From Spain to Ireland, TPOL was rejected for both the Iberia card and the Aer Lingus card. With Iberia, I thought the mistake I made was calling recon, something that I used to do well. Almost immediately, I was told that my application was denied for too many recent inquiries. With Aer Lingus, I received the ‘pending decision’ response. This time I didn’t call recon. I waited for the cloverleaf icon to appear on my Chase account. And I waited some more. It never came. What did show up was a thin envelope from Chase stating that I was rejected for having too many recent inquiries. That’s the bad news. The good news is that my other accounts were not shutdown, something that I read is happening to churners. It seems pointless to apply for Chase cards in the foreseeable future. If I become a Chase Private Client, maybe I will try again.
Had you been approved, would you have spent the full $20k to get the max bonus? I’ve never fooled around with Avios much, but I know people like them for certain things.
In the old old days no. In the MS days yes. In the current days, I have enough business expenses that I would.
Yup. All banks are slowly but surely shutting us down, but Chase leads the field in cracking down. Care to share what your app numbers are? Always nice to get a better idea of what qualifies for the dreaded “too many recent inquiries” response.
…especially considering these cards (Aer Lingus, Iberia, BA) are so far still considered not subject to 5/24. Maybe they are in the process of making them subject now?
The technical answer to your question is a shitload. I have no idea, I used to track it but now I apply whenever anything good comes along. Except for Chase, this method has worked.
If Chase is the issuer for the card anyway, why not go with the BA card?
Variety? It’s an issue of buyer’s remorse. If I have Aer Lingus points, I would use them differently than Avios points. I’ll burn the points in my Iberia account on a long-haul from MAD-ORD but I would feel some pain about transferring my BA Avios to Iberia and doing the same. There’s no logic in it but once the points are in an account with limited use, I don’t feel bad about burning them. When they are still free agents, I tend to be more conservative.
What do you mean by “in an account with limited use”? Aren’t the avios in any of these 3 accounts able to transfer between each other? Also, in terms of why not apply for the BA card instead, all things being equal, I don’t think there’d be any difference in response from the BA or Iberia or Aer Lingus in terms of what would be considered “too many accounts”. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
I think he means in terms of flexibility. The easiest way (which was still a pain) to transfer Avios is from a BA account to another Avios account. Once it is in the Iberia account, it cannot be transferred back to the BA account (at least I have not been able to make it work).) There’s a nonbrand Avios account that does allow transfers back and forth but I couldn’t sign up for that either.
Besides that, I know that I would burn my Aer Lingus points because they are a novelty item while I am more territorial about my BA Avios. It’s the same way I don’t care if I use my Lifemiles but am more conservative with my United ones.
https://thepointsoflife.boardingarea.com/iberia-points-transfer-problems/
https://thepointsoflife.boardingarea.com/the-psychology-of-points-transfers-mrs-to-avios/