Best credit card for airline miles

[zoot]

Now that we are a family of four, I'm considering transferring to a credit card that offers airline perks.

Which card would be the best for this?

Thanks!

 

[a742246]

I use the southwest card. Right now you will get 50,000 points if you spend 2,000 dollars in the first 3 months. There is an annual fee of $99.00. But each anniversary date you will get 6,000 points. Go check it out www.sonthwest.com

 

[zoot]

Thank you-I'm new to the whole points system-is 50,000 points considered alot? How many points gets you one ticket (coach class, on average)

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

The points depend on the price of the ticket when you purchase. In Aug I bought 2 r/t tickets for Sept and used 25,000 points.

Right now if you get both the Plus and Premium SWA CC you and spend $4000 in the first 3 months you will be just 6000 points shy of getting the companion pass status. With that status every time I book a flight my DH fly's free for the remainder of this year and all of 2016!

To be awarded the companion pass you must earn 110K in points in the calendar year.


Don't forget you can earn 2x or 3X the amount of points on purchases made on the SWA Rapid Reward shopping site. A few weeks ago I paid $5 for a Wall Street Journal subscription and got 1300 SWA points.

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

Depends on which airline you use most or the one that you have access to that flys to the places you need to go to.

Barclays has a great card that you can use for any airline with a great sign up bonus as does Capital One Venture. Chase Sapphire Preferred has the ability to use the points for multiple airlines and hotels and has great offers as well.

JetBlue has a 20,000 sign up bonus but they're changing their card soon (I just got an email to take part in a survey regarding what their new card might entail). So not sure if it's a good one unless you do fly JetBlue.

The Southwest one is great if you enjoy flying Southwest. Some people don't with families because of their open seating. But others do because of the cost and free bags.

Of course just about any airline has their own card and have great perks if you fly them exclusively i.e. Delta, United, American Airlines etc.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

I would first look into the card for the airline you are most likely to fly--we've found that is the best choice if you fly one airline most of the time rather than a card that allows you to use the points on a variety of airlines. Easy choice for us being in Houston since we almost always fly United out of Houston. The card allows a free checked bag when you pay for ticket with that card, two club passes each year, maybe some other benefits. Put EVERYTHING we possibly could on it for a while and then cashed in the points for 2 first-class tickets to Europe.

 

[Melany502]

I got 50k x 2 from Southwest.

I have a Chase Ink now and have gotten 70k as a sign on bonus and the earning is much better than the SW card so I cancelled those.

 

[puffkin]

I got 50k x 2 from Southwest.

I have a Chase Ink now and have gotten 70k as a sign on bonus and the earning is much better than the SW card so I cancelled those.

For the Chase Ink, are the 70k points usable on Southwest?

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

For the Chase Ink, are the 70k points usable on Southwest?

Why not check out the credit card website?

https://creditcards.chase.com/ink-business-credit-cards/ink-plus-card?IM4R=Y538C4

 

[kathy884]

Southwest has the most flights out of our airport, and I love the SW credit card. It's really great for racking up the freebie trips. If you have a good flight schedule out of your airport on Southwest and can fly them lots of places, this would be a great card!

For a points examples:

A one way flight from St. Louis to Newark costs about $120 or about 7,000 points.

A one way flight from St. Louis to Orlando costs about $160 and is about 9,600 points.

Just double these for roundtrip fares and points.

 

[luvdisney87]

We have a Delta American Express card. I went with Delta because that's what we fly usually. We get free checked bags and priority seating. You can purchase a companion certificate for $99 or if you upgrade you get one free companion certificate per year. You can earn miles through Skymiles Shopping. The only downside of AE is it's not accepted at some places.

 

[MillauFr]

I used to have a Delta credit card and an Alaska credit card. I don't use either anymore because they made it too hard to redeem your miles. I think it is a better deal to get one of the cash back credit cards that gives you a 2% rebate. The airline cards are only a good deal if you are cashing them in for international first and business class tickets.