pantanal

Would love some thoughts on maximizing the mileage on CC purchases/miles for business purchases.

Spend will be about $150k- 200k a month

What credit card would you put this kind of spend on. Given there are no bonuses (5x chase, 6x Amex Hilton), how would you maximize this.

My first thought is to:
1) put as much on SPG as possible
2) Put spend on all cards that give elite status based on spending. After achieving all the elite levels put everything on SPG

Would love some good ideas?

wcj

I'm not the best one to answer this, but since you don't have any responses, I figured it might be worth chiming in. I would probably use the first spends to hit things that give bonuses for high spend like you said as those "high" spends are not all that high, especially for someone like you.

Have you considered one of the Chase Ink or Bold cards? What about Amex OPEN?

I think it depends more on what you want and what you can use. Do you have the time to use all the points and miles you would accrue? At $150k per month, you are well over 1 million a year and yet I suspect run a business. I question whether you could use them all( I know we could not) which is why I was thinking that the Open may hold some value to you.

pantanal

Lets just say I am a non operational partner/investor in this business and my partner is letting me take the points. I can blow through a million points a year in travel/year easy (lots of international travel). Been flying over 300k miles a year for the last 10 years.

I pretty much have every card there is (Chase Bold, Ink Plus, every Amex variety). Just trying to figure out which ones to deploy here to maximize the points

None of the business cards provide any bonuses or discounts on any of these kind of purchases. These are basically food products from food wholesalers.

deltame

The United MileagePlus Club visa card - 1.5 miles per $ on all spend and many other travel benefits. You can locate it from united.com or from chase.com, link below is just for illustration:
https://www.theexplorercard.com/MPCl...ate=2012-10-08

frozyn

I think the best way to plan your purchases is to plan your trips. As you say, none of these provide category bonuses, so that's not an issue. What remains is earning points in a fashion that fits your travel. Different cards provide points for different programs, so perhaps you use the Ink cards for a few months to accumulate points for a *A first class award. Then the next month switch to Amex to build up points for a Singapore suites class redemption. Then use the Citi AA biz card to accumulate for a trip to South America.

With your kind of spend, the options are endless! I think planning a few trips down the road will be your best bet to deciding on a spending pattern.

pantanal

Thanks. The thing is that I am not short on points and know my travel patterns. Probably have over 3 million on pretty much every airline possible. My travel is pretty much all international first and business class transpacific, transatlantic and to Brasil so I know my travel patterns (I just need to keep generating the huge amounts I burn)


I will obviously spread the spend but I do want to maximize the retun per $ spent. It probably makes sense to use The United Club card for a majority (as Deltame suggested) since it gives the highest amount per $ spent on regular categories. 1.5/$ followed by SPG gives 1 + the 25% bonus for airline transfers and Chase BA gives 1.25 per $ spent.

All the other airline cards would only be 1mile/$1 other than Hotel cards that give more per $ but those points are worth a little less.

In terms of absolute value a $1.8 million spend will net 2.7 million UA miles with UC club card. That would be 900 K additional miles over pretty much any other card other than SPG (1.8Million + 25% for transfers) and Chase BA Card(2.25 million miles) SPG beats BA points in terms of value.

pantanal

Thank you for that suggestion. I have a regular United card but this definitely makes sense. At this spend level it really adds up.

gk17

How about the CapitalOne Venture Card? It earns 2 miles per dollar spent no matter what it is. You can use it to redeem for airline miles. First year is free and after it's only $59 annually.

yOyOYoo

$150K spending a month! Options really are endless and you really can't go wrong with any program.

btw, pretty sure you will be offered a Centurion Business card.

Diffus

You can get an AmEx from Fidelity Investments that will kick back 2% (with no limit) to a Fidelity Investments account that you specify. I'm currently funding my son's 529 account via company expenses, but you can also direct the funds into, say, a Roth IRA, or, I suppose, a taxable mutual fund or brokerage account.

We also have a Fidelity MasterCard that offers the same rebate, but there's a spending limit, so I use it when a merchant won't take the AmEx.

pantanal

thanks for all the suggestions. helpful.

mnscout

That might be true if you are looking at it from an air travel point of view, but if you stay at Hilton then Citi Hilton Reserve gives 10 points on a $, and Amex Hilton gives 6 points on many categories.

If you're looking for something simple to use all the time, then yes, Cap One Venture is a solid choice at 2%.

pantanal

Unfortunately citi reserve does not give 10points/dollar for purchasing food from wholesalers (only for hotel stays) nor does the Amex Hilton give 6 points for these categories. maximum you can get is 3 HH points/$.

Uh Clem

+1
I charge over 1$ million a year on my cards and my primary card is now the Club card. Plus it gives you free membership to the United Airport Lounges.

pantanal

Have started charging on several cards. Bulk will go on the new United Club card )