My First Quarter 2026 Applications
Man, it has been a few years since I have been able to write up a recent applications post. I am so happy to be back at it! I wanted to share my recent applications over the last few months. This will start in mid December 2025 and go till early February 2026. I have already completed the spending required for a lot of these offers, but I am still waiting on a couple to post to my accounts.
Triple Dip Time
The only one of these applications that I had planned well in advance was for the Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite. That is because it allows you a nice triple dip if you grab it mid way through the month of December. Well, at least that is how I hope it works out. They have been posting credits really late in January, so I may be outside the refund window by then. Although BOA is kind of wonky about refunds & downgrades anyway. I grabbed one of these for me and one for my wife.
- Earn $750 after spending $5,000 in 3 months
- The $550 annual fee is NOT waived
- We will get at least $300 in Uber / Doordash charges and $600 in American Airlines gift cards per card
Total: $1500 in cash, $600 in Uber credits & $1200 in American Airlines gift cards for $1100 in annual fees. There is potential for another $300 in Uber and $600 in American Airlines gift cards in 2027 too.
Delta Gold Business
Back in December we also grabbed a couple of Delta Business Gold no lifetime language offers. I had not planned on these but jumped on the NLL offers that seemed to be available to everyone. Especially since we had both carried the card before and were ineligible otherwise. We went 2 for 2 on approvals for this as well, and we have already burned all of the Sky pesos miles too!
- Earn 90,000 Delta Skymiles after spending $4,000 within the first 6 months
- The $150 annual fee IS waived the first year
Total: 180,000 Delta Skymiles with no annual fee
Bilt 2.0 (Or Was It 3.0?)
Another card that I figured we would go after was one of the new Bilt credit cards. Which one would depend on the offers that came out. We decided to both go after the Palladium card and its 50,000 point bonus. We signed up as soon as they became available for application in early January. My wife was even targeted for the extra 5x on up to $10,000 in spend TPG offer, even though she didn’t use that link.
- Earn 50,000 Bilt points after spending $4000 within the first 3 months
- My wife also earned 5x on that first $4,000 within the first 5 days (I will only count 3x below since everything earns 2x normally)
- The $495 annual fee is NOT waived
I am not going to include the card perks and Bilt Cash in this one because it is hard to quantify what the value is of it at this time.
Total: 112,000 Bilt Rewards and $990 in annual fees
Spirit Airlines Snafu
Around this time is when I was still struggling to get the positioning flight for our spring break trip. I decided to throw in a Spirit Airlines application to get some miles needed to book our flights. Spirit was offering the best rates to NYC after all – by far! I was denied so I had my wife try and she was approved. I wasn’t sure either would go through since we were just a few weeks past the Premium Rewards Elite approvals.
- Earn 50,000 miles after spending $1,000 within 3 months
- The $79 annual fee is NOT waived
If you have been following along on the blog then you know how this plan worked out. At least so far! I still have hope that it will come back around.
Total: 50,000 miles and a $79 annual fee
Cash Money
In late January / early February I decided to take advantage of some large cash bonus offers. These were both business card applications. Although, I think they are some of the better cash back offers available overall. I usually try to grab them every year or so.
Bank of America Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards
- Earn $500 (no longer available) after spending $5,000 within 3 months
- No annual fee for this card
We went 2 for 2 approvals on this. I was kind of shocked since we had been on Bank of America like white on rice (with soy sauce hopefully hey-oo) the past few weeks. I figured I might be approved, but wasn’t hopeful for my wife.
US Bank Triple Cash
- Earn $750 after spending $6,000 within 180 days
- There is no annual fee
We grabbed this one too because the offer jumped up to $750. That happens a few times a year usually. I also wasn’t too worried about adding the extra spend because of the longer time frame to complete it. Both applications took like a week for those congrats emails to arrive.
Total: $2500 from both cards (x2) with no annual fee
Grand Totals
It has been a pretty busy couple of months over here. We still do have some work left to do on the cash back business card offers. That should keep us tied up for a bit, and I don’t envision grabbing anything for the next couple of months. A new no lifetime language mailer could always change that though!
All in all, we racked up the following:
- $4,000 in cash
- 230,000 airline miles
- 112,000 Bilt points
- $1200 in American Airlines gift cards
- $600 in Uber / Doordash credits
It came with a total cost of $2169 in annual fees and a total spending requirement of $49,000. We still have close to half of that in front of us from the cash back business card offers though. Being able to push out the Triple Cash spend for up to 6 months is why we were able to take advantage of the increased offer when we did too.
Starting The Year Off With A Bang
I am pretty happy with the haul of this recent round of applications. Many of the airline miles came in handy right away and my Bilt Rewards stash has never looked healthier. Although, with Hyatt’s recent devaluation they might not be as bright and shiny as they once were.
Let me know your recent applications down below or over in our Facebook Group.
