Credit cards with airline miles-worth it?

[mom2boys]

I have a million questions about airline mileage credit cards:

Are the credit cards with airline miles worthwhile?
Do you actually earn enough points for airline tickets?
Are there so many restrictions that it's pointless?
Can I get one without an annual fee?
Which ones are better than others?
How much $ do I typically have to spend to get enough points for a $300 flight?
Anything specific I should be looking for?
What should I avoid?
. . .

 

[Cat0727]

I have the American Express Delta SkyMiles card and it's very good. No annual fee. You get a mile for every dollar you spend plus miles when you fly Delta. A roundtrip flight to Florida last November cost me 25,000 miles. These were miles I started accumulating since 2005 which included flying to Italy and Orlando so you can see they don't expire right away.

 

[RUDisney]

I have a million questions about airline mileage credit cards:

Are the credit cards with airline miles worthwhile?
Do you actually earn enough points for airline tickets?
Are there so many restrictions that it's pointless?
Can I get one without an annual fee?
Which ones are better than others?
How much $ do I typically have to spend to get enough points for a $300 flight?
Anything specific I should be looking for?
What should I avoid?
. . .

I have an American Airlines visa through Citibank. It has a $50 per year fee upon which they won't budge.

I have gone on several trips since we got this card in 1994. We charged a great deal of our wedding and honeymoon on it, so we were off to a great start in getting miles.

The only time I've had to forego the seats that I wanted was when we went to Punta Cana 2 years ago. I booked it late and I could only get business class with my points and I didn't have enough for 4 tickets. I bought my kids' tickets and because we booked so late, business class was only $100 more per ticket than coach, so I bumped my kids up so they could sit with us instead of sitting apart in coach (as in them sitting apart since the seats were mostly taken.)

Other than that, I'm pretty flexible about travel, so we've never had a problem with blackouts.

It will take between 25,000 - 30,000 points to travel in coach within the US. Since it's 1 point per dollar spent, that would mean that you'd be spending that much to get a $300 ticket.

Almost a year ago, my brother got me to take out a Hilton Honors American Express. There is no fee and you get tons of points for every dollar spent, depending on the location where you are spending. For example, grocery store purchases get 6 points per dollar spent. If you go to a department store, you get 3 points per dollar.

My brother is a diamond status. I am at gold status. He uses his points every other year to fly his family of 4 to Hawaii and they stay at the Hilton Waikiki for free. I don't know if he also uses points for his rental car.

We both use our cards for everything. We'd buy girl scout cookies with them if we could. We pay off the balance each month.

If you look into the HH Amex, let me know so I can refer you. I get extra points for referrals. In the time I've had this card, I've acquired almost 200,000 points.

 

[Rumpus]

Look at each credit card and see what they offer. I have Delta Sky Miles. I have had it for years and we have taken family trips to places that we wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise. They no longer offer double miles on the items that they did but there are plenty of opportunities to earn extra miles in other ways. If I order anything on line, I can usually find a merchant that lists with them and by going through Skymiles link, can earn up to five miles per dollar. Yes I have to pay $125 per year for those miles, but in return I get a free companion ticket that we do use which pays for that fee and then some. I also do not have to pay baggage check fees and often get upgraded to first class when there is availability. At this point, I am 250K away from two business class tickets with 15 stops around the entire world for over a month. Will I spend them on that, probably not but that's a lot of free flights.
One has to be focused and disciplined to take advantage of earning free flights this way. ALWAYS pay off your credit card every month, no matter what. Don't think of it as credit. Think of it as your check book that you have to keep balanced.
Use it for everything. McDonalds, groceries, a cup of coffee at the drive up window. Anyone who takes Amex gets my card.
Focus on using one card. If you have another points earning card use that one for businesses that Amex doesn't take. I don't save those points for miles, I cash them in for $$$.
Use it to pay monthly bills. I signed up with an electric provider that gives me one mile for every dollar I spend on electricity. Thats an easy 5000 miles per year. Pay your cable bills and phone bills with the card. I signed up for automatic billing for extra bonus points. E-awards is another way to earn miles. Take polls and surveys on line, earn between fifty cents and $5. and when you have a $100 (not real money) buy 1000 miles. Check out Dining programs. Some restaurants want publicity and advertising and they will sign up for I-Dine. You can earn up to 10 miles per dollar spent.
I have World Points Visa for my other card. Watch this card if you have it. Those points expire after five years. I check every six months to see if I have any miles about to expire. If so, I cash them in. I learned the hard way on that after I lost $75. Delta Skymiles "miles" never expire as long as you maintain your card in good standing.

 

[goodeats]

I'll give you my experience, but I'm no expert. We've had the United Airlines Miles Visa since 2004. It has an annual fee of $60, but the first few years DH's work reimbursed us for $50 of it. We try to put almost all of our expenses on the card - from gas and groceries to cable and cell bill to one time large purchases. We accrue a mile per dollar, and generally a domestic ticket costs 25,000 miles. There are special ways to accrue miles (like dining, or spending at certain retailers), but I don't pay too much attention to that. In the 7 years we've had the card we've flown 'free' to Maui, Ireland, Denver, Vancouver (3 tickets including DD), and I had one ticket to Orlando. Plus right now have enough for 3 domestic tickets still. I've never had a hard time using the miles, but I am a planner. For Maui and Ireland I booked those the earliest I could (like 11 months). Sometimes the flights aren't super desirable (for Vancouver we have to change planes in Denver) , but we still get there!

I've looked at the Disney card, and for us we feel the flights make more sense at least right now. With any rewards cards it makes the most sense to pick one and stick with it! Also, a lot of them have bonus miles for signing up. You can shop around for them. Depending on where you live you'd probably do best picking an airline that has a 'hub' near you (like if you're in Denver I'd choose UA).

We do live in a HCOL area, so our monthly expenses might be higher than most. Lately our bills have averaged $3K a month , but we pay it off every month and have never paid finance charges (save for the time I used the card just to get travellers checks for the miles which counted as a cash advance - lesson learned).

Good luck!

 

[U2_rocks!]

It depends on many things, like what other reward cards are available to you, how much you'll use the card (and therefore how mnay miles you'll earn) etc.

We have an American Airlines Gold Mastercard with a $90 fee and a high limit. It's the best thing for us for a few reasons:
- we would have a card anyway, and we don't have access to any "no-fee" cards
- AA is the airline that services our airport the most, so it's the one we use a lot
- we put everything possible on our card and then pay it off in full every month, so we earn a lot of airmiles

DH's business also has an AA business card that they use to charge major equipment etc. Last month alone we earned about 18,000 miles from the 2 cards. That's a one-way ticket to practically anywhere we'd want to travel to (we wouldn't use AA for Europe or anywhere further - we use it to travel from Caribbean to US or Canada) - and that's just ONE MONTH'S activity! Not all months are that high, but most are at least 15K. Last year we earned well over a 100K in miles and redeemed 170K for travel. We still have 105k left right now.

 

[Rumpus]

I'll give you my experience, but I'm no expert. We've had the United Airlines Miles Visa since 2004. It has an annual fee of $60, but the first few years DH's work reimbursed us for $50 of it. We try to put almost all of our expenses on the card - from gas and groceries to cable and cell bill to one time large purchases. We accrue a mile per dollar, and generally a domestic ticket costs 25,000 miles. There are special ways to accrue miles (like dining, or spending at certain retailers), but I don't pay too much attention to that. In the 7 years we've had the card we've flown 'free' to Maui, Ireland, Denver, Vancouver (3 tickets including DD), and I had one ticket to Orlando. Plus right now have enough for 3 domestic tickets still. I've never had a hard time using the miles, but I am a planner. For Maui and Ireland I booked those the earliest I could (like 11 months). Sometimes the flights aren't super desirable (for Vancouver we have to change planes in Denver) , but we still get there!

I've looked at the Disney card, and for us we feel the flights make more sense at least right now. With any rewards cards it makes the most sense to pick one and stick with it! Also, a lot of them have bonus miles for signing up. You can shop around for them. Depending on where you live you'd probably do best picking an airline that has a 'hub' near you (like if you're in Denver I'd choose UA).

We do live in a HCOL area, so our monthly expenses might be higher than most. Lately our bills have averaged $3K a month , but we pay it off every month and have never paid finance charges (save for the time I used the card just to get travellers checks for the miles which counted as a cash advance - lesson learned).

Good luck!

I just recently discovered that Amex doesn't count their travelers checks as a cash advance but a purchase. At least that is what the rep. told me. You are limited to $1000 per month however and their may be a 2% fee. Still, if you are short miles, that is a quick way to purchase 1000 miles for $20.

 

[snykymom]

I have the Amex Blue card and the Capital One card, both of which give miles. I've never booked a flight with the miles, but I've used the points to reimburse for travel expenses. Amex is $100 credit for 7500 points, and Capital One is $150 credit for 15,000 points.

Am I losing by using the points for credits? Are the points worth more if you use them to book the flight directly?

 

[bettymae1121]

I have United Milage Plus visa. 1 mile for every $1 spent, you get a free domestic (lower 48) ticket for 25k miles, or a 1st class upgrade for 35k (you buy the coach ticket with cash and then use the miles to bump up to 1st). Since I fly for free most of the time due to my job (travel agent) I use the miles to upgrade. Unfortunately UA has started to charge for mileage upgrades (I have to use miles and still pay a fee ), and since I don't need the miles for free tickets, I'm thinking of switching to a hotel points card in the next year or two. I have enough miles banked (100k+) to "coast" for a while with those, and for the hotels we like to stay at, free stays would save us more money than free airfare for most trips.

I think you get the most "bang" for your buck by sticking with the airline milage cards, rather than airline points cards. When you earn miles, it's X miles regardless of the cost of the ticket, where with points the number of points often depends on the cost of the ticket (the higher the fare the more points it takes). But, then you're locked in to one airline and the often limited availability of mileage seats. So, the ticket often costs you less (in terms of miles/points) but your selection of flights/destinations is more limited. I live near O'Hare which is UA's hub, so that doesn't make much difference to me as I can fly just about anywhere, anytime. But if you live in a smaller market it could be a problem for you.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

I don't care for airline miles cards, the programs change often enough that the value of the points/miles continues to drop.

I have an AMEX card and I find their points program is much more flexible in benefit.

 

[Pakey]

Since I get all of my airline miles free from work (my husband and I have not had to pay for domestic airfare for years now), I have a Capitol One card.

No fee. Miles are earned 1 mile for every $1 spent. I've used it a few times for airfare for friends but mostly I use it because I can pay my DVC annual dues with it. My dues are $2000 and I usually can pay with rewards every other year.