Anyone have an airline credit card?

[Kitzka]

Hi everyone:

So, I travel exclusively with Continental (now United) and have never had their airline credit card. I just felt comfortable earning miles from air travel (i use to travel A LOT for work) and hated that there was a fee with the card.

Well, i am now reconsidering getting one of these cards. I know there is still a $95 (!!!) annual fee but for work alone i travel about 3 times a year ($75 in baggage fees) and yes my company will reimburse me for those fees, it just chapps my hide to have to pay it anyway.

We don't charge a lot on our credit card (only use it for hotel stays) but thinking about the savings on baggage fees, it might be worth it. Plus if i travel with DD I also get 1 free companion checked bag.

Does anyone have one with a fee and dropped it because of the fee or wish they didn't have the fee? Here is a list of my travel for this upcoming year:

Jan New orleans, work-won't check bag
Feb-Ft. Myers, Work-will check bag
April-Los Angeles, work-will check bag
July-Chicago, personal- travelling with DH and DD, will probably check 2 bags
Sept denver, work-will check bag

We pay off our cards every month so I am not worried about interest rates but was thinking for the months i put hotel charges on my card, i may as well earn some miles, right?

thoughts? opinions? We currently have a citbank card but it doesn't have any perks but we pay it off every month.

Lara

 

[mnasf]

Since you only have one personal trip and work reimburses your luggage, I wouldn't do it. Also because you don't usually use a credit card. We have more than one airline card, but we use them all the time. I buy groceries, shop, etc. with them so we get a fair amount of miles. But you are right that the annual fee is high unless you really are going to use it. That's my opinion. Of course sometimes you get some nice bonuses the first time you get one which might be worth it for a year.

Hi everyone:

So, I travel exclusively with Continental (now United) and have never had their airline credit card. I just felt comfortable earning miles from air travel (i use to travel A LOT for work) and hated that there was a fee with the card.

Well, i am now reconsidering getting one of these cards. I know there is still a $95 (!!!) annual fee but for work alone i travel about 3 times a year ($75 in baggage fees) and yes my company will reimburse me for those fees, it just chapps my hide to have to pay it anyway.

We don't charge a lot on our credit card (only use it for hotel stays) but thinking about the savings on baggage fees, it might be worth it. Plus if i travel with DD I also get 1 free companion checked bag.

Does anyone have one with a fee and dropped it because of the fee or wish they didn't have the fee? Here is a list of my travel for this upcoming year:

Jan New orleans, work-won't check bag
Feb-Ft. Myers, Work-will check bag
April-Los Angeles, work-will check bag
July-Chicago, personal- travelling with DH and DD, will probably check 2 bags
Sept denver, work-will check bag

We pay off our cards every month so I am not worried about interest rates but was thinking for the months i put hotel charges on my card, i may as well earn some miles, right?

thoughts? opinions? We currently have a citbank card but it doesn't have any perks but we pay it off every month.

Lara

 

[squirrel]

Would your work pay half the annual fee? I would ask, if you travel a fair amount they would save more than that in the baggage fees.

Does the credit card give you free baggage?

I have an Alaska Airmiles CC and it doesn't give me a free bag each flight.

It was worth it for me to get the CC as the annual fee is $75 and I was able to get my niece's flight to Orlando last year for $99. Even when I counted in the annual fee and the taxes and what my ticket was it was about the same amount I normally pay to get to Orlando and ticket prices had gone up quite a bit.

I only charged trip related charges on the card and I now have enough points for my mom and I to fly from Los Angeles to Bellingham (I could have done Vancouver if I wanted) one way. We are going to do a Disney cruise from Vancouver to LA so we only needed the one way flight.

I will cancel the card as I don't need it this year. I will save the $75 annual fee.

 

[bearzabout]

Did you know that United offers a miles credit card for no annual fee? We switched to it years ago in order to keep my miles with them from expiring. I have to have miles posted to my account every 12 months to keep it active. The catch is they only post 1 mile for every 2 dollars spent. I don't use it very often because of this, but I can always switch back to the other card if I want to accumulate more miles with them.

I love my Delta card. Not only do I get a free bag, but they also send a travel certificate good for a companion flight for only $99 plus baggage fees. I just saved $200 by using this.

Doesn't United offer free visits to their airport clubs? Is this perk of value to you? We love using the Delta clubs. The one in Orlando is fabulous.

Delta also moves me up to zone 2 for boarding so I board right after first class.

Delta has a hub nearby my home and I'm so glad. They are so much better than Northwest was.

I use my miles to fly to very expensive destination netting me up to an 8% return. I think the cards are very worth it if you use them wisely.

It may be worth getting a card just for the free introductory miles. You can always cancel it if you find you don't use it enough before the next fee posts. Don't do this if you will need to refinance or get a loan right after you cancel it since the decrease in available credit will affect your credit score.

 

[prncess674]

dup post

 

[prncess674]

I would apply for this Delta AMEX for Dec 19th. 45,000 bonus points with $3000 in spend during the first 3 months and no annual fee for the first year. You can also apply for both a biz and personal card and net 990K. Also your spouse can apply for their own cards and net double points that way.

http://www.deltaamexlimitedtimeoffer.com/Default.aspx

 

[Kitzka]

Thanks everyone. I took a closer look at the united/contintal card and it is worth it to me to at least try the card for a year. it seems that i will get some additional perks like going to the club room, priority boarding and bonus miles for the first year. If i follow everything the first year i could earn 2 flights! and the first year has no annual fee so it will give me a real opportunity to see if this will work for me.

Also, to those who suggested Delta, it doesn't pay for me to fly Delta out of my area airport as they are usually about 20% more per flight as my local airport is a United/Contental hub.

Thanks again

Lara