dannieboiz

I fly 95% Alaska, stay at Hilton chains and rent from national. When I used to be able to pay for my flights having an AS card made sense. These days flights and car are paid with a company card so Im questioning if having an AS card is worthwhile anymore. The companion ticket is good and bad at the same time. Sometime i just let it expire.

What's a good card for travel perks to replace the AS card with?

sdsearch

You need to be a lot more specific about what travel perks you're looking for.

garykung

A VA Premium or regular card, given they are merging (if approved).

EmailKid

You mean VX, which is Virgin America code.

sdsearch

Indeed. There are separate airlines called Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, and Virgin Australia, but obviously the can't all be abbreviated officially to VA. So that's why Virgin America is VX, not VA.

And it's Virgin America which is going to merging with Alaska.

However: It's not been announced yet how Virgin America points might translate into Alaska miles. So it's a bit early IMHO to assume that a Virgin America card is a good value for what will eventually become Alaska miles.

dannieboiz

My company now takes over booking for Airline travels so my Alaska Visa benefit no longer looks as good as it used to. I've been hunting for a more "all around card" I spend around $10 to $15k a year on this card just for traveling.

The perks on the new Sapphire Reserve is too luring to resist. I travel $95 on Alaska and stay almost exclusively at Hilton and rent exclusively from National.

Was wondering if this would be a good card for me.

dannieboiz

Sorry was side tracked and forgot about this thread.

I don't have any specific perks in mind. Just want to maximize my points earnings. Since I travel with Hilton and AS mainly, I want to maximize points @ those two vendor.

Saw a lot of movements on the Chase Sapphire Reserve. It sounds like a great card. But I don't think AS and Hilton are their partners. I just asked on their forum to confirm. If I can redeem points for AS and Hilton I think I'll go ahead and apply for it. But in the mean time, any recommendation?

missamo80

You can book Alaska flights using Chase points via British Airways Avios, and they're a good deal for short- and medium-haul flights. Plus Chase transfer to lots of other airline partners so you have more flexibility for redemptions on other airlines.

Hilton is Hilton. I'm not aware of any good values when it comes to transferring points into Hilton for redemptions.

I'm pretty much exclusively Hilton and Alaska and use CSP/CSR as my daily spend card.

Neil

mia

Which perqs, specifically? You can earn the 100,000 bonus without using the card for business travel. Priority Pass is available with several cards.

Have you looked at the HHonors co-branded cards issued by American Express and Citi?

dannieboiz

100k bonus points if spent 4k in the 1st 3 months
3x points for $1 on all travel (this is where I felt like I'm missing out on the AS Visa, with this I'll get 3x points for hotels/car/airfare regardless as long as it's labeled "travel"
Global Entry (I have TSA Pre but didn't do my research, wish I did GE at the get go)
$300 annually return on travel
Priority Pass Prestige from what I read, any card that offer this?


the $300 annual travel credit and the PP membership outweight the $450 annual fees IMO.


missamo80 - Is the booking through BA for AS flight pretty simple? I've never booked from partners before.

missamo80

It's a pain in the .... You can't book through the website, you have to call in. You can't see availability on ba.com, you have to use aa.com. But it's worth it, for short- and med-haul flights it's cheaper than using Alaska points.

Search the web, there are several blogger posts on how to do the booking. Don't forget to ask them to waive the phone booking fee (which they will always do).

Neil

missamo80

As for Priority Pass, Citi Prestige also offers it for you and immediate family or two guests. AmEx Platinum also offers it (plus access to Centurion lounges), however it does not come with guests.

Neil

dannieboiz

Seeing that you're an MVP gold, have u had issue with getting F upgrades while booking through BA? When u book is it the same choice IE, MVP/Mileage upgrade price etc...? Just through a BA agent right?

But on the same note, since I fly AS and the points from this card xfer to the BA, I can't combine my points so that will also be a negative.

mia

Don't be distracted by the bonus. It's is a one-time event. The $300 fee reimbursement is a gimmick to reduce the annual fee. You can apply for the card, make the minimum required spend, collect 100,000 points, collect $300 in 2016, collect another $300 in 2017, and cancel. None of this has any bearing on whether this is the card you should use for your business travel expenses.

Priority Pass memberships are offered with American Express Platinum, Citi Prestige, and Chase Reserve. They are all "Prestige" level. They all permit access to the same lounges. They differ in whether there is an extra charge for guests, and in whether they support the Priority Pass mobile app virtual card feature.

The identical Global Entry benefit is offered by American Express Platinum, Citi Prestige, and Chase Reserve.

If you stay at Hilton Hotels you can earn 3 points per dollar with Citi Prestige or Chase Reserve, but you would earn 12 HHonors points per dollar if you used a Hilton Surpass credit card. The Citi Prestige points can be converted to HHonors points, the Chase Ultimate Rewards points cannot.

Bottom line: there is no feature offered by Chase Reserve that is not also offered by other cards. It's a matter of figuring out which combination of rewards and benefits is the best fit for your requirements.

missamo80

Award flights aren't eligible for upgrades other than by day-of-flight paid upgrades (which happen rarely, if ever).

Neil