Back to the topic, a divergent thought. Diners Club (which you can use on just about all your travel-related expenses, and at many retail places) is affiliated with almost every single hotel and airline program out there. While there are plenty of "issues" with DC (you can check out that forum), and conversion rates vary from DC to the various programs (but for air its primarily $1 = 2 points = 1 mile), it gives you the flexibility to add miles or points, as needed, to whatever program you want, to top off the acct for an award, or transfer enough to another program altogether for a free trip (such as when the BA promo is going on). That, and the primary rental insurance, is why I keep the DC.

That's a good question. But just to give you a brief history of myself, I used to collect credit cards. I kind of stopped years ago, but not for the having too many inquries on my credit record, but I was sort of opening myself up to credit fraud having too much information on myself out there. That said, I have over 400 credit cards, and close to 1/2 of those show on my credit report (Trans Union), although most obviously are closed because of inactivity. Most are department store cards, but I do have a couple of dozen open MasterCards and Visas. I asked for a credit report via Trans Union a few months ago. My score on it (similar to the Fair Isaac score) was 931 out of 934. That score alone should dispell the myth that having too many unused credit cards will hurt your credit record. With all those credit cards, I was easily approved for a home loan (Wells Fargo Home Mortgage). I was candid with them with what I did, and they didn't care, since my high credit score said more about me than anything else.
But the reason my score is high is I don't apply for many cards at all right now (too many recent inquiries will hurt your record) plus I always pay my bills on time, with most all my credit cards I pay in full.
But what will hurt your score will be having zillions of cards, and running large balances on them. Large balances might indicate you're getting in over your head, even though you're keeping up on payments. Minimum payments on credit cards could take decades to pay-off, if that's all you do.
So my advice is to keep your credit card balances low, never pay a bill late (allow plenty of time for payment checks you send to arrive in the mail) while maintaining good finances overall. I've heard mentioned if you create a large balance on a credit card and pay it off immediately, will create good credit over time. That's hard to say, although doing that with a single credit card issuer may make them inclined to raise your credit limit, since you've shown you could manage large payments.
Anyway, this is my 2 cents worth.

You may want to go back and check your info. There are two main scores, Fair Isaac and Beacon. Both scores range from 300 to 850 - not 934. Even if there was a score that went to 934, it would be impossible to get a score within three points of perfect with hundreds of credit cards.

Having said that, it is true that moderate credit card switching will not have a huge impact on your score.

When I applied for a home loan, that was Fair Isaac. I don't remember the score the loan officer there told me, but he did say it was one of the highest scores he has seen.

That said, nothing is impossible. While I post here, I prefer to keep my identity private (my real name isn't burgerwars, as you could have guess). But I'm willing to show you my Trans Union credit report, but you must come meet me in person.

Really?????? Here I was thinking that your parents must have had a very strange sense of humor to actually name you that.

in the UK, the AMEX British Airways Premium Plus card is the best I reckon.

1.5 miles per � spend - double that on ���� spent on British Airways.

Couple that with the free two-for-one flight voucher you get with every �15k spend you can effectively get as many as 6 miles per � spent.

Anyone have the CO card from Chase? I am wondering what other people think of it? I have two accounts, and they seem to be nothing special.

One benefit of the Chase card is that Signature and Platinum cardholders earn unlimited miles; most Visa cards cap annual mileage for non-elites.

The NWA Visa also allows unlimited mileage if you use auto-debit in full.



[This message has been edited by Family flyer (edited 08-21-2002).]

Actually I just signed up for this card. Free the first year, 4k pts, everyone raving about it, I had to try. Based on the above conversions, that means that converting 20k into Qantas would give you either 45k or 50k miles depending on how the math was done (I am sure someone here knows how they do it). This seems to be the best value - and with Qantas being in OneWorld, that means you can get AA or BA flights also. Has anyone had experience with this? I think this was the basis for the IF-Concorde scheme. If you look at the chart here:

http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/...ables#qf_ba_aa

... it seems that you can get some good deals mileage-wise. Like 30k QF miles for a roundtrip in the US, which would cost you only 15k Starpoints (even better rate if you convert them in 20k increments) instead of the usual 25k miles on most carriers. Europe for 50k QF miles that only costed you (I guess) 20k starpoints. This seems like a stellar deal, am I missing something, is there a catch, or is it really that good?

I think your scheme

Starwood AMEX ---> Qantas ---> Oneworld

is about as good as one can get barring any short-term or one-time promotion.

In terms of value, I estimate that the scheme works out to be a "rebate" of 2.4% per $ charge based on the way I might claim the award (coach RT air tickets SFO-HNL).

However, HH AMEX maybe a better deal if what you want is free hotel room. (Kind of drifting off the topic...) I can get ~3% "rebate" using that card.

What am I missing? I have a Starwood card - If I transfer 20,000 SPG pts. to Qantas I will get 50,000 Quantas miles. Right?
Do I understand that I can use Qantas miles for an Award Ticket on British Airlines? (or American or other?)
Doesn't Qantas Awards go by the miles to be flown--not just the area ?
ie. British Airways Busniness Class MIA/LHR is 80,000 miles- How many QANTAS miles would I need for a British Airways Business Class award MIA/LHR?
If the Qantas Award costs more miles - where is the savings? Why does everyone seem to say the best use of the Starwood pts. is to transfer to Qantas miles?
Thanks for the enlightenment!

If you click on the link quinella66 posted above, you will find that on Chart 1 (which is applicable for BA) the award MIA-LHR will cost you 50000/100000/125000 miles depending on the class of service. (The direct distance is 2x 4425 miles.)

That means you'll need 100k Qantas miles to get that free biz class ticket. To get 100k Qantas miles, you need 45k starpoints (I am not sure about the exact conversion; but 45k is my interpretation of the rule.) To get 45k starpoints, you need to put 45000 dollars on the Starwood AMEX card.

Alternatively, if you have any other airline credit card that give you 1 mile per dollar charge. It will require 80000 miles in other program. That also means you need to charge 80000 dollars to get the biz class ticket.

Of course, this calculation does not figure in the one time sign up bonus or special double mile promotion etc...