cxr

guys just found out about gaining points for airmiles, travel, attraction, etc. while planning a trip for the summer.

and now kicking myself becuase over the last 6 months i have been on a cruise, performed a major home remodeling project, just recently booked airfare and hotel to bahamas.... all prob spent over 15K that i could of been getting credit card points for

so now i know and trying to get the cliff notes version to get up to speed.
last night i applied for my first card the Hilton mastercard i think, and have to spend 1,000 to get about 40-50K of points. this is fine because i plan to buy my orlando hotel and universal tickets to get these.

called and my mortgage banker doesnt accept credit card payment. but my car payment and utilities will.

what should i be doing next? do balance transfers work to get point? should i be applying for more cards?

when i have multiple cards is there a certain place i can transfer all the points too?

thanks for your help
THE NEW GUY

cxr

which forums should i start out for the basic information?

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Welcome to FT!

You will find dedicated credit-card forums here on FT. But in order to decide what cards to apply for next, you probably need to prioritize the freebies you want to earn. Do you want free air travel; and if so, from where to where, and in what class of service? Do you want free hotel nights; and if so, in what parts of the world, and at what level of property (budget, mid-level, luxury)? Do you want free train travel on Amtrak?

Lots of credit-card offers out there.

FTwatcher

Welcome to FT.

RE: Balance Transfers For Points
-You may need to check with the terms and conditions for the credit card, but most typically don't allow you to accumulate points. Typically, you only get points for purchases, and most credits don't consider a balance transfer as a purchase.

RE: Applying For More Cards
-This all depends on what your goals are. If you want to accumulate as many points with different airlines/hotel companies, then take a look at which credit card would give you the most points. Keep in mind that you need to meet the spending limit in order to get the points and some cards come with high annual fees.

RE: Transferring Points to One Place
-Again, this depends on what your goals are. If you are planning for a trip/vacation, then you can pool the points together (if they are transferable) to get an award ticket or free nights stay. Most of the point transferable are one way, so you can't transfer them back if you change your mind. Also, some may incur a fee for the point transfer. Lastly, keep in mind that not every hotel or airline will allow you to transfer points to other airline/hotels, so you'll need to research which airlines/hotels will work best for you.

cxr

travel travel travel....
i think mostly right now airmiles, because that has always been the cost prohibitve factor for us. we tried the 1 dollar ebay timeshare\exchange thing and that did not work for us. so sold the timeshare at beginning of this year

i think right now i am looking for more complete vacation packages. if i had to say what i would be acquring points for our dream vacation in 2 years when my son finishes school would be african safari.
then ireland, europe, asia

i just need to understand what my next step should be:
i signed up for hilton mastercard- just need to spend 1K for 50K points i am going to easily do that because we have a 10 day June vacation coming up 3 day universal orlando\ 7 day atlantis. where airfare and atlantis tiemshare rental already paid. but still need orlando hotel\tickets.

just today signed up for American airline club. my plane tickets are already paid for can i add them to this account? and do they only account for me the whole familty?

next step?

Mwenenzi

Are these flights with AA? Each person flying needs there own account. AA does not have family pooling of miles.

You can add the frequent flyer number to the reservation any time before you fly. And subject to terms & conditions of the FFP you can retro claim after flying. Most ffp'd require you to be a member at date of the flight. A few ffp's allow retro claim for flights done X days before you sign up.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html

cxr

yes, flights are with AA.
ok i can have wife sign up

what about kids do they have to have their ownn AA account?

FTwatcher

Yes, the kids will need to have their own AA account, in order to earn miles/points for the trip.

cxr

thanks trying to build points quickly..

what credit card/airline or hotel cards are giving the most points for the lest spending amount and first year fee waived?

or where on this forum should i be looking for this information. this forum looks huge

guv1976

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"You will find dedicated credit-card forums here on FT." (Located under the "Miles and Points" heading.)

I think that there are current offers for 50,000 bonus miles for both AA (Citi), and UA (Chase), after $3K spend within 90 days. Check the applicable FT forums for details of current offers.

scottpenderson

Look into the USAirways Dividend Miles card. It is currently offering 50,000 miles with payment of the $95 yearly fee and one purchase. I only suggest this card because American is beginning to merge the US Dividend Miles into its AAdvantage program later this month. This card won't be available for much longer and is a pretty cheap way to get 50,000 miles.

It also leaves you free to apply for an AAdvantage credit card in the future and get another 50,000 mileage bonus, leaving you with 100,000 AAdvantage miles in a very short period of time.

sdsearch

The problem is that hotel points are only good at chain hotels, and AFAIK there aren't any hotel chains that have African safari lodge/camp locations. (A decade or so ago there was one safari in Kenya, called Salt Lick Dome, that you could get through Hilton HHonors points, but it's long gone.)

So while you can use miles to fly to Africa, you'll likely have save up good amounts of money to actually go on safari there, because you'll have to pay with actual money for that (and not small amounts of money either!).

Less "exotic" places in the world, where there are actual chain hotels, is much more practical to do with points. So you may want to do those first, and put off the African safari until you've been able to save up enough money to pay for the safari part.

cxr

are there any threads on couples airline/ credit card miles? we and my wife and talking and she wants to know if she is a signer on my card. im telling her to apply for her own cards for more points? is this correct?

you guys don't even know I think between sandiego, lake havasu, Orlando and Bahamas im gonna spend like 5,000 in the next 3 months. looking how to optimize this.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

If both husband and wife are credit worthy and can meet the spending requirements, then each can apply for a card and get the bonus. Your wife will not earn any bonus miles merely by becoming an authorized user on your card.

Where are you based? Some frequent-flyer programs are zone-based; others are distance-based. Depending on where you are flying from/to within the U.S., you might pay fewer miles for an award ticket on AA with British Airways Avios, than with AA AAdvantage miles!

cxr

great credit history. we don't intend on carrying balances
we are in SoCal. not doing a lot of flying until we get some points under our belts but a lot of hotels and gas, groceries, eating out.