Earning Airline Miles

I’ve never paid interest on a credit card... it’s easy just don’t spend more than you can afford! I just applied for the spirit airlines card and got 20000 points which is rounghly 3-4 rounders... they only charge $100 flat fee for board bags with up to 2 boards. They also fly to costa, nica, Peru, Dominican, and Puerto Rico... the flights themselves are tight, painful, and if you want a drink you have to buy it.... but the cost saving is pretty damn good. JetBlue is Great as well.. My lady flys every week and she has some points built up.

 

I use VISA for hotels--Marriotts. It is one I have used when I was traveling working in pharma business. Paid all my nights in Paris this past October. Still have many more to wear down. I prefer hotel cards--airlines SUCK (all of them), no exception. They often change the rules and what mileage is required for free flights.

Actually, as an edit, I believe you can get a Citybank card which can be used for points for airlines and hotels or anything. My be worth looking into. Should I ever need another one, I will look to that first.
Good luck on your decision.

 

Barclay card arrival plus was the best offer when I started travel hacking...I think chase sapphire may be top dog now. Yank did a thread a few years back. search travel hacking and you should be able to pull it up...he posted a bunch of links that have all the info you want and more

 

We use an the American Airlines Mastercard for most purchases. There is a lot of ink spilled on this topic all over the internet but for me it largely boils down to the following. What airport(s) will you fly out of, what airlines are you most likely to fly to the destinations you want to go? Then find the card that maximizes the benefit based on your airport/airline combination. It's worth considering that VISA and Mastercard are taken pretty much everywhere, not always the case with Amex and Discover. There are frequently really good miles bonuses you can get when signing up for an airline card during a flight so it can be worth waiting. Google the "the points guy" if you want an expert opinion.

 

Yes. I will buy big ticket items on cc simply for the points. Important aspect - i dont carry cc debt so if you cant pay the bill each month then probably should worry more about your purchases rather than earning points. Have dine this for things like down payments for vehicles. Use card, earn points, pay off fully during next billing cycle.

 

I like the cash option on the points (1%,2%,3% on purchases). Get one tied in with your bank and if you keep a minimum balance in your checking or savings, you get a 25% bump on your pt purchase total when you cash it in and it's transfer directly into your checking account.

I put as many of my expenses as possible on that card and get $1500-$2500 in cash each year for surf trips.

 

i fly american and use the barclay card. specifically the advantage aviator card

https://home.barclaycardus.com/cards/aadvantage-aviator-red-world-elite-mastercard.html

annual fee is $95 which is on the low side imo.

now about the american airlines skymile program...i am a gold level member and i fly at least once a month or more and will probably never make it to the next level (saphire). you pretty much have to be on a plane every single week to make it to the highest level (executive platinum). besides 1 free bag, the points and prefered boarding (group 4) you get very few perks as a gold member.

one more gripe. the card gets you 25% off inflight purchases but only the larger planes accept the card as most flights are cash only. wtf?

 

also, they give you 50,000 point just for signing up. thats not bad.

rn i have close to 140,000 points. i have no idea what that woud actually do for me tho.

 

chase sapphire reserve - if you travel a lot, its prob the best one out there right now.
$450 annual fee, but $300 back in travel credits. 3% or 3 pts/$ for anything related to travel (flights, hotel, rental cars, tolls, uber etc), I think 3% for restaurants (might be 2%)...1% for everything else. On top of that, they credit you for global entry, get you into many lounges (domestic and international), great insurance (rental car, travel, luggage) and no foreign transaction fee. I couple this with chase freedom, which doesn't have a fee, and use that on the quarterly 5% back categories (right now it includes gas). I got a 100k signup bonus (like getting $1000), but I think they backed it off to 50K signup bonus.

With the Chase points, you book through their portal, which is sometimes a little more expensive, but allows you to book a bunch of different airlines or convert points to southwest, etc. Points can also be used for other things (rental cars, hotels, shopping, cash back, etc)

I travel a ton for both work and pleasure and combine this (double dip) with loyalty programs (Hilton, Enterprise, Alaska & southwest airlines) and it adds up quick. I'm by no means an expert, but I haven't paid full rate for a vacation flight in at least 6 years.

 

Chase Sapphire preferred is where it's at. Spend 4K in the first 3 months and get yourself 50K free points, which is roughly $750. Good for a trip most anywhere in this hemisphere. Interest rates are high, but just don't carry a balance and you're fine. Their booking portal is great too, can get 25% off flights.

 

Whenever I fly, they always seem to give amazing deals (2-4 round trip tickets/50,000 bonus miles) during the actual flight. Seems higher than the offers I get in the mail.

 

Creditcards.com is a good site to check out