YouBet said:
I don't really do it because I don't have the desire to keep up with all of it. I have co-workers who have gone so far down this rabbit hole they actually have tiny paper notes taped to each cc telling them the type of transaction to use each card for.
That isn't what churning is, in my opinion anyway. That is maybe 'point maximization'.. but not churning.
Churning is simply signing up for a card to get a sign up bonus, then cancelling it at some point in order to sign up again when you can get the bonus again (which seems to be 2 years for all these cards)
I'm not getting cards for 2x points in this category, 3x on this, 4x on this, etc etc.. which I agree, would take a lot of work to keep up with.
So.. for example, in my case;
I signed up for SW card in Sept. 2016, got 50k bonus + 5k for 2nd user.
In April 2017 I signed up for Marriott, got 100k bonus + 10k 2nd user. It has a free annual night at up to 35k hotel, so that alone negates the $99 fee.
In July of this year, I signed up for United with 50k bonus (also came with tsa precheck reimbursement, two club passes, and $100 credit on first bill, negating the $99 annual fee).
For the most part, I was using SW card, wife used marriott card... didn't matter what it was for.
Now, august of this year, I canceled SW card, because it's been two years. I cancel a week before the fee hits (it does it on your 13th billing cycle), so I only paid 1 fee for 2 years of use and bonus. I will sign up for it again soon. I'm now using united card, wife still using marriott card.
In April of next year, Marriott will be on two years, so I'll cancel it in March (avoiding the 2nd fee), then sign up for it again a month or two later.
etc. etc.
I have a gap until United bonus is available again (July 2020), so I'll probably throw a hilton card in the mix. I also plan to do SW business card, so next year I can shoot for companion pass. The big hurdle to all this is the 5/24 sign up rule.. Chase won't approve you if you have more than 5 new cards in last 24 months. So you have to get on a 6 month interval if you want to maximize your sign ups. On a 6 month interval, you can have 4 cards going, then repeat cycle.
Also during this year, I signed up for the Frontier card, got 40k miles, and used it to go to cancun. I canceled the card within 6 months. It was a $69 fee, so basically two flights to cancun for $69 plus international flight fees. I still had points left, and was able to get exit row seats and add a carry on. I don't plan to do it again, as I don't plan to use frontier much (their flights are so cheap anyway), and I'd rather have united, SW, marriott and another hotel.
When it comes to spending categories and 2x,3x etc points like your friend keeps up with; in the end you can throw that out the window and just worry about the 50k, 60k, 100k sign up bonuses. So I could give a rats butt about 2x points in whatever categories. That is too much effort as you pointed out.
When I sign up for Marriott again next summer, I'll have gotten 220k points on sign up + addtl user. Then figure we spend $15k a year on it, so $30k in 2 years, that is another 60k points (Marriott is 2x points for everything), total of 280k points. That is a week in top level hotel. (you get 5th night free when booking with points, so a week only uses 6 nights worth).
Combine this with a spouse doing it, and literally every year you have enough points for at least a few free flights and several nights in a nice hotel. If you do some smart traveling (like not trying to use points on flights over xmas week), the points go even further.