Which card to use...
 

I am kind of new to the points game. Been pretty random up until recently when I decided I want to travel more and not pay for it.

It seems like most people are like me and have several credit cards the deposit points into different programs. My question is how do you decide what credit card to use? Do you have an plan in mind to use your points and then just use the appropriate cards to obtain them? I would love to hear everyones strategies on this.

Thanks,
Dave

My advice would be to determine first which airline is your best option. This will depend on your home airport(s) and where you want to fly to. Different FF programs have different advantages and downsides with regards to routes, partners, redemption options, fees, etc. Read up on any that interest you and see which works the best for you.

Then see what offers are out there that may give you the best sign-up bonus. Keep in mind there are flexible-point rewards programs, such as AmEx Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards, that transfer to a number of FF programs, so don't overlook those.

Assuming you have good credit and the ability to meet any minimum spend requirements, find 2-4 good offers, pick a date and knock them out one after another (note that this may or may not work if more than one app with the same bank, i.e. Chase). Then, work on your minimum spend to get the bonuses. Most importantly, pay off all balances entirely every month -- paying interest is not worth it.

When you are first getting started, it is usually best to start with a goal in mind. For example, you want to go to Europe in 2013, or the Caribbean in 2012, and you want flights and hotels to be covered with points, or something like that.

Then, look at the different airline and/or hotel programs and see which ones would help you meet your goals. A good way to have more options is to get a card with flexible rewards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred that has Ultimate Rewards points and/or a card that earns American Express Membership Rewards. I would get a couple cards on the same day, but make sure you can meet the minimum spending requirement on all that you commit to so that you will get the sign-up bonus.

First, just meet the minimum spending requirements and then decide which card to use in a given situation based on if any of your cards offer a bonus on that purchase (like 2x gas, 2x groceries, etc.....). Good luck!

There are two ways to go about this. One, as an earlier poster said, is to pick a trip and work toward that goal. This is why people apply for several, sometimes up to a dozen, different cards.

The other thing you might be thinking is, "Hey, I do a lot of spending already; why not get some points, and figure out later what to do with them?" If that's your theory, you should get a more flexible credit card.

So, how does this play out in practice?

First, bear in mind that you could apply for several credit cards. I got into this over the summer and have applied for five cards since July, which is not a lot by most people's standards but is kind of a lot for me.

Second, if you don't want to apply for lots of cards, decide which of the two categories you're in. If you have a specific trip in mind, identify what card(s) get you there -- maybe a Hilton card for hotels and an AA card for airfare, or whatever. If you don't have a specific trip in mind, the best flexible cards, according to most people, would be the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the American Express Gold card, or the Starwood Preferred Guest Amex. All three of these cards transfer to several different airfare/hotel programs, so you can build up points and then decide where you want to spend them. The particulars will depend on your situation. Chase Sapphire, for example, gives 2x points on dining, and I eat out a lot, so that's my preference. But the Amex gold gives you 3x points on travel and 2x on gas&groceries, which maybe optimal for you. Etc.

Once you identify the specific card(s) you want to apply for, do some research on here and figure out any tips, tricks, quirks, etc. For example, you can apply for two Citibank AA cards and still get the "first time applicant" bonus on each, if you apply for both on the same day. You can overcome a "denial" on a Chase card sometimes if you are willing to lower your credit limit on another Chase card. Etc.

Good luck!

Thanks for your responses, this has been very helpful. Since this is pretty vague and there are so many options, I will give you a little more insight into my situation and hopefully that will help with some responses.

I currently have the following cards:
SPG Amex
SPG Business Amex
Citi Hilton Honors Visa
Chase Marriott Rewards Visa

I have my own company and charge everything I can for the business. So I am typically charging about $15k-$20k per month on my AMEX and just use the other ones when someone does not take AMEX. As a result, I have over 400,000 SPG points right now. I have just been stockpiling these without much of a plan over the last 1.5 years.

Now I want to start making the best use of my points and hope to travel to China, Hawaii and the Caribbean in the next 2 years.

I don't have any airline cards and really don't have many points in any airline program. I guess I should try and find a good one to get into so that I can get some miles.

I appreciate any other suggestions anyone has.

Dave

It depends on how much you travel. Most airline points vanish if you don't have any activity in 18 months. In your case you could transfer points from Amex to keep reseting the date. Delta and a couple others don't have expirations on there points. Also by flying mostly on one alliance you can gain status=upgrades. Again each airlines has different requirements and some roll over miles from year to year. But most important is who flies from your home town, you don't want to be driving 50-200 miles everytime just to use a certain airlines or Alliance. So you have to take everything into account. Good luck, we found Thailand more fun and better beaches than China so keep it open for future trip.

That is a NICE stockpile of SPG points. Those are extremely valuable because not only can you use them for free or cash + points stay at SPG properties, but they also transfer to a number of airline programs. Moreover, if you transfer in chunks of 20,000 points, SPG throws in another 5,000 points. So, you could transfer 80,000 points to AA, for example, and you'd end up with 100,000 AA miles, which is sufficient for a business award to Europe.

I would recommend getting in on one of the AmEx or Chase offers for 50,000 point sign-up bonuses, such as the Platinum Card or Chase Sapphire Preferred. These are flexible points that transfer (mostly instantly) to a number of airlines. This way you can confirm award availability with the airline before committing points. AmEx runs frequent bonus promos for transfers to Delta, British Airways or Aeroplan (Air Canada). Chase has United/Continental as transfer partners. These two should cover all the alliances for most flexibility.

You guys bring up some good points regarding the airlines. I only travel a couple of times a year and have never paid attention to airline miles because they always seem to expire before I accumulate any significant amount. So it seems that if I can transfer them from a points program to an airline, right before I need them, I could make good use of then.

You have enough SPG points to cover airfare just about anywhere you might want to go! Preferably by transferring points to frequent flyer programs. Definitely research the airline transfer partners for SPG, the big ones are American, Delta, and US Airways.

You could become an addict like us and keep signing up for credit card bonuses, but there is nothing wrong with being loyal to SPG--especially when you have business expenses to rack up large quantities of points.

The Frugal Travel Guy uses the SPG card for most of his everyday spending, using other cards for bonus categories like dining, to meet minimum spends on new cards he opens for the bonuses, or when they don't take Amex.

Dave,

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

You're all set with your stockpile of SPG points since you can either transfer them to US Air and book Star Alliance awards or to American Airlines for Oneworld awards.

You're also pretty set from a spending perspective since spending $20K a month gives you 240K SPG points a year. It is about 100K miles in business class to Europe from the US or about 80,000 SPG points (since you get a 25% bonus for transferring in increments of 20,000 points).

You could consider adding the Chase Sapphire Preferred to take care of those times when the AMEX is not accepted since you can transfer points to airlines and hotels.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred gives you double miles on travel and dining so if you are a big spender in those categories, it may be worthwhile to consider moving some of your spending from the AMEX to the Sapphire Preferred.

Hey Dave,
@mommypoints alluded to this above, but definitely look at the categories of your monthly spend. Outside of meeting minimum spends for bonuses, regular everyday sorts of transaction, categories will get you some decent multipliers.

For instance if you spend $30K a year an airline travel, I might call you crazy not to get the Amex PRG. Different cards multiply your category, gas, groceries, office supplies, travel, airfare, all bonuses differ by card. If you have a large spend category, look for a card that will match up (so long as it gives you a bonus you can use for your trips!).

Most of our business spending is on shipping through USPS and UPS. I used to have an AMEX Gold when they were offering double points at USPS. But, they no longer do that so I switched to AMEX SPG. Anyone know of any cards that offer double points at the post office?

The AMEX business gold card still offers double points on shipping. The terms say "2 points for shipping purchases in the U.S. for courier, postal, and freight services"

But I don't have any personal experience whether you actually get double points for USPS purchases, though the terms indicate that you will earn double points for the 1st $100,000 spent on shipping.

I would also be interested to know from the previous poster if USPS doesn't count toward that 2x for shipping. That would be strange since it says postal, but who knows..... ;)

Ya gotta have goals. Start small, like setting the goal of taking a nice free vacation somewhere you have always wanted to go. Then research who goes there, what programs they offer, what cards are associated with the programs and what promotions the cards and programs offer.

After that you can set your goals higher. Maybe even to global world (flight) domination like a few of us on the board.:p

Just start small and learn the game before you take on dozens of credit cards, dozens of airlines, stack up countries visited like cordwood and turn the tables on The Spanish Inquisition.

PS, I have always found it more important to determine who goes where you want to go, than who leaves from your homeport. Easier to grab a connector flight to your hub than to limit yourself to where your local carrier flys.