So I got into churning back in December and truth be told at first I was more into just looking for airline redemption possibilities because I thought it would be nice to get some free flights to see my fiance. We live long distance right now because we're both military and have to travel between California and Texas just to see each other. However, after following this subreddit for a few months I started to realize just how much value I could get from all different kinds of credit cards and their signup bonuses and it quickly turned into, how can I plan a free honeymoon to somewhere like Bora Bora or Fiji or the Maldives (still haven't worked out these details yet.)

My flying back and forth has helped me to organically reach AA Gold and United Silver (though status match), and now I've switched my loyalty to United because the new AA devaluation just sucks and their customer service has gone way down. However, through credit card signup bonuses and flying I've accumulated about 137k AA miles. I also hold the Barclay Aviator Silver card since it gives some nice perks and zero annual fee for military.

Anyway, since December I started to formulate a plan for a card application strategy and trying to space them out so that I could do it mostly with organic spend and not too much MS (however I have used Serve for about $2,500 of spend).

In the last 5 months I've managed to accumulate the following: 170k Chase UR Points (though CSP and Ink+ and personal friend referrals) $300 signup bonus from Chase personal checking account 52,000 United Miles (though the MPE card w/ 50k signup bonus and 50 statement credit) 2 Free Nights at Hyatt 59,000 TYP (Citi TY Premier card before the bonus disappeared) 53,000 Barclay Luxury Card Points +200 airline credit (military with no annual fee) 49,500 IHG Points (Priceless Surprises) Total Value is worth up to $8,500 so far, using 2.2cpp for chase, and 1.5cpp on united and TYP.

I hit Chase pretty hard the last few months, but I am now targeting the AMEX Hilton cards. Currently I am working on the 75k bonus for the HHonors card and will do the Surpass application at 100k before the deadline on 5/9. I am also debating going for IHG's 80k bonus, but I think before I do that I am going to keep an eye out for any new Citi offers because ultimately I want to get the Hilton Reserve and the Prestige.

The plus here is that I've gotten my fiance into a little bit lighter churning as well, and she's signed up for the CSP, Hyatt, Citi TYP, AMEX Delta Gold as well so we both have a pretty decent amount of Chase points and Citi points accumulated between the two of us. She did however make one mistake and failed to meet the minimum spend on the AMEX Platinum for 40k (doh!).

Hopefully with all these points we will be able to take a first class flight to the South Pacific and stay somewhere really nice without having to pay out of pocket!

Thanks to everyone who posts here because the information on these threads is so valuable. I'm glad people think I'm crazy for all the credit cards I have because the less people are willing to take advantage of all that is out there, the less our hobby is threatened (even if Chase is being grumpy and threatening 5/24 on every card).