A few weeks ago, I wrote about the current 100,000 American Airlines sign-up bonus for the Citi Executive American Airlines MasterCard. These miles are perfect for my upcoming trip to Easter Island on LAN Business Class so, of course, I decided to go for it.
Since I like to keep my credit card applications organized in cycles, I decided to apply for a few more cards along with the American Airlines credit card. One thing I was looking for is a great cash back opportunity so I went with the Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express credit card, which offers 6% cash back on grocery stores. I am also low on Starwood Preferred Guest points at the moment and I find these extremely valuable so I applied for the Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express. I did get two American Express credit cards, but one is a personal card and one is a business card and my business expenses are completely separate from my personal ones.
The Bonus Miles and Perks I Will Be Getting
Overall, I am going to be picking up the following bonuses from my credit card applications:
The Citi Executive American Airlines MasterCard will give me 100,000 American Airlines miles (110,000 once I meet the spending requirement) $200 statement credit. It has a spending requirement of $10,000 within 3 months and $450 annual fee. I will also be receiving Admirals Club lounge access.
The Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express will give me $100 Cash Back as a sign-up bonus for spending $1000 within 3 months. The big attraction of the card for me, however, is the 6% Cash Back at grocery stores.
The Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express will provide me 25,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points after spending $5,000 within 6 months of account opening. The card’s $65 annual fee is waived the first year.
(In the interest of full disclosure, some of the cards in this post offer me an affiliate commission if you apply through my links. I always include the best offers I can find. As always, thanks for your support!)
My Spending Requirements
The total spending requirement for the cards is $16,000 within 6 months and $11,000 of that needs to be spent within 3 months. I am going to, of course, put all my regular spending on these cards and purchase Vanilla Reloads to pay bills. I am also going to use these for loans through Kiva lending, another tool I use on a regular basis.
Citi Executive American Airlines MasterCard
Application Link: 100,000 American Airlines sign-up bonus
100,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles after spending $10,000 within 3 months of account opening. The card also offers American Airlines Admirals Club lounge access and a $200 statement credit within 12 months. $450 annual fee.
100,000 American Airlines miles is a truly amazing bonus and this was a no-brainer for me. The card does have a $450 annual fee, but that’s offset by the $200 statement credit and $250 for 100,000 miles is something I consider a very good deal. I will also have lounge access to the Admirals Club. Overall, I am interested in this credit card mainly for the bonus. The 100,000 miles is going to go a long way for me and I am extremely excited about the miles opportunity here.
Although I plan to use these particular miles for a oneworld explorer award to Easter Island (my dream destination) later this year, there are plenty of ways to use American Airlines miles. Some additional reading for ideas on how to use the miles:
American Airlines AAdvantage Off-Peak Award Chart
Planning a Trip to Asia with American Airlines Miles: Part 1 of 2
Planning a Trip to Asia with American Airlines Miles: Part 2 of 2
How to Add Free One-Way Trips on American Airlines Awards
From Caribbean in Winter + to Europe in Summer for 20,000 American Airlines miles TOTAL
Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express
Application Link: Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express
$100 in statement credits after spending $1000 within the first 3 months. One year of Amazon Prime membership for new members. 6% cash back at grocery stores on spending up to $6,000 a year. $75 annual fee.
Earning miles is great, but no one can argue the one thing you definitely need for any vacation or trip or fun activity is cash. That’s why I concentrate much of my earning on building up my cash back reserves. I made sure to include a cash back card in my latest credit card application round.
The Blue Cash Preferred from American Express currently comes with a sign-up bonus of $100 in cash and a year of Amazon Prime membership, but that’s not the main draw for the card for me. What drew me in is the 6% cash back on all grocery shopping for up to $6,000 a year. Since grocery spending is a big part of my budget every month, I compared The Best Credit Cards to Maximize Bonuses for Grocery Shopping in a previous post. In the end, the Blue Cash Preferred won out because it had the highest cash back bonus in this category and no limit on how long the bonus lasts.
It’s also a card I can keep for a very long time and keep earning cash back on my grocery store spending. At $6,000 maximum, I can earn $360 every year just on grocery store spending. Even though it has a $75 annual fee, the $360 I plan to earn with it still gives me a very good profit and more than makes up for the fee. I know I can always maximize the bonus for all $360 because I can maximize grocery store bonuses with gift cards and pull off every bit of that $360 bonus!
Starwood Preferred Guest Business Card from American Express
Application Link: Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express
25,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points after spending $5,000 within 6 months of account opening.
Keeping OPEN Savings
I am currently carrying the American Express Business Platinum Card, but decided to cancel it since the card has removed access to the American Airlines lounges as of March 22. Although I like the $200 annual airline credit that comes with the card, I just found it hard to justify the $450 annual fee this year, especially without lounge access. Fortunately, the American Airlines lounge access comes with my new American Airlines credit card.
However, the one benefit I do want to keep with American Express was the OPEN Savings and that’s why I wanted to apply for a new American Express business credit card. OPEN Savings allow me to get 5% cash back on all spending at Hyatt hotels, 5% discounts at Fedex and other benefits.
SimplyCash vs. Starwood Business
It was a difficult decision between the SimplyCash Business Card from American Express card and the Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express.
The SimplyCash card currently has an increased sign-up bonus until April 28 of $250 and it has no annual fee. With no annual fee, this is a card I can technically keep forever and continue to have access to OPEN savings and earn cash back. It comes with a 5% cash back at office supply stores, access to OPEN Savings and 3% cash back on your choice among seven categories. Definitely a solid choice for those like cash back… after all, cash is king! Many of my readers did let me know they signed up for the card and are happy they did. It was quite tempting, I must say.
The Starwood Business Card has a sign-up bonus of 25,000 points after spending $5,000 within 6 months. Starwood Preferred Guest points are really valuable to me and I recently cleaned out my Starwood points balance to stay at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort in Thailand last December; it was a great deal at 40,000 points for 5 nights for a hotel that would cost $650 a night otherwise. I definitely have some uses in mind for the new points. I would love to go back to Westin Grand Cayman Seven Mile Beach for a weekend (a night is 12,000 points) or pool our points and put up my parents at the St. Regis Rome (25,000 points a night), though I know that’s a bit of a splurge. Or I can transfer the 25,000 points to 30,000 airline miles with a ton of airline partners including American Airlines, British Airways, etc. Ultimately, this is the card I decided to go with.
Additional reading on Starwood Preferred Guest points and their uses:
Top Five Values for Starwood Hotels in Hawaii with Points
How To Transfer Starwood Preferred Guest Points To Others With No Fee
How to Transfer Starwood Preferred Guest Points to Airline Miles
The Miles Professor - Taking miles and points to the limit!