Best miles credit cards these days?

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

Following up on Carolinian's poll, I've been closing old credit card accounts and am looking for a new one... Which do you think would be best for me to open for FF miles?

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

I would look for the short term benefit of high sign up miles, in an airline whose miles are useful at normal levels, AA, UA, or perhaps US. Check the current signup bonuses at www.freefrequentflyermiles.com

[scootr5 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close scootr5]

Is there a particular arrier you fly a lot? I signed up for a Southwest card last fall, mainly because they are a very convenient airline out of Chicago for where we go to normally, and have planned for the next 18 months.

I got 50,000 points for the sign up bonus, which was a little more than $800 worth of airfare.

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

AA or Jetblue would probably be best. I'll check the link for sign up bonuses, thanks.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

I still like using Amex Rewards Plus Gold just so I can use there miles on more air lines.

[norm Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close norm]

I use a Fidelity Amex car for most my purchases. It earns 2% on all purchases, and the rewards can be transferred directly to a Fidelity account.

[akparsa Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close akparsa]

Glitter,

This is a fun question: there are so many good options!

Obviously if you have status with an airline or an affinity for a specific airline because you live in a hub city, that would be the card to get (but you've probably already done that .

Do you have a specific travel goal in mind or do you want to build up a stash of miles for undefined future use?

If you have a specific goal, then it will be easy to figure out which card or cards are best.

If you want miles for as-yet-undefined use, the transferrable currencies might be your best bet. Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, and Starwood are all fantastic, but my current favorite is Chase Ultimate Rewards. You could both, but not at the same time, since Chase doesn't like to approve two cards at once.

1) Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
- current best signup bonus is 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points (worth a minimum of $400). The annual fee is waived the first year; thereafter is $95. The card earns 2x points on travel and dining, and their definition of travel includes your timeshare maintenance fees! The points earned on my maintenance fee nearly offset the annual fee. (Sad but true!).

Points transfer to United, Southwest and British Airways. Southwest is, of course, great for continental-US flights. British Airways Avios are fantastic for short-haul domestic and international flights.

If you're an online shopper, you can rack up MANY miles by shopping through the Ultimate Rewards online shopping portal. I routinely earn 5-10x on online purchases.

2) Chase Freedom (no annual fee)
- rotating 5x categories every quarter. It is pretty easy to max out $1500 per quarter in their categories which would net you 30,000 UR points per year.

[Dori Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dori]

Here in Canada, we don't get the super incentives that the U.S. cc companies toss out. We fly almost exclusively with Southwest, doing a 3 hour drive from Toronto to Buffalo to do so. I was able to take advantage of a great offer from Canadian Choice Privileges Mastercard. The points I accumulate can be transfered to Southwest points.

Dori

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

If you're situation matches well with Alaska, their Signature card is a great value. $75/year annual fee gets you a $99 companion fare certificate, good on any itinerary using Alaska operated flights. No blackout dates or fare class limitations except that it is not good for first class. Works on multi-city and open jaw tickets. It's not difficult to get $500 of value or more out of that ticket; $1000 is pretty easy as well if your travel situation matches situation.

You get one mile per dollar spent, and triple miles for each dollar spent on bookings through the Alaska site. The companion fare tickets are paid itineraries, so they generate frequent flyer miles for both flyers.

I know there are some other cards out there that also have companion certificates + generate miles for each dollar spent.

[scootr5 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close scootr5]

1) Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
- current best signup bonus is 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points (worth a minimum of $400). The annual fee is waived the first year; thereafter is $95. The card earns 2x points on travel and dining, and their definition of travel includes your timeshare maintenance fees! The points earned on my maintenance fee nearly offset the annual fee. (Sad but true!).

Thanks for mentioning this. I just applied and got acceptance last night. The 2x travel and dining is a much better deal than the southwest card. I'll likely cancel that one before the annual fee hits and have them move the credit line to the Sapphire card.

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

Depending on how often you travel---and where you are on the convenience/price tradeoff scale---the AmEx Platinum card might be a good choice. It is not cheap, but can be a good value. Annual fee is $450. They will kick back up to $200 in airline fees on one airline that you designate. It includes access to the lounges run by Delta, American, US Airways, independent Airspace lounges, and quite a number of international lounges (comped Priority Pass Select membership). They will pay for your $100 enrollment fee in Global Entry (which includes access to domestic Pre-Check lanes). It waives minimum rentals/stays for National Rental Car (automatically Executive Aisle), Starwood Preferred Guest (automatically Gold), and a few others. It charges the bank rate for foreign currency transactions, with no additional fee.

[akparsa Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close akparsa]

Scott,

Instead of canceling the Southwest card, ask them if they'll switch it out for a Chase Freedom card. That way you keep the credit history from the Southwest card.

If you have BOTH the Freedom and the Preferred, then your Freedom points can also be transferred to Southwest, United, Hyatt, etc. (If you don't have another UR earning card, the Freedom points can only be redeemed for cash back.)

The Freedom is a no-annual fee card so you can pretty much keep it forever. If you max out the Freedom, that's another RT domestic ticket right there each year

Anita

[scootr5 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close scootr5]

Scott,

Instead of canceling the Southwest card, ask them if they'll switch it out for a Chase Freedom card. That way you keep the credit history from the Southwest card.

If you have BOTH the Freedom and the Preferred, then your Freedom points can also be transferred to Southwest, United, Hyatt, etc. (If you don't have another UR earning card, the Freedom points can only be redeemed for cash back.)

The Freedom is a no-annual fee card so you can pretty much keep it forever. If you max out the Freedom, that's another RT domestic ticket right there each year

Anita

Thanks for the suggestion Anita. The SW card is only about 6 months old, so there's not a lot of history to lose. We tend to just concentrate spending on one "main" card, but the Freedom card might be useful as a backup since there's no annual fee.

[akparsa Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close akparsa]

Scott,

You might consider having more than one card to get the maximum free travel / cash back. Of course it depends on your credit and your spending situation, but you can probably fly free one trip every year by combining two cards.

I'd recommend a strategy of using a 2% cash back card for nearly all of your spend. Get one new credit card with an awesome signup bonus every year. Put just enough spend on it to get the bonus, and then switch back to putting everything else on your 2% card.

Your post above prompted me to write a blog post about this topic, so check out my blog (referenced in my sig. line) if you're interested in more detail.

Anita

[djyamyam Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close djyamyam]

For us Canadians, I have found the RBC Avion program to be the best FF card. You can use the points to book any airline subject to a dollar max or you can transfer the points to your British Airways or Cathay Pacific meberships (sometimes with a 50% bonus). You can then use those points to book flights on Oneworld airline partners. I just used my BA points (that I previously transfered from Avion with a 50% bonus) to book a one-way flight to Hawaii for 17000 points in Jan on Alaskaair. That will work out to 34000 points for North America trip. Better than my other FF program (if I used my Alaska points that same flight would have cost me 20K points one-way/40K round trip).

Avion also has the best policy for delayed luggage. If I book a flight using my Avion card (cash or points) and my luggage gets lost/delayed more than 4 hours after my arrival, I get up to $500 to spend. Most programs range from 12-24 hours. I have gotten a new suit, golf stuff, etc due to various delays.