best CC for airline miles

[spydergto]

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

[Anonymous]

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.

[spydergto]

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 ?

[Anonymous]

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

[taxi818]

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

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

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.

[Anonymous]

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@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.

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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.

[NRB525]

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@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 ?

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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.

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@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.

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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.

[kdm31091]

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.