I'm a virgin so be gentle !
Mar 28, 2000, 8:24 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 2
I'm a virgin so be gentle !
My wife and I love to travel but are certainly not seasoned veterans.
We want to start taking advantage of Frequent Flier programs, etc. but need advice on which ones offer the best rewards.
Any suggestions ? Commnets ? Help ?
I've looked at one from CapitalOne Bank. It offers a ticket for 18,000 points/dollars spent (restricted travel zones), no blackouts, any major airline, no seat restrictions, $ 19.00 annual fee, 5000 bonus points for an initial balance transfer.
I can't find any information on whether the points expire.
We want to start taking advantage of Frequent Flier programs, etc. but need advice on which ones offer the best rewards.
Any suggestions ? Commnets ? Help ?
I've looked at one from CapitalOne Bank. It offers a ticket for 18,000 points/dollars spent (restricted travel zones), no blackouts, any major airline, no seat restrictions, $ 19.00 annual fee, 5000 bonus points for an initial balance transfer.
I can't find any information on whether the points expire.
Mar 28, 2000, 8:27 pm
#2
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Northern California
Programs: Inf Elite CO, lifetime AA Platinum
Posts: 1,937
Stay away from those cards. They don't earn miles, just points towards tickets that they buy. Get a Visa card on the airline that you will fly the most (depending on where you live and where you fly) and a free Starwood American Express Card. And concentrate all your flying on one (or fewer!) carriers. Get above a certain level and you will start earning double miles for each flight flown.
Mar 28, 2000, 9:50 pm
#3
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: BTV
Programs: BA Gold, UA Premier Platinum, DL Gold, Lifetime Bonvoy Titanium
Posts: 870
To add to freakflyer's suggestion, if you are not sure what airline you want to fly the most, I would suggest getting a Diners Club. Their program is so much more flexible than American Express' Membership Rewards program. You can also transfer miles to frequent flyer (FF) accounts that are not in your name, e.g., your wife's FF account. Cheers!
Mar 28, 2000, 10:53 pm
#4
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Northern California
Programs: Inf Elite CO, lifetime AA Platinum
Posts: 1,937
AusTX,
Actually the Starwood card is FREE, gives miles in almost all major carriers and you get a 25% bonus for cashing in 20,000 miles. Diners is a great card, but the Starwood Card is accepted in many more places, is cheaper, and lets you earn more miles.
Actually the Starwood card is FREE, gives miles in almost all major carriers and you get a 25% bonus for cashing in 20,000 miles. Diners is a great card, but the Starwood Card is accepted in many more places, is cheaper, and lets you earn more miles.
Mar 29, 2000, 2:08 am
#5
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: Vancouver, BC, CANADA
Programs: AC SE, SPG P
Posts: 759
Aaahhhh. I remember my first time. I had to have my hand held because I was afraid. We were going up and down in a random fashion. It felt so powerful, yet gentle. Oh yes, how I remember my first plane ride - it was so bumpy. 
Mar 29, 2000, 7:21 am
#7
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Third planet from the Sun
Posts: 7,022
You should look at the threads about Visa/MC/Diners and AX.
The main problems with non airline credit cards:
1)Your free ticket is capped at a certain $amount---if your ticket is above that amount, you pay the difference. This could be very costly if you want to travel at the last minute or do not have a Saturday night stay.
2)You don't always get to travel on the airline of your choice.
3)Any changes to your award travel tickets are governed by the fare rules, not FF mile rules---this would be very costly to do.
The main problems with non airline credit cards:
1)Your free ticket is capped at a certain $amount---if your ticket is above that amount, you pay the difference. This could be very costly if you want to travel at the last minute or do not have a Saturday night stay.
2)You don't always get to travel on the airline of your choice.
3)Any changes to your award travel tickets are governed by the fare rules, not FF mile rules---this would be very costly to do.
Mar 29, 2000, 7:38 am
#8
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: NJ
Posts: 3,335
The other big problem with the non-airline credit card programs is that you can't combine spending miles with airline and other participant miles. So with one of those cards you have to earn the whole ticket from your spending. Whereas if you spend 15000, fly 5000 miles and get 5000 miles from hotels and car rentals, and other things (like online spending from Clickrewards that you can transfer into your airline account) you can add all of those things TOGETHER to get the award you want.
Plus all of the problems noted above.
Plus all of the problems noted above.
Apr 7, 2000, 2:56 pm
#9
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Programs: Delta DM 1MM, Hyatt Globalist, HH Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 315
Well my opinion here differs from the consensus. While all the things said regarding the non-affinity cards is true, I still carry and use one frequently. The reason is that the tickets I get through it also earn me ff and status miles on the airline I'm flying. I will add though that you need to balance this out, because these card award tickets are very restrictive like mentioned. I get up to a $500 ticket for $20,000 of spending on the visa (domestic US flight, other options available). The key is that I usually have enough ff miles in my airline programs to get award tickets also for that last min/non-sat stay etc. The card tickets have the advantage of having no blackout dates as the airline awards do, just a $ cap. I also charge a fair amount on the non-affinity card ($25-30K/yr many of them business expenses). I combine my ff miles with the points in my Diners account, to give me plenty of options. So I usually first try to use the card award option, if that doesnt work try to get a standard airline award ticket, if all else fails go for the airline rule buster program. So I guess my strategy is to go for flexibility to get around as many restrictions/capacity controls etc. The non-affinity card tickets help me get elite status, since I don't travel on many long flights for work and am usually on the borderline.
I would also add that the Diners card is a good deal for the first year especially since they are giving 12,000 bonus miles for the $80 annual fee (in the US at least). These are great for topping off accounts as mentioned above. Of course if you don't have any family friends with Diners get someone in here to refer you, I would be happy to.
So my advice is if you think you will be able to earn lots of reward tickets leave yourself flexible with multiple options. If you think you will have a difficult time getting award tickets it is probably best to combine all your efforts into one airline account and go with their affinity card.
I would also add that the Diners card is a good deal for the first year especially since they are giving 12,000 bonus miles for the $80 annual fee (in the US at least). These are great for topping off accounts as mentioned above. Of course if you don't have any family friends with Diners get someone in here to refer you, I would be happy to.
So my advice is if you think you will be able to earn lots of reward tickets leave yourself flexible with multiple options. If you think you will have a difficult time getting award tickets it is probably best to combine all your efforts into one airline account and go with their affinity card.
Apr 10, 2000, 12:25 pm
#12
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Massachusetts, USA; AA Plat, DL GM and Flying Colonel; Bonvoy Platinum
Posts: 24,233
There are basically two kinds of Visa, MC and Optima credit cards that let you earn free travel: affinity and non-affinity.
Affinity cards are affiliated with a specific airline or hotel chain. Their logo is on the card. You earn points for charges, typically one FF mile per dollar charged with most airline cards. These become program miles just like any other miles. Once they're in the pool, you can't tell a mile you got for buying groceries from a mile you got for flying. You redeem them for awards per the airline's or chain's published schedule.
The major affinity MC/Visa credit cards are for AA and UA. Optima is available for Delta, Starwood and Hilton. This is not a complete list.
Non-affinity cards track your spending in their own books. Once you have enough points they'll buy you an award ticket. Since they have to pay the airline real $$ for it, they cap its price. None of those transcontinental last-minute $2,000 tickets for 25,000 miles! You also can't use them for things like upgrades, which can be a very cost-effective use of airline miles. OTOH, under ideal conditions and if the ticket you want would otherwise be inexpensive, you can often earn it more quickly with one of these programs than with an airline program, and you're not restricted to a single airline and its partners. These are available in MC and Visa from several banks.
Diners Club works like a non-affinity card in that it keeps your points in its own records and lets you redeem them for awards under its own program, but you can transfer them into airline programs. Then they act like affinity card points in that they have turned into real program miles.
AmEx is similar, but the list of airlines whose programs you can transfer points into is limited. (No AA, though you can get some awards on AA by putting them into USAir.) They have the Membership Rewards Plus option ($35/year, if memory serves) which adds an option much like a non-affinity card for them to get you tickets on other airlines. (Don't confuse "real AmEx" with Optima. It is issued by American Express but works like MC/Visa.)
There are other ways of moving points around, most of which involve going into and out of Hilton Optima, but you lose a lot of value in the process. These are worth considering only as a last resort if you have miles that are about to expire (less of an issue now than it was a year ago) or you need just a few points somewhere to make up the total for an award.
Affinity cards are affiliated with a specific airline or hotel chain. Their logo is on the card. You earn points for charges, typically one FF mile per dollar charged with most airline cards. These become program miles just like any other miles. Once they're in the pool, you can't tell a mile you got for buying groceries from a mile you got for flying. You redeem them for awards per the airline's or chain's published schedule.
The major affinity MC/Visa credit cards are for AA and UA. Optima is available for Delta, Starwood and Hilton. This is not a complete list.
Non-affinity cards track your spending in their own books. Once you have enough points they'll buy you an award ticket. Since they have to pay the airline real $$ for it, they cap its price. None of those transcontinental last-minute $2,000 tickets for 25,000 miles! You also can't use them for things like upgrades, which can be a very cost-effective use of airline miles. OTOH, under ideal conditions and if the ticket you want would otherwise be inexpensive, you can often earn it more quickly with one of these programs than with an airline program, and you're not restricted to a single airline and its partners. These are available in MC and Visa from several banks.
Diners Club works like a non-affinity card in that it keeps your points in its own records and lets you redeem them for awards under its own program, but you can transfer them into airline programs. Then they act like affinity card points in that they have turned into real program miles.
AmEx is similar, but the list of airlines whose programs you can transfer points into is limited. (No AA, though you can get some awards on AA by putting them into USAir.) They have the Membership Rewards Plus option ($35/year, if memory serves) which adds an option much like a non-affinity card for them to get you tickets on other airlines. (Don't confuse "real AmEx" with Optima. It is issued by American Express but works like MC/Visa.)
There are other ways of moving points around, most of which involve going into and out of Hilton Optima, but you lose a lot of value in the process. These are worth considering only as a last resort if you have miles that are about to expire (less of an issue now than it was a year ago) or you need just a few points somewhere to make up the total for an award.