American Express Membership Rewards - Please help l Best credit card for air-miles?

I want to be able to roll over to many airlines without taking a hit.


Thank You

Welcome to Flyertalk.

American Express Green, Gold, Platinum and Centurion cards participate in Membership Rewards. The Premier Rewards Gold card generates the most points per dollar for most spending patterns. The airline transfer partners are listed here:

http://www.membershiprewards.com/catalog/travel/NewPointsTransfer.aspx?tab=airlines&mrnavlink=topnav:TravelFreqFlyerProg&ResetBreadcrumb=true

Transfers to many partners post instantaneously. This means you can transfer from American Express to the airline while in process of redeeming an award ticket. Note that there are currently bonus offers for transfers to British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

Competing cards to consider are:

Starwood Preferred Guest credit card. The card is issued by American Express, but the rewards program is operated by Starwood and primary discussion is in the SPG (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starwood-preferred-guest-429/)forum. SPG has the most airline transfer partners, and offers a permanent 25% bonus when transferring in blocks of 20,000 Starpoints, but there are very few opportunities to earn extra points and the transfers can be slow.

Chase Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, JP Morgan Select, and JP Morgan Palladium offer transfers to four airlines, four hotel chains and Amtrak. Primary discussion is in the Credit Card Programs (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credit-card-programs-599/)forum.

Diners Club Rewards is also an excellent program, but they are not currently accepting applications for personal card accounts.

Thank you. Very informative, and excellent write up. Should I sign up online or should I sign up over the phone?


Thanks

I suggest you look at this thread before deciding where to apply:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz/1177334-special-credit-card-offers-master-thread.html

To obtain bonus offers advertised online you must apply online, they are seldom valid for telephone or in-branch applications. If you apply online make screen prints to document the terms of the offer.

To obtain bonus offers advertised online you must apply online, they are seldom valid for telephone or in-branch applications. If you apply online make screen prints to document the terms of the offer.

Thank you so much. :)

I'll do that. Thanks :)

I went with one card for simplicity and flexibility, an Amex charge card (Plat in my case).

MR points are the most flexible for me but my biggest one is that they don't expire for any reason. Others have 18mo limits, 1yr, whatever.

You can book with Amex and pay with points, any airline, you can transfer points to miles for a small hit (a fair amount of airline options) etc.

With (for example) an AA Citi card, as far as I can tell, those points are good only for whatever, and only, what AA offers.

Best sign-up offers are online so definitely apply online. Check the referrals thread in this forum as many members can refer you for a good bonus offer (often better than what's available publicly) and they earn a small referral bonus.

I agree with mia -- for most spending patterns, Premier Gold Rewards Amex is the most lucrative as it has bonus points categories (3x points on airfare and 2x on gas and some others). Platinum has the best travel-related benefits, but not so great for amassing points (plus, hefty annual fee).

I'll start researching and reading everything posted.



Thanks