All,

I am trying to determine the best strategy to get maximum FF benefits based on my historical credit card usage and travel habits. Here goes:

1) I charge approximately $100,000/year on a credit card I use for my business.

2) My home base is MKE.

3) I fly approximately 6 - 9 X /year from MKE to RSW.

4) I anticipate more overseas travel in the next 5 years for work and pleasure.

5) Currently enrolled in FF programs for DL, UA, AA, and FL.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

One issue to consider is whether you concentrate your travel on one airline. If so, sometimes getting a co-branded card and spending enough will get you elite qualifying miles. I know this applies to US and DL.

Another issue is whether lounge access is helpful to you. Some relatively pricey cards include lounge access, like Amex Platinum, DL Reserve, and United Club.

Another issue is whether you want to redeem for flights from MKE to RSW. If these are business trips, you probably want to pay for these flights as they would either be reimbursed by your employer or tax-deductible if you're self-employed.

Another issue is amount of overseas travel. One of the best (IMO) travel strategies is to fly enough and make high enough elite status to get system-wide upgrades for international trips that will let you upgrade an overseas ticket to business class. If this is a goal, one of the MQM-qualifying cards would be even more desirable.

In general, I tend to prefer a "generic" card like an Amex Membership Rewards or Chase Sapphire that can transfer to airline partners. This allows you to bank your points until you see an award you want, then transfer the points. I also prefer points cards to cash-back, as I will never really "feel" the cash back I get, but I know for sure when I'm taking a free flight I couldn't have taken otherwise.

I am far from an expert on international award availability, but I get the general impression that Delta is the worst, and that while American is pretty good, if you are going to Europe you sometimes get endplayed into flying BA through England, which has very high surcharges. Amex will give you transferrability to Delta, but also to some Star Alliance carriers where you can book on their own flights or other Star Alliance carriers, including United.

You might also give some consideration to foreign transaction fees if you will be spending a lot overseas. Chase Sapphire Preferred and Amex Platinum have no forex fees.

You said you are spending a lot on business expenses. Depending what categories these are, different cards have different category bonuses. I don't know all the details, but various cards give category bonuses for airfare, all travel, gasoline, groceries, shipping, advertising, and office supplies.

I know I haven't really answered your questions so much as given you targets for further research. But there's a lot to choose from and a lot of variables.

I would start with finding which airline has the most convenient schedule for your business travels. That will matter a lot. Then look at your personal travels and see if that is also convenient on the same airline(s). Also consider status and upgrades if you fly a lot.

Based on my mileage redemption experiences, especially for domestic flights, DL would be my very last choice. I am strong-armed into DL since I live in ATL. DL miles are still valuable for certain things but nearly worthless domestically (in my opinion) since the low level availability is pretty non-existent.

If you can afford the fees I would get the Chase Ink Bold/Sapphire and Platinum Amex. I use both myself and mainly have AMEX for sky club access, airline fee reimbursement, global entry, and priority pass. I use Chase Ink Bold for spending. I am currently hoarding Chase UR points for redemption later on for international biz/First class.

Also study BA's program. You can redeem BA Avios points for AA flights. It is distance based so short domestic flights can be 4,500 points each way in coach! You can transfer points from Chase UR and AMEX MR to BA.

Think outside the box!

Foo

Agreed that Delta would be my last choice, and I also think the Chase Ink Bold is probably the place to start. UR points are awesome, so getting a ton of them is always great!

Only problem with BA, at least for the original poster, is that his regular flight between Milwaukee and Southern Florida doesn't put him near any hubs, so he'd be stuck connecting alot, and therefore, ending up paying a fair bit to fly between the two places, even if it isn't all that far. Still something to consider for other domestic flights, however.

As you probably already know, until November, AirTran has a nonstop MKE-RSW.

And AirTran/Southwest miles are easy to use.

Most people on here don't seem to like Southwest or AirTran, but nonstops are nice, you will quickly earn enough for a free trip, and you can use the points on Southwest or AirTran, to fly to AirTran destinations in the caribbean.

For your credit card spend, I would go for Ultimate Rewards points due to flexibility.

Once AirTran stops their MKE-RSW nonstop in November, though, I would probably change butt-in-seat earning loyalty to another carrier.

Thank you all for the feedback! I really appreciate your thoughts on this.

Welcome to Flyertalk!

I agree with the idea to get flexible points in a lot of cases, but it's deeper than that.

You have to do some serious study to pick the best CCs. I juggle about 8 of them, depending on what I am buying, to maximize things. Poke through the credit card forums here.

If you tell us your major spending categories, we could give some tips.