Best credit card for air miles for international travel??

[elaine amj]

Double post

 

[elaine amj]

I think my mind just exploded. Wow, this is incredible. I am also going to Scotland this summer (conference, so dates only flexible by a few days.) we are planing on taking all 3 of our kids, so airfare is about $7500-8000! Have been reading all of the points blogs but still cannot come up with the best solution. I have 50+k UR points in my Bold account, and DH has about 17k points in his sapphire account. I need to call and see if we can combine our points. Even if we can, it's still not enough for one flight. Should I open, say a united card, get the 30k bonus, then transfer UR points to united? Not even sure if that will be enough. Any other thoughts? If I can just get 1 flights significantly discounted, I would be ecstatic.

It only cost me 60,000 Delta sky miles to get to London. I have heard United and AA have much better cheap coach availabilities and I believe ppl often get tickets as low as 30-40k miles. That said summer is peak season. Still your 50k UR miles should take u a long way. You should get at least one if not 2 tickets through air miles. That should help a lot.

Before u figure out what next, stop and take a look at which airline Chase UR transfers to. Then figure out which airline u prefer. Price out how many miles each will take and figure out if their schedules work for u. Then u will know which program u need miles for and can get the appropriate credit card. Consider applying for both the personal and the business cards at the same time.

Good luck! My trip is in a month and I am still figuring oUT accommodations. Chains are horrible in Europe. Just abt given up on using my points.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Thank you SO MUCH to so many of you for taking the time to give such great information. I'll have to take some time this weekend and work out what I think might be best for us. I hate to get locked into one particular airline, since I will definitely be shopping price... and DD may need airmiles for a research project trip this summer AND a semester abroad in the next 18 months.... so I need to keep my options open!

Again, THANKS.............P

Keep in mind that most airlines belong to alliances, which would allow you to use miles earned on one airline's card on the other airline's flights. You aren't locked into flying on only one airline.