Airline card or something else?

[johndoe2023]

Greetings everyone!  I'm new to these forums but I can see there's some quite knoweldgeable card users here.  Credit cards aren't something I give much thought to as I usually pay off my no reward or any special stuff cards each month, but lately I've been thinking I should be getting something back, as I do charge at least $1000.00 a month.  I started to do a little research, and I had no idea how involved it can be to optimize CC use.  

My wife and I are planning a trip to Hawaii late in 2015, probably on United.  I'd like to accumulate points/miles before then to apply to the ticket or maybe buy an upgrade.  My current spending is a mix of gas, food, resturants, home improvment, and pretty much everything else, except flying.  There won't be any of that till the trip.  So, a United card or something like a Chase Saphire Perfered?  The United card gives double points for tickets , but there won't be any of that for a while.  Is it easy to apply CSP points towards flying?  I'm still learning about how the whole points thing works.

Thanks for reading, and your time!

johndoe2023

[jaraico]

sapphire preferred has a hefty annual fee of 150 i think so if you get it will it be worth the fee?

it has a great sign up bonus of 40k points that would really help for your trip, then you could just downgrade to no annual fee version but than again you find yourself without a great travel card.

barclays arrival card has an annual fee of 89 and the same 40k bonus, 2x points on everything. another great card.

i recommend these because they are non specific, use for hotel or airline

[NoAnchoviesPlease]

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@jaraico wrote:

sapphire preferred has a hefty annual fee of 150 i think so if you get it will it be worth the fee?

it has a great sign up bonus of 40k points that would really help for your trip, then you could just downgrade to no annual fee version but than again you find yourself without a great travel card.

barclays arrival card has an annual fee of 89 and the same 40k bonus, 2x points on everything. another great card.

i recommend these because they are non specific, use for hotel or airline

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CSP is $95 as of this past week. First year waived (most cards with AF waive the first year's fee I believe, my CSP and my Barclay SM both did). 

Chase may be better than a United card in case you change your mileage plans. You get double points on travel and dining, 1;1 point transfers to a number of other travel programs (including United), 20% off reward redemptions through Ultimate Rewards. 

And if you decide not to travel, it's still 1 point to1 penny in cash redemption through UR. 

If you do go with a specific travel partner card, it's also worth looking at hotel cards, but as jaraico says, it's worth looking at a non-specific-partner card instead, just in case. It would suck to build up enough United miles and then have to go with American at the last minute.  

[grinlikechelsea]

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@jaraico wrote:

sapphire preferred has a hefty annual fee of 150 i think so if you get it will it be worth the fee?

it has a great sign up bonus of 40k points that would really help for your trip, then you could just downgrade to no annual fee version but than again you find yourself without a great travel card.

barclays arrival card has an annual fee of 89 and the same 40k bonus, 2x points on everything. another great card.

i recommend these because they are non specific, use for hotel or airline

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The AF with the CSP is not set in stone at $150. If you are a current Chase customer, the $95 AF is locked in for new applicants until the end of the year. Different links will take you to the same application but with different AFs. From what I understand, its more market research than anything else.

Anyways, the CSP is a great card due to the signup bonus (40,000 UR points) and the 1:1 transfer to partner airlines, hotels, etc. United is one of those partners, so you essentially can net 40,000 miles (and 5,000 more if you add an authorized user). Depending on which airport you're flying from, Alaska Airlines's credit card from Bank of America may be a good choice as well due to the high value of the points, cheapish flights, and a lower AF. The sign up bonus is good too if you get approved for a Visa Signature. The lower tiers have a smaller sign up bonus.

Best of luck!

[sillykitty1]

I don't think at the spend of only $1,000/mo any airline or hotel specific card makes any sense.  Here is the united award chart, you'll see it'll take between 45,000-90,000 miles per ticket to Hawaii http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/news/United-Award-Chart-02-01-14.pdf

With the low spend, I think cash back is the way to go.  I'd suggest the Fidelity Amex for 2% cash back on everything (open a CMA to deposit rewards into) & a Cap 1 Quicksilver for 1.5% back on everything that doesn't accept Amex

If you have a strong enough CR to open some cards just for the bonus and then downgrade once the AF hits.  Then the CSP and Arrivals both have $400 bonuses.

CSP - Open in branch to get the 40,000 point bonus after spending $2,000 in 3 months, add your wife as an AU and receive and extra 5,000 points.  Put all restaurant spending on here, and if you pay for parking, public transit, taxi's etc.  When it come time to book tickets use the UR Mall to do so and get an extra 25% value on your points.  For example if you have 60,000 UR points then those points will offset $750 of the airfare when you book through the UR Mall

Arrival - 40,000 point bonus after spending $3,000 in 3 months.  Put all spending other than CSP spending on this card.  Use this card to book your hotel, car rental etc in Hawaii.  Once those charges hit the Arrival you can use your points to offset them, essentially erasing them.  Then you are instantly given back 10% of the points you just used, so use these points against another travel expense.

Once the AF hits on both of these cards, then downgrade them to the no AF version.  Keep using them for their 2x catagories up and through your trip.  After that just SD them.

[B335is]

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@sillykitty1 wrote:

I don't think at the spend of only $1,000/mo any airline or hotel specific card makes any sense.  Here is the united award chart, you'll see it'll take between 45,000-90,000 miles per ticket to Hawaii http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/news/United-Award-Chart-02-01-14.pdf

With the low spend, I think cash back is the way to go.  I'd suggest the Fidelity Amex for 2% cash back on everything (open a CMA to deposit rewards into) & a Cap 1 Quicksilver for 1.5% back on everything that doesn't accept Amex

If you have a strong enough CR to open some cards just for the bonus and then downgrade once the AF hits.  Then the CSP and Arrivals both have $400 bonuses.

CSP - Open in branch to get the 40,000 point bonus after spending $2,000 in 3 months, add your wife as an AU and receive and extra 5,000 points.  Put all restaurant spending on here, and if you pay for parking, public transit, taxi's etc.  When it come time to book tickets use the UR Mall to do so and get an extra 25% value on your points.  For example if you have 60,000 UR points then those points will offset $750 of the airfare when you book through the UR Mall

Arrival - 40,000 point bonus after spending $3,000 in 3 months.  Put all spending other than CSP spending on this card.  Use this card to book your hotel, car rental etc in Hawaii.  Once those charges hit the Arrival you can use your points to offset them, essentially erasing them.  Then you are instantly given back 10% of the points you just used, so use these points against another travel expense.

Once the AF hits on both of these cards, then downgrade them to the no AF version.  Keep using them for their 2x catagories up and through your trip.  After that just SD them.

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I agree, the signup bonus on Arrival makes it desirable, but don't keep it past year 1. 

If you're just planning 1 trip to Hawaii, I would not consider an airline branded card - at least long term.  The first bag free is nice (as well as the signup bonus), but keeping any of them longer as an occassional flier is a waste of money.  I would do CSP and/or Arrival.  SPG is another card to consider.

[parakleet]

even with $1000/mo spend, the CSP+freedom and/or united card would be worth it to get just for the bonus. They woudl be able to do at least one ticket or decent upgrades in a year. Not really sure why CSP and the united cards are being poo pooed on.

edit to add: they can always cancel/downgrade the cards when the AFs are due. Not getting the cards because the AF might not be worth it "long term" is very short-sighted IMO.

[longtimelurker]

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@NoAnchoviesPlease wrote:

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CSP is $95 as of this past week. First year waived (most cards with AF waive the first year's fee I believe, my CSP and my Barclay SM both did). 

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Yes, most but not all, Amex Platinum, Citi Prestige/AA Exec and a few other high-priced cards will not waive the fee the first year.

Did they really waive the fee on your Barclays Sallie Mae?  How could you tell!   Do you mean the Arrival?

[NoAnchoviesPlease]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@NoAnchoviesPlease wrote:

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CSP is $95 as of this past week. First year waived (most cards with AF waive the first year's fee I believe, my CSP and my Barclay SM both did). 

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Yes, most but not all, Amex Platinum, Citi Prestige/AA Exec and a few other high-priced cards will not waive the fee the first year.

Did they really waive the fee on your Barclays Sallie Mae?  How could you tell!   Do you mean the Arrival?

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I thought it was waived for the first year, but actually it seems to not be there at all. Applied through https://www.salliemae.com/credit-cards/sallie-mae-card/ and the T&C on the application page still say $0 annual fee, as does the main promo page. 

Yes, Sallie Mae, as in:

Welcome to your new
Sallie Mae® World MasterCard® account. 

And the "Legal Terms and Conditions" says "Annual Fee $0"

BT fee is 4% (3% for first 12 cycles), but that's okay. 

From my research and limited memory, the cards with sub-$200 annual fees are more likely to waive them than the ones with higher fees (Amex Platinum is $450 I think?). Looks like the only AF cards I got were Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select WMC ($95 waived first year) and CSP ($95 waived first year). If it makes a difference, I was already a banking and CC customer with those two banks. 

[B335is]

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@parakleet wrote:

even with $1000/mo spend, the CSP+freedom and/or united card would be worth it to get just for the bonus. They woudl be able to do at least one ticket or decent upgrades in a year. Not really sure why CSP and the united cards are being poo pooed on.

edit to add: they can always cancel/downgrade the cards when the AFs are due. Not getting the cards because the AF might not be worth it "long term" is very short-sighted IMO.

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Once you downgrade you typically lose all those little perks, but regardless I stand by my post that if you fly 1 time per year, it's a waste of money to keep the card past year 1.