Hello, all.
I've been looking into Airline specific travel cards. Here's the reason why. My four-year-old son lives out in California, and I live in Kentucky. Long story short, his Mom decided to leave while she was pregnant & I have been fighting tooth & nail to be in his life. Good news is she has to reimburse 50 % of my travel expenses. Once he's 5/6 he'll be able to travel here, so I won't have a need for hotel specific card.
I went back & looked through my itinerary's of when I've been out there, and it looks like I've flown United the most. Delta comes in second.
I'm in the middle stage of my rebuild. Added new tradelines, haven't hit the 700 mark yet. I'll probably need to garden for another year or two to qualify. But, anything that will allow me to use my own money to make money towards airline ticket would be a big help.
After brief research, it appears that the CSP(Chase) & the Citi ThankYou card is the best for neutral rewards; Meaning, you can use the rewards for any airline via point transfer. The only problem with those is I'm beyond the 5/24 rule.
Anything you can add would be a great help to me!
Thanks!
@Anonymous wrote:Blue delta skymiles
Thank you, summer78
I'll look into it!
@GeorgiaBulldog wrote:Sorry about the difficult situation with your child.
You're right that the CSP is out for 5/24. Citi's TYP cards don't have a 5/24 restriction, though 6 or more inquiries seems to sink a lot of folks applying for those cards.
If Delta works for you, I'd go with the Gold Delta SkyMiles for the $0 first year annual fee and higher bonus offer (plus checked bag). I think the current public offer is 30k miles but I know I've gotten a 50k targeted offer recently, and you may be able to get a higher offer yourself. Someone else suggested the Blue, but I'd get the Gold for the better bonus and benefits for the first free year and then attemp to PC it to Blue if you don't want the annual fee (though some people early on were reporting issues with PCing--not sure if those have been resolved)
Another thing to consider: you've never had an AMEX, you might be able to get the elusive 100k MR bonus platinum offer on their prequal page. MR points transfer to Delta (though there is a smallish fee associated with Delta transfers, which is stupid) and several other airlines. That card comes with a hefty $550 fee, though a $200 airline credit and monthly uber credits bring the effective fee down to $150. Still, if those credits don't work for you, then maybe consider the PRG. If you've never had an AMEX, there's usually a 50k point/$1k spend offer. If you have had an AMEX, you can still get a 50k point/$2k spend offer via incognito mode. $195 annual fee is waived the first year, and you still get a $100 airline incidental credit for the first year too.
AMEX EveryDay is a good no-annual fee way to keep your MR points banked also, and you can sometimes get a 25k/$2k spend offer via incognito mode. This card and the PRG work well combined together for earning MR points. If business cards interest you, the Blue Business Plus is a really solid card for earning as well with 2 MR points/$1 spent up to $50k. No signup bonus on that card at the moment, though.
AMEX SPG could be to your liking as well--more airline transfer partners than anyone else. Currently can get a 30k SPG offer via incognito mode. For most airlines, transferring a block of 20k starpoints gives you 25k miles, though transfers lower than that give a simple 1:1 ratio. Never transfer direct from SPG to United (ratio is 2 starpoints:1 United mile), though; always transfer SPG to Marriott and Marriott to United for a more favorable ratio. The only cause for worry with SPG is that while it remains a separate but transferrable program with Marriott, that will likely not always be the case. The latest reports said that the programs won't merge until late 2018 though, so until at least then, SPG remains perhaps the most valuable transferrable point (but also one of the toughest to earn).
I think folks have had decent luck getting approved in the high 600s for most of these cards, though every situation's different. My biggest obstacle with AMEX earlier on was debt-to-income ratio (high student loan debt and not too high of a salary), though I have fairly high scores (~750-760+). Once I got over that little bump, the AMEX approvals rolled in though.
Sorry for the wall of text--hope I gave some helpful information, though!
I definitely appreciate you taking the time to type that all out! It was very helpful.
I'm also leaning towards the Amex Delta Gold. I plan on taking my parents to visit my son, and that'll be huge savings with checked bags. When you say 30,000 or 50,000 miles how does that translate into actual savings towards an airline ticket? When I think of 30,000 miles I'm thinking that means actual miles, lol.
To add, I've never had an Amex card. I have went ahead & opted out so that I can do the pre-qualify with Amex & Chase(Thanks GrasshopperStudent for the tip)
Question about Amex. Do they require POI? I'm thinking that I might have an issue with DTI as well with my student loans. My income is 48K
Inquiries
EX: 5 | TU: 8 | Eq: 7
To recap:
The following cards that have been mentioned so far:
-Amex Gold Delta. $95 AF(First year Free). First Checked Bag Free. Priority Boarding
-Amex SPG: $95 AF(First year Free)
-Amex PRG. $195 AF(First Year Free) Lowest Underwriting Criteria +++Combined+++ AMEX Everyday Preferred. No Annual Fee Total: $195 - Doable
-Amex Delta Platinum $195 AF. Companion Certificate, Priority Boarding, First Checked Bag Free.
-Amex Blue Delta. No annual fee. 2X on purchases. No free-Checked bags or Priority Boarding
-Amex Delta Reserve $450 AF. Companion Certificate, Priority Boarding. 20 % Savings of in-flight purchases - A little too steep
Chase CSP: $95 (Fee waived for the first 12 months) 1:1 Point Transfer. No Foreign Transaction Fees.
- United Airlines
- Southwest Airlines
- Air France
- British Airways
- Korean Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
- Singapore KrisFlyer
- Hyatt
- Marriott
- IHG Hotels
- Ritz Carlton
-City Prestige: $450 AF
Combining W/
-Citi Premier: $95 (Fee waived for the first 12 months)
Total: $545 - Seems a little steep.
Features I can live without: Priority Boarding, Companion Certificate(Will be traveling alone mostly)
Features I'd like: Free Checked bags, AF under $200, best return of points I can get with AF under $200.00