trying to decide
 

We have a delta amex skymiles card. Right now we have apx 50,000 miles on it.
We just paid our yearly $85 dollar fee.
My irk is that everytime we want to go somewhere there are no seats available. We are not talking Hawaii here....we are talking like Pittsburgh or Detroit.
I was thinking of changing to the CapitalOne card but I don't see much about it on your forum.
What would all you suggest? I read something about a Starlight card(?) and also a Citibank AA card -but those seem to be for buisinesses.
Also, after much todo , and trying 2 times I CANT get either Delta or Amex to give me a detail on what exactly is earning how many miles.
How do I know I am getting all the miiles I deserve?
Thanks Laura
:rolleyes:

You will find active discussions of the difficulties of booking Delta award seats in the Delta forum. You will also find similar discussions of the difficulties of booking other airlines' award seats in their forums. None is perfect in that regard, as they (for some strange reason) prefer to sell seats to paying passengers. Go figure.

The credit card decision should, IMHO, be made in conjunction with your normal paid travel patterns (if any). Credit card miles turn into rewards much more quickly when they can be combined with miles earned through flying, airline bonuses/promotions, hotel stays, etc. So, what airline(s) do you fly?

The Starwood card is an AmEx card issued by the Starwood (includes Sheraton, Four Points, etc.) hotel chain. Aside from the limited number of places that accept AmEx compared to Visa/MC, it's a good card to have. It gives you flexibility in which airline program you move your points to and offers a 25 percent bonus if you move 20,000 points at a time.

Citibank offers a variety of AA Visa/MC cards. Some are for businesses. Some aren't.

The best way to be sure you're getting the miles you deserve is by checking each month's credit card statement, making sure the total there corresponds with your purchases for the month, and checking your airline statement to make sure the miles have posted properly (if you use a card that's linked directly to an airline program).

I will look at the Delta forum thanks..
Well, we do fly delta mostly as there are not many options out of Jackson Hole.
I think my husband also flys United (or Delta) for his business.
We don't fly alot (my husband flies probably once a month) but I just loath
trying to get seats with my miles. Our scheduals are no very flexible so trying to use them with Delta is such a pain.
So the Starwood Amex lets you actually use the miles for any airline?
Does anyone have a good url for them?

CapitalOne may have a great card, but overall their customer support is sad at best. Seriously consider sticking with the Amex!

To me the big advantage of the DL AMEX is that they give you double miles on so many of your purchases, often everything. With that in mind, you should remember that DL offers standard awards for double the miles that the saver award costs. Everyone gets a mindset that they should be able to get domestic award seats for 25,000 miles. But if you are getting double miles on your credit card, then getting a standard award on DL is the same as getting a saver award with miles from a credit card that does not give double miles. I realize this only applies to the miles you accumulate on the card, but I have felt for quite some time that people need to readjust their thinking about award tickets. Remember, this airline is in BK and they need to limit the number of free tickets they give away.

One other question I would ask. How much flexibility do you have when trying to book these tickets? If you are looking for seats on a Friday or Sunday, those are often the hardest to get on any airline.