I am interested in finding a credit card that offers companion tickets as one of the benefits. I live in a city that is off the beaten path and must usually pay $450-$600 for a ticket to anywhere. (We have to buy a total of 3 tickets anytime we travel.)

What would be the best card if I take companion benefits into consideration? I am willing to pay a fee for the card. I would like to here about your experience with obtaining companion fare/tickets.

thanks for your help,
kim

The Platinum Card from American Express offers domestic free companion tickets four times a year. It is being very slow right now, so I can't find the annual fee, but I believe it is in the hundreds- $300-400, IIRC.

Not a credit card, but if you are in a market served by AA, you may want to consider the TrAAvel Perk program- for a $134/year membership fee, you get $200 off travel with a companion, on a minimum base fare of $200, every six months. Heck, for that matter, just apply for the AA credit card every 90 days and rack up the FF miles and use those to fly.

Edited to add: It would be helpful to know what small market you are flying out of and/or what airlines serve it. There may be ways that the collective knowledge base can help you, but it may not be in the ways you are asking about.

Where do you live/what's your airport? The Bank of America Alaska Airlines credit card gives you a $50 companion certificate each year for wherever AS flies. (That is, you pay $50 for the companion ticket.)

Where do you live? Where do you travel?

We get $50 companion certificates with our Alaska Airlines Bank of America cards. They are great for very expensive tickets to places we really need or want to visit, like Anchorage for the Summer Solstice. @:-) The companion on these certs gets miles and can be upgraded with miles or on the day of travel with money. We have also used these certificates to buy two first class seats, which ended up being cheaper than two coach seats without the cert. We have six of these accounts and get six certs a year and these certs can be used by anyone.

We also get Companion Certs from our Chase UA Platinum cards. These are FREE certs, of course they let you pay the taxes, but the companion gets no miles and can't upgrade. These are great for taking along our kids to places where they want to join us but don't want to buy a ticket. For instance, we are taking our son and his girlfriend along to see our daughter sing at the Andy Warhol Museum on my birthday. These certs are only good for Zone 1 tickets, that is Canada, Mexico and the continental USA. We only have two of these cards. For theses certs, the owner of the card must be the paid traveler.

All in all, companion certs are a great deal if you have lots of friends and family who like to travel with you and aren't too fussy about traveling in coach.

I live in Alabama and have the option of flying out of Mobile (this is the most convenient) or Gulfport, MS. Occasionally, we have flown out of New Orleans but it isn't particularly convenient.

We are served mainly by Delta, American Eagle, Continental Express, and Northwest - I think that's it. And US airways

There is not particular place other that El Paso, TX to visit family and occasionally the D.C. area. Other than that, it could be anywhere in the United States that we'd like to visit.

The Citi Priemer Pass - Elite has a companion ticket program. Many people don't find it useful since the minimum fare must be $299 (which doesn't seem to matter in your market). Note that you have to call their travel agent (who apparently looks up the cheapest flight on Expedia, so if anyone offers a fare under $299 you're out of luck), so you don't get choice of carrier, but you can save money.

Has anyone used the Citi® PremierPass® Card - Elite Level mentioned in an earlier post? Is it really unlimited and what happens if you need to change the ticket?

Since we usually need 3 tickets at any given time, would it be possible to purchase to tickets and get 2 companion tickets and then just save one of the companion tickets to use at a latter date?

Any other details/comments and user experiences about using this card would be appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks for your comments about credit cards that offer companion tickets. I'm still not sure what is going to benefit me the most so, just one more question:

Does anyone know of a credit card that will allow you to redeem a reduced amount of points for a companion ticket?

thanks,
Kim

It's really not a good idea to start a new thread when you continue on a previous subject.

I'm going to go ahead and merge this one into your other thread.

Regards,

Flipside

With the Citi AAdvantage card, you can get reduced mileage awards to select destinations which are announced quarterly. Click here to see this quarter's destinations and mileage info.

Also, as a previous poster added, you can get free companion tickets (up to 4 a year, domestic coach) through the AmX platinum card, as well. I just booked two tickets for a total of $485.79... booked through the airline, directly, they would have been a total of $791.60. Not a bad deal...

By their nature "companion" tickets require simultaneous use of the paid and additional ticket. This means you would pay for two and have one at reduced cost. (Companion tickets are seldom "free", there are fees and taxes.) However, after a period of flying you should accumulate sufficient miles for an award ticket, in which circumstance you might redeem one award, pay for one plus a companion, if you are fortunate enough to find award and companion availability on the same flights.