If I get Premier status this year, does that do anything for the future or do I have to try to get 25,000 miles each year? What are the options for getting a lifetime higher status? There are a lot of posts here that were started even 7 years ago that are very detailed in the OPs but probably outdated, and are still going on now but the last few pages are not very detailed and maybe missing a lot of the offers. It would be nice if this kind of information was in a Wiki or an external page that could be updated as a thread is not the best place for information that has to be continually updated. For all of the offers that I may sign up for, do these all qualify for elite status or is it just miles flown?

Will look into Star Alliance and airlines you have mentioned...

Edit: found some answers, elite status generally seems to be for the current and next year, AA is only one that offers lifetime elite without actual flown miles, usually 1,000,000 miles for any carrier for lifetime.

Why would canceling a "newer" card hurt your score except for the util
ization aspect?

A key component of FICO scoring is the average account age. If you cancel any credit card, then the average account age will reflect that shorter history along with all of your other credit cards, and will continue to do so until 7 years after you canceled the card after which it will drop off and not be considered part of the average account age. Since persons have a variety of short-term factors that will affect the credit score, such as a car mortgage, student loans, etc, these are automatically decreasing the average account age, so to mitigate this 1 can hold credit cards for a long-time to increase the average.

Are most of your 400,000 miles with 1 airline and how did you get the majority of them?

From doing some reading it seems that AA is the only 1 that offers lifetime elite and you would have a chance of reaching this. I could qualify for an elite status this year but don't know if I would on a regular basis although it's possible and this makes me want to lean toward AA as the preferred airline although I don't think I have many miles with them now.

This is the key distinction. The OP seemed to be looking at it in terms of which credit card to actually use on an ongoing basis for purchases - is it worthwhile to use a mileage earning card, or are there better choices? That's a decision that has no one answer. The key to mileage credit cards these days, however, is really the bonuses that can be earned upon acquiring one, usually with some minimum spending requirements. These pay off handsomely for most people willing to devote a small amount of time to them, and form the basis for most of the buzz on this website. I just got back from a free trip to China due to one card bonus, and am planning my next one to Russia due to another.

I am NOT a credit expert by any means so I am really trying to understand... please be patiant :) Wouldn't canceling any "newer" cards actually HELP the average history then?

I have 3 cards that are almost 20 years old and lots of newer cards. I know not to cancel the older cards of course but I plan on canceling most of my newer cards in the next few months, I guess I will see what it does to my credit as I go... My credit score averages about 730-750ish and don't want it below that, don't think I will ever get it much beyond there however, I inherited several properties so no need for a mortgage and never had a car loan, hard to boost your score without a mortgage. I really don't understand WHY having a car loan or a mortgage should make my score go up but have been told time and again that it would.... bleh...

For ongoing purchases I will be using my Plat Amex. It has been the best overall card for me for daily use. It gets you lounge access pretty much anywhere in the world, which makes flying nicer and in the last year has had some GREAT bonuses for transferring miles..... much better than the SPG amex in my opinion. However, it is the sign-up bonuses that give the most bang for your buck. If things change, I will change with it.

It may not necessarily go up with getting a car loan or a mortage, that depends on how many different types of accounts you already have so it depends on your individual situation.

Say you have the 3 cards that are 20 yrs old and 1 newer card of 1 yr. The average account age of these 4 is 15.25 years. You cancel the 1 yr card. The average account for the 1 yr card is still included in the calculations for the next 7 years and considers that card to be a 1 yr card. So the average account age is still 15.25 yrs, or even less if you have more short-term cards.

ah.... gotcha. That was what I was missing. Thanks!

There is an answer, it just depends on a comparison of the various cards available.

This is my question, do they really pay off handsomely, or do they just seem to? If you had a no annual fee 2% cash back on everything card + a 5% cash back in certain categories card, would you have been better off than getting miles? It seems that your miles were accumulated from initial bonuses, are these annual fee cards, how much do you pay, and are you planning on keeping them open indefinitely or are you willing to take the hit to the credit score when you cancel them after a few years? If you have to keep getting new cards to keep getting bonuses then this is decreasing your credit score also which can have a financial impact.

I think it seems to everyone that getting these airline cards is a good deal and it's nice to accumulate miles and get free trips, and there is a big marketing component, but it could actually turn out to be a bad deal and more expensive than what you would have gotten elsewhere.

NC Girl, no problem, they certainly haven't made this stuff obvious!

It isn't clear to me when miles from NOT FLYING work toward elite status or toward lifetime elite, and when can miles be used for upgrades vs. only go toward elite status? Does anyone know of a page that explains these? It seems that I would need to know these to determine which airline I want to try to use if it will make more sense to use 1 instead of compare them all for each flight which I have usually done, and would be nice to achieve lifetime elite if there is a possibility of doing it at some point without exclusively flying, or by somehow buying it, although maybe eventually I could get there with flying alone based on my current flying habits.

fikio: Welcome to FT! I am sure you understand that it is always good to get the miles from your flights or any other activities you'd be undertaking anyway. Moreover, it is also good to concentrate them in one airline (so fly them or their partners as much as possible). I think that much is obvious.

Now we come to whether it makes sense to pursue the miles? To me that means more than simply "not leaving them unclaimed on the table"; instead you'd undertake extra trouble and expense with the purpose of getting more miles.

That to me is worth it if and only if I would (i) fly enough to achieve elite status (25K miles on most carriers), and (ii) fly enough after that to utilize the benefits of that elite status. If either condition is not met, then I would still let the miles accumulate as they do and use them as I can, but I won't undertake any special trouble/expense in pursuing them.

Please note that this decision is carrier by carrier. For example, I actively pursue AA miles and status, but take UA miles only as I happen to fly them. Others may and do choose differently.

Elite status and upgrade policies vary by the carrier, but as a common rule, only flown miles count towards elite status. So you must fly at least 25,000 miles per year to achieve elite status. However, all miles from all sources (bonuses, credit cards, online surveys, etc) can be used to buy award flights or upgrade purchased tickets.

Awards and upgrades are capacity controlled, come with byzantine web of rules that differ for each carrier, and are not always easy to get. However, people do get them; just be prepared for occasional disappointment. With awards it is generally a matter of advance planning. With upgrades, they are harder to get when you have no status but become easier as you progress up the elite ladder.

Good luck!

I believe FICO looks at the amount of time since the account was opened, not the amount of time the account was open. Please correct me if this is wrong?

However, a closed account's credit line no longer factors in to the debt-to-credit-line ratio. If you have average balances of $5,000 (easy to do if you do pay off each month, but pay as many bills/living expenses on cards as possible) and had $50,000 in open credit, and then close a $20,000 card, your ratio would change 1:10 to 1:6.

With a specific number(s) in mind of cash back you can get, you'll obviously have to place certain values on miles/points to make a comparison. That depends largely on your personal goals and uses for the miles/points and can vary wildly among FT members.

While the credit card landscape is constantly changing, the UnRoadWarrior blog has a pretty good 3-part series comparing cash back cards with miles/points cards that you might find useful.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/unroad...-carry-part-i/

A few comments prompted by posts in this thread:

Don't overemphasize the cost of an annual fee. This is especially true for hotel cards. You can easily recoup the fee with the yearly bonus. For example, Priority Club Visa has a $49 annual fee but gives you a free night certificate at any IHG hotel. Easily worth it. (Similar with Marriott)

In your particular case, the United Explorer card might be worth it, especially if you can't make it to Premier. The first checked bag free, priority boarding, and two lounge passes might be worth the $95 annual fee.

Also, while cancelling cards might have a negative impact, you're probably overestimating it. By a lot. There are many, many people here who "churn" through lots of cards and it doesn't have much impact. If you are not applying for a mortgage where the interest rate of the loan is important, then the negative impact probably doesn't even matter.

For someone like you, who doesn't travel much but wants to sit in the front, there really isn't much of an option but churning credit card bonuses. It'll take years to earn enough from the spend alone.

Let's take a hypothetical example. Let's say you spend $2000/month. You want American Airlines miles. If you use an AA card, you'll earn 2000x12=24000 miles per year. That's just short of 1/2 of a ticket in Business Class to Europe.

Instead, if you used $5500 of that spend to fulfill the signup requirements for the two AA cards, then put the remaining $18500 on a 2% cash back card, you'd have 155500 AA miles PLUS $370 in cash. That's THREE Business Class tickets to Europe plus $370 in your pocket when you get there.

You can easily do even better than that. In my book, that's worth a potential small ding to my credit score from cancelling in a year or two.