davidhawk

Greetings everyone,

Doing alot of research for an upcomming 6 - 12 month duration of travel has led me to these forums in order to understand, and get better acquainted, with the idea of building mileage points for flights. My simple questions is: Since I'm leaving in 2 months, do I have time to benefit from signing up for a card or two?

I'd imagine it would be worth having a card to atleast get points for the actual flights I'm taking, but most of the cards I've seen have you pay off a certain amount in the first 3 - 6 months in order to get a sign up bonus.

My main airport is SFO, and in October I will be flying to Kathmandu Nepal, then from India to Thailand, and eventually back home to SFO. Most of my traveling has and will be to central / south america or south / southeast asia.

Is there a good card to get points from these flights I'll be taking, and help me start building for discounted future flights?

Thanks for your time,
I'm really enjoying these forums and the whole philosophy behind it. Cheers!

deant

Which airlines have you, and will you, be flying? Do you have miles in any programs? Will you be buying you tickets yourself?

Typo corrected.

davidhawk

Not sure what you mean by 'which airlines wave you'. I will be flying from SFO to Nepal, flying India to Thailand, then flying back to SFO.

I'm brand new to miles programs and currently am not signed up for anything. I flew to Peru last year but missed out on any points as I wasn't aware of these programs.

I plan to purchase a one way ticket for my flights with a credit card.

raghu455

2 months is too short to learn all about applying for cards, meeting spend requirements and actually using the miles. What is your credit score? Do you have any plans of buying a house in next 6months? There are 2 parts to miles
1) earning them. This is the easy part. But with just 2 months the part 2 will dictate which cards you need right away.
2) Using them. This is most difficult part. Knowing which miles to use for which flights and avoiding fuel surcharges are the most difficult part of the equation.

Having said this, miles and points are always going to be available to american residents. So this trip you can focus on seeing if you have affordable flights that you can pay for and bank the miles. While you get knowledge through flyertalk and various blogs you can ensure all future trips are done with miles and points

deant

Also, think about what airlines you will be flying in the future. Do a search on "airline alliance" and you will see the various alliances. If you are taking more than one flight on an "alliance" make sure you post all of your miles to one airline - not necessarily the airline you are flying. Key is to keep all your miles in as few programs as possible.

Earning miles is not an easy task. To be efficient, it takes a lot of study and work (and logic).

StartinSanDiego

I think the typo should read "which airlines have you flown?" The w should have been an H.
That said, well, I think you could get some of the easier to use cards, which will hopefully complement the airline alliance that you will be traveling on for your upcoming trip. The easiest card to "meet spend" on is a card with a first purchase bonus. I know the US Airways card comes to mind, and I believe that there is a Hilton card, too. Often, it takes a complete billing cycle to see the points post to your airline miles accounts, but this is not always the case.

The American Express cards have a tendency to post the same day that the spend requirement is met, but this is not a hard and fast rule.

If I were you, I'd get a good card that would suit your needs, and one that has no foreign transaction fee. And/or a card that offers bonus points for travel expenditures. Then you can maximize the spending that you will incur on your journey.

Good luck, and welcome to flyertalk and the miles and points world.

bigshooter

You mentioned that you were concerned with cards that required you to pay off a certain amount in the first 3-6 months. If you mean spend a certain amount then yes this is normal. If you are looking to spend a certain amount and not pay it off for a while then you should not worry about points and should look for the lowest possible interest rate instead. Most of the points cards are not going to give you a low interest rate long term.

davidhawk

So after more research and seeing what options are out there I think I've narrowed down what I'm looking for and could use a little feedback. Since I only have 2 months until departure, and will be trying to spend as little as possible in this time period, here's what I'm looking for in a card:

- No Foreign Transaction Fee is a must
- A signup bonus with $1,000 - $2,000 spent in first 2-3 months.
- Rates don't matter as I always pay my cards in full.
- Ideally mileage wouldn't expire, and I could use it for any aireline.

The card I'm currently looking at is Capitalone VentureOne card with 20,000 points for $1,000 in 3 months, no annual fee, and no foreign transaction fee. I think I've ruled out the other Capitalone Venture card with higher signup bonus, because I wont meet the amount in 3 months, thus not getting the signup miles. I will be using this card as my primary credit card while traveling for 6 months to a year, so I'm really just looking to build some miles on purchases, and not pay foreign transaction fees. Thoughts?

biggestbopper

IMHO, Cap1 is way up there as worst possible choice. Reason, aside from historic ripoff nature of Cap1 (look up their half billion dollar settlement of various consumer ripoffs they committed), is that Cap1 miles are not really airline miles which can be traded directly for flights but are pseudo miles which can only be used to buy tickets, I believe through the Cap1 agency.

The airline miles are very valuable. Cap1 miles way, way less.

Suggestion: get a UAL card from Chase with the current 50K bonus offer (expires Sept 2) and a Citi AA card with 50k bonus. Might also take a look at Chase Sapphire Preferred for a no forex charge card.

PS Your idea of miles are better if can be used on any airline is, IMHO, wrong. Valuable airline miles such as AA and UAL can be used on many other airlines (not all) due to alliances with partner airlines. Thus, AA miles can be used on JAL, etc.

davidhawk

Thanks for the awesome reply. I didn't realize how bad that capitalone program was until now, and that's great to hear about how the partner airlines of AA and UL allow much more options.

I took your advice after some more research and was approved for the current UAL Explorer card offering the 50k bonus. This shouldn't be an issue for me to meet before leaving for my trip and seems like a great way to bank some good miles that I could use during the trip or for my return flight back.

I'm hoping to sign up for one more card before leaving in mid October and wondered if you would suggest that Chase Sapphire for a card to use as you travel. I was thinking about that one or the Barclay Arrival +, but am a little worried with both of there $3k spending req. as the countries I will be going to wont have credit as an option all the time. That AA citi card looks great as well but again a little concerned with the 3k while traveling. I'm hoping to be budgeting under $30 a day. Any other worthwhile card with a $2k spending req?

nwflyboy

The nature of your questions (and some of your plans) suggest to me that you dont really understand this game very well. I would suggest you take a stap back, take a deep breath, and simply learn a bit more before you make choices that you will later regret.

That said, nothing wrong with your new UA Explorer card. Use it now, just be very sure you meet the minimum spend in time - and that you can pay off the bill before you leave (this is important - see below). The Cap1 products are for suckers. Dont be one.

Other thoughts...

When traveling for extended periods, you really need to plan ahead what you're going to do about paying your credit card bills. You may be blithely playing hackeysack in Katmandu with the trust-fund set, but your credit card bills will continue to arrive at your home (or your post office if your mail has been held). The bills need to be paid....and on time. How do you plan to spend your way around the world for half a year and get your credit card bills paid (mom...?)? This is an issue for those of us who travel abroad even for 2 or 3 weeks. Good luck with your "6-12 month" trip.

I see a disconnect from the real world (well, more than one):
You say you're hoping to travel on a budget of less than $30 a day. (Oh, really? Have you ever traveled anywhere before? OK, if you say so...) Then you hope to meet your minimum spend while traveling....on less than $30 a day? Hmmm. There are plenty of places that will happily accept your credit card overseas, but you might be challenged to reconcile that with your under-$30-a-day budget.

You should know this: there are a lot of people (bloggers) who are very dishonest, and who try very hard to paint a picture that this game is easy and requires no planning, no effort, no caution. They want you to believe that because they make their living from noobs who use their credit card links to sign up. The fact is that it's very easy to get into trouble, and if you want to be successful at this, it requires some ability to detect BS, some common sense, some patience, the ability to follow through methodically, keep good records, and stick with it. That list may describe you, but it might not accurately describe the "you" who is traipsing from Nepal to Thailand without a care in the world for a year. You can easily get into trouble with this stuff if you're not careful.

You're going to want to prioritize. Personally, if it were me (and I was entirely new to all this and had little knowledge of it), I would concentrate on taking my trip and leave my mileage game (mostly) at home. It'll still be there when you get back.

Good luck.

davidhawk

Thanks for the reply nwflyboy... I think? I appreciate the parts of your reply that seemed less of a tirade, and felt there was some honesty in wanting to pass along good info. A few things though.

Yes, I'm totally new to credit card points having said so in my previous posts. I was never aware being new to rewards points meant you automatically have no comprehension of how budgeting money works. And no, this trip is not being paid for by a trust fund or 'mom'. I'm surprised you jump to these conclusions with how many people plan RTW trips these days and save up for years to do so. Bills needing to be paid on time? How about automatic payments? Done.

Yes, I mentioned $30 a day. If you took the time to see what countries I was planning on traveling to, you would see this actually isn't too unrealistic. Yes maybe there will be the occasional $40 or $50 day, but $30 is my goal.

$23 a day for 3 months would meet the $2k signup bonus for a new card. But I don't think I can plan on putting atleast $23 on credit everyday, thus my worries of meeting spending requirements. You make it seem like this is some far off unreachable goal.

hightide

The United card is a good start as United's Star Alliance partners have good coverage in Asia.

Although after getting the bonus you have enough for a one-way flight from USA-Nepal (42,500 miles), I would save up the miles for a future return ticket (including a free stopover) instead as one-way tickets do not include a free stopover. However, if the cheapest USA-Nepal one-way flight is over $850, I might consider using miles instead.

Next, I would apply for the Chase CSP, Ink Bold or Ink Plus (with the last two, it's better to wait out for the 60k sign up bonus).

roki

Chase UA card no longer has foreign transaction fees. The CSP is a good card, but that one can probably wait a bit.

If you're looking for another card to use while you're traveling, the Barclay Arrival+ may be the best option. It can sometimes be hard to get 2 Chase cards back to back, and the AA card doesn't waive foreign transaction fees. The Barclay Arrival+ is also great because you are not tied to programs or award redemptions. You likely won't have enough points to book anything using rewards on this trip, but you can use your Arrival+ points to get reimbursements on all kinds of travel expenses.

Also, in regards to your minimum spend concerns, take a trip down to the Manufactured Spending forum. There is a TON of data in there, and it can be overwhelming. Look at the Serve thread for an easy way to add $1K/mo spend on your card for free, from home. Makes that minimum spend not quite so daunting.

davidhawk

Wow I remember reading about open jaw and stopover tickets when flying last year but never thought about that as an option for awards travel! That would make a hugggeee difference. And that also makes more sense how this can start to get more confusing when you try to maximize the points for things like that. I have a lot more research to do in respect to this but, to book a stopover on a return ticket do you have to be booking a full two way ticket. You cant for instance book a one way ticket going somewhere and then book a return ticket with stopover using awards miles.

The cheapest ticket I've found going to nepal is $720 one way. I would imagine return ticket back from bangkok would be similar if not a little less.