I need to book some flights in the Caribbean using LIAT and Caribbean Airlines for which I can't use miles from the major airline programs.

Since I have always used miles for travel and never paid for anything with "points"... or if I did, always first converted them to miles (from SPG, UR and MR)... what is the best way to pay for these non-partner flights? I would prefer to not use my UR as they are more valuable as miles.

So would I need a card like Barclays Arrival or Capital One? Can those miles or points be used toward purchases on any airline?

Any simpler way of doing this?

Maybe, but keep in mind that they're not really much better than cashback cards. They're simply cashback cards on which the cashback can be used only for travel purchases.

So they're essentially the equivalent of you getting a 2% cashback card (such as Citi's Double Cash) and saving all that money for your travel.

And since they're cashback (or close to it), they don't give very good bonuses.

To earn $100 of cashback (whether general purpose or towards travel), you have to spend $5000. To earn $200, you have to spend $10000. To earn $400, you have to spend $20000. Is it really worth that amount of work and time for a $400 ticket? (And it it's really much more than $400, how and when will you spend the many tens of thousands of dollars necessary to earn much more than $400 in 2%-ish cashback?)

Yes. Just how expensive are these tickets? It's certainly simpler to just buy the tickets with your own money, and at least earn miles on mileage-earning credit card toward something else on the purchase.

Many people simply pay for cheap tickets (including most domestic coach flights), and save their miles for situations where the flight is inexpensive with miles but expensive with money (such as international longhaul flights). I would think inter-Caribbean flights would be much closer to domestic coach flights (in not making sense to use miles for, even if you could) than to international longhaul flights.


But are you sure you need these airlines? You haven't explained the destinations you're going to / connecting between.

Around $500+ total. So I was thinking maybe an Arrival 40,000 bonus would take care of $400 of that.

I think I will have to use them for hops like SKB-GND where LIAT is the only real option without backtracking to the US.

You could also pay cash and with AMEX PRG (directly with airline), Citi Premier (via OTA or directly with airline), or Citi Prestige (directly with airline) earn 3x on the purchase.

If I didn't have those 3 cards I would use a CSP since you get 2x on the travel and can also redeem those directly for 1.25 cents on all travel or IMO higher values for UR transfer (which used to be my standard approach for tickets until I added those 3 cards to my wallet).

IMO if you hold those cards all 3 options provide a greater return than a straight 2% cash back card (very easy to redeem all 3 for more than 1 cent).

It won't help you in the short-term (i.e., this specific ticket won't be free) but the longer term return is higher IMO than A+ or straight cash back.