When you hear “Selection Sunday”, most people immediately think of the day the teams are chose for March Madness – the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. However, I had a different type of Selection Sunday – actually two different types with one of them being points/miles/travel related. Let me explain.

I’ll start with the more relevant example for the readers of this blog. It was application day for my wife which means I apply for several credit cards on her behalf (with her permission of course). The big decisions involved which cards I was going to select to apply for on her behalf. As a rule of thumb, I tend to focus on earning points/miles in transferable programs though I will gladly take advantage of an increased offer for the right airline or hotel credit card. In the end, here is what made the final cut:

1. American Express Starwood Business Card – 35,000 SPG Points for spending $5k in 3 months
2. Chase Ink Plus – 60,000 Chase UR Points for spending $5k in 3 months
3. Bank of America Alaska Airlines Credit Card (w/ $100 Statement Credit) – 25,000 Alaska miles upon account approval. The $100 statement credit is earned for spending $1,000 in 3 months.
4. Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business Credit Card – 25,000 Alaska miles upon first purchase.

Unsurprisingly all four are pending and I am planning for my wife to not call reconsideration on any with the possible exception of the BofA cards after a week or so. We’ll see what the next week brings and I’ll report back with the final results as well as my thinking behind each card.

I’ll end this post the more important selection I had to make on Sunday though it has absolutely no bearing on the points/miles world.  You see my wife and I are expecting this July and we hosted a gender reveal party yesterday with some close family/friends. The big decision was each guest had to choose a color to wear based on whether you thought it was a girl or boy. Since we didn’t know ourselves, I chose a nice pink polo while my wife opted for blue. I’ll let the pictures speak for the final result….

This was a little different than what most people think of “Selection Sunday” but I wouldn’t change anything about it (well maybe some instant approvals would be nice). Even if we go 0 for 4 on the applications, I had at least one win on Sunday.