Best CC for airline miles

[jlt19]

Apr 10, 2022 6:08:56 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Apr 9, 2022 20:58:42 GMT -5 jlt19 said:

It really depends on your goals. For instance, we’re flying Stl-Dfw-ogg (Maui) next week in business class lie flat seats on AA for 55k miles each way x4. It’s taken a few years to save it, and a couple of different credit cards. Mostly Citi or Barclays.

We also have Chase SW cards and a Chase Ink card.

It’s best to plan what you want, then get the CC to make it happen.

When I don’t have a particular plan in mind, I usually use our Chase Ink Card because I like the versatility of their Rewards.

I’ve probably opened it 20+ cards over 5 years and have never dropped below 750, and still was able to purchase a new house this past summer at a great rate (2.675%). Just make sure you pay it all off monthly!

We plan to put only daycare on the card, and we want to fly to Iceland next year and looking at French Polynesia the next, outside of that, what do you mean by a particular plan?

With this, I would find out which airline I’d prefer to fly and what their points redemptions would be and work towards that. Same for hotels if you happen to be staying at a chain (though some points redemptions get crazy). The Hilton we’re staying at in Hilo was either $225/NT or 50k pt. But the Hilton in Waikoloa Village was either $700/NT or 70k pts. But to upgrade to an ocean view for either was minimal cash or 150k+ in pts. So dumb. So we’ll have an ocean view in Hilo for $250/NT and resort view in the other side for the 70k/NT.

[pizzaandtulips]

If you have the Capital One Venture card…

I have it and I just redeem my points whenever I can without saving them for a particular trip. So if I log into my account and have 500 miles, I’ll redeem them towards an Uber charge or whatever I happen to have on my card at the time. When I do buy airfare, I put it on that card and then eventually pay off part or all of it with miles I earn. Is there a better way to redeem for travel? It seemed to me that covering travel purchases was the best value, but is there something that you are doing to get even better value with the card and miles? I got this card because it had no international transaction fee, which was necessary for me at the time. I didn’t get it specifically to plan for trips, but we travel a lot and maybe I’m missing something.

[al dente]

Apr 9, 2022 20:58:42 GMT -5 jlt19 said:

It really depends on your goals. For instance, we’re flying Stl-Dfw-ogg (Maui) next week in business class lie flat seats on AA for 55k miles each way x4.

Not to sounds dumb, but can an you break down how you did this? I have a chase and this is making me think if I should change cards. Whenever I look at flights in the portal it only gives the option for the economy seats to pay with points. Then once I go through and have that booked I can upgrade to "economy plus", but I have to upgrade before it even shows what laydown costs. It's annoying because I would maybe do laydown, but I don't want to pay for "economy plus" just to see that laydown is significantly out of my price range.

[sent]

Apr 10, 2022 17:56:32 GMT -5 pizzaandtulips said:

If you have the Capital One Venture card…

I have it and I just redeem my points whenever I can without saving them for a particular trip. So if I log into my account and have 500 miles, I’ll redeem them towards an Uber charge or whatever I happen to have on my card at the time. When I do buy airfare, I put it on that card and then eventually pay off part or all of it with miles I earn. Is there a better way to redeem for travel? It seemed to me that covering travel purchases was the best value, but is there something that you are doing to get even better value with the card and miles? I got this card because it had no international transaction fee, which was necessary for me at the time. I didn’t get it specifically to plan for trips, but we travel a lot and maybe I’m missing something.

Covering travel purchases is the easiest way, it’s basically a 2% cash back card if you have an annual fee version. Anything more than that will depend on your travel habits. Where do you travel? Where do you typically stay? That would help with suggestions of how to get more out of your cards.

[isabel]

Apr 9, 2022 16:22:45 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Apr 9, 2022 14:34:24 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

The cards that have higher fees usually have decent perks. I have the Amex platinum and I think the fee is the same maybe a little higher but it’s been worth it for me (more pre covid when I was traveling at least 6-8 times a year).

Some perks include free to get tsa pre check and global entry, $15 Uber credit monthly and in Dec it’s $30, free priority pass so lounge access all over the world and lounge access anytime you book with delta (this prob saves the most money cause I never buy food or alcohol in airports now since I can get free food at lounges), $250 travel credit (I’ve used it to upgrade from regular economy to comfort plus, but can also be used for baggage fees, etc). I think there’s prob more perks but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

If you don’t travel a few times a year though it might not be worth it.

It seems they give you $300 in credits off the bat, so that somewhat offsets the annual fee for the first year.

We like to do a big summer trip, and then we often travel during the holidays. But not more than that, so maybe the higher fee cards aren’t the right choice for us.

I use YNAB and we have this card. I have a category set up and when the credits come through, rather than categorizing them to whatever the purchase went to, I categorize the credits to the “fees” category. That, coupled with a small monthly goal, builds it up enough that we have the cash to pay the fee outright. Between the free global entry fee and the $300 back, the annual fee feels worthwhile.

[wise_rita]

Props to everyone in this thread for not using first and business class interchangeably. A+

[Deleted]

Honestly to get your best bang for the buck you need to churn at least a little to get multiple bonuses. And you need to know what airlines you are most likely to use and which cards give you those miles.

For us our home airport is a hub for United and southwest so we primarily use those airlines. As such we churn United, southwest and Chase ultimate rewards cards (because they transfer to both southwest and United). We have also at times held American Airlines cards and Amex.

This year we’ve flown our family of 5 to Maui and Portugal and will also go to Belize all for free. It was supposed to be Maui, Italy, and Japan for free, but Japan is still closed with no reopening date set. So maybe Japan next year or Australia, Egypt, or Brazil. We have the miles for any of them for free.

I’ve been at this a long time and we’ve taken our family of 5 to Hawaii 3x, Costa Rica 2x, the UK, Croatia, Portugal, plus many domestic places and haven’t paid for airfare at all in 13 years or more. And also haven’t paid any interest on any of the cards. We do pay some in annual fees (but because my DH was in the military until last year most fees have been waived for us). Even if we pay $1000 in annual fees per year we usually get credits to offset $800-$900 and take flights worth anywhere from $900-$20,000+ every year so it is worth it.

[ksun]

If you do get a Chase SW make sure you look for a better deal than 10,000 miles after you spend $1000. They are always offering 30-40,000 miles after spending $1000. We got 40K miles.

[jlt19]

Apr 10, 2022 23:25:58 GMT -5 al dente said:

Apr 9, 2022 20:58:42 GMT -5 jlt19 said:

It really depends on your goals. For instance, we’re flying Stl-Dfw-ogg (Maui) next week in business class lie flat seats on AA for 55k miles each way x4.

Not to sounds dumb, but can an you break down how you did this? I have a chase and this is making me think if I should change cards. Whenever I look at flights in the portal it only gives the option for the economy seats to pay with points. Then once I go through and have that booked I can upgrade to "economy plus", but I have to upgrade before it even shows what laydown costs. It's annoying because I would maybe do laydown, but I don't want to pay for "economy plus" just to see that laydown is significantly out of my price range.

Chase doesn’t partner with AA, so I don’t use them for this. Chase is good to transfer directly to Hyatt and SW. For AA, the best cards for the most points are either Citi or Barclays. They each have a couple of cards that will get you high bonus amounts for hitting the minimum spend.

I like the Doctor of Credit website for the best current offered bonuses.

[Jalapeñomel]

Thanks again, and I ended up going with the Chase Sapphire Preferred. I figured it was a nice way to venture into the world of CC and points, and in the future can change to a fancier one should I see fit.

I appreciate everyone’s help!

[satsuma]

Apr 13, 2022 10:49:36 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Thanks again, and I ended up going with the Chase Sapphire Preferred. I figured it was a nice way to venture into the world of CC and points, and in the future can change to a fancier one should I see fit.

I appreciate everyone’s help!

To maximize miles, my suggestion would be to hit minimum spend to get the welcome bonus for the CSP and then apply for a Chase Freedom Unlimited which gives a flat 1.5% cash back but can be converted to UR if you hold a sapphire card. The CSP is best used on spending categories that give higher UR back such as travel and dining. The Unlimited has no annual fee so other than having another card to keep track of and the hard inquiry on your credit (mostly an issue if you’re trying to secure a loan anytime soon) there’s not much risk to having it.

ETA - you can upgrade to a CSR when it is time to pay your annual fee again. The sign-on UR bonus is larger for the CSP but then worth more when redeemed with the CSR.

[Jalapeñomel]

Apr 13, 2022 11:05:48 GMT -5 satsuma said:

Apr 13, 2022 10:49:36 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Thanks again, and I ended up going with the Chase Sapphire Preferred. I figured it was a nice way to venture into the world of CC and points, and in the future can change to a fancier one should I see fit.

I appreciate everyone’s help!

To maximize miles, my suggestion would be to hit minimum spend to get the welcome bonus for the CSP and then apply for a Chase Freedom Unlimited which gives a flat 1.5% cash back but can be converted to UR if you hold a sapphire card. The CSP is best used on spending categories that give higher UR back such as travel and dining. The Unlimited has no annual fee so other than having another card to keep track of and the hard inquiry on your credit (mostly an issue if you’re trying to secure a loan anytime soon) there’s not much risk to having it.

ETA - you can upgrade to a CSR when it is time to pay your annual fee again. The sign-on UR bonus is larger for the CSP but then worth more when redeemed with the CSR.

Sorry, I’m not savvy with this stuff, so I’m not quite sure what you mean about having a second card. Can you elaborate in layman’s terms?

I did manage to get an 80k bonus instead of the 60k since I have my mortgage through Chase after spending $4k in three months (which will be no problem since daycare is $1800+ a month).

[satsuma]

Apr 13, 2022 13:20:39 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Apr 13, 2022 11:05:48 GMT -5 satsuma said:

To maximize miles, my suggestion would be to hit minimum spend to get the welcome bonus for the CSP and then apply for a Chase Freedom Unlimited which gives a flat 1.5% cash back but can be converted to UR if you hold a sapphire card. The CSP is best used on spending categories that give higher UR back such as travel and dining. The Unlimited has no annual fee so other than having another card to keep track of and the hard inquiry on your credit (mostly an issue if you’re trying to secure a loan anytime soon) there’s not much risk to having it.

ETA - you can upgrade to a CSR when it is time to pay your annual fee again. The sign-on UR bonus is larger for the CSP but then worth more when redeemed with the CSR.

Sorry, I’m not savvy with this stuff, so I’m not quite sure what you mean about having a second card. Can you elaborate in layman’s terms?

I did manage to get an 80k bonus instead of the 60k since I have my mortgage through Chase after spending $4k in three months (which will be no problem since daycare is $1800+ a month).

So the CSP only gives a flat 1% back in “other” categories, which daycare falls under. You could get 1.5% cash back with the Chase Freedom Unlimited, and because you have a Sapphire card, the cash back can be converted to Ultimate Rewards. I’m not sure how much else you put on a card that falls into the “other” category, but it’s not an uncommon strategy to pair one of the Chase Freedom cards with a sapphire card since the Ultimate Rewards are typically valued more than the cash back equivalent. You’d have to see if it’s worth the extra half of a percentage point just based on your spending habits. Does that make sense?

Actually here is a decent write up of it time.com/nextadvisor/credit-cards/chase/pairing-chase-sapphire-preferred-and-freedom-unlimited/

[Jalapeñomel]

Apr 13, 2022 13:45:52 GMT -5 satsuma said:

Apr 13, 2022 13:20:39 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Sorry, I’m not savvy with this stuff, so I’m not quite sure what you mean about having a second card. Can you elaborate in layman’s terms?

I did manage to get an 80k bonus instead of the 60k since I have my mortgage through Chase after spending $4k in three months (which will be no problem since daycare is $1800+ a month).

So the CSP only gives a flat 1% back in “other” categories, which daycare falls under. You could get 1.5% cash back with the Chase Freedom Unlimited, and because you have a Sapphire card, the cash back can be converted to Ultimate Rewards. I’m not sure how much else you put on a card that falls into the “other” category, but it’s not an uncommon strategy to pair one of the Chase Freedom cards with a sapphire card since the Ultimate Rewards are typically valued more than the cash back equivalent. You’d have to see if it’s worth the extra half of a percentage point just based on your spending habits. Does that make sense?

Actually here is a decent write up of it time.com/nextadvisor/credit-cards/chase/pairing-chase-sapphire-preferred-and-freedom-unlimited/

It does thanks!

I did realize that we are flying to visit family this summer, and I was primed to book this week. So I’ll wait for this card, and book on the card for more points!