Best all-around Visa/MC rewards program?
 

I have a Starwood Amex which is the best card out there for miles earned for any airline, but I need a VC/MC for non-Amex shopping. I have researched MBNA Plus Rewards, Chase Travel Rewards, Fleet, and Orbitz Rewards and compared all the cards they offer. Minimal differences in terms of $ caps, geographic specificity, and annual fees.

Bottom line: Any one have experience with actually redeeming in these programs, and recommend one vs. another?

Hopefully others can provide some insight as I am interested in the same question. But for what its worth, I'll offer my 2 cents.

I currently use my *wood amex for as much as I can, so the first question is, do I want to pay a fee or not. MBNA Elite Rewards has a fee free card, but a) you can only redeem through them, you can't redeem for say, miles in an airline's program and perhaps more importantly b) points expire after 3 years.

Given the fact that the visa/mc isn't my primary spending card, the question then becomes how much are you willing to pay in an annual fee for a card that you won't be using as much (assuming you'd rather use your starwood). In my case, I figured that my usage of my visa/mc would be so seldom that I'd rather not pay a fee and be set on the idea that I probably won't be redeeming anything on the card. just my thoughts.

Are you looking for the best all-around airline rewards program from Visa/MC ? I think the MBNA Amtrak card is good for airline miles because there is no annual fee and you can transfer miles in increments of 5,000 to Continental, United, and some other airlines. The drawback is that the miles will expire in three years if you don't book an Amtrak trip.

I have the Amex Starwood and the Amtrak card. I'm planning to use the Starwood wherever they take Amex and the Amtrak card for big ticket items at places that don't take Amex.

I have also researched the Amtrak card-- it is too limited in its airlines for my taste. Since I already have a "real" frequent flier card with Starwood, I want to get a Visa/MC with "fake" frequent flier miles, i.e. ones that the company will redeem on any airline by actually buying a ticket (with no blackout dates or limited seats-- i'll deal with the 21 day advance/sat night stay). That way, I can keep my status up as well as get "real" frequent flier miles with the free ticket.

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UA Premier Exec, AA Platinum, Delta Elite, Starwood Gold

Don't know if you've looked at these cards yet:

Miles One card from Capital One: No blackout dates, fly any airline, 9.99% fixed rate, $19 annual fee. Domestic mileage awards vary by zone.

MBNA Quantum Select rewards card: No blackout dates, fly any airline, 12.99% fixed rate, no annual fee. Miles expire after 5 years. Minimum 25,000 miles required for round trip ticket anywhere in the U.S.

MBNA Elite Rewards card: No blackout dates, fly any airline, 12.99% fixed rate, no annual fee. Points can also be used for merchandise and expire after 4 years. Domestic mileage awards vary by zone.

[This message has been edited by steve4 (edited 06-19-2002).]

I had an MBNA Travel Rewards Visa for a few years until they altered the program considerably last December. The program was outstanding and the folks in their Travel Department were great. I think they actually contract with an agency out of Boise becuase that is always where my travel documents came from. I've had several free flights, hotel stays, and a week at Disney World.

The primary reason that I cancelled is because they raised the mileage limits on all of their air, hotel, and car rental awards. They also lowered the maximum amount that they spend on free tickets. For example, it now requires 25K miles for a free airline ticket in the lower 48. They also cap the dollar amount of the ticket to $400. If the ticket cost more than $400, you pay the difference. The same occured with their hotel stays. It requires 5,000 points for a free night up to a maximum of $80 per night.

I would love to find another program that permits the flexibility of traveling on any airline. Until I find one, I'm sticking with my Starwood AmEx and Amtrak MBNA cards.

As long as the program looks like it will be around for awhile. Remember all the threads on Webmiles?

I still like the Citibank MC for non-Amex charges - the miles go towards lifetime status on AA.

[This message has been edited by singlemalt (edited 06-20-2002).]

I use my Citibank Hilton Honors card as my no-fee backup. You earn 2 HHonours points per US$ and 3 on Hilton spend. No points cap (that I'm aware off) and no expiration date. You can convert them to almost any airline and use for hotel rewards.


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I Love New York -- Viva España

I wish that were true! Here is the list of airlines participating in the HH Reward Exchange:

Aero California, American Airlines, Continental, Delta, Hawaiian, LanChile, LatinPass, Mexicana, Midwest Express, South African, United, Virgin.

Also, the points-to-miles exchange rate is rather unfavorable.

I'm with Redhead. I use the Starwood AMEX everywhere they will accept AMEX. For those few places that only take VISA/MC I use the HHonors VISA card.

I looked into the other reward cards, but the limitations on ticket value and the fact that it would take me many years to actually have enough for a free ticket led me elsewhere. The Citibank AA card is good for AA fans, but I refuse to pay $50 for a card that will only generate me perhaps 2000 miles per year. It's not worth it.

Everbank.com advertises as having a generous awards program, but doesn't have any info on their site. Does anyone have this card and can shed some light on it?

I called Everbank, and they have a $350/ticket cap, 14-day advance, sat-night-stay required that they don't post on their website. Ahh, if only Webmiles-- which I had and loved-- had not disappeared. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif The Amtrak card is really starting to sound like the best free non-Starwood amex rewards card.

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UA Premier Exec, AA Platinum, Delta Elite, Starwood Gold

That's the problem with these types of programs. The ability to fly on any airline sounds great, but the capping of the fares kill you.

To avoid the capping problem, simplify your life and get the Visa/MC associated with the airline you fly most (Assuming it's not Delta, which only has an Amex).

You will pay a fee, but if you charge a lot the miles easily pay for the fee. For example, you only need to charge $3,600/yr. if you get a $90 card and assume a mile is worth 2.5 cents (90/.025 = 3,600).

An airline-affiliated card also allows you to streamline your miles acquisitions. For example, if you only had a Starwood card and another non-affiliated card, what miles promotions/bonuses would you pursue? None of them? All of them?

With an airline-affiliated card, you could consolidate your mileage pursuit to one airline - the one you flew the most and had a credit card with.

Nowadays, the amount of non-Amex merchants is growing smaller. I don't spend much on my Visa - use Starwood Amex as much as possible. So to spend $3,600 a year just to break even - if using 2.5 cents a mile - isn't worth it to me. I use a Hilton Amex with no fee - but something else one might consider is a cash rebate card. I know there is one that is mentioned somewhere in FT that gives up to 2% back and has no fee.

That way, instead of hoping you might someday earn enough for a flight or hotel stay, you could actually guarantee you have at least enough to buy dinner or something.

I'll admit I haven't done this - but I actually think it probably is smarter than what I am doing - since I still haven't used any Hhonors points for anything.

Anyone looked at the Orbitz Platinum card. You get a free ticket at 20K points, I assume from Orbitz, which seems to have pretty cheap prices. You can also get $100 off with 7500 points.

Plus you get FF miles for the flight...

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To avoid the capping problem, simplify your life and get the Visa/MC associated with the airline you fly most (Assuming it's not Delta, which only has an Amex).
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I currently use my Starwood card for that. The problem; however, is blackout dates and non-availability of award travel. I fly primarily on USAir and Continental and have accumulated several hundred thousand miles in those programs. Inevitibly, when it comes time to book free travel I either hit a black-out/non-available day and am forced to use considerably more than the 25K miles in order to avoid the black-out.

Life was easier when I had my MBNA card and could use any airline.

Ah, let's not forget about codeshare partner-related options for programs in which award redemption is allowed re: partner metal.

e.g. Let's say one's primary carrier is C, & one of their codeshare partners is Y. Furthermore, let's say that award redemption w/ miles from account Y, for flights on carrier C, are allowed. Having a credit card associated w/ mileage earning for account Y could allow one to redeem awards not only w/ carrier C (or, more accurately, w/-carrier-Y-but-on-C-metal), but also any in-common-w/-C or not-in-common-w/-C codeshare partners of Y (carrier A, etc.).

Call it a potentially flexible, backup/"CYA" plan. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I am looking for a relatively cheap (or free) MasterCard. I would love to get points on it if possible.

Can anyone tell me if the Orbitz card is low fee / free? Can you tell me if the Orbitz card is MC? (Must be MasterCard)

I fly UA (1K), then US (Gold), then DL, then AA (Exec. Plat.)

I stay with Hyatt (Diamond), Marriott (Platinum), Starwood (Gold), Hilton (Gold)

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

There is a United credit card that gives you one mile for ever $2.00 you spend and it is free. Do not have details.. but maybe do a search?

Betty --

I still think that the AMBNA AMtrak is what you would want as you can transfer on a 1:1 basis Amtrak points into UA miles in blocks of 5,000 as well as get 10,000 HHonors points if you wish instead. There is a Starwood option, but it is not good.

So if you haven't booked Amtrak as per above, do they go back to your airline frequent flyer account and debit all the 5,000 point transfers? Seems like the costs of keeping track of that would be more than it's worth...

This seems unlikely. In fact, if you've transferred miles to an airline, they become the airline's miles. But in the big picture, if you aren't going to take an Amtrak trip once every three years, you probably don't want the Amtrak credit card.

I disagree. It's the only card I know of that gives you 1:1 credit, has no annual fee, has a low foreign currency transaction fee, and has a 25 day grace period. If you are a UA or CO freq. flyer, this is a great deal.

Though this may be true in general, I still find many Visa/MC-only merchants for large purchases, such as furniture stores and landscape companies. Examine your own spending percentages before deciding that Visa/MC won't account for much.

For example, Amex accounts for 70% of my activity if I only include normal monthly expenses. But when I add in large house-related expenses that can only be charged to Visa/MC, Amex accounts for only 40% of the annual bill.

So if you're in a situation where Visa gets 60% of your miles, it's important to put some effort into picking the best Visa/MC card.

I would recommend that you find a visa/MC with a decent sign up bonus and keep it for a couple years. I would not recommend switching cards every year, I would rather not have my credit tugged that often. What I did was get the NW USBank Sig Visa. It had a $90 fee (I could have got the regular Visa for $55 but the limit was low), but so far, for the $90, I got:

5k signup
10k as it was a qualifier for FFF2
~10k for purchases

in about 3-4 months. So for $90 I already have a free ticket and counting. Now I also spent $500 with NW so I should get 5k more (they had a special promotion), then if I have it for 15 months total (and have to pay the $90 again - another thing with this offer) I get another 15k. I dont know if this offer is still going, but it was posted here quite heavliy here on FT.

You can get free cards that give you 1/$2, but it may be worth it to pay the fee for the extra miles, especially when you factor in the bonus miles.

THIS is the best card for all around air travel!!! The fee is $550.00 and the ticket can be purchased by ELAN on ANY airline. My wife will use her DELTA miles for a seat to Hawaii. I than make a reservation for the seat next to her and ELAN uses that reservation to buy the ticket and because they are buying a full fare ticket I get the airmiles.

www.elancard.com/cgi_w/cfm/Elancard/PersonalCards/VisaPlatinumTravel.cfm

I think the Royal Bank American Airlines Visa Gold card is the best value at 1 AA mile for every 0.67USD spent!