Ninja2436

Hi!

I'm hoping to book a flight with Norwegian Air later this year.

Is there a card that I could get which offers sign-up bonus points that I could use to book a flight on Norwegian?

I thought that I read that the Capitol One Venture card would let you use your points for ANY travel related expense , i.e. flights, hotel, etc. but may have misunderstood this.

mia

Welcome to Flyertalk

There are many cards which earn points which have a fixed monetary value when redeemed for travel. There are also cards which earn cash, which can of course be used to pay for travel. The cash cards offer maximum flexibility, but tend not to have competitive new account bonuses.

If you plan to buy the ticket directly from the airline be sure to research which card types they accept (American Express, Discover, MasterCard, VISA).

Look at these threads to get started:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...scription.html


POINTS CARDS
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...s-now-40k.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...000-miles.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...-1st-year.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...l-credits.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...here-card.html

CASH CARDS
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...-4-2016-a.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/citi-...ted-1-1-a.html

biggestbopper

Gotta wonder why OP wants specifically to fly Norwegian when he or she knows about points. Wouldn't it be better to get a couple of cards with big bonuses on UAL or AA etc and use the bonus points to fly on the many different airlines available when you have such miles. Or get a couple of Chase cards (INK and Sapphire Preferred, for example) and use the Ultimate Rewards points to transfer to one of the many available airlines.

Why does it have to be Norwegian?--why limit your options?

happychic

Award tickets don't always have the best availability, or any availability at all.

littlewinglet

Norwegian is dirt cheap, like $200-300 one way LAX to London, while even in coach awards are 30k miles. So if you have this option and schedule works, it makes sense vs. regular airlines.

Ninja2436

Norwegian flies from Boston to Berlin for less than $400 round trip.

The reason I'm looking to use points is to make an already cheap flight even cheaper! Maybe even free.

Also, I'm trying to convince my friend's to go and if there's a card that will help them, I want to tell them about it.

I would rather use Ultimate Rewards points on a more expensive trip. For example, to Japan.

sdsearch

Well, the problem is, the only points cards that will let you redeem for purchases on indie carriers like Norwegian are those "glorified" 2% (or less) cash back cards that masquerade as "travel points cards" because they limit you to redeeming for travel. But it's still the same 2% cash back equivalent, whether you use a "travel points card" which can only redeemed for travel or if you use a "true" 2% cash back card like Citi Double Cash.

So the only way you are going to make it seem even cheaper is through the "smoke and mirrors" of one of these cards. If you friend is already using a 2% cashback card, it'll be no cheaper at all, it'll just be a "diversion" of their cash back toward this trip, nothing more.

Now, you may be able to get a little bit of signup bonus on one of those cares, but it's not nearly as much as with "real" miles cards or cards with "transferable" points (like Chase CSP for UR and equivalent cards for Amex MR and Citi TYP).

Hawaiian717

So now you have to consider the opportunity cost. If you use a generic travel rewards or cash back card in order to cover the cost of a trip on Norwegian, then you're earning that many fewer UR points for the future more expensive trip.