Advice on card selection
 

I spend about a million dollars a year on my cc mostly due to my business. I currently put all that spend on my Starwood American Express card for hotel stays and transfers miles to other airline programs.

I am a Amex Platinum member so I do enjoy the suite upgrades when they are available. With my 2 young boys growing older, we are looking to travel more internationally. I was just wondering for traveling to Asia (Japan, Korean, China, Taiwan) and Europe, which credit card should I use to maximize my spend.

Starwood Amex will give you extra 5k pts for every 20k points you transfer to an airline. I've traveled to Japan on JAL via business class for as low as 60k miles (not including the extra 15k bonues miles given by Starwood Amex). Also most airline mileage transfers I care about are 1:1 with the notable except of United which is 2:1.

I was thinking to either get a United card or maybe the Barclay Arrival Plus World Elite card which might be better for me for air travel.

Love to get some advice on this. Thanks.

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Thanks Mia. I just read both bofore seeing your post.

Looks like SPG is already recommended. Just looking for more recs for air travel.

While only somewhat related to your question, I would recommend getting as many Citi AAdvantage Executive cards as you can (and yes, you can churn them, see the related thread). If you are interested in international business class flights to Europe and Asia, then United is the lost cause after the devaluation.

The reason the Executive card is still related to your question, is that it requires $10K spend requirement in the first 3mths. You can have 1 Citi card in an 8-day period, and 2 Citi cards in a 65-day period. It costs $450 but gives you 100K miles, $200 statement credit, and free access to Admiral and One World lounges. Get it/them until they kill the offer, as I expect they will kill it sooner rather than later.

Don't understand the suggestion for the Barclay Arrival Plus, that's not a card for people who travel in international J as it's just a fixed % back, where you can get a far better redemption by transferring to an airline program (again for international J, domestic coach is a different story).

The SPG and Amex Plat cover basically every international carrier except United. If you want United and want to put a lot of spend on a card, the United Club card gives 1.5 miles per dollar spent, that's probably the ticket.

If you want to earn Membership Rewards at a higher rate than the AMEX Plat, the Premier Rewards Gold is good as it gives a 15K annual bonus after spending 30K, plus 2x on gas and groceries, and 3x on airfare. The AMEX Everyday Preferred, while marketed to a different demographic, is quite good as it gives 1.5 MR per dollar spent as long as you make more than 30 transaction a month, and it gives 3X for gas and 4.5X for groceries (again assuming 30 trans a month).

For fun card to get the Ritz Carlton card from JP Morgan looks cool and gives you some Ritz specific perks.

The Chase Hyatt card isn't a bad idea if you like Hyatts.

And the Chase cards which earn Ultimate Rewards like the Sapphire Preferred are also quite flexible.

I think you've got your bases covered, if you want the combo of cards that allow transfers to almost every program you need one Membership Rewards card, the SPG card, and a Chase card (to cover United).

+1 for the suggestion on the Citi AA Exec, 100,000 bonus miles plus lounge access for $250 is a no-brainer.

I have the Barclaycard Arrival Plus and definitely wouldn't recommend it for you since it is a fixed amount back (2.22%) and you will get far more bang for your buck using a mileage transfer program - whether it is Chase UR, Starwood SPG, or Amex MRs.

Also, doesn't the Amex Platinum which you already have give you a free companion ticket when you book 1st or business class international? I don't know this for a fact but I'm pretty sure I read about this at some point.

I'll slightly refine that. Starpoints and Membership Rewards points both transfer to Air Canada Aeroplan 1:1, which should give the member the ability to book a ticket on any *Alliance airline, including United.