dave_SEA

I currentlyu hold both cards, but don't want to pay both annual fees. Is one really way better than the other?

Also, if I buy an AA ticket using the AA credit card, do I get any extra miles?

maulah

If you want to earn and use miles for both airlines, then you can think of Diners Club where points can be converted to either airlines. $95 fee is quite high but you get 12,000 points the first time and then on each annivarsary some retention bonus which helps to neutralize the pain.

Your other option could be to retain UA card and get starwood Amex (no fee the first year and then just $ 15) which can be used for AA and some other airlines but not for UA.

UpgradeMe

Incorrect on both points. Annual fee is $30. SPG points convert 2:1 to UA.

fuzz

The Starwood card is $30 per year after the first.

mia

<<if I buy an AA ticket using the AA credit card, do I get any extra miles>>

No. You can actually earn more AA miles using the Starwood American Express card because $20,000 spending converts to 25,000 miles.

dennis

dave_SEA

I already have the AMEX starwood as my main credit card. I wanted an Visa/MC for places that don't accept Amex. Is there a free card I should use instead as a backup?

mia

Ah, this does change the focus of the question. If you want a single V/MC which can transfer miles as required to your AA and UA accounts you could consider the Diners Club Mastercard Charge Card. The annual fee is $95, which is likely about the same as the combined AA+UA cards, but you can earn 12,000 bonus points in the first 12 months and in subsequent years you could pay the annual fee by redeeming points, currently 8,000. This means the first $8,000 of annual spending does not generate any miles, which probably isn't attractive if your charge volume is low, but there are other benefits such as $350,000 flight insurance, primary car rental insurance, and concierge service which may cause you to shift some spending away from the SPG card.

A variant on this idea is the forthcoming Diners Club Credit Card. Citibank is not yet accepting applications for this product, but they are offering it to holders of other discontinued cards which carried no annual fee. The assumption is that the credit card will also have no fee, and will offer a subset of the charge card benefits. In particular it will earn only 1 point for $2 spending, but this may compare favorably to spending 8,000 points to pay the fee if your annual Mastercard spending is under $16,000.

I have also read that Citibank offers, but does not advertise, an AAdvantage Bronze credit card with no annual fee. This reportedly earns 1 mile per $2 spending.

dennis