Off-topic--tell me if this belongs elsewhere--credit card question...

I have booked flights with the travel eraser and by calling Capital One to make the reservation. Both worked well and no difference in points.

Yes, my card is chip and signature. The only place I had a problem was in Paris at a kiosk trying to reload my Metro pass. Unattended kiosks require a chip and pin card and the chip and signature card will not work.

Chip and pin cards are difficult to find in the US. I did find one at Andrews Federal Credit Union and will be trying it out in Paris this spring. You are required to open an account but $10 will open a savings account.

I've read from a quite a number of sources that the SPG card from AMEX is the best general-purpose card. You can transfer into many airlines' FF programs, and there are bonuses (i.e., if you transfer 20,000 miles into AA, you'll get an additional 5,000 miles bonus). If you google The Points Guy and/or View From A Wing, those two bloggers have various analyses of the different cards.

The miles and points bloggers all seem to promote the SPG Amex as the most valuable points currency, because of the bonus for transferring points to miles. Currently, there is an offer for 35K points for new credit card signups until the end of this month, the highest signup bonus ever offered on this card.

However, you should be aware that SPG (Starwood) is merging with Marriott (expected to close mid-year), so the future of the SPG program is up in the air. This has been covered by various miles and points bloggers, including View from the Wing and The Points Guy.

FYI - Please do be aware that The Points Guy website is owned by Bankrate for several years now, and while they claim that editorial content is not controlled by Bankrate, there has been a substantial increase in credit card affiliate links permeating every post.

You should look at the airlines you are most likely to fly, and determine what alliances they belong to. If it fits your travel plans, you may want to consider the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, a Visa with no foreign transaction fees and primary rental car insurance, which earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points which can be transferred to a number of airlines such as United, British Airways, Korean, and hotel partners such as Hyatt and Marriott.

Capital One is good because they don't charge extra fees when charging in a different currency. I never have good luck sticking with one carrier. Personally I like cash back cards. Cash is king for me

We have the Chase Sapphire and can use it for cash or travel rewards. Like you, we prefer using the cash rewards to pay towards airline tickets or cruise bookings. This way we can use the cash rewards any way we choose.

I use to use Capital One but have switched to Chase Sapphire for several reasons. Not only can you get cash back or use it for travel, any travel you book is insured. Worth it. Now instead of buying travel insurance for each trip I buy an annual medical policy (when out of the country) and air evacuation policy for both my husband and I that costs less than what we were paying for one trip.

For ATMs I use my Charles Swab account.

I have considered many of the cards and have narrowed the best one for travel and airlines to the BA Visa card which, I believe, has a very aggressive program to seed many miles to new accounts.

The reason for the BA Visa above the others is the ease to get overseas travel with BA.

The Capital One card says you can go on any airline at any time...sounds good until you realize that in order to get the free tix, you have to have in excess of hundred's of thousands of miles to qualify. You have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get the points for business class travel using that card!!!

The BA Visa card provides miles AND a FREE COMPANION TIX if you spend $30,000 in one calendar year. You can use the FREE COMPANION TIX in conjunction with award travel points...thus, for two business class tickets you will typically use 125,000 points and get the FREE COMPANION along with it (and to be fair, typically there are redemption fee's ~$2,000USD for the 2 tix...still a good deal when traveling business).

I think you might want to look into it and do the "what if's" for travel comparing it to the other airlines.

The other card to consider along with it is the Chase Sapphire Preferred card...again, a current promotion to seed many points AND the accumulated miles can be transferred to BA as well.

Finally, I have had AMEX Platinum since 1980 and am giving it up this year. It is TOO expensive (~$650 USD for myself and my wife) AND I see no real benefit in it.

As someone else mentioned, AMEX is being honored in fewer and fewer establishments...sorry to say.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Did you see how many miles were required to get the tix?

We use the Alaska Airlines B of A card. Alaska is partners with KLM and I have been able to easily get tickets. Business class last summer cost me $5 each ticket. As far as foreign transaction fees, our 3 week trip resulted in about $45 of fees. To me, given the value of those BC seats the FT we ended up paying was just not a big deal. And yes I could have used other cards to avoid those charges. JMHO

Ps because I live in the Pacific NW Alaska is a good choice because they fly everywhere domestically we want to go. Plus Mexico & Hawaii. Their card is my everyday card to get groceries etc. so for us it makes sense.

I have considered many of the cards and have narrowed the best one for travel and airlines to the BA Visa card which, I believe, has a very aggressive program to seed many miles to new accounts.

 

The reason for the BA Visa above the others is the ease to get overseas travel with BA.

I got a BA card to qualify for the large bonus miles. They are still sitting in my account because BA charges huge fees for "free" travel.

Would some of you Canadians please add your CC choices as well? Please? We're also thinking of changing out of our AirMiles MC and would like to know what others are using. Amex I find is not as widely accepted as MC or Visa.

Thanks, RB

Wish we had even a teeny bit of the offers available in the US. To me the worst thing is the hard-to-find Foreign Currency Transaction fee. Most are 2-2.5%, I've found one with smallish cash reward with a 1.5% FTF and only one with 0 fee but just 1% cash back. But that is the card I use when outside of Canada.

But being as many cruise purchases for us Canadians are in a foreign currency (USD) this 'hidden in the exchange rate' fee can amount to a far bit. I am certain most folks don't even realize they are being charged this.

Consider spending $150 / yr for a CC and the privilege of them charging you TWICE what they give you in 'cash back' on that transaction. I. E. You actually lose money.

Many are promoted as so called travel rewards card that I'd never use for travel.

I do try to buy from Canadian suppliers and in CAD when possible anyway so maybe more just me on my soap box but I find this fee really annoying.

If anyone can suggest a good Canadian reward card I am very interested too.

 

If anyone can suggest a good Canadian reward card I am very interested too.

You might try following the blog of "Canadian Kilometers" - http://canadiankilometers.boardingarea.com/

I have considered many of the cards and have narrowed the best one for travel and airlines to the BA Visa card which, I believe, has a very aggressive program to seed many miles to new accounts.

 

I do not have the BA Visa (although the huge signup bonus a couple of years ago seemed enticing) because BA is known to have high fees associated with their awards.

Using the Travel Together companion ticket might make sense for a business class flight, but it is not worthwhile to use for economy tickets, due to the high cost of earning it and the associated ticketing fees.

From what I have read on many travel blogs, the best use of BA Avios points is to use them on short-haul flights on Oneworld alliance partners, such as American Airlines. There are many, many miles and points bloggers who have done extensive series on earning and redeeming BA miles - easy Google search.

The best discussions on rewards credit cards can be found on Flyertalk , Boarding Area blogs and Inside Flyer. They are to the miles and points community what Cruise Critic is to cruisers.

Hope this will be of some help.

 

 

Finally, I have had AMEX Platinum since 1980 and am giving it up this year. It is TOO expensive (~$650 USD for myself and my wife) AND I see no real benefit in it.

 

I am a long time AMEX member and upgraded to Platinum two years ago. Love it!

Global Entry was covered. I get a $200 per year credit on the airline of my choice to cover "extras" and that get used up every year. Free access to airport clubs, ten in air wifi passes, great upgrades at hotels, Priority Pass membership, 2 for 1 business class (more often than not, we do better elsewhere but occasionally a really great deal), early access to concert tickets, etc. We use all of these. And their customer service is excellent.

I love the ease of converting points to miles and the ability to transfer my into any airline program in minutes. I can search for the best deals for free tickets and move the points to cover them.

We travel a lot and for us, have not found any card comparable in terms of benefits and service.

 

 

 

I think they have a Platinum cruise credit, but unless you book with Amex Travel (hit or miss) you don't get the $300 credit. I like my TA, so I hate to book cruises that way. I have booked a few hotels with Amex travel, mostly to redeem points. So, we have stayed free at least a half dozen times using the card, and I currently have about 150,000 points.

 

Any TA can get the $300 credit and other Platinum Perks applied to a cruise booking. It is a special log in and process. No need to book with AMEX travel. It is a perk of using the card for payment and nothing to do with booking with Amex travel. It is a code that is generated by AMEX card services that the TA calls in to the cruise line. Of course, the cruise line itself must participate in the program and it is the premium and luxury lines for the most part.

Costco recently ended its association with Amex. Now they have the Costco VISA card. 3 points for travel 4 points for gas. If you use the Costco travel you can make it work.

I have three cc's. Citibank AAvantage platinum (American Airlines); Chase Explorer ( United Airlines); and the Chase Marriott card. All have their particular advantages on points, free baggage, and awards. All three of the cards have no foreign transaction fees.

Just for the record to an above post. The deal between SPG and Marriott is not a done deal. There is currently a Chinese firm that has offered a $14 Billion cash deal to SPG that beats Marriott's $13.6 Billion cash and stock offer. Everything is still on the table and no final deals have been struck as of COB Friday, that I have read.

Just for the record to an above post. The deal between SPG and Marriott is not a done deal. There is currently a Chinese firm that has offered a $14 Billion cash deal to SPG that beats Marriott's $13.6 Billion cash and stock offer. Everything is still on the table and no final deals have been struck as of COB Friday, that I have read.

The Chinese firm withdrew from the bidding, so Marriott has won by default -- unless the Feds block it.

 

Just for the record to an above post. The deal between SPG and Marriott is not a done deal. There is currently a Chinese firm that has offered a $14 Billion cash deal to SPG that beats Marriott's $13.6 Billion cash and stock offer. Everything is still on the table and no final deals have been struck as of COB Friday, that I have read.

Not so - according to multiple sources on Thursday afternoon. This is a quote from the NY Times:

"By Thursday afternoon, Anbang and its partners formally withdrew their $14 billion takeover offer for Starwood, ceding the operator of the Westin and Sheraton chains to Marriott in a puzzling turn of events."

It does remain to be seen how the impending Marriott merger will affect the SPG program and its points to airline miles transfer bonus component, but expectations are that integration will take some time.

The SPG Amex card has no FT fees, but the current signup offer has reverted back to 25,000 points now.

All that being said, many bloggers in the miles and points community contend that

1.) the AMEX Platinum is an excellent card for frequent travelers who can take advantage of the benefits that offset the annual fee as Caviargal enumerated.

(BTW- thank you for that info on the cruise benefit - miles and points bloggers don't cover this aspect - searching CC helped me find this thread)

2.) earning points in transferrable programs (Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi Thank You points, AMEX membership reward points) is preferable to earning points in one airline because you have more redemption options with multiple airline and hotel partners. This is especially useful as miles and points devaluations (Delta, United, American in the past year alone) are becoming common occurrences.

3.) if you are not earning more than 1.5 cents per mile on your redemptions, you should consider cash back cards, such as the Citi Double Cash card.

I use to use Capital One but have switched to Chase Sapphire for several reasons. Not only can you get cash back or use it for travel, any travel you book is insured. Worth it. Now instead of buying travel insurance for each trip I buy an annual medical policy (when out of the country) and air evacuation policy for both my husband and I that costs less than what we were paying for one trip.

For ATMs I use my Charles Swab account.

Do you know if you miss the cruise due to severe weather and your plane can't fly out, does that cover the cruise? or just the airfare? I'm looking into switching to Chase Sapphire and we live where there is snow in the winter.

Only covers what the card paid for. I'd call the folks at Thetripinsurancestore and discuss the ins and outs of various TI policies.

They are super knowledgable and great even if you don't end up getting coverage from them.

I got a BA card to qualify for the large bonus miles. They are still sitting in my account because BA charges huge fees for "free" travel.

Don't let your Avios gather dust ... you can use them to book flights on partner airlines with no fuel fees. I plan to use my current BA signup bonus for domestic flights on American or for short flights in Asia on Oneworld carriers.

I use three different airlines cards, United (Chase), American (Citibank) and Alaska (Bank of America). It has worked out very well for us. We have often mixed and matched flights, out on American, back on united for example. Doing 2-3 international flights each year. Flew to Argentina on American, using Alaska miles, in March. With cheap fares to Hawaii on Alaska we build up a lot of miles on Alaska, even without the cards. Flying to London on United in September. Getting round trip to Madrid from LAX next Feb on American for only 40,000 each.

Found that often we can fly using fewer dollars charged through the cards then with the bank offered, airline independent cards. Get quite a few miles for getting the card, multiple airlines through the networks, bonuses based upon use (united gives an extra 10,000 for every 20,000 charged), miles for paid for flights. In addition many other bonuses. Free luggage, no expiration of miles, travel insurance, no exchange fees (united and american), partner fares (alaska), etc.

I do have some of the airline independent ones as well, but find them to be less efficient.

I will reinforce was someone said earlier Schwab bank is a great ATM card to have for foreign travel, no currency exchange fees and atm charges are refunded.

Ally is also good. No exchange fees, but does not refund foreign ATM fees, only domestic US atm fees.

Any TA can get the $300 credit and other Platinum Perks applied to a cruise booking. It is a special log in and process. No need to book with AMEX travel. It is a perk of using the card for payment and nothing to do with booking with Amex travel. It is a code that is generated by AMEX card services that the TA calls in to the cruise line. Of course, the cruise line itself must participate in the program and it is the premium and luxury lines for the most part.

Thanks, to you and Host Jazzbeau... I am probably booking the Ovation of the Seas to Asia. I chided. My agent about not getting the $300 credit and she obviously did some studying, and it is being offered. GRR... The cruises I booked and didn't get it.

Anyway the card is stupid expensive but if you travel it is a very good card.

JC