topic Re: Best Airline card? in Credit Cards

Best Airline card?

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 20:16:51 GMT

Ok, so I am not really in the market for another card right now but I am curious about airline cards. I've been gathering points on my csp, boa travel and amex blue sky for hotels on this years vacation. I've not paid too much attention to the airfare part because it seems pretty expensive for a family of 4. A friend of mine just got a US airways card that came with 40k points to pay for 2 flights and it has 2 yearly companion tickets for 89.00 each. This sounds great to me. I think it's Barclay's which I have steered clear of in my credit journey. They scare me with all the closures. Anyways, this sound so affordable for a once a year family vacation. Is this deal the norm with other airline cards? Are companion tickets always included at low fees? What's the catch? What are the best cards? I'm looking for any and all info on this. Thanks!

Sorry for any typos....I'm on my cell

Re: Best Airline card?

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 20:34:40 GMT

It depends on a lot of things. Do you like to fly business/first class? Do you fly mostly domestically or internationally? Are you loyal to a specific airline(s)?

If you're a U.S. domestic traveler who doesn't mind flying coach, I'd apply for a pair of SW cards and go for the Companion Pass.

Re: Best Airline card?

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 21:32:49 GMT

I've had the US Airways card for several years and have had no problems with Barclay's. I've only used the companion ticket once because the trips my wife accompanies me on are usually short and the main ticket has to cost at least $250 before taxes and fees in order to use it. Also while you do get 2 companion tickets, they both have to be used at the same time. The total for her ticket with taxes and fees was $125, so there was a savings. If you have 2 people accompany you on the trip, the deal isn't too bad.

The main reason I got the card was for the first class check-in and zone 2 boarding, it's nice to have overhead bin space available when you board the plane and I'm willing to pay the annual fee for those benefits alone.

Re: Best Airline card?

B335is — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 21:43:03 GMT

If you're eyeballing the US Airways card, now is the time to get it as Citi will be the official credit card issuer for the new American. If anything, go for the US and AA card as those mileage programs will be integrated at some point in the not too distant future. With the companion certs, it's frequently a more expensive option than buying the tickets outright - definitely research your anticipated city pairs before using that marketing point in your decision.

However, if you're using it for 1 trip per year and have no brand loyalty, the Arrival card may be a good alternative.

Re: Best Airline card?

sillykitty1 — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 23:05:50 GMT

I think there is no reason to fear Barclay's AA as long as you're not behaving far outside the norm. Almost all the post I've seen from people who have had negative Barclay's experiences have been extreme, 10+ new TL's, $100,000 in new total credit.

If you're looking for a card to use year after year, the USAir card isn't it. If you're just looking at the sign up bonus, then you better hurry. USAir is going to be absorded into AA within the next few months. So the future of the Barclay's card is unknown, but it certainly won't offer the same benefits after the AA merger.

Re: Best Airline card?

creditfan — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 00:25:53 GMT

sorry for silly question

what's AA mean?

thanks

Re: Best Airline card?

B335is — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 00:38:35 GMT

AA = Adverse Action (like account closure or credit limit reduction).

Re: Best Airline card?

FocusedAndDetermined — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 00:40:02 GMT

@creditfan wrote:
sorry for silly question
what's AA mean?

thanks

Adverse Action

Re: Best Airline card?

sillykitty1 — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 00:40:30 GMT

When I wrote AA, I mean Adverse Action, meaning account closure or credit limit decrease

Re: Best Airline card?

creditfan — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 00:49:10 GMT

I saw those almost everywhere on the forum

because this forum is all about CC, in my mind always thought of an abreviation for another card like AA = American Airline

Re: Best Airline card?

hot4u — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 01:53:18 GMT

@B335is wrote:
If you're eyeballing the US Airways card, now is the time to get it as Citi will be the official credit card issuer for the new American. If anything, go for the US and AA card as those mileage programs will be integrated at some point in the not too distant future. With the companion certs, it's frequently a more expensive option than buying the tickets outright - definitely research your anticipated city pairs before using that marketing point in your decision.

However, if you're using it for 1 trip per year and have no brand loyalty, the Arrival card may be a good alternative.

Agree If you go with US Airway there a lots of ways to accumumulate more AA miles in future

http://aa.rewardsnetwork.com/

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/earnMiles/beyondTravel/retail/e-Rewards.jsp

This is a good way to keep your miles from expiring also .

Doing this will reset the Expiration date on Miles if you don't fly much

Arrival isn't a true Airline rewards card in the way to accumumulate miles but is an awesome card on Travel reimbursement

Re: Best Airline card?

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 03:21:04 GMT

@creditfan wrote:
I saw those almost everywhere on the forum

because this forum is all about CC, in my mind always thought of an abreviation for another card like AA = American Airline

Right, particularly confusing in a thread about airline cards, but when people talk about the AA card, it's not an Adverse Action credit card! (Maybe a niche product, good initial CL, followed by balance chasing to 0 after 3 months?)

Re: Best Airline card?

longtime_lurker — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 03:21:49 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@creditfan wrote:
I saw those almost everywhere on the forum

because this forum is all about CC, in my mind always thought of an abreviation for another card like AA = American Airline
Right, particularly confusing in a thread about airline cards, but when people talk about the AA card, it's not an Adverse Action credit card! (Maybe a niche product, good initial CL, followed by balance chasing to 0 after 3 months?)

Hahaha, love it!

Re: Best Airline card?

Open123 — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 03:24:00 GMT

@longtime_lurker wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@creditfan wrote:
I saw those almost everywhere on the forum

because this forum is all about CC, in my mind always thought of an abreviation for another card like AA = American Airline
Right, particularly confusing in a thread about airline cards, but when people talk about the AA card, it's not an Adverse Action credit card! (Maybe a niche product, good initial CL, followed by balance chasing to 0 after 3 months?)
Hahaha, love it!

All we need is the Negative Cashback Card!

For Airlines, if you fly UA, I've always thought the Club Card was one of the best. This was before the potential Feb devaluation, but at 1.5% for UA miles, you can't beat it.

Re: Best Airline card?

takeshi74 — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 14:02:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
What are the best cards?

Regardless of topic best is always highly subjective. You need to clearly define what you mean by best. What airlines do you frequently use? What are you expecting from the airline card? What other preferences, priorities and goals do you have that we could use to narrow down the options for you? Give us as much info as possible when asking any such subjective question.

Just as an example:

I live in a United hub city (3 of the 5 terminals are all United) so nearly 100% of my flights are on United. The UMPE is a no brainer for me since I'm not a premier MileagePlus member and the flight benefits are useful to me. There was a 50K mile sign on bonus that was also useful. There is a 10K mile bonus on the UMPE for $25K spend in a year. I happened to hit that last year but it was not a determining factor for me. I'm not AF averse so the AF isn't an issue for me. The free checked bags alone can easily mitigate the AF. The annual United Club passes are gravy but also not a deciding factor for me. Even though I have the UMPE most of my MP miles earning is done on my 3 UR Chase cards (which also had sign on bonuses for UR points) and I transfer UR points to my MP account as needed. The Chase cards also help to get me 5% on various spend categories which is why I use them to earn points to tranfer. The UMPE is only 2x on United tickets purchased directly from United. This works best for me. YMMV.

@Anonymous wrote:
Is this deal the norm with other airline cards?

All cards can and do vary. You'd have to confirm with the specific card you'd be considering. Don't just assume that benefits, rewards, redemptions, etc are all the same across the board.

@sillykitty1 wrote:
I think there is no reason to fear Barclay's AA as long as you're not behaving far outside the norm.

^ This. It's really no different than with any other creditor. Be careful assuming trends based solely on forum posts as they can skew statistics. Creditors don't just randomly dish out AA.

@creditfan wrote:
I saw those almost everywhere on the forum

because this forum is all about CC, in my mind always thought of an abreviation for another card like AA = American Airline

Linked in the "Helpful threads" sticky at the top of this subforum: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=Welcome&thread.id=23

Re: Best Airline card?

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 19:29:37 GMT

Thanks for the feedback so far. I fly maybe once a year. Not too much due to the high cost of the 4 of us flying so I guess a long term card is not really what I'm after. I of course am attracted to the high number of introductory points as well as the 99.00 yearly 2 buddy passes. I live close to a big city that has most of the major airlines.

As far as Barclay's.....my credit is fairly new (18 months) but all my accounts have been paid perfectly. Only 1 baddie on 1 report from about 6 years ago that isn't supposed to be there. It was removed from 2 reports but the 3rd one won't budge. I've just seen alot of AA from Barclay's on here so I have tried to avoide them.....until now

Re: Best Airline card?

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 19:33:19 GMT

Also, my income is about 62k and my available credit is at 91k.....I don't know how that will factor in. I'm about 9% utilization due to the holidays and a trip I had to prepay for but that will be mostly paid for by the end of March.

Re: Best Airline card?

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 19:36:27 GMT

Sorry......I'm on my cell so I can't edit.....I also meant to say that I mostly fly domestic.

Re: Best Airline card?

grinlikechelsea — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 21:37:33 GMT

If you fly domestic and don't mind flying coach, you might want to consider the Southwest card. Great sign up bonus (50,000 miles after $2,000 spent in 90 days) free checked bag, anniversary miles that offset the AF, along with Visa Sig perks. I got my Premier card a few days ago, but its been great so far.