"High" spend question
 

Hello! I apologize in advance for this question as I know it is touched on in hundreds of threads (I have read them all) but I cannot discern what I want ot know exactly from the searches I have done...

I am an infrequent traveller that is looking for the maximum miles earnable and your recommended best card to do it with given the following assumptions:

1) I spend $360,000 per year on a credit card (for business.. but on personal card)

2) I don't want to be capped in earnings for the year (many cards seem to do this)

3) I prefer either the Delta or United network but not critical... I anticipate wanting to use the miles for Asia, Hawaii and the Carribean travel.

4) Lounge access, rates, annual fee, other perks are very secondary to the actual mileage earning opportunity to me. (my company pays the card off monthly)

Your wisdom and advice would be most appreciated.

Thank you, Kent

Does it have to be one single card?

You will almost always do considerably better combining a few cards.

Also what are your top spend categories and how much is in foreign transactions?

Single Card is appealing but not required. I have my main card and about 10 additional cards for employees.

Categories are 1/3 in gas, 2/3 mish-mash of all sorts of business expense related. Van repairs, hotel stays, lunchs, dinners, etc.

All domestic spend

The 10 employee cards throws me off... If it were just you, I'd recommend a combination like this:

• The PenFed Platinum Visa Cashback Rewards Card for 5% cash back on gas
• Citi Forward for 5 Thank You Points/$ at restaurants (should be able to use 1 point = 1 cent of travel rewards)
• A branded hotel card to match whatever chain you use most - such as the Marriott Card, for 5 points/$ of hotel spend
• Dump everything else into either UA or DL card. Personally I'd go with the UA card - the miles are easier to use and there are a few double mile categories (groceries, restaurants, gas, *A airfare, etc.). Plus a Visa is easier than an Amex.

As far as I know, only the Forward card has a yearly limit (75k points).

You actually might do best with the three card combo - PenFed for Gas, a branded hotel card, and the UA card for everything else.

Not sure how the employee cards would work with any of this.

EDIT: If you plan to redeem in economy, you might do better putting your everyday spending on a 2% cashback card, like the Fidelity Retirement Rewards.

Which card are you using now? In general, banks that issue personal MasterCard and VISA use the identical number for every card on the account. This makes it cumbersome to match charges with individuals and it means that if one card is lost or stolen every card needs to be replaced. The solution is to use a business MasterCard or VISA, because every individual card will have a unique number.

American Express cards issued by the company assign a unique number to each card on personal accounts, but Amex-network cards issued by banks may use either system.

Delta is closely tied to American Express. United is even more closely tied to Chase. There is no card that earns miles in both programs at a competitive rate. The closest you can come is the Starwood Preferred Guest credit card issued by American Express. Starpoints are transferable to three dozen airlines, most at the rate $20,000 = 25,000 miles. United is transferable at half rate ($25,000 = 12,500 miles), however Starpoints can be transferred at full rate to US Airways, and their miles can be redeemed for travel on all Star Alliance airlines, including United.

Thank you for the response mia. Currently I have an HH amex... racked up 2 million hotel points with Hilton in short order. That gives me alot of vacation options. Now I am deciding the next move to rack up the airline miles to give me that side of things.

It appears that the multi-card option is the best for raw points, however I think the ease of administering the whole thing may take first place for me. so I guess it boils down to making sure there is no mileage earnings cap annually. I would at least be guarranteed 360,000 miles or so in a year...

Thanks for the help!!

I was going to suggest the Chase Presidential Plus or the thank you premier card, but then I saw the bit about the 10 employees. In the end as someone else mentioned, a straight 2% cash back card - may be best, therefore I recommend the Fidelity Amex.

Starwood
 

Most credit cards have an upper limit on how many points or miles you can earn in a year (usually around 100,000). So far as I know, the American Express Starwood card has no such limit. Every 20,000 points convert to 25,000 Delta Airlines miles. (The conversion rate to United is not so good.) You may read about this card on my website below on the Credit Cards > Free Cards page. It's the first one listed, as it is most everyone's favorite card for acquiring miles.

I believe that most or all of the American Express Membership Rewards cards have no upper limits on the number of points that can be earned per year. The Premier Rewards, Gold Business, and (if you like extra benefits) the Platinum cards may be of interest to you. All have mega up front bonuses. They are described on my website below on the Annual Fee Cards page in the American Express section near the bottom of the page. Amex especially specializes in cards of interest to businesses with its Open program.

You might also look at the Stock and Bond brokers offers on my Finance page for still more United, Continental (soon to be United), or Delta miles, or Amex points.

I concur. Perhaps the Starwood Business card might be of interest so that you can get the 10 employees their own card under your account (you can do it on the personal card as well but the business card has features geared towards that).

You say the only thing you're really interested in is the miles, which tells me that redemption is a key variable and the cash back offers listed above aren't what you're after. Given my experience with rewards availability and ease of booking / lowest price, I would go AA vs UA or DL. DLs in particular is terrible and AAs is great.

I always take a long view on these things - I wouldn't assume you'll be able to put $360k spend on your cards forever; you'll get promoted, sell your company, or switch jobs at some point and might lose that opportunity. Also, the rest of your life is a long time, and who knows when you might need or want to travel more. Therefore, if it was me, I would do the following:

1) Get an AMEX Centurion card if you are able and don't already have one (you might need to spend 500k vs 360k though). The hotel benefits you'll use when taking the vacations you list will probably pay for themselves in short order, and once you're a Centurion member, you're always a Centurion member, so once you aren't in a position to spend $360k/yr anymore you'll be happy you got the card

2) Go AA. Do an AA Platinum challenge (which can be met with 1 round trip to Europe over a weekend for < $1,000) to get status (which removes the 100,000 miles / year limit on the credit cards) and get their Citi AA card(s). You'll get 360k + up to 150k bonus miles the first year, with the soft landing policy you'll drop to Gold status the next year (which still removes the 100k cap) and get another 360k the next year. Assuming you manage your program the right way (buying a few miles or signing up for a few offers, or just travelling for business) you can hit 1,000,000 total program miles and get Gold for life, which removes the cap permanently. Then you can continue to accumulate 360k miles forever and redeem them on the easiest program out there (IMHO). If you spend 360k for another 3 years then you'll be lifetime plat; and the only plane you every paid for will be the Platinum challenge one.

OR

2) Go DL. I personally don't think this is the best option, but you can hand out 6 Delta reserve cards, each of which earns 60k miles and 30k MQMs for each $60k spent, and the MQMs can be gifted to you by the cardholder. Thus in a given year you can get 360k miles and 180k MQMs (enough for their top level Diamond status without ever flying). As compared to AA you get better status (though getting lifetime status will take twice as long). However, you will have to pay a lot more miles on average to book your free flights vs AA.

If you care not at all about status (which you seem to say, but I find odd - nobody always flies business class for the rest of their lives) then I would agree with the other poster and get the SPG card. No status, but you get 1.25 miles per $, so you'll be at a half-million miles per year or so.

However, based on the vacation travel you list, 360k / year should be enough to get you where you want to go for free - I'd still go for one of the lifetime status approaches.