I tried to locate this info via search however no clear answer to my question


I'm new to the Air Mile programs been using rewards for a few years on DC's but see the benefit to using CC's with the ability to get free flights hopefully.

I am looking for the best card for miles. I want to travel for free and possible gets perks when we get there.

For someone to get started how would you advise and help explaining

1 Card for miles maybe 1 card for the hotels? A few Air mile cards and then you can combine points?

Such as the AA 75000 bonus. Where to start?

If im in Arizona would AA be the best to go most anywhere domestically?

people talk about the spg amex card for starwood as a good hotel card...

airline cards..it all depends on what kind of travel your doing...seems like everyone like continental the most on here...so think about getting their card..

in general from what i've learned...sign up for the big free bonuses(30k+) whenever you can...and try not to pay for any cards....getting any amex membership rewards card is pretty good because of the versatility of the points

also just review this site...

I'll say start from reading this thread, where tons of great advices were given:

Pointers for a Newbie

You need to learn about not only credit cards with miles/points, but also frequent flyer programs (FFPs). Dive in the above thread and study all the threads/sites/blogs referenced. That's great reading material for weeks, if not months.

Welcome to FT!

The best cards currently are the AA 75,000 bonus, and you can get upto 225,000 miles for them if you get both the personal and the business card. Read the instructions in post #2 carefully.

Where in Arizona do you stay?

The next best card is the Chase Sapphire card with a 50,000 bonus.

If you want hotel cards, try the Hyatt card which gives you 2 free nights and the SPG card. Since the Hyatt card lets you stay in any Hyatt, make sure to use the free nights for the really expensive Hyatts, such as the ones in London, or Paris etc.

You can't combine miles between airline accounts, for example, from British Airways to American Airlines, but since they are part of the same OneWorld alliance, you can fly on either airline or their partners using both British Airways or American Airlines Miles.

First, welcome to FlyerTalk!

Second, that's a lot of questions with answers that must be tailored to your particular situation. You should look at all the airlines available from your location and figure out if there's any particular one you want to fly on, considering flights and availability from your home airport.

But, it doesn't stop there. Since most airline miles are now earned through means other than flying, especially with credit card bonus offers, you also need to look at airline alliances. If you're in or near a top 50 metro area, it's very likely that each of the three major alliances (SkyTeam, StarAlliance, OneWorld) has a representative airline flying out of your airport. I could write pages on this topic and plenty of folks with better minds than mine have done exactly that. The one sentence explanation for the importance of alliances: frequently you'll find that an airline award using your earned miles through another airline in an alliance may provide you a better redemption rate than the airline with which you earned the miles.

Finally, be realistic about what you can do. If you're young with little or no credit history and the type of entry-level income you'd expect at that age, you may have to pick and choose your spots on credit card applications. Credit score may affect how many cards for which you can qualify; income may affect the kinds and numbers of qualifying spending limits you can take on. If you fit the younger, entry-level end of the spectrum, you may want to hold out for cards that have a low or maybe even first-purchase spending requirement; if you're more creditworthy with some discretionary income to run through a credit card, your options may multiply.

I'd suggest checking out these blogs for more information as well as becoming much more familiar with the topics covered here at FlyerTalk:

http://thepointsguy.com/
http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemileatatime/

There are many others, but these are a good start. There's some especially big news today on the card front so this isn't a bad time to become familiar with these resources.

Good luck!

OP actually asks a good question, one that is not addressed very well on FT as most of the threads relating to credit cards address limited-duration signup bonuses and not everyday spend.

Clearly there are many signup offers that come and go, but in terms of earning power purely from your average monthly non-travel spend the airline and hotel cards are for the most part very consistent: 1 point or mile per dollar spent. However there are some exceptions:

(1) SPG Amex is often considered one of the best for everyday use as it offers 1.25 miles per dollar when you transfer SPG points to airlines (20k minimum -> 25k miles). On the minus side, Amex is notorious for providing low limits, erratic CS and of course is not accepted everywhere and has a high forex fee when used outside USA.

(2) Chase British Airways visa also provides 1.25 miles per $ but only on BA. However you can use BA miles to fly on BA's parners like AA, and there is no forex fee. You can also earn a 2-for-1 coupon each calendar year by spending $30k. On the minus side, BA has absurd "fuel surcharges" which effectively require a payment of $400-700 for each free ticket, making them useful only for biz/first travel if you are flying USA-London.

Any I missed? Gary had a good column on this at viewfromthewing (see above) but alas the search function is somewhat mediocre.

There are at least two distinct questions being asked:

(1) What card is best for signup bonuses?

Right now, probably the AA citibank cards; there is the potential to earn 225k from signup bonuses. There are also many other threads about 50k+ signup bonus cards.

(2) Which card is best for ongoing spending?

Probably a different card. This depends on what types of spending you have most - restaurants? gas? etc.

It could very well be a combination of several cards. For example, I'm actively using 7 cards right now to maximize payback on categories:

• 5% cash on gas
• 5% cash rotating categories on Chase Freedom and Discover
• 4% cash on restaurants, movies
• 2 miles/$ at United on groceries and 3 miles/$ on UA airfare
• 5 points/$ Marriott Visa for hotels and 2 points/$ rental car (hopefully)
• 2% cashback card for everything else

Each person should figure out his/her own balance, based on knowing exactly what each sort of mile or point is worth in each unique travel profile and evaluating against cashback opportunities.

Because the signup bonuses are so high right now, you might be better off focusing on #1, getting the good bonuses, and then later going back to round out your cards. You'll only get so many accepted applications across short time frames before you've got too many "pulls"... And it goes without saying, if you need a mortgage within the next 2 years, you may not want to play this game.

Indeed. This is one of the assumption failure in all of the credit card comparison engines. They figure out which one card is the best fit for your spending. But who has just one card?

have a target card? only and always at target. 5% off
discover & chase freedom - always and only when it's at 5% "cashback". And always redeem them for > 1:1 GCs.
Gas? Always and only PenFed at the pump for 5%.
Marriott? always and only time i use the marriott visa

With all the ways to meet initial spend without it costing a dollar, why waste the cashbacks?

The best advice in this thread is the 5% categories that a couple people posted about. It can be a hassle to know which quarter/promo is going on but worth it for an extra 4% cash back.

I see the AMEX SPG card recommended as the best daily spender because it's 1.25% cash back but outside of the Discover and Chase Freedom for the 5% promo categories, my daily spender is the Southwest Visa which yields me 1.67% cash back. I do realize the SPG card is much more flexible however...

I never see that card mentioned as one of the best and if you don't fly Southwest then obviously it's not. But the fact that I can also rebook reward flights now if the price/points go down and get those back with credit (with RR 2.0), makes me like it even more.

Did you notice on point redemptions that not all of the taxes are applied? I couldn't quite figure out exactly what was excluded but the return seemed to be more in the range of 1.75% toward the flights I was checking. It's also double points at all of their rental car and hotel partners, which means a ~3.5% return.

All of the points count toward companion pass qualification, so if you have a very high rate of spend, that can be another plus.

My wife uses this card as her "everyday spending" card.

(Another "dark horse" in this category is the Virgin America Visa, which is a ~2.15% return if applied toward Monday-Thursday or Saturday flights.)

Actually, I think it's 2.5 miles/$ on BA, and 1.25 miles/$ for all other purchases.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_us

SPG:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/16362122-post7.html

You may be mostly right about the downsides of an AMEX card, but in my experience with their customer service it has been nothing short of excellent.

I'm holding out for the 30k SPG AMEX bonus to come around again, then this card will become my primary card.

I've tried to juggle cards to maximize benefits, but I've found that I forget to use one card or I forget the category for extra cash back. That's why I see the SPG AMEX as the "best" credit card....it's simple. Just use that card everywhere AMEX is accepted. Transfer your SPG points to the airline of your choice and redeem for international F tickets and your getting a return of closer to 3% or 4% without the hassle of micromanaging which credit card you use.

This is an essential point that many new FT members completely misunderstand: It is absolutely essential to understand your own travel patterns.

Let's say you want to purchase an international F ticket that prices at $4050. You can also book the ticket with 125000 AA miles. Let's say the actual journey is 10000 flying miles. You'll lose the opportunity to earn those 10000 if you use an award ticket, so the real mileage cost is 135000. Using an award, in this case, would value AA miles at 4050/135000 = 3 cents per mile.

Using the SPG card, you could earn those 135000 AA miles by transferring 108000 starpoints. If you earn 1 starpoint per $ spent on the AMEX, then your return is:

4050/108000 = 3.75% by using the Starwood AMEX. That's a great return.

HOWEVER. This math is only valid if you would actually purchase that international F ticket. For many of us, our travel pattern is primarily domestic economy class. For us the math is different:

Let's say I want to purchase a $360 domestic ticket. The award would cost 25000 miles, plus the lost opportunity to earn 5000 miles = 30000 miles cost. If I use an award on AA, that values my miles at 360/30000 = 1.2 cents per mile.

Using the SPG AMEX, I'd need 24000 points to convert into 30000 miles. 360/24000 = 1.5% return on the SPG AMEX.

That's still a decent return but can't beat a 2% cashback card or the Southwest/Virgin America Visa cards.

My point is: you have to know what you would actually use your miles for. Otherwise it's meaningless to ask anyone which card is best for you. Once you know what an AA mile, for example, is worth to YOU, you can (fairly) easily calculate which card is best.

All good points, though OP was asking for advice on miles, not cashback. I would agree that 5% cashback is a great rate-of-return, though IMO it is not worth having to keep track of 10 credit cards (not to mention Mrs. B's cards) all with different due dates, etc. just to save a few $ every month. In fact my wallet only holds 4, one of which I am required to use for business. So I am constantly trying to decide which one to carry and it kind of varies depending on the various bonus offers or the award that is at the top of my list.

IMO the best rewards are not a few $ cashback but the satisfaction of flying in international business or first class on a free tickets. These also generally tend to bring the best rate of return though there are exceptions. If I spend $100 per month at target and $600 in gas, I can get $35 cash back which is a good ROR. But if I have non-travel spend of $50k/year that is potentially 50-62k in miles towards a ticket. Combine with flight miles or signup miles and I've got my free ticket (or alternatively a free 5 night hotel stay with the 4+1 SPG and Marriott awards).

Finally there is the issue of how many annual fee cards to keep. I have far too many and am trying to decide which ones to dump. Chase WN? Ahh, but good ROR on WN purchases and frequent bonus offers. BofA Alaska and Chase Marriott both come with valuable 2for1 or free night perks that more than cover the annual fee. The most likely is Citi AA. At one point this was my favorites card as the miles count towards 1MM and lifetime elite status, but this appears likely to end soon.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. All airline (and hotel) cards have bonuses for purchasing their own tickets (or rooms), but most only offer 1 mile per $ for other purchases. BA and SPG are exceptions.