Hello,

I am very new to using CC offers to accumulate miles. So I want to start slow.

Goals: 1 to 2 international/domestic trips on business class/first class w/ no fuel surcharge.
City: New York
Traveling Partners: Husband and infant baby.
Preferred airlines (international): British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, Swiss, Emirates, Singapore
Preferred airlines (national): Virgin America, Jet blue

Currently have: ~ 70K in AE membership points

Considering: AE business gold (75K),
Citi American Airlines Visa (50K)
and Citi American Airlines AE (50k)

Please advise i.e. should i accumulate AE points or with any particular alliance (i.e.star)

S

Which is more important, flying on your preferred airlines -or- avoiding fuel surcharges?

Ah! avoiding fuel surcharges

To my knowledge there is no way to fly transatlantic on British Airways or Virgin Atlantic without paying a fuel surcharge. At one time ANA did not collect fuel surcharges of Virgin Atlantic flights, but I think this has changed, although the charges may be less than when redeeming through Virgin itself. However, bear in mind that even if redeeming through a program which does not apply fuel surcharges you will pay the substantial Air Passenger Duty when departing the UK, unless you are only there briefly to make a connection.

Three of your other four preferred international carriers belong to Star Alliance. To avoid fuel surcharges you will want to redeem through the USA-based Star Alliance members: United Airlines or US Airways. Chase is the only bank that issues cards which earn UA miles or points sensibly converted to UA miles.

US Airways miles can be earned through cards issued by Barclays, and also through the Starwood Preferred Guest card issued by American Express. Tradeoffs versus United:

• no one-way redemptions
• less access to first class awards (business only on some partners)
• possibility that US will leave Star Alliance if they merge with American Airlines.

However, also read this post for a recent report of a redemption through Air Canada Aeroplan for flights operated by Swiss. The fees are not zero, but pretty low.

I expect others will correct any errors in my summary and expand any issues which I have over-simplified.

So, if I understand correctly - I will have more chances to get business level award seats (with no fuel surcharge) from NY to Europe on Star Alliance?

I am now considering the US Airways card (http://mostmiles.com/chairman)
in addition to the AE business card. With the possibility of US airways leaving Star Alliance do you think I will be able to transfer to something else (??) as soon as I get the points?

Thanks,
S

I would concur with that. In distant second place, I'd put Delta miles, since you can redeem on Air France cheaply to get to Europe and availability tends to be ok.

You should be thinking about not only which cards give you miles in a particular program but how, exactly, you will earn enough of those miles to actually redeem for a ticket. US requires 100k miles for round trip US-Europe in business class, per person. The US card will get you 40k miles. How will you earn the other 60k?

If you earn an airline's own miles, you generally can't transfer them to another airline ever. This is different in something like Amex Membership Rewards. You're earning Amex's own points, so you can transfer them where ever Amex lets you.

You'll also want to research how award tickets work for infants. Different airlines have different policies, from a simple small $ fee to requiring an additional full award redemption.

Hello,

Thank you for the answers. Very useful..

So after further consideration I am now leaning towards the AE Mercedes Benz personal (50k with $1000 spend) and the AE business (75k with $10000/4months).

I already have a AE gold (~1 year, $125 fee, that I stupidly paid for in Nov after the first year). On this card I have ~ 70k.

So with the two new cards I would have ~ 200k membership rewards points.

Should I cancel my existing Gold card (~1 year history) or is there any reason to continue holding onto it?

----
On my next churn in 91 days, I plan on applying for the Chase Sapphire and/or anything else (looking for a card with zero foreign transaction fees) at that time because I can only manage the spend on the two AE cards right now..

So did you post somewhere how you actually plan to use these MR points to book the tickets you want?

A lot of people are critical of the Delta Skypesos program (called that because the perceived low value of Delta miles) but I personally have not had problems redeeming for overseas trips. They have very limited domestic low-mileage availability, they do not permit any changes or cancellations in the last 72 hours (your miles are gone, poof!), and you cannot book overseas first class at all. But I have found their TATL availability to be decent. Their website only shows DL, AF, and KL availability, I don't think it shows AZ, and some intra-European flights like RO won't show (RO being of interest to me because Mrs. Redtop has family in Romania).

You didn't say where you want to go, since some of your preferred partners mainly serve non-European destinations, I assume Europe isn't your only objective. DL's main partner to Asia is KE, who I think does have fuel surcharges on DL redemptions.

I wouldn't worry about non-availability of F awards. F awards are hard to get anyway on a lot of the most desirable F carriers. I flew biz on my one and only overseas trip and y'know, I can be just as bored with a 21" wide seat and ordinary champagne and my bluejeans as I can in a 24" wide seat with vintage champagne and pajamas. A little wider seat would have been easier to sleep in on the way over, but most of the carriers are moving toward lie-flats anyway (DL is refitting their whole fleet).

And it's definitely easier to accumulate DL miles.

Hi, Our first goal is a free trip (coach or business class) to Sweden/Norway on SAS (non-stop flights from NYC to the 3 major capitals in Scandinavia). We are 2 adults and 1 baby (SAS charges 0 miles for infants < 2years and 50% miles for 2-18years).

I signed up for a targeted AE business card (50k with $5000/3 months). So with the 75K I already have I am slowly accumulating. I will most probably apply for the platinum Mercedes in 91 days..

Since SAS is a star alliance member I am also interested in other cards that will allow me to accumulate miles with any of their members..