Best Credit Card to Earn Airline Miles?

[BroncosFan2010]

Over the last 3 years DH and I have been earning RCCL points on our Bank of America card. We are looking to branch out to different cruise lines, so are probably going to ditch this card since we have used all of our earned points for this cruise and a bunch of OBC. We don't want to be limited to just RCCL the next time.

 

Since cruising is getting cheaper and cheaper, we are thinking that we want a credit card that helps us earn airline miles.

 

What cards do you think offer the best rewards programs for airline or other travel?

We are looking for something w/o annual fee. We have excellent credit and are not worried about interest rates because we pay everything off at the end of the month.

Any suggestions?

[fbgd]

Starwood Preferred Guest Amex.

 

Earns 1 Starpoint per dollar. For the majority of airlines schemes you earn 20,000 miles when you transfer 20,000 Starpoints, plus they give you 5,000 miles on top of that. So for $20,000 spend you earn 25,000 airline miles, of course this might be less if you stay in Starwood hotels and earn points that way too.

 

It is the best airline earning miles card out there. Not only does it have better earning than most of the airline affinity cards but you can choose which airline you want to put miles into if you run accounts with multiple airlines.

 

It does have an annual fee but it is cheap. Either $30 or $45. My wife had her annual fee waived the last few years.

[Shorex]

The Starwood Preferred is generally considered the best overcall card available right now for airline redemption. It has won the Freddie award in its category for the past two years.

 

"For 20 years, frequent travelers have been asked to make their picks for the best frequent travel programs via the Freddie Awards. Introduced by InsideFlyer magazine publisher Randy Petersen in 1988, the Freddies allow members to rank airline and hotel programs from their point of view. The awards have grown in stature and importance and are the most prestigious member-generated awards in the industry."

 

Read this thread from the Crystal board and check out the Freddie site here.

 

It does have an annual fee, but overall for flexibility and redemption it is the best.

[FlyerTalker]

I would echo the advice on the Starwood Amex. Extremely versatile. But, as with all programs, you should look to be sure that it meets YOUR needs. Exactly what are you looking to do with the benefits from the card. Figure that out, then go to read the program and card details. Caveat emptor.

 

Another thought that you might want to look into is the Alaska Airlines card, issued by BoA (like your RCCL card). Not so much for flying on AS, but rather because of the versatility of its extensive partner arrangements (going across several alliances). You can redeem AS Mileage Plan miles on Air France, American, British, Cathay, Continental, Delta, KLM, Korean, LAN and Qantas. In fact, AS Mileage Plan was voted as the program of the year at last year's Freddies. If you are banking with BoA, you can use that AS card as your overdraft protection on your checking account.

 

The programs/cards without an annual fee are generally not as good as those with a fee of some kind. If you put most of your spending on the cards, that fee is a small price for the benefit received. First year fees are often waived - check for details with each card. I would not rule out a fee card just on that basis alone, but you can have your own priorities.

 

In addition, be sure to look for sign-up bonuses and use them whenever possible. UA was running a 25,000 mile signup bonus last year (if you wanted to earn UA miles, not me!) All cards run them....or ask for a promo when talking with an agent.

 

Finally, there are many discussions about credit cards and miles at FT. Also at Webflyer, Inside Flyer and A view from the Wing.

[fbgd]

The programs/cards without an annual fee are generally not as good as those with a fee of some kind. If you put most of your spending on the cards, that fee is a small price for the benefit received. First year fees are often waived - check for details with each card. I would not rule out a fee card just on that basis alone, but you can have your own priorities.

 

+1

 

My mother-in-law was asking me about getting a credit card suitable for regular travellers and had a fit when I told her what the annual fee was on one of my Amex cards. It wasn't until I explained what was included as part of that fee that she understood why I paid that for it, and told how the annual fee had paid for itself several times over in the last year with the savings on hotels and the like.

[scottbee]

Another thought that you might want to look into is the Alaska Airlines card, issued by BoA (like your RCCL card). Not so much for flying on AS, but rather because of the versatility of its extensive partner arrangements (going across several alliances). You can redeem AS Mileage Plan miles on Air France, American, British, Cathay, Continental, Delta, KLM, Korean, LAN and Qantas. In fact, AS Mileage Plan was voted as the program of the year at last year's Freddies.

 

+1 for the AS Platinum card. Not mentioned by Flyertalker is that you get 3000 bonus miles/year, plus a $50 companion cert (buy one ticket, any fare class on AS metal and the 2nd ticket is $50). This is extremely valuable, RT SEA-MIA for example may be $500 for the 1st person, but only $50 for the 2nd.

 

Not mentioned is that there are TWO AS Platinum cards, a US$ on BoA and a Cdn$ Mastercard on MBNA. Both have the same benefit, and it's possible to have both :)

[chipmaster]

Starwood Preferred Guest Amex.

 

Earns 1 Starpoint per dollar. For the majority of airlines schemes you earn 20,000 miles when you transfer 20,000 Starpoints, plus they give you 5,000 miles on top of that. So for $20,000 spend you earn 25,000 airline miles, of course this might be less if you stay in Starwood hotels and earn points that way too.

 

It is the best airline earning miles card out there. Not only does it have better earning than most of the airline affinity cards but you can choose which airline you want to put miles into if you run accounts with multiple airlines.

 

It does have an annual fee but it is cheap. Either $30 or $45. My wife had her annual fee waived the last few years.

 

Starwoods is the best! Less so for the airline miles as those are so restrictive these days on almost all airlines. They have some really sweet hotel perks. We managed to convert 12K miles to a 1000/night room every Christmas for a return of 8% value, it was close to 10% last year. The best you get converting to airlines miles is more like 2-3% cash value and then you got to deal with all the restrictions.

[winemama]

we use the capital one no hassle miles card...we get 2 miles for every dollar and you can use them on any airline, no black out dates and off of any site ..ie expedia..also good for hotels cruises, car rental..i'm not sure of the percentage, but i know i don't spend 1 dollar = 1 mile..it is less....you book your trip or flight, call them confirm the miles you have and they will take the charge off of your bill with in one pay cycle...i alway book at the beginning of my billing cycle call and it is off the that month....the fee is 40$ a year..we charge everything, and pay off the bill every month...

[FlyerTalker]

Although I touched on the conversion bonus, the Starwood program has some other nice redemption features, including:

 

Nights and Flights: You can cash in Starpoints and get both airline miles AND a five-night stay at a reduced rate than either redemption alone.

 

Cash & Points: Pay with a combo of points and cash, often getting a better "bang" for the point value than a straight up redemption

[steve20832]

It depends on what airlines serve your local airport and where they to. I have a Northwest credit card because they have about 100 gates here at MSP. I do fly other airlines but Delta is taking over and I do not like them. Delta/NWA is pulling out of a lot gates here so I'm looking at other options now.

[FlyerTalker]

we use the capital one no hassle miles card...we get 2 miles for every dollar and you can use them on any airline, no black out dates and off of any site ..ie expedia..also good for hotels cruises, car rental..i'm not sure of the percentage, but i know i don't spend 1 dollar = 1 mile..it is less....you book your trip or flight, call them confirm the miles you have and they will take the charge off of your bill with in one pay cycle...i alway book at the beginning of my billing cycle call and it is off the that month....the fee is 40$ a year..we charge everything, and pay off the bill every month...

You have the "No Hassle Miles Ultra" card. Not such a good deal, if you'll let me explain:

 

1) What you are earning are actually "miles" issued by CapOne. Although you earn at 2 per dollar of spend, here's the redemption value (for their website):

Miles Redemption Info for Travel: Simply add two zeros to the price of your travel purchase, then trade in that number of miles to pay for it.

Examples: $180 flight = 18,000 miles

$100 hotel room = 10,000 miles

 

You get a flat 1 cent per CapOne mile so it's just a run of the mill 2% bonus.

 

2) These "miles" can only be used to reduce your balance on your CapOne card for purchases made on the card. So it is just internal bookkeeping on their part.

 

3) The "book at the beginning of the cycle" restricts your flexibility in travel planning/booking.

 

4) You have no ability to get value beyond the 2%. If you want a business class ticket to Europe that costs $7000, you will pay 700,000 points. Even earning at a rate of 2 points per dollar of spend, you will have to use the card for $350,000 of purchases to get that ticket. OTOH, you can spend $80K on Starwood, convert to 100K of airline miles, and redeem for your business class ticket (that's a 8.75% return). Even if you redeem at a "rulebuster" rate, you'd still only have $160K of spend needed (4.375% return). Ditto with your hotel awards. You get more than 2 cents value for almost all hotel redemptions. And using "miles" for rental cars is a waste of value in most cases.

 

If you think the "no blackouts" and "any airline" features are worth that loss of upside, go ahead and stick with CapOne. Note that they never show up in the awards/runner-up lists for the Freddies.

[winemama]

thanks for taking the time FT .. ..neither of us travel for work so racking up miles is hard for us..i do have the starwood card , and use it ...i'm sure i could be more in tune with points and conversion, i'l look at the card again.....

[fbgd]

The best you get converting to airlines miles is more like 2-3% cash value and then you got to deal with all the restrictions.

 

Depends on how you redeem them and where you send them. We certainly get more than 2-3% cash value from them.

 

My wife and I are both BA Golds so send our miles there, we redeem for Club World upgrades or First redemptions. Never have any problems redeeming and a couple of times now we've managed to get an extra redemption seat made available if there is only one.

[FlyerTalker]

thanks for taking the time FT .. ..neither of us travel for work so racking up miles is hard for us..i do have the starwood card , and use it ...i'm sure i could be more in tune with points and conversion, i'l look at the card again.....

Glad to help. There are a number of websites devoted to helping folks maximize their FF mileage accounts. A google search should find them - and sites to start with include webflyer and rewardsdb.

 

Personally, I put everything possible on a card...groceries, gasoline, refuse pickup, electric bill, gas bill, cell phone and landline bill....you name it, get those miles!!! Especially important is to do your online purchases through mileage portals and double-dip on both the CC and the online purchase itself. Even that burger at McD's....buy one of their gift cards with your credit card and get miles that way. You'll be amazed at how it can build up quickly.

 

Bonus tip of the day: If you shop at Sam's Club, you are restricted in the CC that you can use - and won't get miles on your preferred Visa/MC/Amex FF credit card. However, you can go to the Wal-Mart that is almost always next door to Sam's and buy Wal-Mart gift cards with your Visa/MC/Amex CC. Earn the miles for that, then use those gift cards at Sam's. Easy way to get around the "restriction" they have for credit card payment there.

[BroncosFan2010]

One of the main reasons we have not switched to American Express is because there are so many places that do not take it! We are among those who put EVERYTHING on the card. We always pay it off at the end of the month, COMPLETELY.

My DH is totally against paying any fees for a credit card..... His idea, not mine.

We live in Grand Rapids, MI, so we can fly basically any airline out of GRR, Lansing, or even the 2 hour drive to Detroit is not that bad. That really does not limit our airline possibilities.

I guess we will just have to do lots of research when we get back from our cruise in a few weeks!

[Shorex]

My DH is totally against paying any fees for a credit card..... His idea, not mine.

 

I understand the emotional reaction of "I'm not paying any fees for a credit card!" However, doing the dispassionate financial analysis of the benefits of using the card vs the cost of using the card sometimes will result in a fee-based card being the best overall deal. MBA 101 - crunch the numbers.

[fbgd]

One of the main reasons we have not switched to American Express is because there are so many places that do not take it! We are among those who put EVERYTHING on the card. We always pay it off at the end of the month, COMPLETELY.

My DH is totally against paying any fees for a credit card..... His idea, not mine.

 

Show him how the numbers add up.

 

I can understand those who are against paying a fee for a card that gives zero benefits, but if paying $40/yr (that's what 10 cents per day!?) gets you $500 a year in benefits that's surely worth it.

[FlyerTalker]

One of the main reasons we have not switched to American Express is because there are so many places that do not take it! We are among those who put EVERYTHING on the card. We always pay it off at the end of the month, COMPLETELY.

You shouldn't be dependent on one card only -- think of what happens if, for some reason, that card is bounced. Could be as simple as a telecom breakdown from overseas or a programming glitch. You always want to have at least two cards "in play". (personal note - this happened once to me in Brunei - they lost their data link to Visa)

My DH is totally against paying any fees for a credit card..... His idea, not mine.

Shorex hit the nail on the head....just like shopping for a mortgage, this is another time when it's worth your while to crunch the figures.

 

Here's a simple math exercise. Assuming that you can get a 4% return from Starwood as opposed to CapOne's 2%. To recoup the card cost ($40), from the benefit diferential, you need to have $2000 of annual spend. That puts you at the same footing as CapOne. Once you pass that point, you are making twice the return on all subsequent spend. Pretty nice. Also, there is an unpublicized benefit from the SPG Amex -- if you have over $25K in annual spend, you are comped to SPG Gold status, with the attendant hotel bonuses and upgrades.

 

Remind him of the old "penny wise, pound foolish" concept. So applicable to many many things discussed in this forum.

[BroncosFan2010]

We do have more than one card, but the second card is our emergency back up card. We never use it! We keep it updated and ready to be used, but we don't touch it. We also have debit cards that act as a master card (and there is always plenty of money in checking to cover any emergency expenses).

 

I understand the returns outweighing the cost of the fees. However, I am with my DH on this one. We never pay a dime in interest, and we only use the benefits of a rewards card like once every three years. So, why should we pay fees??? Our BoA card right now earned us a free cruise, and we did not pay a single fee.

 

I am sure we can find a card out there that is widely accepted and will give us the rewards we want without an annual fee. At least we can call and ask them to remove it. We have done that a few times, and most of the time they are more than willing to remove the fee if you pay your bills on time. There is so much competition out there right now between credit card companies, I am amazed that they even still have fee's! Between DH and I, we get 4-5 offers a week!

[Globaliser]

However, I am with my DH on this one. We never pay a dime in interest, and we only use the benefits of a rewards card like once every three years. So, why should we pay fees?

...

I am sure we can find a card out there that is widely accepted and will give us the rewards we want without an annual fee.

Then your original post was misleading. You should have asked "Best No-Fee Credit Card to Earn Airline Miles?"

 

Most people who are in the game of collecting airline miles understand that the best cards are often those where you have to pay a fee, but you get the fee back many times over in benefits, so it's worthwhile to pay the fee.

 

For example, I use a card that gets me British Airways miles. Because I pay £30 a year for the fee-paying version of the card (though never any interest), I normally get 1½ times the number of miles that I would get if I used the no-fee version of the card; when I buy a ticket from BA using that card, I get 3 times the number of miles that the no-fee card would get me.

 

As a result, every year I collect extra miles that are worth many, many times the £30 fee that I pay. I'm talking about many tens of thousands of extra miles every year. That's well worth paying £30 for.

 

So stubbornly sticking to a mantra of "I won't pay fees" can be simply cutting off your nose to spite your face. If you really are looking for the best card for collecting airline miles, you should be more flexible and consider paying a fee to get a better card if the extra benefits are worthwhile. Then you can try negotiating that fee away afterwards if you like.

[fbgd]

However, I am with my DH on this one. We never pay a dime in interest, and we only use the benefits of a rewards card like once every three years. So, why should we pay fees???

 

Why? Because that gives you access to the best deals! You've probably only got the benefits of the rewards card once every three years because the no fee cards you currently have give poor redemption rates.

 

Globaliser's comment about cutting off your nose to spite your face hits the nail on the head. You might get $500/yr of benefits with a free card but if you pay $30 you might get several multiples of that...in the end you are the one losing out! What's $30 anyway? Half the cost of a bad meal out???

 

I don't see why paying interest or not has anything to do with it :confused:

[nho9504]

I understand the returns outweighing the cost of the fees. However, I am with my DH on this one. We never pay a dime in interest, and we only use the benefits of a rewards card like once every three years. So, why should we pay fees??? Our BoA card right now earned us a free cruise, and we did not pay a single fee.

 

 

What does paying interest have anything to do with a reward card?!

 

We never pay a dime of interest either, but we have many reward cards which are chosen based on the return ratio. And we dont mind paying fees when we get back many times more.

 

I think it is $45 annual fee now but the SPG AMEX card is probably the most versatile card out there to earn miles because of the extensive number of airlines you can transfer miles to, and with the 1 to 1.25 ratio if you transfer it at 20K a pop.

 

What you need to do, is to see how much you get back after you pay the annual fee versus how much you get back without paying a fee - only after doing such analysis, then you may see if a fee-based card actually a BETTER deal.

 

Like someone posted about Alaska card - the card has a $75 annual fee, however, it also has a $50 companion cert systemwide, plus 2 AS lounge passes each anniversary - for someone lives in AS market, just such benefits would have paid back the annual fee several times.

 

I dont know how much spending you have to make on the RCCL card in order to get a free cruise and how much the "free" cruise worth. There are cards pay back 1.5% to 2% CASH rebates on ANY spending, without annual fee. You get cold hard cash to spend whichever way you want. So you need to compare it to what you get back from the BofA RCCL card, too.

 

CrapOne mileage card is a very poor value because of the value cap on flights. The only benefit I can see from CrapOne, is its cards dont have forex fee, but its customer services are very poor from reading many people's complaints.

[nho9504]

Here's a simple math exercise. Assuming that you can get a 4% return from Starwood as opposed to CapOne's 2%. To recoup the card cost ($40), from the benefit diferential, you need to have $2000 of annual spend. That puts you at the same footing as CapOne. Once you pass that point, you are making twice the return on all subsequent spend. Pretty nice. Also, there is an unpublicized benefit from the SPG Amex -- if you have over $25K in annual spend, you are comped to SPG Gold status, with the attendant hotel bonuses and upgrades.

 

Remind him of the old "penny wise, pound foolish" concept. So applicable to many many things discussed in this forum.

 

There are often the promos on meeting spending threshold. In recent years I think 10K extra bonus pts when spending $10K or $15K something like that.

[steve20832]

One of the main reasons we have not switched to American Express is because there are so many places that do not take it! We are among those who put EVERYTHING on the card. We always pay it off at the end of the month, COMPLETELY.

My DH is totally against paying any fees for a credit card..... His idea, not mine.

We live in Grand Rapids, MI, so we can fly basically any airline out of GRR, Lansing, or even the 2 hour drive to Detroit is not that bad. That really does not limit our airline possibilities.

I guess we will just have to do lots of research when we get back from our cruise in a few weeks!

 

American Express charges merchants very high fees so many small businesses just can't eat it without charging higher rates for the goods.

Large companies have the resources to just suck it up.

This is why you don't see many people accepting it.

 

As for Visa and Mastercard, those rates are much lower which is why everyone who accepts credit cards, accepts those two. Most airline credit cards are Visa or Mastercard. As well as other companies who use points for purchases.

Oh yea, I have never paid interest on a credit card in 25 years. I have two, one for just gas (5% back on all gas purchases) and my airline credit card (everything else.)

[bqkali]

This is a really interesting thread. I've recently been snooping around for a second credit card and I never would've thought to get a Starwood CC and use it for miles instead of hotel stays. I have a CC with 5% on gas/groceries, but only 1% on other purchases, so I'd love to get a higher percentage back somehow.

 

Thanks again for the Starwood info - I'll look into it, along with some other options out there after I read the fine print.