Hi, I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place to post this question - I'm a newbie at this. I'm planning on traveling to Seattle, WA this summer (late July/early August) with my husband and two kids (one over two, one under two) for an academic conference (from nyc/ewr). My airfare will be paid for by others but I need to cover airfare for my husband and kids. I'm looking for credit cards to sign up for to get bonuses to cover the airfare. I do have some old delta miles (25K) but I'm not sure how useful they'd be.
So far, after searching for a while, it seems like Avios would be my best bet to get me there. I should be able to get at least 60,000 Avios by signing up for british airways visa signature (50K for 2K spent within 3 months) and starwood preferred guest amex (10K after first purchase). Possibly more if I get citi thank you premier (50K for 3K spent within 3 months) which seems to me can be transferred to hilton hhonors and then to avios? And/or Citi® Hilton HHonors (40K for 1K spent within 3 months) which can be transferred to avios? However, both of the dates that I need to travel on (July 26/27th - August 4th/5th/6th) do not have any economy milesaaver (on aa.com) tickets - just business ones that would be 25K each, which ends up being 100K. So my questions are as follows:
1. Does the above make sense? Are those transfers doable/worth it?
2. Do the companies credit my account 4-6 wks after the window of time needed to spend the money in (i.e. 3 months) or is it 4-6 wks after I spend the money? Cuz if it's 4-6 wks after 3 months, it'll be too late by then.
3. Is there another way to search that would be better/any other tickets that would be feasible without spending a fuel surcharge?
4. Is it ridiculous to search now if I won't even have the miles for another month or two at least?
5. Should I give up on avios and go with something else (some other cards I looked into - capitalone ventureone [20K for 1K spent within 3 months], bankamericard travel [10K for 500 spent within 3 months], Alaska Airlines [25K upon approval], IHG [70K for 1K in 3 months]). Part of my question on this side is whether it is feasible to get tickets separately for my husband and daughter or they need to be booked together.
TIA!
