a question for those who travel frequently (out of the country)

[2NE1]

A family member wants to know which CCs are the best to app for to get great deals on traveling.

We're looking for a CC that you can earn miles to travel to: South America, Europe, and possible S. Korea/Japan.

Thanks in advance everyone!

[Anonymous]

The best card depends on if he/she wants the highest return in rewards or the best benefits, e.g. lounge access, elite status at hotels. Also, is an annual fee ok?

[Anonymous]

Either way for travel out of the country, a card with no foreign transaction fees is a must.

[2NE1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Either way for travel out of the country, a card with no foreign transaction fees is a must.

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we're not worried about transaction fees... and yes an AF is OK.

[2NE1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The best card depends on if he/she wants the highest return in rewards or the best benefits, e.g. lounge access, elite status at hotels. Also, is an annual fee ok?

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we just want a card that gives a high return in miles? the more you use the CC the higher miles you earn type of deal... but we want to be able to use the miles on ANY airline that can take us to South America, Europe, and S. Korea/Japan.

[Anonymous]

Well for best travel benefits its probably AMEX Platinum. I'm not the best person to comment on this card since I don't have it but several others on this message board do. It comes with some pretty sweet perks like airport lounge access, upgrades on hotel elite status, etc. that pretty much offset the AF if you make use of all the benefits.

For best travel rewards + no forex fees, Chase Sapphire Preferred seems to be very popular with 2x points on travel and dining, an annual bonus on points earned, and 20% discount when points are used to redeem for travel. Its a Visa Signature card so you get concierge service with that and some other benefits I'm not sure of. The signup bonus is also very good, valued at $625 currently. Travel is broadly defined and even includes things like taxis, trains, etc.

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

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@2NE1 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

The best card depends on if he/she wants the highest return in rewards or the best benefits, e.g. lounge access, elite status at hotels. Also, is an annual fee ok?

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we just want a card that gives a high return in miles? the more you use the CC the higher miles you earn type of deal... but we want to be able to use the miles on ANY airline that can take us to South America, Europe, and S. Korea/Japan.

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The Sapphire Preferred earns 2x on travel and points can be transferred to partner airlines on a 1:1 basis. Although the list of transfer partners is short, its growing. I think it includes Continental/United, Southwest, among others. By short I mean less than 10 airlines altogether, including airlines in other countries e.g. Korean.

Another option is the Starwood Preferred Guest card from Amex which does have a 2.7% forex fee. However, you earn 1 point per dollar spent (and at least 4 points per dollar for hotel stays) and points can be transferred on an even better 1 to 1.25 basis to over 30 frequent flier programs. When you transfer 20K points you get 5K bonus miles for 25K miles. Points can also be redeemed for hotel stays at Starwood properties for a much better rate of 2-4 cents/point on average and their hotels are scattered across the globe, though typically in bigger cities/resort towns.

[Anonymous]

An important piece of info here is where you'll be flying from. Especially if there is a hub from a major carrier or alliance partner.
Also there's a post on the thepointsguy blog posted just recently about rewards availability that you'll likely find useful.
A good promo now is 50,000 miles for 3k spend on the chase sapphire preferred. There is the same promo by referral for the amex plat.

[SoulMaster]

For travel to South America and Europe, the OneWorld alliance is hands down the best and AA is the North American member of that, so you might want to look at AA and the AA Promos ~ I think they give you somewhere between 45-75K miles just for signing up.

You can get to Asia on Cathay/AA combos, but the best airline to Asia is hands down Singapore, which is StarAlliance.

I think the best thing for you to do is meander over to FlyerTalk.com and read the forum their about airline CCs.  If you want more specific info than that, dive in to their forums about the specific airlines.

Now, that's all fine and good for airline stuff, but IMO (and in the O of the flyertalk community, which I've been a part of for several years), the hands-down best travel card is the Starwoods Amex (sign up bonuses not withstanding).  It's points move from airline to airline and if you use it enough you get Starwoods status automatically.

Cheers!

-SM