I have recently purchased a business that will alow me to charge around $70,000 a month. My question is for everyone out there ( new user here ) What miles card should I be using ????
1) I live in a small market we only have united, alaskan air.
2) Because I live in a small market flights can be very expensive anywhere
3) I was told that I want to earn miles , not points
4) both airlines have about an equall amount of flights in and out
5) I have heard about the united merger and am not sure if thats good or bad


Any help with this would be greatly appriciated

thank you

What would you want to do with the miles? award travel or upgrade travel?
Where would you want to travel to?


Welcome to FT! dhusel

Suggestion for the future -- just create a single posting http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...d-alaskan.html or http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/15810004-post343.html

I would say it depends on where you want to go when you fly. UA definitely gives you far more choices for destinations, but if you only fly to places that AS also services, it will depend on which FF plan will give you better perks for your travel patterns.

I have both. (Well, I have 3 AS cards and 1 UA card)

AS currently gives 1K booking bonus for each ticket purchased with the AS Visa, plus the $99 companion fare (get the personal signature card, not the business one). Also, most if not all fares price as one ways so you can purchase each direction separately and get another bonus (and only have to deal with one bad direction if you need to change/reissue just one way).

If you are charging that much, you may want to split them up, maybe even between AS, UA and a hotel program, so you can earn free stays for when you redeem your miles.

Does anyone know if AK credit card miles count towards lifetime status?

If not I would go with the United program as it gives you more international travel options.

Listen, AS gives you exposure to DL & AA. UA gives you to *A.
At 70k per month that is 1M a year = I would split them up at 40%, 40% and put 20% on an SPG amex
Total cost = 200$ for someone spending 70k a month, that is nothing...

If you want status, go with a biz DL Plat and Biz DL reserve = 50k MQMs = status will help on AS with upgrades and no fees, but you will lose AA.

So you could theoretically do
60k / yr on DL Reserve = DL SM + 1 free companion ticket in F and skyclub access
50k / yr n DL Plat = DL GM + 1 free companion ticket in coach
200k / yr on AS Visa = 1 free companion for 99$ in any fare
200k per year on UA Visa = 5k EQM + misc perks (incl lounge access if you pay more)
200k per yr on an SPG = 30k is enough for SPG Gold Status
40k / yr on Hilton Surpass = HH Diamond status
100k /yr on a Marriott Visa = Status credits for lifetime status

That will give you all you need for travel for about $750 cost after tax. = < 0.1% cost

btw I forgot, welcome to FT!

dhusel, welcome to FlyerTalk. As this is more appropriate for the MilesBuzz forum where you already posted, (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...d-alaskan.html)

I'll move this thread there and call the MilesBuzz moderators' attention to your other thread, in order to follow our rule against cross-posting. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, United forum.

The only thing that counts for lifetime status on AS is your butt in a seat on AS metal. No partners, credit cards, flower, rental cars...

PS- it's not AK, it's AS. It's not Alaskan, it's Alaska.

[QUOTE=Eastbay1K;15810065]I have both. (Well, I have 3 AS cards and 1 UA card)/QUOTE]

Why have 3 cards? For extra companion certs? Did you get sign on bonuses for all 3?

Well don't worry you will have a lot of miles... I like SPG the most...

I spend close to that amount on credit cards with my business. I recommend you get multiple cards with a combination of hotel and airline cards. For now, I would get both Continental and United. Both free for the first year along with a mileage bonus. Next year when they merge their mileage plans cancel one of the cards. I also have the Alaska card, the SPG card and the Marriott card. With the SPG Amex you can convert your points to Alaska Air miles and get a 20% bonus. I just converted 40,000 SPG points and received 50,000 Alaska Air miles so you can actually earn more Alaska Air miles with the SPG card than with the Alaska card. Marriotts a great card as well. For every $3k you spend they credit your Marriott rewards account as if you spent one night in a Marriott. So if you spend $70k you will get 70,000 points and credit for having stayed 23 nights. Last year I easily made platinum. I travel to Europe 3 times a year, fly first or business class for free and stay at Marriotts (concierge level) for free. Using your cards for business is wonderful. I like having mutlipe cards as I spread out my due dates on the cards and will use the card whose billing cycle has most recently closed out. That way I usually get six or seven weeks free financing on my business purchases which is more than enough time for my net 30 accounts to pay me. The key is having customers who pay on time. One more thing, if you are applying for more than three cards, spread it out over a few months.

[QUOTE=dldkjones;15811031]2 to segregate 2 different businesses, and 1 for personal. I got all the bonuses.

Back to the OP, AS is partners with much of the non Star Alliance world of airlines. With a bucket of miles in both UA and AS, you can fly on so many different airlines.

(Does UA limit mileage earning on the CC if you don't have status? I seem to recall this from a long time ago.)

[QUOTE=Eastbay1K;15813363]They stopped after about 2006 or so. Before then it was a 60k for regular /Gold and 100k for Plat MP cards Only status allowed you to have higher limits.
Once Chase started buying miles in bulk, that was over and then they started choice miles....