Post: #1

I couldn't find a thread on this subject, but I'm wondering what credit card (for everyday spending) is the best for accumulating frequent flyer miles or points. I've considered or used a few, but I'm ready for a change--especially before my next membership fee comes due:

Chase/United MileagePlus: Used to be good until United Airlines instituted a charge a luggage, which threw off the equation for getting around. What's more redeeming is always a pain in the ass. You can get flights, but they often have two or three connections--especially internationally.

Southwest Air: Seems good for domestic travel in the US (especially because they give you a free flight as a joining bonus), but I'm unfamiliar with the strength of its "partner program" for international travel.

Discover Card: Great because they actually just give you cash back (a percentage of what you spend), but the problem is that a lot of places don't take Discover.

Chase Sapphire Preferred: Supposedly one of the better ones, but I'm unfamiliar with it and wondering how much of it is hype when it comes to actually redeeming points for travel.

Capital One "No Hassle" Card: Remember reading it was pretty good in an article or two, but don't have any concrete reasons for believing this.

One of the big scams today is that you accumulate tons of points and bonus points for everything, but when it comes to cashing those in, travel costs a lot more in points (100,000 points for a regular coach ticket, for instance, instead of the standard 25-30,000). Another consideration is that most airlines (except for Southwest and JetBlue) charge you for checking in luggage on domestic flights, which would be part of my use.

Any of guys have any familiarity this topic?

Post: #2

I am far from an expert, as I prefer CASH, but I have started to use cards a little more often in the last few years.

Chase/United MileagePlus: I have one of these. Not bad. You do get charged for bags, but I have gotten some free flights. United does fly a lot of places.

Southwest Air: Good if you are based on the West Coast and fly the western part of US. Limited beyond that. Almost all my Wessyde homies have these and many just use southwest, as a lot of West Coast people rarely leave the West Coast.

Capital One "No Hassle" Card: Good because you don't get charged an extra percentage when you are traveling in other countries. Seems hard to redeem though. I have a bunch of miles, but still not enough for a flight.

Hope that helps.

Post: #3

starwood has the best perks

Post: #4

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Post: #5

(06-05-2012 12:18 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  Chase/United MileagePlus: I have one of these. Not bad. You do get charged for bags, but I have gotten some free flights. United does fly a lot of places.

I do too, but I've about had it with these guys. You have to wait (literally) 30 minutes on hold to get through to customer service--only to get someone who barely speaks English. I'm not high-rolling, so I don't expect red-carpet treatment, but anything beyond 5-10 minutes is absurd. This is routine for them, not a one-time occurrence. It happens every time. I know we have to accept the foreign call-center--and all its pitfalls--as a new reality, but these guys take it to its logical extreme.

Redemption is terrible. I've gotten to the Middle East/Asia with miles, but it involved tons of connections and long-ass layovers. Not only that, "award tickets" are frequently "unavailable." You have to book months in advance to be able to use your miles and not pay a 15-25,000-mile premium for a regular-ass coach ticket. I think they used to be a lot better than they are now.

Quote:Southwest Air: Good if you are based on the West Coast and fly the western part of US. Limited beyond that. Almost all my Wessyde homies have these and many just use southwest, as a lot of West Coast people rarely leave the West Coast.

True, except these cats have started to fly to the Northeast in past few years. I've flown cross-country with these guys a couple of times and they seem competent.

Quote:Capital One "No Hassle" Card: Good because you don't get charged an extra percentage when you are traveling in other countries. Seems hard to redeem though. I have a bunch of miles, but still not enough for a flight.

Interesting. This is starting to confirm my suspicions that these guys are all hype and no substance.

Quote:Hope that helps.

It does, thanks.

Post: #6

(06-05-2012 12:22 PM)chyamor Wrote:  starwood has the best perks

I've heard this, but I'd rather stick to Visa/Mastercard since AmericanExpress and Discover have that limited acceptance that will limit its usefulness.

Post: #7

[quote='Tuthmosis' pid='219544' dateline='1338917343']

[quote]Southwest Air: Good if you are based on the West Coast and fly the western part of US. Limited beyond that. Almost all my Wessyde homies have these and many just use southwest, as a lot of West Coast people rarely leave the West Coast.


True, except these cats have started to fly to the Northeast in past few years. I've flown cross-country with these guys a couple of times and they seem competent.
[/quote]

I guess I hate Southwest because they don't fly into Miami or New Orleans.

Maybe New Orleans but def not Miami.

Which is the only place I really want to go in the US when I am in CA.

This is hilarious by the way:

Post: #8

Amex Premier Rewards Gold. Good selection of flights with 0 blackout dates. Reasonable redemptions as well. You also have the option to convert miles into points. I got 3 free flights out of this card in the 1 year that I had it. Only reason I dropped it was because of the $175 annual fee. This card is legit though. 3x points on travel and hotels.

Post: #9

I currently have delta amx and am getting super pist. Had a debt of 10k on it, landed a new job back in oct which allows me to pay $500+ off per month. So between 16-20 payments. As of this month I have it under 6k. Got a letter from amx saying my credit is lowered from 12k to 7k. Fuckers where just waiting for me to get under X amount of debt so they could lower my credit. I wouldn't be surprised if It gets lowered to under 4k once I get under that level

Post: #10

You rang?

You American guys have no idea how spoiled you are for choice among Point hording credit card. the thing is that you shouldn't get 1, you get several, buy the minimum spend, collect the sign on bonus, put the card away until 1 month or so before the yearly renewal and then cancel it. Unless you are a very frequent flyer you could just live on generous sign-on bonuses and never have to buy a ticket.

Anyhow, check out this blog post from one of my favourite travel hacking blogs:
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromth...p-bonuses/
It details the current 9 best sign-on bonuses.

Post: #11

I got 25,000 miles for joining Southwest. That's $400 in travel cash. Annual fee is $69, but you get $50 worth of miles each year.

So the first year you're up $300 and each year you're only $19 for cost of carry. But if you use it and pay it off, you'll make a profit.

Southwest gets me everywhere I need to be. I don't like leaving the states.

Post: #12

The best miles deal was the US mint $1 coin loophole

Post: #13

(06-05-2012 02:25 PM)MikeCF Wrote:  I got 25,000 miles for joining Southwest. That's $400 in travel cash. Annual fee is $69, but you get $50 worth of miles each year.

So the first year you're up $300 and each year you're only $19 for cost of carry. But if you use it and pay it off, you'll make a profit.

Southwest gets me everywhere I need to be. I don't like leaving the states.

Yeah, my biz partner is the same way.

I would say he flys 99% of the time on SW.

This is def the CA card for domestic only travelers.

On the flip side, if you are based in NYC, I would say Jet blue Amex is best.

If you are based in ATL, Delta Amex is best.

(06-05-2012 02:30 PM)chyamor Wrote:  The best miles deal was the US mint $1 coin loophole

That is done though right?

I, of course, missed out on that.

Another move if anyone is looking to buy Gold or Silver, is to stock up on coins on their cards, and get the miles.

(Not really a "move" but if you are looking to store some wealth in metals, you get miles as well.)

Post: #14

yes, its done but I was surprised how it went on for an additional 2 more years after ny times broke the story.

Post: #15

(06-05-2012 02:35 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  Another move if anyone is looking to buy Gold or Silver, is to stock up on coins on their cards, and get the miles.

(Not really a "move" but if you are looking to store some wealth in metals, you get miles as well.)

Yeah, the only caveat is that if you're buying close to spot, there's going to be a 3% or so surcharge for using a credit card.

I just checked APMEX. If you buy a Silver Eagle, it's $32.87 if using bank wire and $33.86 if using a credit card.

I sold all of my silver to some guys off Craigslist at $40 per.

Got "lucky," I guess.

Post: #16

a lot of credit cards will offer promotions of giving something like 50000 miles if you spend a certain amount in the first 3-4 months of using it. this is what i did with the last 2 credit cards i opened. these had annual fees that were pretty outrageous so i got the miles and then cancelled after using them for a year. turned out to be 4 free flights so far without any blackout dates.

Post: #17

Tuth -

If I can give you any words of wisdom, don't ever, and I mean ever, get one of these:



It will cause all kinds of guys to come out of the closet and attack you.

Trust me.

But here is my question for everyone:

Was this Beta to take a Direct Flight on Ryanair When it Was The Only Airline Offering This Direct Flight?

Post: #18

I find that discover is accepted in a lot more places than it was 5 years ago. I have no issues; the rewards are great and their customer service is the very best.

Soutwest - For Domestic I highly recommend.

Post: #19

(06-05-2012 12:22 PM)chyamor Wrote:  starwood has the best perks

I use this a lot cause its pretty easy to use points for plush hotel stays. The cash and points option is also good.

Post: #20

(06-05-2012 12:09 PM)Tuthmosis Wrote:  [b]What's more redeeming is always a pain in the ass. You can get flights, but they often have two or three connections--especially internationally.

I hardly use this for the reasons you stated. Trips to Asia or Copa airlines seem to be OK for me.

Post: #21

These days it doesn't make sense to use just one card for miles/rewards. Especially if you're only earning 1 mile/$1 spent. There are too many offers out there that give you big bonuses after spending a few thousand dollars in the first few months.

Citi Aadvantage, 50k mile bonus (that's a free roundtrip from U.S. to Europe)

Chase Sapphire Preferred, 40k mile bonus --- excellent card and very easy to convert points to miles

Chase British Airways, 50k miles, plus another 50k when you spend a lot in the first year. I got this card a year ago and nailed it for 100k miles by spending $3k in three months. That deal has been modified (unfortunately) and you have to spend more now.

There are many more. If you have good credit, take your time and look for the deals. You can easily fund your international airline travel, and some hotels if you choose, for free.

Post: #22

Check out The Points Guy - http://thepointsguy.com/ . It's a blog dedicated to breaking down the best credit card deals when it comes to miles and points. Good way to keep up on the current sign up deals too.

Post: #23

(06-05-2012 12:29 PM)Tuthmosis Wrote:  

(06-05-2012 12:22 PM)chyamor Wrote:  starwood has the best perks

I've heard this, but I'd rather stick to Visa/Mastercard since AmericanExpress and Discover have that limited acceptance that will limit its usefulness.

The SPG AMEX is my main card right now and normally have 0 issues with it (I do carry a backup MasterCard just in case), as I just use it for larger purchases from online, airlines, hotels, and shopping where it is not an issue.

Granted these are in the larger European and E European cities (or online), but then again besides these types of purchases I try to do cash for most of my day-to-day spending.

Post: #24

Feel free to hit me up with specifics about income dynamics and I can tell you what card to get for your lifestyle. I am intense about this.

I run 4 credit cards shutting and reupping one annually toget bonus points. I then force soft pulls on my credit and keep he score up at 770+. The trick is to never pay fees. For the lazy, just get a Chase freedom 1% cash back card that has 0 fees and sign up for their 5% specials every quarter (this Q it was groceries).

If you fly a lot, you can do united plus, get to 180,000 miles, use that to get a "RTW trip" that expires after 1 year, link up all your schedule on that for next tweleve months and you've just saved yourself $5K.

I don't recommend starwoods maybe bc I am young, but those hotel deals actually aren't that great IMHO.

Finally, if you have a company credit card make sure to link that up to all your personal accounts for points and everytime you stay somewhere you rack up PTs (that's a bit obvious though). Also fly many "connections" during work and just say it was the "best available" more free miles depending on how important the meeting or event is.

Post: #25

Those who have SPG AMEX, Do you have better offers to book a flight or a hotel room with points?
One nice thing about delta skymiles is I just booked a RT flight from midwest to Dubai Business class for 120k points. 2 months out with little layover in ATL (Delta's US Hub)

Down to SPG or Chase Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa