Churning cards for QFF points vs Amex Gateway MR points

Ldumadiscount on 11/03/2018 - 10:13

Hi have a question for the guys who collect airline points around here.

I'm just getting started on churning cards conversatively (once every 6-9 months) and have racked up ~300k QFF points in 2 years which has been quite easy due to the plethora of free or cheap offers for large QFF bonuses – Westpac Black (got fee waived), ANZ Black etc, Amex offers etc.

I've seen the Amex Gateway MR program (via Amex Explorer card) which seems highly recommended and seems much better due to number of airline conversion partners – however, it seems it would be much harder to churn cards to get bonuses on the program. For instance, if I initially sign up to Amex Explorer I can get 100k gateway points and then spend to get more points but it seems harder to churn cards for multiple bonuses due to the 18 month rule.

Is there something I'm missing or is the only way to get a lot of points under the Amex Gateway MR program 1 initial signup bonus then spend to get more points?

Thanks!

Financial American Express AmEx Travel Frequent Flyer Qantas Frequent Flyer Reward Points

Comments

  • -.- on 11/03/2018 - 13:59

    How's your credit score looking?

    • dumadiscount on 11/03/2018 - 14:04

      Good question… on credit simple I ran it and it was 726 a couple months ago… did a recent app for ANZ black card a week ago and it dropped to 703, but still rated as "Superb"… so ok for now. I am pretty conscious about this so leave at least 6 months between applications.

  • illumination on 12/03/2018 - 23:53
    +1

    Not missing anything. Exactly right. AMEX Membership Rewards (any flavour - Ascent Premium, Ascent, Gateway) are all pretty hard to churn because of that 18 month restriction.

    My tips:

    • Try and get referrals. You can get something like (up to) ~200k points in referrals per year
    • Use the name of other people in your household (e.g. partner, children, parents) to apply for Credit Cards
    • What makes the above easier is that AMEX often looks at household income as opposed to personal income
    • [You probably know this already] Put all (or as much as reasonably possible) of your expenditure on your AMEX cards. Think rent, school fees, private health insurance, car insurance, electricity, gas, internet, etc.
    • Get supplementary cards issued for those who you are financially responsible for anyway (e.g. commonly partner, children)
    • You can probably increase your credit card slutting from one every 6-9 months to one to every 3-6 months
    • As you have noticed AMEX cards are hard to slut, they're actually pretty damn good cards even from a non-slutting point of view. Personally, I find bank cards easy to slut, and also not worth keeping long-term (i.e. beyond the first year) because it's not worth the annual fee, so it's a no brainer to cancel the cards. With the AMEX AMEX cards, they offer better value, so whilst you might be in a dilemma as to whether you should cancel a card after getting bonus points, they're pretty good cards to keep.
  • starburstyellow on 13/03/2018 - 14:54

    Think it ultimately depends what OP wants to collect: One world or Star alliance. I personally think if you are based over east (I cant tell where OP is based from), your best to stick with Qantas. If you are based over in the west (like me), to get MR as can convert to Velocity/Krisflyer and have good redemption on SQ e.g. 65K on J class, from Perth (via Singapore) to Hong Kong/Taiwan.

    My advice would be to stick to one now that you have started with Qantas. Although i have about 500K in Qantas myself, but thats a long story and was due to me living in Sydney for few years.

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