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Credit Card Mile Geeks (1 Viewer)

captain_amazing

captain_amazing

Footballguy
Wife and I are looking for a CC that gets good miles, as we have family we need to travel to now. We'd like a BoA CC that does that, but we'd go with whatever is best. Thoughts?

 
The boa one is the best if you are platinum rewards and get the 75 percent bonus miles

 
cstu said:
Starwood.

/thread
Click to expand...
Guys I know who used to spend tons of time on the Flyertalk forums convinced me that the Starwood Amex is the best card to get and use regularly. Wife and I both have it and do nearly 100% of our monthly spending on it, and I try to put whatever business travel I can there as well. It seems solid. Supposedly the SPG points are high value when transferred for flights etc. I nearly always stay at a Starwood hotel and they are generally reliable, though I have had a couple of minor gripes in recent months.

Also they recently paired up with Delta, so there are some added incentives if you fly Delta regularly.

But yeah, this is what I used and have been told to use by people who are smart about this stuff. This was a few years ago, I haven't reevaluated since, so it's possible there is now something better.

The St Regis in Puerto Rican is a great beach vacation resort, not too far, don't need a passport, great for kids, and the beach there was as private and secluded as we have seen (aside from the really extravagant stuff).

 
Otis said:
cstu said:
Starwood.

/thread
Click to expand...
Guys I know who used to spend tons of time on the Flyertalk forums convinced me that the Starwood Amex is the best card to get and use regularly. Wife and I both have it and do nearly 100% of our monthly spending on it, and I try to put whatever business travel I can there as well. It seems solid. Supposedly the SPG points are high value when transferred for flights etc. I nearly always stay at a Starwood hotel and they are generally reliable, though I have had a couple of minor gripes in recent months.

Also they recently paired up with Delta, so there are some added incentives if you fly Delta regularly.

But yeah, this is what I used and have been told to use by people who are smart about this stuff. This was a few years ago, I haven't reevaluated since, so it's possible there is now something better.

The St Regis in Puerto Rican is a great beach vacation resort, not too far, don't need a passport, great for kids, and the beach there was as private and secluded as we have seen (aside from the really extravagant stuff).
Click to expand...
It's best for people who travel internationally, especially when the dollar is weak (now is not great for redemptions).

The perk I like the best is 'Nights and Flights' which gives you 50,000 airline miles and 5 nights at a category 4 hotel for 70,000 Starwood points.

 
Here's some questions that need answering:

What's your closest airport

Will you be flying to the same place more often than not, or just random travel

Do either you or your wife fly for work? If so, do you predominately use a specific airline?

Are you willing to put all of your spend on the same card every month? (I hope you pay it off, but that's another thread)

How many times a year to you envision the family traveling?

 
Two really good sites for finding good deals(bonus) on these cards are:

https://www.nerdwallet.com/travel-miles-credit-cards

http://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/

Also see this:

Top 10 Travel Rewards Credit Card Offers for July 2015

I personally have the united presidential plus and the BOA card, but i never use the BOA one and the rewards arent very good TBH.

Chase Saphire is supposed to be a very good card. That would be my recommendation.

ETA: whatever card you get, if you travel internationally, make sure the card you get has no international transaction fees! Also make sure it has the chip and signature option.

 
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Your first question needs to be where you want to travel. This will dictate which airline/bank issuing card/s you should go with. The Starwood Preferred is overrated imo. The signup bonus is meh and the reason why it is sometimes spoken highly of is the amount of transfer partners. With Costco dumping AMEX next year I will cancel the card in 2016.

That being said, for generic every day spending Chase has some excellent cards with good signup bonuses and category bonuses.

Most points geeks will tell you using points for US travel is a waste of points unless your converting your Chase UR points to Avios and flying cheap to Hawaii from the West Coast. The one exception would be a local airline like Southwest.

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions. I have flown all over the world using strictly miles and just returned from Hawaii where I flew the family of four using only points.

 
Anything new and exciting in credit card rewards? Looking for something

We fly mostly Delta, but will not hesitate to fly Spirit or whatever else if it is cheap enough. I do have about 100,000 Delta miles already waiting to be used. We fly probably 4-5 times a year. One of those times is mostly international, otherwise just flights to FL, CA, MA mostly.

We can generally find pretty cheap flights to those places (200-300), so I am not sure whether just an airlines reward card is our best bet.

Reading good things about the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Thoughts?

 
the moops said:
Anything new and exciting in credit card rewards? Looking for something

We fly mostly Delta, but will not hesitate to fly Spirit or whatever else if it is cheap enough. I do have about 100,000 Delta miles already waiting to be used. We fly probably 4-5 times a year. One of those times is mostly international, otherwise just flights to FL, CA, MA mostly.

We can generally find pretty cheap flights to those places (200-300), so I am not sure whether just an airlines reward card is our best bet.

Reading good things about the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
That chase sapphire is generally considered one of the top cards out there.

Check Nerdwallet or thepointsguy

for additional card suggestions of deals going on.

 
the moops said:
Anything new and exciting in credit card rewards? Looking for something

We fly mostly Delta, but will not hesitate to fly Spirit or whatever else if it is cheap enough. I do have about 100,000 Delta miles already waiting to be used. We fly probably 4-5 times a year. One of those times is mostly international, otherwise just flights to FL, CA, MA mostly.

We can generally find pretty cheap flights to those places (200-300), so I am not sure whether just an airlines reward card is our best bet.

Reading good things about the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
I believe the Delta card also grants you status and free checked bags? Check me on that.

This could easily outweigh any extra points you might get elsewhere.

 
Easy... Southwest

There are a couple kinds of Southwest Visa CCs, "Prime" and 'Premier" or something. They often do a promotion where you get 50k miles for a new card and putting something like $2k on in the first 3 months. Do that with both cards = 100k+ miles.

https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/southwest/2rtfosam1

Here's the good part...

When you get up to 110k miles, you get a companion pass that's good for the remainder of the year and all of the next year. So not only are you flying BOGO but you have 110,000 miles to use for flights.

https://www.southwest.com/rapidrewards/tiers-more-companion-pass

My wife and I both did this last year and have the companion passes (one for each of our two kids) through the end of this year.

Here's a post about it from the website linked above...

http://thepointsguy.com/2015/09/how-to-earn-the-southwest-companion-pass-for-almost-two-years/

 
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Amazon store card gives you a 5% credit on your bill (amounts to 5% off your purchases).

Really hate having cards like this but I never use it except for what I buy on Amazon and use automated payments to pay it off every month.

 
Lehigh98 said:
Easy... Southwest

There are a couple kinds of Southwest Visa CCs, "Prime" and 'Premier" or something. They often do a promotion where you get 50k miles for a new card and putting something like $2k on in the first 3 months. Do that with both cards = 100k+ miles.

https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/southwest/2rtfosam1

Here's the good part...

When you get up to 110k miles, you get a companion pass that's good for the remainder of the year and all of the next year. So not only are you flying BOGO but you have 110,000 miles to use for flights.

https://www.southwest.com/rapidrewards/tiers-more-companion-pass

My wife and I both did this last year and have the companion passes (one for each of our two kids) through the end of this year.

Here's a post about it from the website linked above...

http://thepointsguy.com/2015/09/how-to-earn-the-southwest-companion-pass-for-almost-two-years/
Click to expand...
This was our third year with the southwest companion pass. We missed it for this year, but will likely get it for next year. Man we abused that thing. Absolutely loved having it.

 
cstu said:
PinkydaPimp said:
http://thepointsguy.com/2016/01/top-10-travel-card-offers-for-january-2016/
Click to expand...
Wow, just found out that the Starwood card now has no international transaction fees.

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/starwood-preferred-guest/26129?extlink=af-us-ccsg-PLALM&PID=15-11842753-7242679-26814_A200013748749&BUID=CCG&PSKU=SPG&CRTV=STALM&CID=4055899
Click to expand...
I didn't realize that, well overdue. If you travel at all for work I would recommend that card and/or the Chase Marriott card and pay for the hotel with that card. They both have some decent bonuses for hotel charges paid for by their cards.

Between SPG and Marriott you can find a hotel pretty much anywhere.

 
The General said:
cstu said:
PinkydaPimp said:
http://thepointsguy.com/2016/01/top-10-travel-card-offers-for-january-2016/
Click to expand...
Wow, just found out that the Starwood card now has no international transaction fees.

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/starwood-preferred-guest/26129?extlink=af-us-ccsg-PLALM&PID=15-11842753-7242679-26814_A200013748749&BUID=CCG&PSKU=SPG&CRTV=STALM&CID=4055899
Click to expand...
I didn't realize that, well overdue.If you travel at all for work I would recommend that card and/or the Chase Marriott card and pay for the hotel with that card. They both have some decent bonuses for hotel charges paid for by their cards.

Between SPG and Marriott you can find a hotel pretty much anywhere.
Click to expand...
I switched from the SPG card to Marriott. Prefer the SPG resort properties, but I stay at Marriott brands and accrue the points so much faster with the paired CC.

Companion Pass (SW going to Mexico/Caribbean $$$$) + Ritz Carlton/JW/Atlantis resorts has treated my family to some nice trips.

 
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Agree on Marriott being a bit better on points. Platinum status combined with paying with their Chase card racks up points fast.

That card also doesn't have international fees.

 
For cash back, cannot top Citi DoubleCash MasterCard. No annual fee and 2% back on all transactions and uncapped. Get 1% at the end of the billing cycle, and the other 1% when you pay that billing cycle balance. I pay in full every month, so I get the extra 1% on the next billing statement. I have a Sallie Mae MC that gves 5% back as a statement credit on gas (first $250 per month), groceries (first $250 per month), and Amazon (first $750 per month) as my other card, but they unfortunately stopped taking new applications. Who ever thought that would be unprofitable for them? :lol: Hoping they don't shut the rewards down for grandfathered accounts, or I'm on the lookout for a new gas/grocery/Amazon card.

 
Otis said:
cstu said:
Starwood.

/thread
Click to expand...
Guys I know who used to spend tons of time on the Flyertalk forums convinced me that the Starwood Amex is the best card to get and use regularly. Wife and I both have it and do nearly 100% of our monthly spending on it, and I try to put whatever business travel I can there as well. It seems solid. Supposedly the SPG points are high value when transferred for flights etc. I nearly always stay at a Starwood hotel and they are generally reliable, though I have had a couple of minor gripes in recent months. Also they recently paired up with Delta, so there are some added incentives if you fly Delta regularly.

But yeah, this is what I used and have been told to use by people who are smart about this stuff. This was a few years ago, I haven't reevaluated since, so it's possible there is now something better.

The St Regis in Puerto Rican is a great beach vacation resort, not too far, don't need a passport, great for kids, and the beach there was as private and secluded as we have seen (aside from the really extravagant stuff).
Click to expand...
$800 a night is pretty extravagant in the real world
 
I am new (and late) to the credit card travel mileage game. Anyone still playing?

Just got the Chase Sapphire for me and my wife, also picked up the Chase Freedom card. 

Want to fly the family to Europe next year. Any recommendations for another card or two to get? 

 
ex-ghost said:
I am new (and late) to the credit card travel mileage game. Anyone still playing?

Just got the Chase Sapphire for me and my wife, also picked up the Chase Freedom card. 

Want to fly the family to Europe next year. Any recommendations for another card or two to get? 
Click to expand...
Pick the airline you want to fly to Europe and get that card.. this isn't rocket science.

 
PinkydaPimp said:
werent they merging with Marriott?
Click to expand...
They are.  Not why it lost its position at the top, however.

That card used to be head and shoulders above the rest.  It has lost that position over the last several years through the competition getting better, and through depreciation/loss of features on its own accord.

 
It really depends. Things like what airline you prefer (or don't prefer any), how much you travel, how many perks you want, how much you are willing to pay on annual fee, etc. There is no 'one right answer' when talking miles.

 
Current cards: 

Chase Sapphire Preferred

BofA Travel Rewards (no fee)

Marriott Rewards Chase

The last one isn't too great, but my fiance travels using Marriott for work so it is helpful to us

 
My wife and I each just got Alaska Airlines Signature Visa cards from BofA.  There is a $75 annual fee.  But, upon approval, each of us get 25,000 bonus miles and a companion pass.  It works for us because we (me, wife and 3 kids) are going to Hawaii this summer, and with the bonus miles and companion passes, instead of $3,375 we'll be paying about $1,675.  The companion passes aren't free, but rather $99 + taxes with purchase of matching ticket.  So, I buy round trip ticket for me, one kid gets companion pass.  Wife buys one round trip ticket for her, 2nd kid gets companion pass, and we each use points for 3rd kid (40,000 bonus miles for round trip to Hawaii). 

Companion passes are given out on every anniversary date.

 
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