AirMile Credit Cards & Sky Mile Credit Cards Help!

[elainesj]

So based on your signature it appears you are trying to take 2 family (6 tickets per trip) per year. The likelihood of getting 6 saver awards (25K*2) on one flight is nearly impossible. Let's say you are really lucky and are able to get two saver and 4 anytime awards (50K*4) for your family. That means (if you are lucky) you would need 250K per trip.

Now assume those tickets could have been purchased for $300 per person which would be $1800, but since you spent all your points on tickets you are now stuck with paying for your hotel. Let's assume you decide to stay at the Pop Century in WDW which average $200 per night with taxes (which is similar in price to the Swan/Dolphin pricing) and you stay for 5 nights. You are a large family so you need two rooms (2 rooms * $200 * 5 nights) which totals $2000.

Now let's say you instead of taking that money for flights you put it towards hotels first. SPG charges 10K per night at the Swan/Dolphin but gives you the 5th night free. So you would $2,000 worth of hotel for 80K in points. Now others are going to get up in arms and say "BUT NO FREE MAGICAL EXPRESS!" okay so you buy one saver award at 25K and take that $300 and use it for parking and renting a minivan.

So based on this scenario you could "spend"

105K points + $1,800 and still have 170K left. You would also be in a Deluxe hotel and have a rental car for a trip maybe to USO/IOA(don't forget since you would be paying for 5 flights you would also be earning points and you aren't restricted by the narrow flight choices for awards.)

or

250K points + $2,000 and have no points left.

The choice seems obvious to me.

I don't really understand the whole saver plus award system because I don't fly United. I'm assuming it's the cheapest level to fly free. But I'm not understanding your costing here.

OP: Keep in mind that flight rewards depend a lot on what city you are in. United and AA miles mean pretty much nothing to me because they don't route well through Detroit airport. Living where I am, pretty much Delta and Spirit are my only choices and Delta has way more flight time options that work better for me. So while United and AA have better reward systems, they're not better FOR ME. So I deal with delta's crappy SkyMiles.

One thing you pointed out in your costing is the price of rooms at Pop Century. You quoted it at $200 per room. It actually ranges from $82 to $!64 per night and seems to average about the $100 - $120 level. A far cry from the $200 a night used in your calculations above.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong...but I'm pretty sure if you pay with points, there's no way you'll get the 5th night for free. So it will cost you the full 100K points to stay at the S&D.

I agree with Prcess that you should do the math for your unique situation - that way you will see where it is better to spend your points. Without a doubt though..with the kind of business spending you are doing, GET A POINTS CREDIT CARD AND EARN THOSE POINTS!!!!

Free is free

 

[prncess674]

I don't really understand the whole saver plus award system because I don't fly United. I'm assuming it's the cheapest level to fly free. But I'm not understanding your costing here.

I will use DL terms to simplify since DL flies out of ATL which is the closest airport to the OP.

Here is the award chart.
http://dmn.delta.com/skymiles/direct/charts/us49/

DL is very very stingy and rarely releases anything in the Low and Medium bucket. The prices on that chart are ONE WAY, so a roundtrip "low" award would be 25K and "high" award would be 60K for a roundtrip

OP: Keep in mind that flight rewards depend a lot on what city you are in. United and AA miles mean pretty much nothing to me because they don't route well through Detroit airport. Living where I am, pretty much Delta and Spirit are my only choices and Delta has way more flight time options that work better for me. So while United and AA have better reward systems, they're not better FOR ME. So I deal with delta's crappy SkyMiles.

One thing you pointed out in your costing is the price of rooms at Pop Century. You quoted it at $200 per room. It actually ranges from $82 to $!64 per night and seems to average about the $100 - $120 level. A far cry from the $200 a night used in your calculations above.

Okay so let's use $115 PLUS TAX, puts you at $140 per night, so (2 rooms * 5 nights * $140) = $1,400 and you are staying at a hotel with no slide, no fridge, outside doors, no hot tub, no room service and no boat service to Epcot and DHS.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong...but I'm pretty sure if you pay with points, there's no way you'll get the 5th night for free. So it will cost you the full 100K points to stay at the S&D.

Nope you are wrong.

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/account/starpoints/redeem/free_nights.html

See the second box.
Fifth Night Free!
Redeem five nights and your fifth night is free at category 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 hotels. (3)

I agree with Prcess that you should do the math for your unique situation - that way you will see where it is better to spend your points. Without a doubt though..with the kind of business spending you are doing, GET A POINTS CREDIT CARD AND EARN THOSE POINTS!!!!

Free is free

You do need to do the math, but my point is don't just automatically assume that airmiles are the best earning potential. Hotels can cost big bucks too. To refine my first example. You could do

250K points + $1,400 for a value resort and have no points left. (6 award tickets 2 Low + 2 Med + 2 High)

or

130K points (80K hotel + 50K for two saver awards) + $1,500 (4 tickets@$300 and $300 for a rental mini van). You are now staying deluxe and because you will have SPG Gold via the SPG Amex you have a shot at an upgraded Epcot view room, have transportation to offisite attractions, have boat transporation to two parks and much larger nicer rooms.
AND you will have 120K in points left.

Also I think the poster could also find flights for cheaper than $300 ATL-MCO so the possible dollar outlay in scenario two could go way do $189 per ticket which is $756 + $300 rental car = $1056.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

2 to 3 is lot less than trying find 6 saver coach awards. I challenge you to find a single pair of flights (roundtrip) this summer that have 6 saver awards from ATL-MCO. The OP has school age children so I assume she won't be using these awards on non peak travel times.

Actually, when it comes to WDW, we always travel at off-season times and take the children out for a week every year to go to WDW.

We live outside Montgomery, Alabama so we always drive to WDW. We always get two connecting rooms at a value resort and all of our trips now revolve around free dining. So, really, WDW, is one of the cheaper trips we take every year.

Places we would like to visit, or have visited and would like to go back are: New York, Washington, D.C., Jackson Hole Wyoming, Hawaii, California, Caribbean, Italy, France. After reading your posts and all the internet info I've been trying to absorb this week, it seems like the Chase Sapphire Card seems to be a good choice. It seems it let you use your rewards/points, any way you want. Does anyone have a personal review of this card?

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Any personal reviews of Chase Saphire?

 

[prncess674]

Actually, when it comes to WDW, we always travel at off-season times and take the children out for a week every year to go to WDW.

We live outside Montgomery, Alabama so we always drive to WDW. We always get two connecting rooms at a value resort and all of our trips now revolve around free dining. So, really, WDW, is one of the cheaper trips we take every year.

Places we would like to visit, or have visited and would like to go back are: New York, Washington, D.C., Jackson Hole Wyoming, Hawaii, California, Caribbean, Italy, France. After reading your posts and all the internet info I've been trying to absorb this week, it seems like the Chase Sapphire Card seems to be a good choice. It seems it let you use your rewards/points, any way you want. Does anyone have a personal review of this card?

Honestly you sound dead set on something without research. I wish you well. Even if you were to travel on off season times, the ability to find 6 "low" (using Delta terms) is still about the equal to finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. You really need to think beyond the air award.

Any personal reviews of Chase Saphire?

What is the big draw to the Saphire card? Have you looked at airline partners? What about points earned per dollar spent? What are you priorities? You mentioned above you will always stay free dining value hotels at WDW, what are you looking for in these other destinations. For example you mention DC which is my current city. Do you want to visit the outer attractions and hence a hotel out in the burbs or are you looking at hotels near all the tourists sites such as the Smithsonians, White House, etc. Hotels in DC cost big $$$. Finding hotels sub $200 within DC are hard and many are very substandard.

Quit limiting yourself to one card since you seem to want to charge 1.2 Million in inventory per year. I think you need to list a very specific trip and someone here can help you get enough points to do what you want to do for the least points/dollars spent. There is no one credit card that is going to meet all your needs.

To give you some perspective I have:

Corp Amex (~$75 annual fee) since I have to use Corp Amex per company policy. I figure I might as well earn some points for biz travel (approx 50K in Membership Rewards points earned per year)

SPG Amex (~$60 annual fee) I have had this card for years and I love the Starwood hotels for personal travel. They have some great hotels in the US and abroad. My fave reward is to stay at the Westin Times Square. Beautiful hotel right on Broadway and a block from the Subway. This hotel is easily $300 a night, but I can get for 12K per night in points.

American Airlines Citi Visa (free first year AND 75K sign up bonus) I didn't exactly need this card, but the insane sign up bonus made it impossible to resist. I am now charging most of my daily personal purchases to this card because I am trying to top up my account for enough for a very specific award (two F class BA tix to Europe). AA belongs to a separate airline alliance, One World, than my primary alliance, which is the Star Alliance. Having a nice balance in two alliances makes award travel that much easier.

There are three major airline alliances: Star Alliance, One World and Sky Team. I suggest you research all the alliances, there partners, routings and typical award availability before getting a card specific to an airline within an alliance.

Citi AAdvanta

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Honestly you sound dead set on something without research. I wish you well. Even if you were to travel on off season times, the ability to find 6 "low" (using Delta terms) is still about the equal to finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. You really need to think beyond the air award.
What is the big draw to the Saphire card? Have you looked at airline partners? What about points earned per dollar spent? What are you priorities? You mentioned above you will always stay free dining value hotels at WDW, what are you looking for in these other destinations. For example you mention DC which is my current city. Do you want to visit the outer attractions and hence a hotel out in the burbs or are you looking at hotels near all the tourists sites such as the Smithsonians, White House, etc. Hotels in DC cost big $$$. Finding hotels sub $200 within DC are hard and many are very substandard.

Quit limiting yourself to one card since you seem to want to charge 1.2 Million in inventory per year. I think you need to list a very specific trip and someone here can help you get enough points to do what you want to do for the least points/dollars spent. There is no one credit card that is going to meet all your needs.

To give you some perspective I have:

Corp Amex (~$75 annual fee) since I have to use Corp Amex per company policy. I figure I might as well earn some points for biz travel (approx 50K in Membership Rewards points earned per year)

SPG Amex (~$60 annual fee) I have had this card for years and I love the Starwood hotels for personal travel. They have some great hotels in the US and abroad. My fave reward is to stay at the Westin Times Square. Beautiful hotel right on Broadway and a block from the Subway. This hotel is easily $300 a night, but I can get for 12K per night in points.

American Airlines Citi Visa (free first year AND 75K sign up bonus) I didn't exactly need this card, but the insane sign up bonus made it impossible to resist. I am now charging most of my daily personal purchases to this card because I am trying to top up my account for enough for a very specific award (two F class BA tix to Europe). AA belongs to a separate airline alliance, One World, than my primary alliance, which is the Star Alliance. Having a nice balance in two alliances makes award travel that much easier.

There are three major airline alliances: Star Alliance, One World and Sky Team. I suggest you research all the alliances, there partners, routings and typical award availability before getting a card specific to an airline within an alliance.

Citi AAdvanta

I'm not dead set on anything, yet. I have been reseaching this subject all week and the Chase Sapphire Card keeps coming up with good reviews. I just wanted to see if anyone on here at a personal review of the card.

The biggest expense for us, when we travel, is air fare. I've never had a hard time finding cheap hotels on Travelocity or Expedia, that's why I'm really interested in finding cheap air fare options. When we travel somwhere, we are just basically sleeping and showering at the hotel, somewhere clean,safe and relatively close to attractions is usually the only requirement when we travel as a family.

For example, we really want to do the NCL cruise around the Hawaiian Islands. The cruise is only about $5,900.00 for all 6 of us for 7 days. The air fare alone is about $4,200.00. If I could get free, or close to free, air fare for that trip, that would be great.

 

[prncess674]

Based on your low requirements, I would just start researching cards with the cash back option. Use the cash back option to buy tickets. The ability to find 6 award seats (especially Hawaii) is crazy ridiculous. Hawaii is one of the hardest awards in the system. Once again, lets say you are crazy lucky and were able to get 2 low, 2 medium and 2 high all on the same flight via Delta. That alone would cost you almost 400K in airmiles. You would also be subject to the ridiculous flights that have award availability which may or may not line up with your cruise.

400K in awards would mean 400K in dollar spend

OR

you could get a credit card that gives you a minimum of 1% cash back and earn 2% on many purchases. You mention 4200 airfare. You would need 420K dollar spend and you wouldn't be restricted to airlines, airline award charts or any other ridiculous airline rules. You could book dates, times and airlines that suit your needs.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Any personal reviews of Chase Saphire?

I absolutely LOVE my Chase Saphire credit card. This card gives 3 points/dollar spent for all travel. I just got triple points for the Disney tickets that I purchased from Undercover Tourist. I have also gotten triple points for any room reservations, flights, car rental, and dining as well as my timeshare maintenance fees. I think I have gotten no less than $1,800 of free travel since November. I think I have heard the 100,000 point offer for $4,000 spend in 3 months is no longer available online but there might be a workaround. That being said... this is a credit card with high interest rates where you don't want to keep a balance. Also this card has a $450/year charge but you get $300/yr in travel refunds.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/chase-sapphire-reserve-cutting-sign-up-bonus/

 

[MEM]

I'm not dead set on anything, yet. I have been reseaching this subject all week and the Chase Sapphire Card keeps coming up with good reviews. I just wanted to see if anyone on here at a personal review of the card.

The biggest expense for us, when we travel, is air fare. I've never had a hard time finding cheap hotels on Travelocity or Expedia, that's why I'm really interested in finding cheap air fare options. When we travel somwhere, we are just basically sleeping and showering at the hotel, somewhere clean,safe and relatively close to attractions is usually the only requirement when we travel as a family.

For example, we really want to do the NCL cruise around the Hawaiian Islands. The cruise is only about $5,900.00 for all 6 of us for 7 days. The air fare alone is about $4,200.00. If I could get free, or close to free, air fare for that trip, that would be great.

That sounds like a great price for that cruise - are these interior cabins? May I ask where you saw that cruise advertised? You might want to look into the Alaska airlines credit card. That's how I took my family of four adults from Boston to Aulani - with an intentional one day and night stop over in Seattle, both ways. My husband would not be able to handle a 10-11 hour flight. I only paid a few fees, the rest of the flights were covered by points.

 

[Alexle2007]

That sounds like a great price for that cruise - are these interior cabins? May I ask where you saw that cruise advertised? You might want to look into the Alaska airlines credit card. That's how I took my family of four adults from Boston to Aulani - with an intentional one day and night stop over in Seattle, both ways. My husband would not be able to handle a 10-11 hour flight. I only paid a few fees, the rest of the flights were covered by points.

I doubt you are going to find that price now since the post was from 2011.

 

[Princess Minnie321]

Just realized this is from 2011

 

[MEM]

I doubt you are going to find that price now since the post was from 2011.

Thanks for pointing that out! I think threads need expiration dates!!!