Hello,
I recently found information about the world of credit card points and miles. Though I don’t travel often, I thought it would be smart to get a couple credit card bonuses for my upcoming trip (Oct 11-14).

Originally I got the Chase Sapphire Preferred card because many websites mentioned it was a great card for someone new to credit card points. The bonus offer was solid and we already reached that offer with our initial spend. My spouse doesn’t have this card. The plan was to maybe use this card for our flights.

And after looking at the hotel options for our trip and hotel credit card offers we decided the Hilton Amex Surpass card would work well for us, for at least this year’s trip. They have good local hotel choices, a great intial bonus offer and we instantly reach Gold status with Hilton. We reached the original spend amount bonus for one card and should hit the required spend amount for the other card in about a week.


looking at the uses for the Chase card, which has a good transfer to some hotel chains (but not Hilton), I realized it would be smart for me to join a community so we could make good use of the current points and also make good decisions getting the next cards.

for now it appears Chase has the best transfer to United, which is fine for our domestic flights. And since we likely won’t have enough points for 2 round trick tickets, we will pay cash (on our credit cards) for the difference.

and then we will combine our Hilton credit card points to use for a Hilton hotel at our destination and again pay cash for the difference.


how does that strategy sound?

do we have time to get another new credit card and obtain a significant intial bonus offer before the trip? If so, what should we also add?

thanks in advance to anyone who can help this newbie!

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Do you check bags when you fly, or do you only take carry-ons? If you'll be flying domestic routes in Coach, you will typically be charged for checked baggage, unless you have elite status or hold a co-branded airline credit card, such as the Chase United Explorer card, the Amex Delta card, or the Barclays or Citi AA card. (Southwest still offers free checked baggage on all fares.)

Are there airlines besides UA that would be useful for you based on your home city and your intended destinations?

One of the most valuable transfer options for Chase UR points is Hyatt. But if it is your intention to stay primarily at Hilton properties, then Hyatt transfers probably won't make much sense for you.

Welcome to Flyertalk!

I find chase UR and Amex membership rewards combination to be the two best options for points. Both have a solid list of transfer partners and gives you flexibility when looking for awards (airlines as well as hotels). I have hotel cards but generally use them only for the hotel stays and everything else goes on either Chase or Amex.

For hotels, try to figure out your future travel needs and whether the chain has hotels in the areas you are likely to visit. Hyatt is great but they have a much smaller footprint compared to Marriott and Hilton in places I travel to, so didn’t work well for me, If you are planing to stick with Hilton, Amex does partner with Hilton (1:2 transfer rate).

That’s an oversight by me. I like the Hilton options but Hyatt would have been good too. However now that I have Hilton rewards with the Amex card, I’m thinking it’s best to use Chase points for the flight. But I’m certainly open suggestions from the experts here.


thank you for the helpful and encouraging reply.

in this instance since my Amex card is specifically a Hilton Amex card, am I correct to say that the reward points I receive for my until spend, is best used (or maybe only available to use) for a Hilton stay?
I’m ok with that, because there are good quality Hilton options where I’m traveling.

and in that instance since i won’t have enough points for airline tickets nor all the nights we are staying, should I use the chase points to pay for a majority of the airline ticket prices or, should i transfer them to Hilton (if possible) to pay off the rest of my hotel and do something different for the airline?

is there an airline card with a great bonus offer for an initial spend or easier chance at first class upgrade?
Because it’s possible we could reach that spend amount in time to be credited with points prior to the trip. But this would really only work if Chase can offer a good transfer to Hilton, otherwise those points could go to waste and I’d rather them pay for the flight.

Credit cards will not get you free upgrades on airplanes. You would need to earn elite status in a particular frequent-flyer program for that. Some domestic FFPs will count charges made to their co-branded credit cards towards status. But unless you fly with some frequency, chasing status probably does not make sense for you. And low-level elite status won't get you upgraded as often as higher-level status. Many domestic airlines (including AA and UA) have co-branded credit cards with generous sign-up bonuses. The Chase UA and Citi AA cards typically waive the card's first-year annual fee; the offers on the Barclays AA card vary over time: sometimes the first-year annual fee is waived, and sometimes its not.

The points you earn with your Amex Hilton card are Hilton HHonors points; they will get credited to your HHonors account monthly, after your Amex statement closes. I think that Hilton lets you convert HHonors points to frequent-flyer miles in some FFPs, but typically the conversion ratio is poor.

Your Chase UR points can be used for air travel in two different ways: you can transfer the points to a frequent-flyer program to redeem for award flights (if there are award seats available on your desired flights), or you can use the points as cash towards the purchase of cash tickets through Chase's travel portal. Which method will produce the greater value can vary from one trip to another.

Note that if you want to transfer points to an FFP, do not assume that you will get the best value by transferring them to the FFP of the airline you wish to fly. UA is a member of Star Alliance, and Chase UR points transfer to several different Star Alliance programs, any of which can be used to redeem for award flights on UA if UA is making award seats available to partners on those particular flights. Redemption rates, fees, and rules for the very same flight can vary widely from one FFP to another.

Also note that many FFPs allow for one-way awards, usually at or close to to half the price of a roundtrip So if your desired route is served by both AA and UA, you could conceivably redeem AA miles in one direction, and UA miles in the other.

thanks for explaining that in a way a newbie can understand.

I understand that she rewards points can transfer at a one-to-one ratio airlines. What does that make it a better value than utilizing the Chase portal to book American Airlines flight?

my local airport has many united and American flight options. So either would work well.

and for that reason, my spouse and I are torn between which card to open next. It will likely be the last card we open for a welcome offer for our upcoming trip. Should my spouse open the Chase preferred Sapphire card as I already have. Or should one of us open a United or American Airlines card?

They’re welcome offer for the Chase Chase card is 60,000 points, the United card has 60,000 miles, and the American card has 50,000 miles.

The Chase code has some more versatility, but there appears to be some other perks with the other airline cards. It is possible that we would utilize one, but more than likely would only use carry-ons for flights if that matters. Any advice as to which card should be opened for this trip would be very much appreciated.

To recap, we are using both our Hilton cards to pay for the majority of our hotel (the rest in cash) and I currently have a Chase card and just got its welcome offer that will be used for flights.

Welcome to FT, J.Nash!
In addition to the helpful responses you have already received, you might also get some useful suggestions if you were to indicate what route (origin and destination) you and your wife wish to fly on your trip in October. That American and United serve your closest airport does not necessarily mean that both airlines offer the same routes. Since it also seems that you have specific travel dates in mind and appear to be unfamiliar with award travel, you should be aware that finding award flights often requires a certain amount of flexibility.

Both the Chase United card and the Citi AA card have minimum-spend requirements before you earn the sign-up bonus. Both cards waive the first-year annual fee. However, the Barclays AA card, which does not waive the first-year annual fee, has a higher sign-up bonus (70,000 AAdvantage miles), and only requires one purchase of any amount, so you might be able to get those miles posted sooner, and thus have them available sooner for redemption.

Current Barclays offer here:

applyaviator.com

(Most people would happily pay the $99 for the additional 20,000 AAdvantage miles.)

In some cases, you will get more value by transferring your Chase points to an FFP than by using them as cash through the cash portal. It all depends on what the cash price is for your desired ticket vs. the redemption cost in miles for the same ticket.

As to whether you would find AA or UA miles more valuable for your upcoming trip, you just have to price the awards on both the AA website and the UA website to see what they are currently charging. No frequent-flyer account is necessary to do so. However, if you do decide to apply for an AA or UA co-branded credit card, you should first create a frequent-flyer account, and enter that number when submitting the credit-card application, rather than relying on the credit-card issuer to establish a frequent-flyer account for you.

As of today, according to the AA site, it will cost 85,000 miles for the two round trip tickets. This credit card will get me 70k, and would i have to pay the rest in cash or is it possible to use my Chase rewards points to cover the difference?





Why is this the case?
i actually let Amex set up my Hilton honors account since I didn’t have a number to provide when opening the credit card. Would you explain to me why it’s better that I set up my own account in the future?

thank you for all your help and detailed explanation

and thank you for finding me that nice welcome offer card!

The less you leave to chance, the better. Do not rely on the credit-card issuer to set up your frequent-flyer accounts.

As mentioned previously, both AA and UA offer one-way awards. So you could use your AA miles in one direction, and UA miles from a Chase transfer -- or even cash -- in the other direction.

I'll just note that 42,500 AA miles for one domestic roundtrip in Economy Class seems like a lot of miles -- unless your domestic destination happens to be Hawaii. Are you traveling over a high-demand period? If you have any flexibility in travel dates, are there cheaper redemptions available a day or two before, or a day or two after?

Also, what is UA asking for award tickets (one-way and roundtrip)? And what is the cash cost on AA, UA, or other carriers? That's the research you need to do in order to decide how best to utilize your Chase points, and what card to apply for next.

I misspoke before but it’s 40,000 AA miles plus $11.4 for one person round trip with “Main” benefits because we likely won’t check a bag. Or $414 including taxes if paying cash. The flight leaving isn’t high cost but the return flight mid day on a Sunday appears to be the more costly part of the trip and while I have some flexibility regarding the week I travel, the return will always need to be midday Sunday.

United is asking double for nearly the exact same flight times. It’s $804 per person round trip. They are offering he flight per person for 66,400 miles plus $11.3 for economy.

Is it likely at least some of these flights might start reducing in prices as the months go by? My trip is more than a dozen weeks away.

If you subtract $11.20 from $414, you'll see that you are paying 40,000 miles for about $403 in value, or just barely 1.0 cents per mile. That is not considered great value for AA miles. You might do better by just paying cash, since you would at least earn some miles on a cash ticket. There are also credit cards like the CSP which offer points that can be used as cash to purchase tickets, or redeemed for credits against travel charged to the card. One such card is the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Visa, which can be especially lucrative if you use mobile wallet to make lots of purchases. Don't be put off by the card's $400 annual fee: the first $325 in travel or dining charges are automatically rebated, and many people have reported receiving generous retention offers at renewal time which can bring the card's net annual cost down to zero -- or less. The U.S. Bank card also includes eight annual Priority Pass lounge visits or participating airport restaurant credits per year, which could make your trip more pleasant if there are participating facilities at your origination, destination, and/or connecting airports.

It would be helpful to know the cost of the one-ways in each direction (in both cash and miles) on both AA and UA. It might make sense to use miles in one direction, and cash in the other.

Yes, mileage-redemption rates on some routes can go down (or up) after you secure an award ticket, but both AA and UA let you cancel for a full refund, and then rebook at the lower redemption rate. To maximize potential use of this option, it is best to book one-way awards, as the redemption rate in one direction rate might go down, even as the redemption rate in the other direction goes up.

While many of us attach far less importance to CPM when evaluating redemptions now than just a few years ago, if a friend of mine was on the verge of redeeming AA for 1 cpm, I'd step in and try to find something better. If I couldn't, I'd offer to front them cash. AA miles, in particular, are still quite useful. UA miles are also okay, as long as you are fine with economy class award tickets (this took a while to get used to, but I'm okay with it now). DL miles are definitely the worst of the three, but there are some remaining sweet spots, and it's usually possible to get at least 1.2 cpm on domestic redemptions.

I didn't notice it mentioned, but if you haven't already, consider having your spouse also get a card. My wife and I often both get the same card separately as primary cardholders and then we get 2 bonuses. All this depends on credit status and ability to meet spend requirements. A double shot of Chase or Hilton bonus points might come in handy.

Your entire reply was very helpful but I specifically had a question about this section.

I have the chase sapphire preferred card but my spouse does not.
knowing this card is going to be utilized for an upcoming trip this fall which card offers the better value/welcome bonus for my spouse to open next, the CSP or the US Bank Altitude you mentioned above? Thanks