Little help for a reward program newb.
 

I’ve been researching some of the rewards credit cards and have a couple questions. I may be reading too much into it so they maybe some dumb questions….

For example, on the Capital One venture rewards card (may apply to other cards as well?), can I use the points towards my flight costs even if the points don’t add up to the full amount of the airfare?

I would need about 50k points to pay for a $500 flight. What if I only have about 25k points? Can I book a $500 flight and get reimbursed for $250 therefore getting a flight for about half off? (venture card uses the reimbursement method for redeeming points)

I can see building up around 25k – 35k points a year but probably not 50k, does it make sense to use this for a once a year $500 flight to get $250 - $350 off the cost? Sounds like one way of saving $250-$350 to me for flight or hotel etc., but am I missing something? Is this how it works? Or do I just need to call them over in India and ask?

Any other credit card rewards program suggestions……..

I was going to post a similar type question so I will just do it in here. I recently signed up for the Cap1 Business Traveler Max, basically just 2 for 1 Miles just like the Venture Card. But after reading these forums you guys seem to be really unimpressed with the rewards. I fly about 20K Miles a year mostly on Frontier because of convenience living in Denver, and stay about 40nights at Marriots throughout the year. But I do not get points for that stuff because it goes on my company T&E account. I simply wanted a card with a fast accumulation of rewards, with flexibility for many airlines(Frontier is limited internationally.) I have excellent credit, 100K in annual income, and charge roughly 12-15K a year, am I shortchanging myself with the CapOne deal?

Yes, you can use this the way you're describing. Upon redeeming, it asks you how many tickets were bought with that transaction, and how many of those tickets you want to redeem points for. So, if you have a $500 ticket, you can just say you want to redeem 1 of the 2 tickets, even if there was actually only one. Using this method, you can use as many points as you want towards airfare.

Keep in mind that redeeming for something other than air travel will likely cost more than $0.01/point - how much is anyone's guess at this point.

Another suggestion would be to use the Schwab Visa - you get the 2% back in the form of a transfer to a brokerage acct that you set up, and can then transfer that very easily to any bank account. This way, you wouldn't be restricted to redeeming for airfare or other travel.

Depending on what categories your spending is in, it might be worth it to investigate other cards. For instance, if you're spending mostly on hotels or airfare or groceries or restaurants or gas, for example, it would make more sense to get a card that awards bonus miles/points for those categories.