Get however many of these cards you can (given your 5/24 status) in the order most valuable to you. Recommended application rate is 1 new card every 1-3 months, depending on current offers and risk tolerance! My suggested order:

Check the bonuses for the SW cards - they typically range from 40k-60k. Since you need 110k in the same calendar year for the SW companion pass, you may need also $10k-$30k of MSed or organic spend on the SW cards.

Unless you are 4/24, you can be somewhat flexible in the order you apply for cards!

Get however many of these cards you can (given your 5/24 status) in the order most valuable to you. 

(Even if you never fly SW, RRs can be redeemed for Amazon credit for 1 cent per mile.)

Unless you are 4/24, you can be somewhat flexible in the order you apply for cards!

This is where things get even more subjective - essentially, you should start working your way down the list from biggest sign-up bonus to smaller bonuses (while taking into account banks' application rules and sensitivity to inquiries/new accounts), which is both subjective and an ever-changing target. However, here's a good default list to follow; please tailor to your needs.

Best travel cards for ongoing/unbonused spend - pick your favorite currency:

This flowchart obviously won't cover every situation, and it doesn't take into consideration reaching a specific destination; the advice here aims to maximize your points and miles in general (particularly flexible points) with an eye toward travel, especially international F and J travel. But, it will not account for every increased sign-up bonus promo going on at any given time - this is a general (and subjective) guide, not absolute truth.

To be clear about my point of view, this guide treats flexible, transferable points (URs and MRs) as the most desirable currencies. (Citi TYs are also desirable, but with Citi's 24 month rule, it's hard to acquire large numbers of TY points easily, so TY points don't feature prominently in this guide.)

This guide treats AA, SW, United, and Alaska miles as roughly equally desirable, with Delta, BA, and other currencies slightly less desirable. Valuation of airline miles is personal, highly subjective, and very dependent on your individual travel goals, so you should take this list as a general guide but customize your plan based on your travel goals (e.g., AA miles may be less useful to you if you can't easily get from point A to point B with AA miles).

Also, this guide assumes that you have no problems meeting any minimum spends - if meeting minimum spends is an issue for you, you have additional value considerations to make that are beyond the scope of this flowchart. The guide also assumes you're fine with grabbing business cards - there's really no reason to avoid them, so this guide doesn't.

It is your responsibility to evaluate the pros/cons of any particular credit card for yourself and to plan to meet the minimum spend - you shouldn't be applying for credit cards just because some guy on the internet told you to.

Keep in mind that credit card churning is a marathon, not a sprint - it will take multiple years to grab most/all of the cards listed on this page.

It's also your responsibility to ensure you're applying for the best bonus available, especially for Amex cards.

If there are terms, jargon, etc. that you don't understand, read the /r/churning wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/wiki/index

And be sure to use someone's referral links where possible, to pay it forward to a member of the sub - find someone who has helped you personally, or someone who has contributed something to the sub and grab a referral link from their profile page, or grab a random referral link from churning.rankt.com!

Send any comments on or improvements to the flowchart to /u/kevlarlover - and good luck with your apps!

For ongoing cashback earning (you'll probably want to grab several/most of these so you can be earning 3-5% on as much of your spending as possible):

If you are just starting out with CCs in general and have a thin credit file, you will probably need to build credit history before going for the bigger cards listed in this guide.

In that case, the best starter cards (in my opinion) are the Chase Freedom and Discover It - get one (or both), use them responsibly for several months / a year to build your credit history, and then you can start with the other cards in this guide.

If you're a student and need to build credit history, the best starter cards are the Discover It Student and/or a Capital One student card. You might also be approved for a Chase Freedom, but you're almost guaranteed to be approved for Discover and Capital One student cards.

My thanks to /r/churning in general for being a great community and for all the info needed to keep this chart up-to-date, to the mods, and to these users in particular for comments that improved the flowchart or notes: /u/aoechamp, /u/the_fit_hit_the_shan, /u/pizzywoah, /u/PeteyNice, /u/Renaud04, /u/BrainSturgeon, /u/idontwantaname123, /u/mk712, /u/blinyellow, /u/milespoints, /u/GamingBuck, /u/bullfrog23414, /u/Soulsandwich, /u/sidek021, /u/preston_f, /u/nobody65535, /u/AtSomePointItMatters, /u/Blaize122, /u/pawfee, /u/dragonflysexparade, /u/duffcalifornia, /u/Lieroo, /u/DanmakuLife, /u/nmperson, /u/mikep4, /u/Foxua, /u/Heartlanta, /u/Chong786, /u/akdb8r, /u/caedin8, /u/daneo345, /u/Better_than_Trajan, /u/hellomedworld, /u/yt-nthr-rddtr, /u/kid_iculous, /u/blueeyes_austin, /u/OJtheJEWSMAN, 

/u/Schaudenfreuding, /u/m16p, /u/ktfzh64338, /u/Cyclone__Power

If you are near 5/24, it might be worth waiting until you are under 5/24 again, instead of grabbing a ton of new cards immediately. It's up to you how long a wait is worth it - personally, I would definitely wait at least a few months - maybe even several, since you can grab many biz cards while waiting.

You should regularly check in a Chase branch for any Chase CC preapprovals - these get around the 5/24 rule (but do not appear to get around the new "one Sapphire" bonus rule), and Chase BRM DocuSigned apps get around 5/24.

Citi targeted mailers get around Citi's 24 month limitation, and Amex sends out targeted mailers that don't have the once-per-lifetime limitation.

The optimal time to get the SW cards is so that all bonuses post in Jan/Feb, giving you the CP for almost 2 years.

Some of the premium cards (Amex Platinum, Amex PRG, Citi Prestige, Ritz, CNB Crystal Visa, etc.) offer calendar-year airline/travel credits - if you apply at just the right time (usually late Nov.-ish / early Dec.-ish, depending), you can triple-dip the credit in your first card year before downgrading/canceling.

For a while, Chase shutdowns were becoming more common (see http://redd.it/8qi6aa/ - the main causes appeared to be 1. applying for too many Chase cards too quickly, and 2. applying for a new Chase card if 12+/24, including non-Chase cards). However, there have been far fewer shutdowns reported recently, so it is likely safe to apply for cards faster than in the recent past - 1 new Chase card ever 1-3 months, depending on offer availability and your risk tolerance. If you want to increase your card velocity while going after Chase cards, you can sprinkle in biz card apps from Amex, BoA, Citi, and the Barclay AA Biz while chasing Chase 5/24 cards, since those don't count against 5/24.

* Though Chase used to not allow you to have more than 1 biz card at a time, many (most?) people are now reporting success, so you can decide how many additional biz card apps you want to add before you hit 5/24 (Ink Preferred, SW, United, Ink Cash, maybe Marriott, and/or Ink Unlimited).

** If you are 0 or 1/24, you may want to start with the Marriott and/or Marriott Biz cards first. Getting either (or both) Marriott cards means that you can't get the Amex SPG cards for 24 months after receiving your last Marriott card bonus, but since churning is a marathon, there are enough cards for someone who is just starting out to get to occupy 24 months of CC apps, so it may make sense to grab the 2 Marriott cards first to get your 24 month clock ticking and then move on to the other Chase cards, and then onto the non-Amex banks, so you can then get the Amex SPG cards down the road.

*** If you have to pick between the Marriott and the Hyatt, I recommend the Hyatt over the Marriott because 1. of the Hyatt's better sign-up bonus and better card perks, and 2. if you get the Marriott or Marriott Biz, you won't be eligible for the Amex SPG bonuses later.

If you're focusing on cashback, note that URs can be redeemed for 1 cent each; SW points can be redeemed for 1 Amazon cent per mile; and United miles can be redeemed for 0.6 Amazon cents per mile.