freeloader

+100

Comparing Card A vs Card B can't be limited to $1 vs $1. Obviously there's more at play

mnscout

How so? Is that your own perception or an established fact? Ask yourself 2 questions: can I get reasonable redemption of SPG stays with Barclays US Air card and can I get reasonable redemption on US Air (along with how many other airlines) with Amex SPG sign up bonus? If your answer is "no" to the first question and "yes" to the second, then which card is more versatile and "superior"? Not to belittle the US Air card - I personally have two, but SPG card is great.

freeloader

established fact... the fact that USAirways miles can't be used for SPG stays is entirely irrelevant. my point of contention is which is better for USAirways redemptions - which was the point of the post. to quote lucky -

"Best credit card(s) for earning US Airways Dividend miles: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card"

THAT'S what i'm disagreeing with. sure the SPG card is better overall... but not for USAirways miles. even if you spend up to $25k a year on credit (which for most people is a lot) - and all you want is USAirways miles (which was the point of the recommendation) - the barclays card is superior - you'll have more miles - and a discount if you redeem them on USAirways; plus other benefits (included 10k at the cards anniversary). not to mention the USAirways card is churnable, multiple times, even w/ open accounts (i cant personally attest).

if you want to argue which card is more verstile, i'd agree, SPG all the way. but if the question is which ONE card is best for USAirways miles for 95% of all consumers, its undoubatably the barclays offering (which likely doesn't offer a referral bonus for bloggers)

84fiero

I have the SPG card and like it a lot, but too many analyses overstate the 5K bonus for 20K in transfers, in the context of what most folks (without reimbursable client spend funneling through cards) can spend in shorter timeframes. (And as mentioned upthread, factoring in periodic transfer bonuses isn't a valid factor if one is analyzing only daily spend - otherwise signup bonuses should be included as well.)

If one spends $20,000 in a year, and only wants US miles, then they have earned 25K miles at transfer from the SPG card. If I spend the same $20K in one year on the Barclay's card, after the anniversary I will have earned 30K miles due to the anniversary bonus. In fact I can match the SPG card by only spending $15K during the year. That alone makes the Barclay's card superior for US miles looking only at daily spending over the course of a given year and assuming a certain spend level.

If someone doesn't spend $15K a year on a card, the Barclay's card still wins out due to the 10K/year bonus whereas with SPG you don't get any bonus for transfers less than 20K points.

Neither of the above factors in the 5K discount on award tickets redeemed (on US metal only, granted). Or the extra benefits like Preferred checkin and Zone 2 boarding, and one free USAirways club pass annually. Now the Barclays card annual fee is $23 higher.

It just seems some very obvious contrasts to have been discounted and it sure gives the impression of bias, IMHO

amolkold

^ I was about to point these things out but you succinctly said everything I was saying. I barely use my US MC but plan to keep it as long as they want to sell me 10K miles each year for $89. I'm not too worried about Preferred checkin/boarding/club pass with a foreign *G membership, but that yearly bonus is definitely worth it in my book.

After 366 days of having a US Airways MC, you'll have 50K US miles for as little as $89.01.

Frequent Miler

This makes a lot of sense. Good argument in favor of the Barclays card. You may have convinced me that Lucky was wrong, but not that he did it on purpose for referrals.

saacman5033

Checked out that blog and I gotta say, at least he's not in denial that he's all about credit card referrals!

Frequent Miler

Wait, now that I've thought about it more: you made a great argument about why having the Barclay's card is better, but I still wouldn't put my spend on it for earning US Airways miles. I would keep the card in a drawer for the annual 10k and other benefits, but I would put spend on the SPG card.

HikerT

FM, I wouldn't put spend on either card for earning US miles. Both would be trumped by a 2% cash back card (or virtual 4x AMEX via Ink) when you consider one can effectively buy US miles for under a cent during the US Grand Slam. That said, here's my issue with the application links in that blog post. By choosing to include them the sign up bonus becomes relevant. It can't be tangential when you're including a link for someone to apply for a card. It's really sad that more bloggers don't take your lead and only put such links in their blog posts when they are the topic of discussion.

amolkold

Considering that I got a bulk amount of US Airways miles for under a half penny per mile last year during the Grand Slam, I wouldn't do any credit card transactions just to get US Airways miles (unless I was on the cusp of achieving a particular award, but the economics of miles changes when you're at the margin).

Like HikerT is saying, the best way to earn US miles is to get a good-%tage cash back card and use that to buy US miles during bonus periods. Even with the recent price increase, you'll pay < 2cpm during a 100% bonus.

During the GS, With a 2% cash back card, I could use that cash back to "purchase" >4 US miles/$ (yes, I know, it's not direct purchasing, but the GS game made it fun and worth my time). Even with the extra time I put into the GS, I'd still consider it as at least 2 US miles/$ cash back. Neither the US nor SPG card comes close to that.

Campath

While on the topic of the Grandslam, don't forget that the US Airways card is getting you a virtually free hit. Depending on how many hits you already have, it can be valued at upto 5000 miles.

amolkold

My US card is the only card I have registered with the US Dining mileage program, so when I used it, it was actually 2 hits

DHAST

Snipping the US discussion, I totally agree with the above, although for different reasons. IMHO, 20,000 SPG are worth far more than 25,000 airline points. Given that SPG points are hard to come by, I think it's pretty dumb to transfer them to airline miles.

Second, because it is hard to generate gobs of points on average consumer spend, SPG points are useful in that you can actually get a valuable award starting at 1200 points. Even at the higher end, Cat 5 C&P is 4800 points/night + $90. That's actually valuable at many hotels.

gregorygrady

I agree 100% with many of you previous posters, however the thing that I find so surprising is that so many people here are surprised that the bloggers are not offering objective views. Take for instance lucky. I like his blog, enjoy reading his travel porn, and have nothing against him (other than that he's a blogger). But let's face it, the kid CANNOT be objective if SPG Amex is giving him all expense-paid vacations to:

- The Tribeca Film Festival
- The US Open
- New York Fashion Week
- A stay at the new St. Regis Bal Harbour
- Two nights at any Starwood property in the US
- A “staycation” at a local Starwood property

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemil...n-win-as-well/

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemil...film-festival/

Basically lucky is a paid shill for SPG Amex via these all-expense paid vacations. On top of that, he surely gets a nice referral kickback comission for each person he refers to SPG Amex who applies via his link. So of course he is gonna spew incorrect garbage about which credit card is best. He wants the referral commission, and at the same time he can keep the other hand that feeds him (SPG Amex) happy. Win-win situation for everybody but his blog readers who end up trusting his knowledge via all the goodwill he had previously built up from his pre credit card shill days. The more bad advice he gives though, the less people will trust him in the future. Hopefully he shapes up!!

gregorygrady

One thing I find awfully amusing is that all the bloggers (including lucky) have completely overlooked the Chase Fairmont Visa that was just introduced earlier this month. 2 Free Nights for applying (with a minimal $1k spend in the first 3 months) at any Fairmont worldwide. I personally think this Fairmont CC is better than the Hyatt CC. But nary a peep from all the bloggers who don't fail to remind us 5x daily that the Chase Sapphire Preferred's signup bonus is dropping from 50k pts down to 40k pts. Or that the BA Visa 50/100k signup bonus is ending a week from now.

Frankly, it's pretty pathetic IMHO and speaks volumes as to how much these credit card referral kickbacks have begun to control the bloggers.

Mark my word, the second a Chase Fairmont affiliate link is released to the bloggers, they will all be blogging about it nonstop and praising it like it is the next best thing since sliced bread (or should I say next best thing since Chase Sapphire Preferred and/or Chase BA Visa). Pretty sad indeed. The funny thing is that many of these bloggers posted about it way back in early April when the card was first rumored. I think they were assuming there would be an affiliate referral kickback for them, but then when there wasn't they were all silent about it when the card was actually introduced early this month. LOL, pathetic..........or did I already say that.

The only blogger who actually wrote about it was TPG, and even his post wasn't for a couple weeks after the Chase Fairmont Visa was released, not to mentioned his analysis of the credit card & Fairmont program was riddled with errors.