This is too confusing for me! Please help!
 

Currently I have an American Airlines Citi Platinum Business Credit Card and have been accruing miles on it. The problem I have with American Miles however is that it seems I am never able to redeem them on other airlines I want to fly (BA and Cathay Pacific), because there are no seats left over.

Three weeks ago, however, I used my Lufthansa miles to book a r/t between LAX and JFK on United Premier Service First Class. This cost 50k miles. I was impressed with the service and everything and decided it was much better than AA's first class. Immediately, I decided I wanted to get a UA credit card to accrue miles so I could fly United PS in the future. But then I noticed that to fly PS with United miles it is 60k versus 50k for Lufthansa.

So here's my question: What card is best for me? The UA Card, the Lufthansa Card, or another card?

I'm based in Los Angeles and spend about 200,000 on my card each year. Thanks!

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

I think that this is going to get moved to the Other CC forum, as there is no card for UA or LH (I think) earning from AmEx. I don't know if the SPG card is an option for UA transfers or not.

Also, the 50K redemption level is nice for the ps service, but also keep in mind that on international itineraries the international carriers also have fuel surcharges, something the US carriers do not. That can add up to a lot of real money on some routes.

S.

Moving to the Other Credit Card Forum
 

Moderator Hat On

As sbm12 so eloquently put it, this is better served in the Other Credit Card Programs forum.

Moderator Hat Off

I would be careful about jumping programs so quickly based on attempting to purchase one ticket. It could have been the exception rather than the norm. I don't know anything about AA, UA or LH but many others here do. Check the forums for those programs and search for threads on award availability and make an educated comparison.

There are a few ways to play this - and it may depend to some extent on what you spend the $200K per year on.

There are some point earning cards from Citibank(platinum amex) that, for example give a 3% rebate (3 Thank you points) per $ spent on any purchase - there is an annual limit of 150,000 TY points per year (so $50,000 x 3pts/$). This limit is PER CARD, not per Thank you point account. So no reason why you cant get one card, spend $50K on it, then say 3-4 months later, apply for a 2nd card, spend another $50K on it, and repeat again.

Also consider the Starwood AMEX card - this gets you 1 point per $ - but one of the options on this card is you can convert points to airline miles (just confirm UA is part of the program). BUT YOU GET A BONUS: for every 20000 points you transfer for miles, you get an added 5000 miles.

So 200,000 points = 250,000 UA miles. Again check for annual limits.

BTW - you can get a personal Starwood and a business starwood - each with a 10,000 point bonus when u get a new card. So if there is an annual limit it would be PER CARD, so effectively doubling your annual limit.

You can also get a United Credit Card (again get a personal and a business card) - assuming you have not applied for these in the past, there are links available to earn 25,000 UA miles per card.

You are right that this is CONFUSING and some people explore the ins and outs of maximizing credit card bonuses and rebates.

Small example - let us say that $10000 of your $200000 is on gas - now some cards pay a 5% rebate (cash or Thank you points) for GAS purchases.
So would $500 cash rebate say be better to you than 10,000 UA miles (which in this example means the UA miles cost 5 cents per mile - which is alot).

I hope this helps a little - Happy Holidays

I should make a point - important to read up about the Thank You program - one of the main benefits is first, you are not tied down to a specific airline.
Second, you are not tied down to "award" availability. You are effectively using the Thank You points to buy your ticket - there are "fixed rate" options which are the best use of these points - it is SOMEWHAT COMPLICATED to get the max value out of these points.

I am just starting to explore this option myself - I spend around $120K per year.
Just did the following rough calculation:

$30,000 spend = 90,000 TY points = Fixed option Domestic Business Class ticket worth up to $2700. There is a clever way (you will see by reading the Thank You thread) how people get superb value from this option. So for a $30,000 spend you can get air travel "rebate" if we want to call it that, of 9% - there are some "change" fees that come into play, so lets say the effective rebate is 8% ($2400) - that is far better than 36,000 UA miles (Starwood card).

If you're not aware, the BA flights from LHR-USA are not just "taken" but prohibited. If you want a BA transatlantic flight, try connecting through Canada or Mexico.

welcome to flyertalk - but please don't cross post

OP, consider getting the Starwood AMEX card:

You can convert starpoints 1 to 1 to many other frequent flyer programs. On top of that, every time you convert 20,000 points, you get a bonus 5,000 points. So actually you get 1.25 points for 1 point. (e.g. 20,000 spg points = 25,000 AA points).
Check out the details here:
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/prefer...eem/index.html

And obviously you can use all the points you accrue to get free hotel stays as well. Since you spend over $30,000 a year, you can get automatically upgraded to gold status.

www.spgamex.com

This is excellent advice. The Amex SPG card is great in terms of redemption for stays at Starwood hotels and for exchanging your SPG points for miles on various airlines. Be aware that the exchange rate for United is worse than for most airlines, though. For UA, it takes two SPG points to get one mile.

You can garner some quick bonus points from SPG by finding links to sign-up bonuses of 10,000 points for both personal and business cards. Plus I think there may be an offer that gets you 15,000 (?) additional points if you spend $15,000 within the first six months, which seems like it would be no problem for you.

I don't have the links handy, but you can find it by searching the Starwood forum here at FT. A good key word would be 10,000.

I also agree with the earlier advice that you probably shouldn't switch airline affiliations based on just one itinerary.

Starwood is not a good choice for United or Continental redemptions. Both airlines are part of the program, but the transfer rate is 2:1 and you will need to spend $40,000 to receive 25,000 miles.

However, Starwood does transfer to Lufthansa $20,000 = 20,000 Starpoints = 25,000 miles.