2012 Credit Card Signup Haul

By only jumping into the credit card points game late (educated in late 2012), I was only able to perform one "App-o-rama" (applying for multiple cards on the same day) in 2012.  To be specific, I performed my inaugural App-o-rama on November 15, 2012 (results somewhat discussed here).  In 2013 I plan on performing several more to haul in a lot more points/miles.  In fact, I already applied for the American Express Platinum card yesterday for 100,000 points due to a limited time offer that got pulled real quick (sometimes you just have to jump on offers).  That 100,000 haul will be included in 2013 numbers, but it's a darn good start to the year.

What I am doing below is summarizing the haul on my November App-o-rama (which is my entire 2012 haul).  The columns should all speak for themselves except maybe the "value" column.  This is a value, in terms of dollars, put on a single point/mile in the various loyalty program.  How do I come up with this per point value?  I don't; I leave it to the professionals (for now).  One day, I may calculate this value myself because it can be very subjective.  In the meantime, I found a good calculation explained by PlasticIQ.  A little searching on their website and it spits out their calculation for most any loyalty program.  Now, I think the values here are very conservative because with a lot of research, timing, planing etc, you can actually redeem the points for A LOT more value.

At the end of the day, I received 195,000 which is VERY conservatively estimated at $2,800 in value (I know I will get way more than that out of my redemption's) .  My cost is $100 for the 2 credit cards where the annual fee isn't waived in the first year.  So for $100, I basically got a mix of flights and hotels at my choosing for the Mrs and I. 

My only regret is not fighting for the correct Hawaiian Airline Cards.  I ended up with only the Platinum cards which only give you 10,000 Hawaiian airline points (which can be transferred to Hilton for 20,000 Hilton Honor points).  If I had fought for the Visa Signature versions, it would have been 35,000 miles (or 75,000 Hilton points).  Oh well.  These are churnable (meaning I can cancel the card before the next annual fee and re-apply and get points).  

Other than that, I am happy with my haul and the fun the Mrs and I are going to have with these points.  Honey, where do you want to go?

Credit Card	Bonus	Spend Requirement	Value	Total Value	Annual Fee
Chase Sapphire Preferred	40000	$3,000	$0.013	$538	Waived 1st Yr
Starwood Amex	25000	$5,000	$0.023	$678	Waived 1st Yr
BofA Hawaiian	20000	$1	0.0043	$86	$50
BofH Hawaiian	20000	$1	0.0043	$86	$50
US Airways MC	40000	$1	$0.015	$600	Waived 1st Yr
AA Visa	50000	$10,000*	$0.014	$816	Waived 1st Yr
Total	195000	$18,003		$2,804

* The AA Visa is 40,000 points after spending $2K in 4 months and an additional 10,000 points for spending $10K in a year.  Regardless, through work and personal expenses $18K is accomplished quickly in this family.