raised since BofA took over. Although I understand why a card issuer would be cautious, I was a little bit piqued that there was even a slight delay.
Anyway, I will let you know what happens and whether I am able to upgrade to FC after all.
It might be because it's a weekend. The same thing happened to my wife and she was approved one day later-a Monday. Relax & search these boards for churning credit cards. Lots of good info.
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BofA is a little more conservative than MBNA.
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Thank you all for the thoughtful responses. Because I do need an airline credit card, and because I already have an affiliation with BofA (albeit involuntarily because they took over MBNA), I opted to go with the BofA signature visa and the 25K instant miles. The USAir website has a direct "apply for this card" connection, so I clicked on it. The link took me to a BofA site, which recognized me and suggested I log in to apply, and that they could get me a result in 60 seconds. So I logged in, applied (gave them mortage, employment and salary info), and surprisingly, they told me that they needed to verify my info and would give me an answer within "a few days." I mentioned earlier that I had an MBNA with a large (over $36,000) limit, raised since BofA took over. Although I understand why a card issuer would be cautious, I was a little bit piqued that there was even a slight delay.
Anyway, I will let you know what happens and whether I am able to upgrade to FC after all.
Welcome to Flyertalk. A word of warning: The 25,000 bonus miles will not post to your US acct. until your first billing cycle closes. That might be too late for your trip in January. Just thought you should know if the FC upgrade really means that much to you. Good Luck!
Answer
So I logged in, applied (gave them mortage, employment and salary info), and surprisingly, they told me that they needed to verify my info and would give me an answer within "a few days." I mentioned earlier that I had an MBNA with a large (over $36,000) limit, raised since BofA took over. Although I understand why a card issuer would be cautious, I was a little bit piqued that there was even a slight delay.
I wouldn't read anything into the delay. Sometimes the response is within 60 seconds; sometimes it may take as long as a week. With your credit history, you should not have any problem getting the card.:)
Once you get the card, use it immediately. You may have an impending statement closing date, so the sooner you make a charge, the sooner you will get your bonus miles.
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When you receive the card and activate it, please use it at least once.
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Thanks for all of the responses. I learned several lessons. First, applying for this card did me no good for this trip, for, as many of you pointed out, the lead time is too long. Oh well, I travel a fair amount, so I will be able to use the miles.
Second, I found out why I wasn't given an instant response to my application. I applied online Sunday pm. I was told I could have a response within 60 seconds because I have an MBNA credit card. (although I had no BofA credit history, I did have a very positive MBNA credit history, with a limit of $36,000 and a $18,000 line of credit). Because I wasn't instantly approved, I called BofA tonight and spoke with a credit analyst. He told me that my excellent credit history actually worked against my getting a quick response. I hadn't applied for a credit card in over 5 years, so they suspected that I might be a fraudulent applicant.
Also, I learned that if I get a BofA product, they will decrease the amount of credit available to my MBNA card commensurate with the credit they apply to the USAir Visa signature card.
It seems that I do not have "churning" in my blood, and certainly not in my FICO.
Thanks again for all of your responses.
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My worries about my FICO declining were unfounded. Today I received a "credit alert" from MyFico, which showed that I had received new credit for the BofA Signature USAIR credit card for $30K. My Fico score had also increased by 3 points.
Of course, I won't be able to use the points for my January flight, but I am glad to have a new credit card.
Thanks again for your input.
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My worries about my FICO declining were unfounded. Today I received a "credit alert" from MyFico, which showed that I had received new credit for the BofA Signature USAIR credit card for $30K. My Fico score had also increased by 3 points.
Of course, I won't be able to use the points for my January flight, but I am glad to have a new credit card.
Thanks again for your input.
Welcome to FlyerTalk and congratulations...this has become a very interesting thread!
When I would be you, I would apply for some other CCs to get miles. I like Amex Starwood. You can exchange Points to most airlines 1 to 1 (or 1 to 1.25) for free. First year free, than $35/year.