No hotels, No rental cars, No International travel just commuter flights home on B6 and US Airways. I have the jetBlue Amex and planning on reappling for the US Airways Barclay MC (denied spring 2012) for just buying tickets. My SPG card is due for renewal in March.

Q. Are SPG starpoints really the best for me? Is there another card that can help build points other then SPG? Is there something 2 points/$1 like I hear on TV. Advice appreciated.

Credit score is always a question but improving.

Let's start with this: What do you want to use these miles/points for?

That makes a big difference.

You can look into possibly getting the Capital One Venture Card to earn 2 miles per dollar spent.

No reason to get the Venture card when you can get the Barclays Priceline card with no annual fee.

Thanks for the replies

MDtR-Chicago - I forgot to state that (good point). My goal is to bank miles with both airlines not only for commuter flights but also 12hr emergency flight(s) (example: elderly parent/in-law events). My choice of airlines is based on cost (Yapta) and I'm buying flights in May 2013 ($150-$200). I'd like to build a reserve of ?0K miles and then anything above that use for my RIC-BOS-RIC inbound/outbound flights.

Is this a good strategy? Is there another strategy other then churning?

The Capital One Venture Card is what I see on the TV commercial and maybe the reason for this thread. I need to check out Barclays Priceline card. Miles need to be transferrable to B6 and/or US Air becasue they offer direct flights from RIC (United through EWR is always an awful experience)

Does the Barclays Priceline card rewards mean i need to buy tickets on priceline? Not sure that a best practice for me. Don't mind paying annual fee on the venture card if it serves my goal. I don't think SPG is serving my goal.

The Priceline card is a 2% cashback card, like the Venture, except it has no annual fee. It also gives 5% cashback on Priceline name-your-own-price reservations, but that's just a fringe benefit (that you can entirely ignore if you want). You can also redeem for Priceline stays and get better than 2%, but that's also totally optional. Ignore all the Priceline stuff and it's the Venture card without the annual fee.

Thanks I'll have to do some investigation ... I like the no annual fee if it does everything the venture does.

Let's build an overly complex model to analyze your two flight options, if you want only non-stop flights. You can fly in a B6 (Jetblue) E190, which is essentially a full-sized jet, or a US CRJ-200, a tiny, tiny jet. Perhaps there's a value to you in that.

But from purely a financial standpoint, let's look at your actual trips. Let's say you pay $200 when the flights are cheap and $400 when they are expensive.

If you fly on Jetblue and use their credit card for the ticket, you'll earn 6 points per dollar on the base fare plus 2 pt/$ from the credit card on the total fare.

If you fly on US and use their credit card, you'll earn 948 miles per round trip plus 2 miles/$ spent.

Thus, for the cheap ticket, you could earn either ~1300 B6 points or ~1300 US miles. When the ticket is expensive, it's either ~2400 B6 points or ~1700 US miles.

When you redeem, they have differing values. B6 points act like a currency tied to the ticket price, with each point valued in a range of roughly 1 cent to 1.5 cents. US miles act like a completely separate currency not tied to ticket price, with one roundtrip on your route costing a fixed 20k miles for credit card holders, if there is availability at the low level.

Thus, if you redeem for the cheap ticket, it would cost something in the neighborhood of 12000 B6 points or 20000 US miles. When the ticket is expensive, it's either 23000 B6 points or 20000 US miles.

Therefore, the B6 points have a value to you of about 1.3 cents whereas the US miles have a value of 2 cents, if you use them only to redeem for expensive flights.

Using those numbers, when you BUY a cheap ticket, your payback from B6 is about 9%, whereas US is about 13%. When you buy the expensive ticket, your payback from B6 is about 8%, whereas US is about 9%.

In summary, the best payback seems to be from US on your route. But at the very least, it's to buy the cheap flights on US and the expensive flights on B6, while redeeming for cheap flights on B6 and expensive flights on US.

And, obviously, if you're flying often enough to earn elite status on either, that would change the numbers, as well.

I hope that was more helpful than confusing. And you'll want to re-check all of those numbers, as they are grossly oversimplified. If you have the background, this would be great to put into Excel and plug in real numbers you find from your purchase history. You'll also want to look at the availability from US on your route - low level awards are not always available.

MDtR-Chicago - thank you for the analysis. I've printed your reply and it now hangs with my flight home spreadsheet. I need to read it a couple of more times that’s why its hanging-up. Yes I always knew that US was a bargain for redemption and miles that why if I redeem miles I hope to do it with a fare is cheap. However, I sure enjoy those flights on B6 on the comfy E190 (?) with my headphones. The CRJ-200 is a worn-out rat hole with no room but it gets me home. My flight today is on B6 but my flight in two weeks is US. I’m really driven by Yapta cost. In addition, if there a small difference in price between the two carriers I usually go with B6 not only for the comfy plane but the lower fare guarantee. I received in my travel bank about $100. Again, I appreciate the time given to the analysis.

My question back to you: what about consumer (miles card (non-hotel/car rental/cash-back)? Are my choices really Venture and Priceline?

Since your travel patterns are so fixed, it's hard to get more value than a cashback credit card. The B6 and US credit cards don't offer category multipliers except on purchases from the airlines. So, since you're earning 1 point or mile per dollar, it's going to be very difficult to earn more than 2% of cash value.

While I appreciate that my analysis may (or may not) be helpful - you really will want to validate all the numbers because everything hinges on the low-ish value your situation gives to airline points/miles.

There is one more popular 2% card: Fidelity Investment Rewards Amex

No annual fee, pays out 2% on everything, but it's an Amex so acceptance can be tough.

Also consider signup bonuses: The US card has a 40k miles signup bonus right now. If you can get 2 cents/mile from those miles, the signup itself is worth $800 to you and that's enough of a reason to get the card.

Also, if you need a trip outside your usual travel plans, then everything could change, obviously.