beginning advice
 

I have had a Chase Sapphire since 11/2011. I used my bonus points for a trip to Florida next month. My 7% dividend comes in January/February. I'm thinking about applying for either a new Sapphire in my husband's name or an Ink in my name (or husband's).

Does this make sense?

Also have SW Visa that I've had for years b/c I fly SW a lot. Husband had it years ago (business and personal) and I had it for business also years ago. How long must it be since we've had the cards to be eligible for bonus again?

Goal is to accumulate points to use for trip (in 4 years).

Welcome to FT!

Four years is plenty of time. However, to get better advice, you need to provide more information about what you want. Do you have a destination in mind? Have you investigated which airlines can get you there from your home airport easily? Thoughts on class of service?

Will you need a place to stay? If so, do you have a particular chain you like or have you looked at the hotels where you want to go to know which ones you want to stay at?

How many are in the group?

Have you checked about getting a personel and business SW. I've seen a couple threads about getting both 50,000X2 and then getting the other 10,000 for the companion ticket for the year? 2 can fly for the price of 1? I don't fly SW so I'm sure there's people who can give you a better explanation. Also check any SW threads. Good luck.

I found a thread under airlines SW p2 shows a discussion on it. I'm sure there's more.

We will be flying USAir to TLV with a tour - so we'll pay for hotel separately because we'll want to stay with the group. I'm figuring if I can save on the airfare, I'll be very happy. I'd love first class, but think aiming for coach is more realistic. The trip will be in June/July which is peak season.

I already have one SW card (personal) so i would miss out on that - but yes, I could get 50K for business and then the other 100K for my husband.

Companion ticket wouldnt help too much because I often fly on business and dont have someone else with me.

Seems like you go with

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...5k-benies.html

And

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...nt-credit.html

For each of you. Make each other AUs on the others card and get there fairly easily.

What confuses me is that csudell is talking about a trip to TLV but then planning how to get Southwest points, but then implying that the airfare to TLV is already paid...

csudell, what are you actually trying to do here?

Southwest rewards can be used for international travel on USairways on a 1:1 conversion ratio. So a SW 50K bonus is equivalent to a 50K bonus on USAir, the way I see it.... and I could be wrong.

The goal is for 4 people to fly for as little money as possible.
I have a Quicken Rewards card that is actually great for ongoing spending because for $85000 in spending I get $1500 in airfare. But that is for ongoing spending.

For the signup bonuses, I'd like to see what I can do to get the best bang for my buck.

let me just be sure I understand, this will work because we'd each get if we can each get 40K + 65 K (or close to that) in our accounts plus 5000 miles over the next four years, both United and USAir are Star Alliance members, so we can book an overseas flight that way by combining USAir and United miles?

And here we have arrived at the fundamental misunderstanding that has plagued your air travel up to this point. You've come to the right place; we can clear all of this up for you.

Southwest points are a cash equivalent. They are radically different from traditional airline miles.

If you use a Southwest point toward domestic "Wanna Get Away" fares, it's worth a fixed amount that's roughly 1.7 cents. If you use it toward international travel, it's a fixed 1 cent. So, for the purposes of your flight to TLV, 50k Southwest points will always be worth a fixed $500 toward airfare.

USAirways miles, on the other hand, are an entirely different currency. In that world, there are a certain number of seats on each flight that are available. If you can find one of those seats, it always costs 80k USAirways miles (plus taxes and fees) in coach, regardless of the cash price.

To get a sense for the difference, I plugged in some random dates in February for a PHL-TLV round trip on the non-stop USAirways flights.

The cash cost is $1106 per person. That would be just under 111k Southwest points, because they are always worth 1 cent each. Using USAirways miles, it would be that fixed 80k miles per person, plus about $145 in fees. Radically different.

As a general guideline, cash equivalent programs are a better value for cheap domestic flights, rather than more expensive international flights.

If you'd like to learn more, you can explore each airline's award chart, to understand what fixed amount of miles is required for different routes, and then search for availability to see general trends.

That Quicken card is giving you about 1.8% return. That's pretty good. However, there are a few options for 2% cash back, such as the Fidelity AMEX and Priceline Visa.

For the particular trip you're looking for, there are many different ways to cut it. If you go the miles route, you could focus on United miles. They can be redeemed for USAirways flights. You could get the United Explorer card for 50k miles and then add one of the 50k Ultimate Rewards cards. UR points transfer to UA miles 1:1.

Or you could continue to use cash equivalents, depending on the cash price on your dates.

Does all of that make sense? If so, consider doing some more research (look at award availability and cash prices for some possible dates) and reporting back.

Thank you MDtR-Chicago,

That helps a lot.

I would say I'm being "cautious" by trying to accumulate the cash equivalent points at this point as a backup in case I cant get the award flights - since I do not know how flexible I will be able to be.... and that i want 4 tickets may make it more difficult.

My husband and I havent used our United accounts in years, so I have to have some activity in them in order to be eligible for the larger sign up bonuses available right now (65k). I could transfer some ultimate rewards activity to them to get them going.

That is exactly the trade-off. You also may end up wanting to look at paying for some of the passengers using miles and some using points or cash. It's a tough situation when you don't have flexibility.

You can also apply for the United offer in-branch. Much easier if you have one nearby.

But before you do anything, you really should run some search on the UA (or other airlines) site to see how availability looks.

the flight is in 2016 :)

You have time to run BOTH plays then. Accumulate in UA or US (or another airline) and ALSO Southwest points or another cash equivalent.

Then, when you're a year out and the award calendar opens, book whichever is the better value.

Heck, you have enough time to accumulate for business or first class, for at least some of your passengers.