topic Re: best CC for airline miles in Credit Cards

best CC for airline miles

spydergto — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 21:33:48 GMT

Hi im sure there are plenty of these threads older, please link me if thats the case id like to read them anyways. I had my eye on south west airlines a while ago from chase they had 50 k bonus miles but it seems thats changed to 25k bonus miles now.

I have some decent cards. But I am looking for travel rewards and or air line miles. whats the current top cards ?

thanks

Re: best CC for airline miles

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 21:50:01 GMT

One of the most loaded questions ever.

That depends on your travel habits...

1) Are you loyal to a specific airline?

2) Are you loyal to multiple airlines?

3) Are you loyal to no airline?

... if yes to 1): Congratulations! You're loyal to a specific airline! You should probably get its card. You can accrue points and use them specifically with that airline. Most of these carry an annual fee, but pay for themselves to varying degrees (with free checked baggage, with 25% off in-flight food and meals, with TSA Global Entry credits, etc.)

...if yes to 2): Congratulations! You're versatile. If you're loyal to multiple airlines, see if they're in the same rewards family. Collect MR points with Amex for transfer to... Delta, Virgin, Alitalia, British, and multiple others (EveryDay, Premier Rewards Gold, Green, Gold, Platinum).

Or collect UR points with Chase for transfer to United, Southwest, British, and multiple others (Sapphire Preferred, Ink).

...if yes to 3): Congratulations! You've gone rogue in a way Sarah Palin could only dream! Get a card like the Arrival (Barclays) or Venture (Capital One) where you collect amorphous "miles" that can be redeemed at $0.01 - $0.02 each for travel redemption on any airline of your choice.

There are just too many possible answers to your question. Get the card that conforms the most to how you travel. Please don't interpret my attitude in this post to anything other than simply having fun.

Re: best CC for airline miles

spydergto — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 21:56:45 GMT

no worries i actually enjoyed that , rather humerous ,

I hold no loyalty to any airline. I drive ALOT for work ... so much so that with all the stuff i buy every month going on my CU card i acure atleast 1500 points a month just in my regular bills alone. I want to fly instead of drive. but do not hold loyalty to any of them. However I am looking for the best possible deal as such. got any other sugestions ?

Re: best CC for airline miles

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 22:00:11 GMT

Where would you fly out of aka based and what's the major airlines that has hubs there?

of those airlines how are they with flights to where you usually would drive?

also If you keep driving there's the amex card for gas no? That can be racking up cash or mr points? I'm kind of dusty on my info, I know uber, taxi and toll counts for sapphire preferred

Re: best CC for airline miles

taxi818 — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 22:18:53 GMT

Yes. this question can't be asked as if there is a number 1.Which there is not. I have the Delta Amex But after racking up many miles and Delta making it hard to use them at reasonable rate. Im gonna get rid of it. I may go to southwest for sure. Good bye Delta. Hello Hilton. and hello Southwest

Re: best CC for airline miles

CH-7-Mission-Accomplished — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 22:19:30 GMT

To get high value out of airline miles, you need to use them for international business or first class travel. Then sometimes you can get value approaching 10 cents a mile versus what the ticket would have cost you.

That said, the mileage pros who run all the miles websites show that most airline miles are worth less than 2 cents per mile - like 1.8 cents or whatever, depending on the airline.

Aside from getting a free ticket from a nice bonus, I don't see any benefit to accruing miles on a Southwest credit card that only flies domestically. You would be better off to get 2 cents cash to be used for travel from a Venture card or the Barclay's Arrival Plus. And then you can use the 2 cents per dollar spent on airlines, hotels, cruises, cabs, etc. And when you cash in miles for award tickets there are taxes and fuel surcharges and these can add up to a lot of money. You are also stuck with finding available seats, which is difficult during peak seasons or to popular destinations.

Over the years I cashed in probably close to 2 million airline miles earned on AMEX, Diners and United Visa card. I used the points for international business or first class travel and thought it was worth it for me. Now I collect my "miles" as cash back on my Venture card and I love it. I just paid for much of a trip to Bali using mine and my patner's bonuses from two Ventures and two Venture Ones. I also wound up cashing in 400K miles from British Airways for two round trip tickets Seattle to Bali (one way in business, one way in first) flying on Cathay Pacific. I realized later that had the miles been earned on Alaska Airlines, it would have cost only 105K miles per ticket roundtrip in business on Cathay Pacific instead of 200K each for British Airways.

If you own your own business and can put through lots and lots of $$$ per month (like 50K or more), true airline mileage cards are fantastic for getting luxury trips abroad. There are many people who, just by their thrifty natures, would not ever consider paying $3500 - $15,000 for an airline ticket, even when getting a great discounted deal by using points. In my case, cashing in 400K BA points, had those points been earned on a Venture card, I would have had 400,000 X $0.02 = $8000 cash. Would you rather have two business class tickets to Bali or 8K in cash?

Also, even if you are loyal to one airline, it is better than earn the miles in a card that transfers to multiple carriers in case your airline devalues their points program. And in my case, some of those 400K BA miles came from a transfer bonus moving miles from AMEX to BA. It might have been a 50% bonus. You would not get that bonus had you earned the miles on the BA card itself.

Lots to think about.

Re: best CC for airline miles

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 22:25:34 GMT

@CH-7-Mission-Accomplished wrote:
To get high value out of airline miles, you need to use them for international business or first class travel. Then sometimes you can get value approaching 10 cents a mile versus what the ticket would have cost you.

That said, the mileage pros who run all the miles websites show that most airline miles are worth less than 2 cents per mile - like 1.8 cents or whatever, depending on the airline.

Aside from getting a free ticket from a nice bonus, I don't see any benefit to accruing miles on a Southwest credit card that only flies domestically. You would be better off to get 2 cents cash to be used for travel from a Venture card or the Barclay's Arrival Plus. And then you can use the 2 cents per dollar spent on airlines, hotels, cruises, cabs, etc. And when you cash in miles for award tickets there are taxes and fuel surcharges and these can add up to a lot of money. You are also stuck with finding available seats, which is difficult during peak seasons or to popular destinations.

Over the years I cashed in probably close to 2 million airline miles earned on AMEX, Diners and United Visa card. I used the points for international business or first class travel and thought it was worth it for me. Now I collect my "miles" as cash back on my Venture card and I love it. I just paid for much of a trip to Bali using mine and my patner's bonuses from two Ventures and two Venture Ones. I also wound up cashing in 400K miles from British Airways for two round trip tickets Seattle to Bali (one way in business, one way in first) flying on Cathay Pacific. I realized later that had the miles been earned on Alaska Airlines, it would have cost only 105K miles per ticket roundtrip in business on Cathay Pacific instead of 200K each for British Airways.

If you own your own business and can put through lots and lots of $$$ per month (like 50K or more), true airline mileage cards are fantastic for getting luxury trips abroad. There are many people who, just by their thrifty natures, would not ever consider paying $3500 - $15,000 for an airline ticket, even when getting a great discounted deal by using points. In my case, cashing in 400K BA points, had those points been earned on a Venture card, I would have had 400,000 X $0.02 = $8000 cash. Would you rather have two business class tickets to Bali or 8K in cash?

Also, even if you are loyal to one airline, it is better than earn the miles in a card that transfers to multiple carriers in case your airline devalues their points program. And in my case, some of those 400K BA miles came from a transfer bonus moving miles from AMEX to BA. It might have been a 50% bonus. You would not get that bonus had you earned the miles on the BA card itself.

Lots to think about.

Agree with most of this!

Once you get the bonuses for Venture/Arrival, they may not be worth keeping if you don't do a lot of spending that incurs FTFs. Just use a 2% card like Citi Double Cash (or Fidelity Amex) and use that for anything, including travel spending, and use something like quicksilver for the little bit of foreign spend. If you DO spend a lot abroad, then something like the Aririval/Venture makes more sense.

Re: best CC for airline miles

NRB525 — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 22:25:40 GMT

@spydergto wrote:
no worries i actually enjoyed that , rather humerous ,

I hold no loyalty to any airline. I drive ALOT for work ... so much so that with all the stuff i buy every month going on my CU card i acure atleast 1500 points a month just in my regular bills alone. I want to fly instead of drive. but do not hold loyalty to any of them. However I am looking for the best possible deal as such. got any other sugestions ?

If you drive a lot for work, that implies lots of gas cost, possible toll roads, parking fees, and potentially hotel stays.

The Citi Thank You Premier includes gas along with travel in the 3-points per dollar category. Entertainment and dining is 2 points. There should be a 50,000 point sign up bonus available now.

The points gather as Thank You points, and it is possible to transfer the points to miles on airlines such as Virgin Atlantic, and from there use them on partner/codeshare airlines such as Delta.

However, the easier option may be to redeem them by purchasing flights through the Citi portal, where the points are 1.2x value. So earning 3 points on gas goes easily to 3.6% value toward an airline ticket on American.

The Citi Prestige has similar 3 point 2 point categories except that it does not give 3 points for gasoline and has a higher annual fee. Still, the AF is offset by the $250 direct travel credit that can be used for airline tickets. The Prestige also has a 50k points bonus.

It is possible to get both the Premier and Prestige, then decide if you want to keep both or just one. The points would combine in the same TY account, and the Prestige gives a 60% bonus rather than 20% bonus for booking American Airlines tickets, without regard whether the points were earned on either card. The points do not directly transfer to American Airlines, but do to other overseas airlines.

Re: best CC for airline miles

CH-7-Mission-Accomplished — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 22:35:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@CH-7-Mission-Accomplished wrote:
To get high value out of airline miles, you need to use them for international business or first class travel. Then sometimes you can get value approaching 10 cents a mile versus what the ticket would have cost you.

That said, the mileage pros who run all the miles websites show that most airline miles are worth less than 2 cents per mile - like 1.8 cents or whatever, depending on the airline.

Aside from getting a free ticket from a nice bonus, I don't see any benefit to accruing miles on a Southwest credit card that only flies domestically. You would be better off to get 2 cents cash to be used for travel from a Venture card or the Barclay's Arrival Plus. And then you can use the 2 cents per dollar spent on airlines, hotels, cruises, cabs, etc. And when you cash in miles for award tickets there are taxes and fuel surcharges and these can add up to a lot of money. You are also stuck with finding available seats, which is difficult during peak seasons or to popular destinations.

Over the years I cashed in probably close to 2 million airline miles earned on AMEX, Diners and United Visa card. I used the points for international business or first class travel and thought it was worth it for me. Now I collect my "miles" as cash back on my Venture card and I love it. I just paid for much of a trip to Bali using mine and my patner's bonuses from two Ventures and two Venture Ones. I also wound up cashing in 400K miles from British Airways for two round trip tickets Seattle to Bali (one way in business, one way in first) flying on Cathay Pacific. I realized later that had the miles been earned on Alaska Airlines, it would have cost only 105K miles per ticket roundtrip in business on Cathay Pacific instead of 200K each for British Airways.

If you own your own business and can put through lots and lots of $$$ per month (like 50K or more), true airline mileage cards are fantastic for getting luxury trips abroad. There are many people who, just by their thrifty natures, would not ever consider paying $3500 - $15,000 for an airline ticket, even when getting a great discounted deal by using points. In my case, cashing in 400K BA points, had those points been earned on a Venture card, I would have had 400,000 X $0.02 = $8000 cash. Would you rather have two business class tickets to Bali or 8K in cash?

Also, even if you are loyal to one airline, it is better than earn the miles in a card that transfers to multiple carriers in case your airline devalues their points program. And in my case, some of those 400K BA miles came from a transfer bonus moving miles from AMEX to BA. It might have been a 50% bonus. You would not get that bonus had you earned the miles on the BA card itself.

Lots to think about.
Agree with most of this!

Once you get the bonuses for Venture/Arrival, they may not be worth keeping if you don't do a lot of spending that incurs FTFs. Just use a 2% card like Citi Double Cash (or Fidelity Amex) and use that for anything, including travel spending, and use something like quicksilver for the little bit of foreign spend. If you DO spend a lot abroad, then something like the Aririval/Venture makes more sense.

Yes, I absolutely agree that a nonrestricted 2% cash back card is best (or the 3% JCB Mekuria card if you can get it). I only have the Cap 1 and Barclay cards because I am shut out from Fidelity and Citibank due to my BK 7.

Re: best CC for airline miles

kdm31091 — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 23:37:38 GMT

As stated many times, theres no advantage to a Venture or Arrival+ over a DC or fidelity amex. Venture's "miles" are merely restricted cash back. The only advantage is no ftf, but takes a lot of foreign spending for that to matter and if we are talking domestic travel, there is zero advantage to the venture or arrival.

Re: best CC for airline miles

kdm31091 — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 23:38:36 GMT

In general the airline cards only make sense if you are very loyal to an airline. Otherwise a flexible cash back card will serve you better and with less hoops than the venture. Just because its not marketed as a "travel" card doesnt mean anything.

Re: best CC for airline miles

takeshi74 — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 23:48:32 GMT

@spydergto wrote:
However I am looking for the best possible deal as such. got any other sugestions ?

The point of such questions is to clarify what you mean by "best" which is a highly subjective matter regardless of topic. Everyone is looking for "the best" but what's best varies from person to person. You need to provide criteria to help narrow it down.

Why were you looking at the Southwest card? Even if you don't use just one airline which ones do you tend to use? Are you just looking to accumulate miles? Or do flight benefits matter? Do other features and benefits matter? What are your major spend categories?

Always provide as much data as possible if you want recommendations. Best, top, etc are not just a matter of the cards themselves but how well the cards suit the individual.

Re: best CC for airline miles

spydergto — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 00:44:50 GMT

lol ok i understand what you mean by whats the best for one might not be best for another. I work all over normally in the US. i work for one of the largest 3rd party oil and gas companies in the world. (big red) and mostly NOW i work from new mexico to missisippi. In the past i worked deep water. Currently my best card is 10k with 4.95 % intrest rate. I am a little bothered by most of the cards that have been mentioned having an insane intrest rate yet i never keep balances unless they are tiny 100-300$ I can and do pay in full all the time but i dont want 0 being reports i range from 1-4 % reported to the CB.

Currently my cards earn points 1 point per 1$ spent but the rewards and reward sites are cheese. i just got a wine fridge, amazon price puts it at 167$ average, i spent 20200 points on it so at 1 $ per point that was 20 grand and i got a free cheap wine fridge.

I want to earn better benefits to include discounted air line tickets, I get 2 vacations a year, and would like to fly somewhere free lol. I have to buy gas and other things like pay bills monthly and food when I am out at work so i'd like to build points or mileage so that I could fly a few times a year. Checking the point system on the current cards the "rewards" are hilariously low ...

Re: best CC for airline miles

Simply827 — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 01:06:45 GMT

Best thread I've seen on the subject:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Guide-to-travel-cards/m-p/2918668#M828524

Re: best CC for airline miles

Anonymous — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 01:11:19 GMT

It depends on your who the closest hub is to you and where they fly to, as well as valuation of said miles.

Re: best CC for airline miles

icyhot — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 02:16:51 GMT

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

Re: best CC for airline miles

icyhot — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 02:17:19 GMT

*****1% on payments

Re: best CC for airline miles

Sharingan — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 02:46:32 GMT

@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

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.

Re: best CC for airline miles

icyhot — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 02:55:51 GMT

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

Re: best CC for airline miles

red259 — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 03:02:26 GMT

@spydergto wrote:
Hi im sure there are plenty of these threads older, please link me if thats the case id like to read them anyways. I had my eye on south west airlines a while ago from chase they had 50 k bonus miles but it seems thats changed to 25k bonus miles now.

I have some decent cards. But I am looking for travel rewards and or air line miles. whats the current top cards ?

thanks

If you are starting out then an airline card is probably not where you should start. Usually flexible currency cards like the CSP orAmex SPG or Amex cards that earn MRs etc are a better fit. Many of these cards have bonus categories which will let you earn points quicker as well. The exception being if you fly a lot now then you may want an airline card for the perks on whichever airline you fly. Which program you should invest in really depends on where you are located (what good is a united card if you ar enowhere near a united hub) and where you want to go. The value back for miles can be extremely high, well above the .10 per mile that was mentioned in this thread. However, that type of value back is mainly going to be when flying in first on long haul international flights with some of the best airline products in the world. If you are looking to redeem economy then miles can be useful but the value back drops. If your looking for economy domestic flights then I wouldn't bother with miles and would just look at straight cash back cards. The reason being is you can shop around and find cheaper flights.