Originally Posted by ehallison
Thanks for the reply. I was confusing the Worldperks program with MBNA's Worldpoints program which is what you describe as a "fake miles" card. Eaglepoints is USAA bank's version of a mileage card.
I'm already a Citi Aadvantage cardholder but the reason I'm interested in a "fake miles" credit card is that I'd like to increase the flexibility in obtaining rewards. The way these mileage cards are *supposed* to work is that you can get a ticket up to a certain dollar amount with the only restriction being a 21 day advance purchase. No black-out dates or airline inventory controls. So I was wondering if anybody had used these and could let me know if ease of redemption really is a plus with one of these cards.
Well, first let me point out that the ease of doing any kind of redemption in a non-famous program is above all related to the program still existing when you get to the point of redemption!
For example, there was some kind of points program (I forget the name offhand) a few years ago which Ralph's (SoCal grocery store chain) promoted since every purchase you made at their store using their club card would earn points which could turn into tickets. But I never found out how easy it was to redeem because this points program went poof after I got partway toward enough points for a ticket!
I also had a credit card in the early or mid 90s which ran a promo that you could sign up for where all the interest payments you made on a balance would be rebated to a large degree 5 years later. I signed up for it, but before 5 years was up, banks merged then remerged and my credit card was automatically replaced with a new one and they lost all track of this multi-year promo.
I also had a couple credit cards with various kinds of (non-mile) rebate programs where the rebates were discontinued (or suddenly greatly changed) with only a couple month warning. If I had had to wait until a 10k or more increment to redeem (as you do with most "fake miles" programs), I would have been up a creek.
The thing with real FF programs is that even if the airline goes under (a la TWA, etc), the real FF programs are valuable enough that your miles are not likely to evaporate but simply be bought by some other FF program. But these "fake miles" programs so divide up the audience with no one of them being REALLY poplular (to the degree real FF programs are), that if circumstances change
So, with all that in mind: There are rebate cards that will save you 1% or more with no big increments (for example, the Chase Perfect card rebates you in full on a monthly basis). These IMHO are way lower risk than "fake miles" cards, and you have to do the math to see how the value of them compares to particular "fake miles" cards. (The value is easier to determine with "fake miles" cards because they can ONLY be used to buy cheap advance domestic coach tickets generally. So "fake miles" cards are basically just rebate cards with the rebate limited to spending on particular kinds of airline tickets in a fairly narrow price range!) Meanwhile, they often don't let you buy tickets on low-cost carriers, and thus don't always let you buy the very cheapest tickets around! (Also, keep in mind that "21 day advance" doesn't just mean you have to redeem 21 days out, it means you have to redeem while "21 day advance" seats are still available. If everything except full fare is already sold out on a flight, I severely doubt one of these "fake miles" programs will buy you a full fare ticket 22 days out, because that won't meet their price quota of course. So what is it exactly you gain over using a normal rebate card and then buying the tickets yourself out of the rebate savings?)
Also, evaluate how long it will take you to get to an award. If it's several years, the risk of the program disappearing or greatly changing would be greater. If you'll earn enough to get an award every few months, only THEN would I say the specifics of redeeming and such would be the primary concern.
If your goal is to increase flexibility, may I suggest you consider a couple other cards:
One is Diners Club, which lets you transfer its points (in about 1000 mile increments) to almost ANY airline FF program out there. While its acceptance is rather low right now, they've announced that next year they will be accepted (at least in N America) anywhere MC is accepted, so once that happens the landscape of flexibility with a widely-accepted card will change radically.
The other is the SPG Amex, which has no annual fee the first year and $30/year thereafter, and lets you transfer into LOTS of airline programs (at 1 or 1.25 mile/$ depending on how big chunks you transfer).
... There's a typical rule that many FFers use that if the ticket price is below a certain amount (somewhere around $300ish) it's cheaper to pay cash and if it's higher than that amount it's cheaper to use miles. Well, these "fake miles" cards typically put the limit on the ticket right around that point! Something to think about...