What would you do in this situation?
 

I’m new to this game and although I have taken advantage of many of the offers currently out there I am wondering what to do for my fiance’s position.

She just got a consultant type job where she will be traveling to more rural towns (in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico), some by flights, some by flights then renting car, some by car alone, and she is suppose to get one card to put her business expenses on. I’m not exactly sure the best way for me to direct her as far as maximizing rewards out of the deal. My initial thought was have her sign up for the 75k AAdvantage card to get those miles by spending and just have her sign up for the points programs along the way depending on where she is able to stay or car rental company. Problem with that is we fly out of IAH, so therefore most of her flights will be Continental most likely. I love the SPG card, but there will be no SPG properties anywhere she travels unlike I who only travel to major metro areas. What would you all do for a card to maximize points that are easily transferrable? Thanks.

Welcome from Yellsider.

I'd look into the Continental Mastercard since you fly out of IAH. It isn't 75k, but it is still a really good bonus. No card is going to match the transferrability of SPG AMEX, but those aren't transferrable to Continental anyway.

You should also look into opening a Chase checking account for 25k extra continental miles.

Haha, I knew I would find you on here.

Yeah, I've already signed up for the CO OnePass CC and Checking myself, and I will look at getting her signed up as well. Maybe I can get her to sign up for the AAdvantage card and get that $4k spent myself like I've already done.

what card[s] does she have now?

wn might have the best route structure for the territory, w/ perhaps aa....with any active flying, she could easily rack up enough on wn for y'all to do a domestic vacation....

i'm not up on co.....good luck....

You can pretty much get any spend you need using that coin thing that is like 1,000 pages long on this forum. Some people are averse to it. I've done a couple of times, but nothing in comparison to a lot of people here.

The AA card is a pretty good deal. This forum is where I got the information for High Tone a few weeks ago. Just AA isn't as useful out of Houston.

Look into the United card also? Since United and Continental are merging accounts in about a year, you can double up on miles for CC sign ups.

Didn't think about wn, but that could be an option as well. I need to ask her about getting a list of the cities that she should be traveling to, amount she can spend on hotel/nt, etc and maybe it will allow me to better select which card to get.

There isn't a lot of talk about wn on here, but if she is only going to work this gig for 6 months we might be able to get something out of that? Like I said, I need to get her to find out what those city's/routes look like.

True about AA. The thing about it is, if I am flying on points, I don't mind flying my route IAH to DFW then out, but it's not something I would ever choose to do if paying for my flight.

Keep in mind that while she needs to choose one card for her business expenses, she can still get additional personal cards to accumulate more bonus miles.
AMEX Membership Rewards is another card that allows transfers to some airlines and some hotel chains. You can find a list of those possible transfers here:
http://www.membershiprewards.com/cat...lFreqFlyerProg

I'll second the recommendation of a MR Amex. I've got the Premiere Rewards card. The annual fee is steep, but I love the flexibility of it. With the occasional transfer bonuses and the 15K bonus for $30K spend, this can be a great card.

Edit: Transferrability to Continental ends Sep. 2011.

If she's staying in small towns in the southwest, I'd look into Choice. Sure, a Clarion in isn't a W, but there are a lot more of them, they have pretty good bonus offers, and the points do transfer to a variety of airlines. Best Western might also be a good choice, but I'm not familiar with their program.

I think the most important factor about a FF program is how well it fits your flying patterns. Being based out of Houston, Continental seems like the best fit. I would have her concentrate on Continental for work {including credit card}. On the side you can have her do AA on a personal basis.

Concentration works best. Also remember that Continental and United will merge so you might decide to use United as the secondary since the FF accounts will eventually merge giving you a larger mileage total.