Frequent Flier miles credit cards?

[beckms]

Hi all--

I am interested in getting a credit card that racks up miles. I would loveto hear which ones you have and why/why you don't like them.

Southwest is a favorite airline of ours, however we will probably be moving to the south soon and my parents don't live in a city where Southwest flies (we can drive there now). So probably we'll be looking at one of the other airlines.

Thanks in advance!:cool:

[funnybone]

We use United Visa from Chase Bank. Since they have a hub in Chicago and DH flies them 99% of the time for business, it's a good one for us to use. You can get ones that aren't tied to a specific airline, but I have no experience with those.

[MaryMac]

Thought about using a card that isn't affiliated with a particular airline? The Quicken card allows you to earn points and can be used on any airline. That way you can still get the trips you want, but it's not limiting to what airline you want to use. It's been around for years and I think it may be through Citibank.

[sab1976]

I have an American Express that earns Delta SkyMiles. We use it to get tix to travel back and forth to Atlanta.

[zwieback]

DH has the United Visa. We mainly got it to get the bonus miles you get when opening the card so we could use those miles (in addition to ones DH already had) to get at least 1 free ticket for a vaction we took back in August. Well, it turned out that using those miles was actually more expensive than buying 2 tickets outright. :rolleyes: For some reason, for us to buy a ticket and use the miles for a free one cost quite a bit more. So, we haven't used the miles yet.

[ClaraB]

We have a Northwest Worldperks Visa, which we use for all our purchases, including groceries and gas. You have to be disciplined to not put more on your card than you can pay off every month, but it's worked for us - we used the points to get 2 free tickets to Hawaii for next month :D .

That said, unless Northwest has a lot of flights to the city you'll be living in, you probably shoudn't get the card. You should either pick a card with an airline that you're likely to use, or a card that's not affiliated with any one airline.

[funnybone]

Well, it turned out that using those miles was actually more expensive than buying 2 tickets outright. :rolleyes:


I agree about the cost. We use the miles to go to Hawaii or other places where there is a savings for us 4. We now have more than enough for the 4 of us to go to Australia, but try finding the time for DH to get away. :rolleyes: That's a whole other story! :o If DH didn't travel and collect miles that way as well, I'd rather apply the miles to gift cards or other things that cards offer.

[mcgee]

I used to have the United MC but found it very difficult to redeem my miles. So we switched to Alaska Airlines Visa and love it. I get a $50 companion ticket each year that is not subject to blackout dates or restrictions. You just need to pay the same taxes as on the full fare ticket. And I can also earn and redeem miles on their partner airlines, American and Delta to name just a couple.

[DanaSD]

We have the Us Airways card (was America West) - we almost always fly this airline so for us its worth it. You get extra miles for purchasing tickets. We actually have 2 accounts, our joint and my husbands personal. We gets tons of miles and have used them for free first class tickets to Hawaii 2 times, fly the ILs in from Michigan, etc. We charge a lot each month (which we pay off each month) between household expenses and my husbands travel expenses plus the miles he collected directly by traveling. We have enough miles waiting for a another trip to Hawaii (and Marriot points for free hotel) - now just waiting for the time to travel...

[cminmd]

We have a Navy Federal Travel Card and a Citi Bank Travel card. Both have the same concept- you earn a point per dollar for most things, certain items you buy get you more points, you get free travel insurance for any tickets you buy on the card. We usually use the Navy Fed, but unless you have a Navy connection that won't work for you. The citi bank one is very similar, it just has some higher "punishments" if you are late or overlimit. I like that is has no black out dates or connections to particular airlines. We have used points to buy tickets, or on cruises or even rental cars. I like the freedom of not having one to use one airline as DC is not a major hub so the good flights vary by carrier.
When we want to redeem our miles, we look for the flight we want then call the rewards center with the flight numbers, airline ect. They book it and we pay about 5,000 points per 100 dollars. So a 300 dollar ticket cost about 15,00 points. We also use points to upgrade, some airlines let you upgrade for 10,000 points.
Does anyone know the name of the website that compairs all the cards rates and plans? I think I heard it on Oprah, but I cant remember the name.