I am in the lucky position that I have the ability to charge a ton on credit cards each month (~$400,000 per month and growing). Ignoring the obvious credit challenges that I continue to slog through, where should I focus my point earning ability?

Currently I am using Starwood Amex for most of it, though I just signed up for an Amex Plum card and might switch to that. Basically, if you were in my spot what would you do?

Horde Starwood points?
Horde Amex Points?
Take the cash back from Plum?
Get AA gold/platinum status?

I tend to use points for hotels and both domestic and international air travel.

In order to get really good advice from our FT "experts", you have to be a lot more specific. Your current profile doesn't help either.

Folks need to know what your MAIN goals are for the miles/points (upgrades..etc), your home base, your travel patterns, your destinations, and your personal preferences. Also, do you have elite status on any of the airlines/hotel chains? All these are factors to consider before sound advices can be given.

Are your charges mostly on personal or business cards? One thing you should have been aware is the caps of earned miles/points on the say creditcards. I would think you probably should spread your monthly $400K charges to more than one card so you can make the best out of your spending patterns. For credit card related issues, you can visit our Credit Card Programs/Partners Forums.

The Stickies on top of each forum (Hotels, Airline Programs, Credit cards) are usually a good starting point. You can find some useful info from there also.

Welcome to FT!

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8310/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Considering how short it would take you, I'd go for AA 2 mm status through an SPG transfer. Should only take you four months and who knows when it might come of great use further down the line. You could then turn those into HHonors points if you have no use for AA miles, but AA miles are notoriously easier to use than many other carriers.

I would look into getting status on AA through a challenge or regular flying. The mileage caps on the credit cards are lifted for elites. Thus, you could earn all 400k on a Citi AAdvantage card. However, the Starwoods card gets better than $1/1 mile, so I'd look into that as well.

Are the AA credit card mileage caps lifted for Gold, or do you have to be Platinum?

Gold will do it.

That might sound somewhat weird, but I feel almost sorry for you. Can you still feel joy when finding a "1000 bonus point" promotion? Are you still excited about having a "free" first class flight to some cool destination using miles? Maybe I am just rationalizing being a lowly FTer .

But to answer your question: if you really want to use CC's, I would go for SPG amex given that SPG points are probably the most flexible currency. If the money you spend is yours (or you have a stake in the company) I would negotiate with the supplier(s) to get a discount if you do not pay by credit card. That should probably be more than anything you can get via cards. And it seems unlikely that you'll use all the points anyway (unless you engage in forbidden trading etc.)

lin821: Thanks for the tip, I had looked at some before but I revisited them and found some more information. Per your comment, let me provide more information below, thanks!

It's my company so I have no issues taking the points, but at the same time the cost of getting a discount also comes out of my pocket so to speak. I am currently putting the vast majority of the spending on Starwood Amex based on what I read here a while ago and other advice and I think that still makes sense given the flexibility of the SPG, the ratio of the exchange per dollar and the bonuses (like 25% bonus in Nov!).

However, not everyone I spend with takes Amex so I planned to put the balance on a Citi AA card. I have about 200k flown miles on AA credit toward the 1M mark and at 50k/month or so I could let that tick in the background while I racked up SPG points and hit the 1M mark for gold. (mtparadis: I did not realize you could use SPG points to transfer to AA and have that qualify for status.) But, while AA is easier to redeem and they go a lot of place, I really find the airplanes crappy and their first class service out of Boston is basically only a bigger dirty seat (I know, it's the same with all of them).

If we assume as most people do on FT that Starwood Amex is the best program with Amex, the only other question is should I be using my new Plum card that I got. 2% cash back if you pay within 10 days (which I do since I never have enough credit on the cards I have to prepay a lot). Does 2% cash back exceed the value of the Starwood points? Sometimes yes sometimes no, but for me, psychologically it is different. I know that is stupid but I would never pay $5k for a first class ticket but would not hesitate to use the points...

What will I do with all the points? Travel with the family both domestically and internationally relatively often. As well I plan to use them for high end Starwood hotels that I would never want to pay for. I suppose I could transfer some to Amex and redeem for gift certs, but I figure I will stop earning the points some day and so I might as well stockpile them and then travel for "free" for several years.

I still have the status that comes with centurion but I canceled it so it will all go away save Starwood Gold (and I am going to try and talk them in to making me platinum based on spend). So I won't really have any status.

Thanks for all the help!

dukieee: Well the volume is relatively new, so I still get a thrill!

Do you already have status on AA? Otherwise, you need to be very careful of the annual mileage cap until you reach 1 million lifetime miles on AA (when you'll be comped as Gold). The earningcap is 100-150K per year, I think, depending on if it is a personal or business card, so "letting that tick in the background" would only last a couple of months and then you'd stop getting closer to your goal.

I don't think Diner's Club has a point earning limit (you should check!), and that would give you a Mastercard number. You can redeem for miles on a number of airlines, including AA.

As for AA miles, don't forget you have redemption possibilities on OneWorld airlines and a few other airline partners, plus the ability to transfer (1:2) to Hilton HHonors.


P.S. If you ever run out of things to use your miles for, just let me know and I'll gladly help out.

At 400K/month, that's potentially an $8,000 rebate per month. Cash is always good. You could get a higher or lower redemption value than that, as you've said. If you want to redeem for international business/first class, then the points will get you farther than if you tried to use cash to do the same. Of course, as you said, you probably wouldn't pay cash for an expensive ticket like that.

One route would be to mix it up a bit--some cashback, some points, etc.

However--and this is something for your tax accountant to answer--there may be a disadvantage to getting a cash rebate as opposed to miles/points. If you get a rebate on business purchases, you may need to deduct it from your cost. If you get miles/points, you wouldn't.

I assume:
1) you maintain just general member of all FFPs;
2) you don't fly much to get to airline elite status (yet);
3) you've been concentrating on AA miles & SPG points;
4) you earn the miles/points mostly from credit cards.

Correct?

I think you've gotta be well-versed in the fine print and especially any caps, but that almost goes without saying.

If you can burn at roughly the same rate you earn, then a points-based program that converts to tickets that count as paid might be worth considering for at least part of it. In my own case I'll generally get one "full option" ticket on ScoreCard through my credit union (20K points at $1/1 point) per year, which is $325 off (really $300 net after their $25 service fee to book) of any ticket anywhere. This really rewards people who stay current with sales and can pounce unusually cheap fares. The ticket bought counts as a paid ticket, earns miles and is upgrade-eligible. I don't think there's a cap, or maybe I just haven't hit it. But if I had $150K or so in credit card charges (which I don't) I could finance the whole year of elite qualification on that alone, probably favoring domestic trips that were upgrade-eligible. Depending on luck with fares, the trips booked could earn back 66-100% of the number of points spent as miles.

If you're not able to burn-as-you-go, then any place you park miles or points has devaluation risk. The airline FF programs or any of the point-based programs can and probably will change for the worse. If it were money rather than points/miles, people would be saying to buy gold as a hedge, but I'm not sure there's anything analogous. Maybe a cash rewards card, but it's hard to get the same immediate return.

It is, of course, 1 SPG point per $1 charge (and more when spent with Starwood), and those points are worth more than $.01 each.

With that much going onto CCs, I would try to get elite status in as many programs as you can that allow status through non-flying points. AA would be my first goal - lifetime Platinum status for $2M. If you fly Southwest, you can get a Companion Pass through CCs. And I believe one of the DL AMEX cards gives you enough points for Silver Medallion.

The Hilton AMEX gives you HHonors Gold by charging $20,000 per year and a Marriott VISA gives you Silver with one purchase.

There are probably a few others, but I would definitely focus not only on the accumulation of miles and points but program status as well.

Mileage cards are not your best option. What will you be doing with the 5 million miles you earn every year? The best option is the Citi Cash Rewards, with 5% cashback ("for the first three months"). 1.2 million miles vs. $60,000 cashback every three months should not be a difficult decision.