Trip to Italy, what credit cards to open for miles
Aug 20, 2012, 6:06 pm
#16
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 757
You need to learn about redemption availability. That may spur you into apply sooner or differently. You and your wife could each apply for CSP, which just today lowered the required spend to $2K (per card), which would be easier to meet than Ink Bold. Combine your freedom plus you and your wife's CSP's and you have 120K, enough for 2 tix on united if there is availability.
CSP is a handy card for you since it has no foreign exchange fees, which can be 3% on other cards. You may also consider getting the united explorer card, which would net 55K if you follow the methods described in the thread. Its another Chase card, they have all the best offers so try to be strategic in picking.
Take a look here for links to the threads discussing various cards:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...er-thread.html
CSP is a handy card for you since it has no foreign exchange fees, which can be 3% on other cards. You may also consider getting the united explorer card, which would net 55K if you follow the methods described in the thread. Its another Chase card, they have all the best offers so try to be strategic in picking.
Take a look here for links to the threads discussing various cards:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...er-thread.html
Aug 20, 2012, 6:53 pm
#17
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 74
This was the point of my post. Can you explain more on this and how it works be a better option
Aug 20, 2012, 7:09 pm
#18
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow
Programs: Airline Free Agent, Bonvoy Platinum, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 3,811
It's not a bad idea doing a churn if you have no loans/mortgages in the near future. This also depends on your recent credit history and score...
Aug 20, 2012, 7:48 pm
#20
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 425
On American, you need 80k miles and $95 for two round trip coach seats to Italy. The best offer is currently 50k miles for $3,000 in 4 months, however, one person can sign up for two cards at the same time using the Two Browser trick.
Read this thread about Citi AA cards.
AA will get you there for less money out of pocket and fewer miles. Availability in April is decent if you don't mind traveling on Tues, Wed, or Thurs. But you would need to spend $6,000 in 4 months on two AA cards, instead of $4,000 on two Sapphire Preferred cards. Both methods will work.
Read this thread about Citi AA cards.
AA will get you there for less money out of pocket and fewer miles. Availability in April is decent if you don't mind traveling on Tues, Wed, or Thurs. But you would need to spend $6,000 in 4 months on two AA cards, instead of $4,000 on two Sapphire Preferred cards. Both methods will work.
Aug 20, 2012, 7:58 pm
#21
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 74
Thanks again for that info. So where do I go to see what flights are available and how many points it will cost? Also, when I click the link to apply for the card I don't see where it says what exactly the promotion is.....
I'm sorry to be such a noob, but this credit card churning and mileage stuff gets complicated!
I'm sorry to be such a noob, but this credit card churning and mileage stuff gets complicated!
Aug 20, 2012, 8:31 pm
#22
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 425
Here is an AA award chart. You need to sign up for a free AAdvantage account and search for availability to see what is available and how much the taxes are. There is a box you can check to search AA only to avoid seeing the BA flights with huge fuel charges.
Same with United, sign up for a free account and do a search. Here is an interactive awards chart for UA.
Many of the links on Flyertalk take you to superior offers from which the landing page (explaining the details of the promotion) has already been taken down. These links may continue to work for up to a year, and you will find many testimonies in the corresponding thread from people who took the leap of faith, applied, and had the offer verified upon activation of the card.
Same with United, sign up for a free account and do a search. Here is an interactive awards chart for UA.
Many of the links on Flyertalk take you to superior offers from which the landing page (explaining the details of the promotion) has already been taken down. These links may continue to work for up to a year, and you will find many testimonies in the corresponding thread from people who took the leap of faith, applied, and had the offer verified upon activation of the card.
Aug 20, 2012, 8:40 pm
#23
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 609
Below is a link for AA redemption charts - pay attention to peak/off-peak time periods specified at the bottom.
http://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/f...ward-chart.jsp
Both AA and UA are valuable mileage programs and offer a wide range of redemption options. If you can afford meeting CC spend requirements, going for either one or both would serve you well (for this trip and future trips). I tend to recommend UA miles for trips to Asia (and if you are up to it you can route thru Europe for a free stopover in Europe); using AA miles to Europe in off-peak at a reduced cost is wonderful (and you can add-on a free stopover at the north American gateway city).
Aug 20, 2012, 8:42 pm
#24
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow
Programs: Airline Free Agent, Bonvoy Platinum, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 3,811
Thanks again for that info. So where do I go to see what flights are available and how many points it will cost? Also, when I click the link to apply for the card I don't see where it says what exactly the promotion is.....
I'm sorry to be such a noob, but this credit card churning and mileage stuff gets complicated!
I'm sorry to be such a noob, but this credit card churning and mileage stuff gets complicated!
Aug 20, 2012, 9:00 pm
#25
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 74
All of this information has been invaluable. So it looks like in off-peak seasons flights to Europe for first class are only 125,000 points. That's wonderful. Maybe I will do the two AA cards instead of the Ink card I was planning on getting. From what you guys have told me it seems like AA is the best for the points.
Aug 20, 2012, 9:23 pm
#27
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,573
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
There is no "peak" or "off-peak" for AA Business Class and First Class awards; only for Coach awards.
A First Class MileSAAver award between North America and Europe costs 62,500 miles each way year round. However, First Class is only offered on some AA TATL flights, and most BA TATL flights (which will have high fuel surcharges). There is no First Class cabin at all on partner carriers Air Berlin, Finnair, or Iberia: only Business Class and Coach. (And Air Berlin only offers Business Class on their long-haul flights.)
Finding two Business Class or First Class award seats on the same TATL AA flight can be challenging. Not necessarily impossible, but challenging.
Keep in mind that both AA and UA offer one-way awards. So you might find yourself using UA miles for the outbound trip, and AA miles for the return (or vice versa).
Originally Posted by c3troop
All of this information has been invaluable. So it looks like in off-peak seasons flights to Europe for first class are only 125,000 points. That's wonderful. Maybe I will do the two AA cards instead of the Ink card I was planning on getting. From what you guys have told me it seems like AA is the best for the points.
A First Class MileSAAver award between North America and Europe costs 62,500 miles each way year round. However, First Class is only offered on some AA TATL flights, and most BA TATL flights (which will have high fuel surcharges). There is no First Class cabin at all on partner carriers Air Berlin, Finnair, or Iberia: only Business Class and Coach. (And Air Berlin only offers Business Class on their long-haul flights.)
Finding two Business Class or First Class award seats on the same TATL AA flight can be challenging. Not necessarily impossible, but challenging.
Keep in mind that both AA and UA offer one-way awards. So you might find yourself using UA miles for the outbound trip, and AA miles for the return (or vice versa).
Aug 21, 2012, 9:32 am
#28
Join Date: May 2008
Location: PHL (kinda, no airport is really close)
Programs: AA Exp, but not sure for how long. Enterprise Platinum woo-hoo!
Posts: 4,550
Let me see if I can summarize some information here and maybe offer some advice.
The original information you got from Chase was for using your points as quasi-cash, 1.25 cents per point. That is rarely the best deal for using points.
It is not possible to accurately predict what flights will be available when you actually go to book. Availability also changes, it usually decreases as you get closer to the travel dates, but sometimes it opens up.
First class flights are nice but often quite hard to book with points. Business class is very doable if you have some flexibility on dates. Also, some combinations of what airline you have the points on and redeem on can have very high "fuel surcharges."
Many people, myself included, sign up for a variety of cards and meet the mininum spend on each. There's no reason not to get cards in your spouse's name also. Some of the most common options are:
Citi AAdvantage cards, you can get both an Amex and Visa, 50K miles each with $3K spend in 4 months, but you have to use the right link.
Chase United Mileage Plus, 55K if you add an authorized user, but you have to have a Mileage Plus account with at least one mile in it and log into your United account and follow the application links from there. No spend requirement, in fact $100 statement credit first time you use the card.
Chase Sapphire Preferred, 40K points with $3K spend in 3 months.
Chase Ink Bold, business card, I'm not that familiar with it.
I'll also add the Chase Hyatt card, $75 fee is not waived the first year, but certificate good for two nights at any Hyatt. In theory not capacity controlled, but in practice you may have to jump through some hoops, but this is a great deal for two nights at the Park Hyatt Rome or Milan.
If you were to apply for all these cards, you'd have potentially 100K miles for each of you on both United (counting transfer from Ultimate Rewards) and American. It sounds like you can meet the spend requirements, and then you would have several options for your trip to Italy in business class, and another trip later on.
The downsides are:
a) It's a bit of bookkeeping to get all the cards and meet the spending requirements.
b) No guarantee flights will be available on your dates.
c) Possibly some effort to keep the accounts active, as miles will expire. (Best trick I know of is, sign up for the "rewards dining" programs associated with each, and go buy a soda at a participating restaurant once a year. This is also a way to get a few miles into your United account.)
The hit to your credit score is not significant.
The original information you got from Chase was for using your points as quasi-cash, 1.25 cents per point. That is rarely the best deal for using points.
It is not possible to accurately predict what flights will be available when you actually go to book. Availability also changes, it usually decreases as you get closer to the travel dates, but sometimes it opens up.
First class flights are nice but often quite hard to book with points. Business class is very doable if you have some flexibility on dates. Also, some combinations of what airline you have the points on and redeem on can have very high "fuel surcharges."
Many people, myself included, sign up for a variety of cards and meet the mininum spend on each. There's no reason not to get cards in your spouse's name also. Some of the most common options are:
Citi AAdvantage cards, you can get both an Amex and Visa, 50K miles each with $3K spend in 4 months, but you have to use the right link.
Chase United Mileage Plus, 55K if you add an authorized user, but you have to have a Mileage Plus account with at least one mile in it and log into your United account and follow the application links from there. No spend requirement, in fact $100 statement credit first time you use the card.
Chase Sapphire Preferred, 40K points with $3K spend in 3 months.
Chase Ink Bold, business card, I'm not that familiar with it.
I'll also add the Chase Hyatt card, $75 fee is not waived the first year, but certificate good for two nights at any Hyatt. In theory not capacity controlled, but in practice you may have to jump through some hoops, but this is a great deal for two nights at the Park Hyatt Rome or Milan.
If you were to apply for all these cards, you'd have potentially 100K miles for each of you on both United (counting transfer from Ultimate Rewards) and American. It sounds like you can meet the spend requirements, and then you would have several options for your trip to Italy in business class, and another trip later on.
The downsides are:
a) It's a bit of bookkeeping to get all the cards and meet the spending requirements.
b) No guarantee flights will be available on your dates.
c) Possibly some effort to keep the accounts active, as miles will expire. (Best trick I know of is, sign up for the "rewards dining" programs associated with each, and go buy a soda at a participating restaurant once a year. This is also a way to get a few miles into your United account.)
The hit to your credit score is not significant.
Aug 22, 2012, 12:32 pm
#29
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: IAH
Programs: CO, AA, UA
Posts: 88
I also live in Houston and just got back from Italy using points. Basically my whole trip was paid for by points. I used United miles to fly business class on Lufthansa. It was 100,000 miles per person and it was well worth it. Trust me, if you can fly business class over coach to Italy, you'll marriage will be alot better by the time you get there. Also, it seems to be the quickest way to get to Italy from Houston. If you fly American, you'll most likely have to go through Dallas or Miami and on from there. When I booked my trip, I also had AA miles but the flight options just weren't as good as you can get through United and it's partners. Also, I used Hilton points to stay all throughout Italy...from Rome, Florence, Milan, etc. So I would suggest you get a CSP or the United card and go from there. Then concentrate on hotel points...Hilton, SPG, etc. They seemed to have the most hotel options...good luck!