Hi everybody,

Hoping you could help me out. I'm moving to SF in June to start a medical residency and will try to make monthly weekend trips to Boston to see my girlfriend. I'd like to start using a credit card/ff program to start accumulating miles to be used towards free flights for monthly weekend trips from SFO<->BOS or international flights (we'd like to go on vacation to London in September).

Originally I was thinking of going for the United Select Visa as I'm going to try and run everything I can afford on the one card. From what I read of similar threads, United seemed to be a good choice for a big airline. But my questions are:

1) Since I will be limited in schedule, I'll probably fly Friday evening flights and Sunday evening flights. Does United restrict those flights to where my chances of getting a free ticket would be slim?

2) If budget is more of a concern, would it make more sense to go with a card like the Starwood (although I've read that the conversion ratio with United is not as desirable) and have increased flexibility on airline choice? Hotel is not very important to me.

3) Should I try for budget airlines (Virgin, Jetblue) instead?

I realize that there are situations where redeeming miles for flights won't be as advantageous if there are cheaper direct flights but I would like to earn as many award flights as possible. Thanks in advance!

Best,
T

Here are a bunch of random thoughts...take from them what you will.

1. Agree it's best to stick to one program. If you are flying ONLY BOS-SFO once a month (and not doing much other flying) it will take you about 5 months to accrue enough mileage from flying to get a free ticket. If you spread out miles among multiple programs, it will take that much longer.

2. UA is a decent program for domestic redemption. For int'l, UA throttles availability of certain partners based on redemption rates, so they aren't the best choice for int'l redemption unless you plan on actually flying int'l on UA. But for domestic, UA has the advantages of allowing one-way redemption, and having no last-minute redemption fees. AA also allows one-way redemptions, but charges a fee if you don't redeem 21+ days in advance.

3. Keep in mind that with alliances, you can belong to a program other than the one belonging to your preferred airline. For example, if you fly UA, you could earn miles on either US, UA, or CO. US and CO don't limit partner award availability the same way UA does. On the other hand, if you earn in the UA program and are actually flying UA, and fly enough to earn Premier status, you get free Economy Plus. You don't get that when flying on UA and accruing to US or CO no matter how much you fly.

4. Agree that the Starwood card is not a good choice if you want to earn miles on UA or CO - check the redemption chart and you will see that those are exchanced at poor rates. Again, though, keep in mind you could use miles from another *Alliance carrier (US, Air Canada, etc.) to fly on UA, if that is your desire.

5. Since you are mainly flying only one route, I suggest taking a look at what the competitors' flight schedules are. For example, BOS<-->SFO is flown nonstop by UA, AA, Virgin, and Jetblue. However, 3 of the 4 (AA, Virgin, Jetblue) only fly the route twice per day each way. If the times work for you, that's great. If not, earning miles on that carrier would be rather useless.

6. Check the frequent flyer offerings of Jetblue and Virgin to compare them. I don't know either program real well, but they are both primarily dollar-based programs (as opposed to mile-based programs like AA/UA). Jetblue looks like it also offers bonus points for taking long flights like BOS-SFO. The redemption rates for those type of programs are variable based on demand (as opposed to AA/UA where a popular flight may simply be unavailable at standard rates). I can't say which model is better for you, but you should be aware of the differences. ALL programs have some way of making redemption on the more popular flights difficult/more expensive.

Get a gf in SF?

This might be a bit ironic, but I'm also moving to SF from Boston area, and have a gf living in the area

@crhptic I really appreciated your perspective. Definitely helped me understand my options in my situation and I think I'll end up going with United.

It is easy to overthink all of this. One issue not mentioned is the cost of the paid tickets you will be flying. While UA seems the obvious choice from a ff program perspective, the cost of flying UA may be the highest.

I checked the airfares for late June and July on UA, AA, B6, and VX nonstops taking the redeye on a Friday night and the last flight back on Sunday night. In every case, UA was the most expensive and B6 was consistently the least expensive, with AA 2nd and VX 3rd.

So, if you have to pay $150-200 more for a UA flight each week, is it worth it? I don't know, only you can decide, but it is a factor you should take into account.

One other point about fares - AS codeshares with AA, and in many cases the AA flight booked as an AS codeshare was the least expensive. You can still get AA miles even though the flights are booked as AS.

Excellent point and thank you for bringing it up! Would make sense to get a UA credit card like the United Select Visa and then use that to buy airfare on airlines like Virgin or JetBlue if they end up being cheaper (so I'd get a UA mile for every $1 spent)?

And I totally agree about the ease of overthinking this.

Probably not. You want to be able to pool the miles you earn by flying with the miles you earn by spending, banking, dining etc. If you fly on JetBlue and accumulate credit card miles on United it will take longer to have sufficient miles to redeem on either airline.

Inasmuch as you are focused on one route, I suggest you start by deciding which airlines are your first and second choices to fly. Then we can suggest a credit card (and some other mileage earning techniques) to fit. Start with the airline, not the program.

Thanks for the reply and info! After taking into account cost, schedule, and whatnot my choices to fly in order of preference would be:
1) Jet Blue
2) Virgin
3) United

I would like to be able to put all of my expenses on one credit card. Any advice on what would be best?

I really appreciate all the help I've received thus far!

Since your goal is to obtain free domestic travel I would recommend the new Amex Premier Rewards Gold card and even the much maligned Citi Premier Pass Elite card. Both cards have been addressed extensively in the Credit Card forum.

There are two ways to earn Jet Blue points with American Express cards:

Jet Blue Credit Card

The drawback to using this card is that the earnings are automatically credited to your TrueBlue account and you lose the flexibility to redeem elsewhere. The alternative is to choose a card which participates in American Express Membership Rewards because those points can be transferred to JetBlue or to any of the other airline frequent flyer programs listed here:

http://www.membershiprewards.com/cat...lFreqFlyerProg

The best card for earning Membership Rewards points is the one discussed in this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...gold-card.html

If you choose this card be sure to use the application link in post #4 because the intro bonus is better than advertised elsewhere.

Note that neither Virgin America nor United Airlines participates in Membership Rewards. If you choose this card and fly on United do not credit the flight to United's Mileage Plus program. Instead, credit all Star Alliance flights (including United and US Airways) to Continental OnePass because you will be able to top up that account later with Membership Rewards points.

While it is appealing to think that you could use one credit card for everything it isn't realistic. You need to have another card (or two) to use in the event your card is damaged, lost, stolen, compromised, cancelled or there is a problem with the issuer's transaction authorization network. Inasmuch as not every merchant accepts American Express I suggest a Mastercard or VISA (or both, each from a different bank) to supplement it. If you think you will sometimes fly on United, but credit the flights to Continental, I would look at a Continental Mastercard issued by Chase to use as a backup.

To the OP, if you decide to go with the Amex Gold, you should remember the annual fee (waived first year). Secondly, while all major merchants pretty much accept Amex, many mom & pops do not. You should take a look at your spending habits to make sure that if you get an Amex, its going to be accepted 9 out of 10 times you want to use it.

Also, if you're going to put less than $15,000 in CC charges, you wont get the annual bonus points, which would make the Amex one of the more costly CC options.

Based on what you're saying, I'd probably go with a Citi AAdvantage MC. 2nd lease expensive in the regular flight you want, and good redemption ability. Also the annual fee is $80, more more palatable than the Amex Gold.

IMHO this is not advisable, based on

" Thanks for the reply and info! After taking into account cost, schedule, and whatnot my choices to fly in order of preference would be:
1) Jet Blue
2) Virgin
3) United"

A big part of the OP montly spend will be airline tickets. With the new Amex Premier Rewards thats 3 points per $ spent + other bonus category which will get to that free ticket much quicker. Along with the fee free first year, you earn a 15k bonus points for minimal spending, plus an additional 15,000 points after 30k spending. If the fee becomes an issue, I guess one could also cancel after the first and sign up again for the best card at that time (SPG Amex?). Also, as Mia posted, the Continental card is as option as well as (the much beaten down) PPE which essentially for the OP becomes a 2+ points per $ spent card.

Citi has withdrawn the Premier Pass family of cards, although the Expedia versions are still available. I simply cannot see a new user jumping into that program now in view of Citi's history of frequently revising the program and their general organizational chaos.

Today American Express and Chase seem to be focused on their credit card businesses, while Bank of America and Citi are struggling. If I were starting a medical residency I don't think I'd plan on having time or inclination to monitor rule changes etc.

Yes and no.

The OP mentioned 'budget' as a concern... if he considers canceling before the annual fee, then the AMEX Gold is great. If not, I dont know if he wants to pay that hefty fee. Coupled with the fact that AA was the 2nd cheapest route (based on someone elses search, not mine), the savings that way could potentially mitigate any bonus points earned and then redeemed for a free flight. Remember that if he's only flying once a month, he's not going to earn a ton of free flights in the course of a year.

Reading mia's post, the Continental MC recommended is a good choice as well.