best CC for airline miles

[Sharingan]

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@icyhot wrote:
I'm not advising anything, I'm saying not everyone does PIF, so they wouldn't get the full 2% unless they did. Venture and Arrival gets you 2% on every purchase, and if you're already looking at them because you're traveling, then the points only being redeemed fully on travel purchases isn't an issue. Having to have an account with a bank to redeem your rewards is indeed a restriction IMO

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You are missing that if you can't PIF, it's not going to matter because interest would erase any earnings you get. If you can't PIF for any of these four cards, you shouldn't be worrying about 2% rewards anyway! Let's not forget to factor in AFs as well...

[kdm31091]

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@icyhot wrote:
I wouldn't consider Fidelity Amex or the Double Cash non-restricted 2%, for one the Fidelity can only be deposited into a Fidelity account, restriction right there. Then the Double Cash isn't flat 2% on purchases, it's 1% on purchases 1%, and not everyone PIF. I would put the Venture over both 1 for the bonus and 2 it has a higher starting limit and can easily be converted to a non-AF card. If someone wants to be rewarded quickly for their travel expenses the Venture and Arrival are the way to go

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You do get the 2% with double cash...if you aren't PIF on a card like that, like someone else said, that's the least of your worries. Since you are eventually going to pay, you eventually get your 2%...

Yes, if you want it posted immediately and will ONLY redeem towards travel, a Venture is "better" in that respect but you do pay a $59 AF for that, and $89 for Arrival. Whether it's Arrival ,Double Cash ,Venture, doesn't matter....if you don't PIF on a rewards card, the rewards are evaporated with interest. Period.

"Unrestricted" refers more to the fact that Double Cash and Fidelity are 2% not tied to "travel" purchases.

[red259]

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@Sharingan wrote:

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@icyhot wrote:
I wouldn't consider Fidelity Amex or the Double Cash non-restricted 2%, for one the Fidelity can only be deposited into a Fidelity account, restriction right there. Then the Double Cash isn't flat 2% on purchases, it's 1% on purchases 1%, and not everyone PIF. I would put the Venture over both 1 for the bonus and 2 it has a higher starting limit and can easily be converted to a non-AF card. If someone wants to be rewarded quickly for their travel expenses the Venture and Arrival are the way to go

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The Double Cash most certainly is an unrestricted 2% card, unless you are advising that people not pay their bill to get the other 1%. In that case, missing out on that 1% would be the least of their worries. I have my own reservations about the Fidelity AmEx, but saying it's a restricted 2% card with that argument is really grasping at straws. Also, if you aren't paying in full, you are going to quickly wipe out the value of your rewards no matter what rewards card you are using. The Arrival and Venture aren't immune to this. In no uncertain terms would I ever recommend the Arrival+ or Venture over the Double Cash/Fidelity AmEx for most people.

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The signup bonus for the arrival and venture alone make it worth a look. After the first year the value diminishes though unless AF gets waived. The fidelity amex does require an extra step to get it and that can be a factor for consideration as well. The venture has the possibility of SP CLI. Don't know if you can do that with the fidelity amex, also amex isn't necessarily accepted at as many places as a MC or Visa. 

[kdm31091]

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@red259 wrote:

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@Sharingan wrote:

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@icyhot wrote:
I wouldn't consider Fidelity Amex or the Double Cash non-restricted 2%, for one the Fidelity can only be deposited into a Fidelity account, restriction right there. Then the Double Cash isn't flat 2% on purchases, it's 1% on purchases 1%, and not everyone PIF. I would put the Venture over both 1 for the bonus and 2 it has a higher starting limit and can easily be converted to a non-AF card. If someone wants to be rewarded quickly for their travel expenses the Venture and Arrival are the way to go

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The Double Cash most certainly is an unrestricted 2% card, unless you are advising that people not pay their bill to get the other 1%. In that case, missing out on that 1% would be the least of their worries. I have my own reservations about the Fidelity AmEx, but saying it's a restricted 2% card with that argument is really grasping at straws. Also, if you aren't paying in full, you are going to quickly wipe out the value of your rewards no matter what rewards card you are using. The Arrival and Venture aren't immune to this. In no uncertain terms would I ever recommend the Arrival+ or Venture over the Double Cash/Fidelity AmEx for most people.

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The signup bonus for the arrival and venture alone make it worth a look. After the first year the value diminishes though unless AF gets waived. The fidelity amex does require an extra step to get it and that can be a factor for consideration as well. The venture has the possibility of SP CLI. Don't know if you can do that with the fidelity amex, also amex isn't necessarily accepted at as many places as a MC or Visa. 

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Since when do people get fees on Arrival+ and Venture waived? Very rarely. Yes, if the fees are waived, it's less big of a difference but you are still stuck with only redeeming towards travel purchases.

SP CLIs happen with Citi too (Double Cash) which is a Mastercard.

I just feel like people are grasping at straws to defend Venture and Arrival. They have their (minimal) place. Venture has no FTF, and if you travel internationally a ton and want 2% back and are willing to redeem only towards travel, it can be valuable. But the majority of people who have it did not get it for that. They got it for the bonus and will close or consolidate it later, because it holds no long term value for most people. This is why I say DC or Fidelity is better. To each their own. Nobody would care about getting the fees waived if the products had a long term value.

[icyhot]

Fidelity Amex definitely doesn't have SP CLIs lol. I know the whole concept of interest "eating" your rewards is pretty popular here, but even if you PIF everything I still don't see how the DC or Fidelity can benefit a traveler, especially with no bonus and FTFs. If I had those cards I would leave them at home on a trip

[kdm31091]

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@icyhot wrote:
Fidelity Amex definitely doesn't have SP CLIs lol. I know the whole concept of interest "eating" your rewards is pretty popular here, but even if you PIF everything I still don't see how the DC or Fidelity can benefit a traveler, especially with no bonus and FTFs. If I had those cards I would leave them at home on a trip

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We're going off on a tangent here, but how does a bonus benefit a traveler any more than a non traveler? Also, how does the bonus factor into the long term feasibility of the card? OP isn't really talking about bonuses, they're talking about a card presumably to keep for awhile. There is no advantage to keeping Arrival or Venture for a long time and paying the AF over DC or Fidelity unless you have a huge amount of FTF that you would otherwise be paying, but you could also get a QS for no FTF and 1.5% pure cash back.

The concept of "eating rewards" is popular here because it's simple math....if you are paying 18% in interest, that is more than 2% you get in rewards. So each month of paying that interest is going to eat up your rewards. It's not someone's opinion or idea, it's the facts. Now, we all have had to carry a balance here and there, but in the process, you lose some value of rewards.

[icyhot]

The bonuses benefit travelers because if they're going on a trip it can alleviate some of the costs. Yes that's simple math but even as you pay interest, the rewards are still there to be used. I don't think that matters to the average CC user. But you're right, it is a tangent because they asked about airline mile cards, not cash back

[Anonymous]

If you do a lot of short haul flight 650mi or less BA Avios is a great program to get into plus no penalty for booking close in.

[icyhot]

I would get an airline card for whichever airline flies to the most destinations out your airport. It's American for me, and their flights are normally the cheapest wherever I go

[Anonymous]

I forgot to mention it helps if you have AA as a hub.