New, Have some getting started questions, please help.
 

I am newly retired and want to travel. I need to rack up the FF miles fast. I am open to all ideas. I just discovered this forum last night and stayed up reading about 2 hours! I want to take advantage of the bonus miles given for getting the WP visa (as read here last night)expires tomorrow! I also read loud and clear that the Starwood Amex is the #1 card to have, so I want to sign up for that one. Doing a search on cards led me to the Gold Delta Skymiles Card, which sounded good. I read that United Plus Visa has a 15,000 sign on bonus, so that one sounds good!
1st question: How do I contact Starwood? Can't seem to find them with a search.
2nd question: I will want to be able to fly to all locations on the globe so I need to rack up miles for all airlines...right. So do I want to have a visa from all airlines?
3rd question: Are there any cards that require you to pay interest or can you pay in full each month and still reap the benifits of the miles.
Thanks to all of you for the info and help you give. I appreciate this site!
gogoflyer

Also, What limit should I put on these cards? Within the next 3 years we will sell our house and buy another one. If I keep the cards paid in full and cancel them right before I fill out the loan application, shouldn't that be okay? Any tips for organization of all these cards?
Thanks,
gogoflyer

\

Here's my opinion- worth what you paid for it, too!

Starwood- http://www.spg.com

PICK AN AIRLINE! 20,000 points in 5 different airlines will get you nothing! This is rule number one! If you want to fly all over (but don't know where)- pick an airline with an extensive alliance- this is either United (Star Alliance) or American (oneWorld Alliance).

If you go with UA- use the Mileage Plus Card- and nothing else. Starwood points only transfer two to one into United

If you go American- get the Starwood card, and use it as much as possibile, and get a AA Mastercard for those places that don't take AmEx. 20,000$ on the starwood card equals 25,000 Advantage miles.

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

1) You can find Starwood at spg.com - if you check the Starwood board, there is a link for getting the Amex with a 4000 point upfront bonus (additional 6000 based on starwood stays).

2) The Starwood points can be converted to most airlines - but it doesn't hurt to have one or two airline cards as well. The key is figuring out which airline partnerships you want to use the most - the major US carriers are all in alliance with international carriers so you can probably get anywhere you want with one. Also, it doesn't pay to build up small balances in several airline programs, because you can't combine them.

3) They should all allow you to pay off each month without interest - if they charged interest for those people, most Flyertalkers would probably not use the cards.

4) You shouldn't need to cancel your credit cards before buying a house. Having a history of using credit wisely is a good thing for your credit score, and some experts that closing several cards may actually decrease your rating.

Extra - before you sign up for any credit card, search in that airline's board to make sure you are getting the best bonus currently available. I think there might be a 20,000 bonus for United.

Well, I can surely tell you that 2 hours is a good start, but it is gonna take you days and days to cover the topics you raised, so keep on keepin' on.

Starwood is at: www.starwood.com

Your profile does not say where you live, so no one can give specific advice on what airlines you should concentrate on, but it is important to pick one or two that meet your needs (fly out of your airport(s), go where yu want to go, etc.) and concentrate on building up miles and status with them. You mentioned "racking up miles for all airline." This is NOT the way to go. You can wind up with 100,000 FF miles so spread out amongst the airlines that you don't have enough with any one for a free ticket!

Also, the elite levels have bonus miles for your travel, so the sooner you hit elite, and the higher elite level you hit, the more miles you are going to score.

It's probably just me, but I don't really understand your third question...I wasn't aware of any cards that charge you interest if you pay in full each month.

It's a lot of work and a lot of info to digest on the various plans, conditions, promotions and bonuses, so I again encourage you to concentrate your efforts on a few airlines/hotels.

Good luck and welcome to FlyerTalk!

Oh, yeah. Here's a specific suggestion just to get you started:

You mentioned selling and then buying another house. Some mortgage companies give you FF miles if you finance thru them. You'll have to figure out if the interest rates, closing costs, etc., are worthwhile, but if they are equivalent to what others are offering, why not? Again, you will have to do some comparison shopping, and it may not work for you, but it is worth checking out when the time comes.

gogoflyer

Welcome, a bit late to the party, but you have come to the right place.

The fact is that you have a long way to go to get the best of the board. My suggestions include:

Sets some goals for yourself, before you go wild getting started.

Let us know where you live, or at least the nearest airport...that will help others define a best, second best...etc airline to get point on.

Credit cards generally cost money to have, annual fee. So getting a bunch is not normally cost effective, at least not all at the same time. Also the credit agencies may or may not find you attractive for lending on a mortgage as a retiree with 10 new credit cards, newly minted or newly cancelled.

Think about the hotels you would probably stay in. It will take a long time to generate lots of free stays. These stays will need to generally be earned at the same chain. The problem is, the cost of getting free nights at say Hyatt is high. At Best Western or Choice hotels the cost is much lower. Cost of food, parking, etc often tracks with the cost of the rooms too.

So some thought needs to go into that process. Here on the board most (IMHO) people earn their points on their employers bank (or tax deductible as a small business)for years to come up with free flights, nights, cars, etc. When you are paying to get those benefits, the effort takes some different thought. Also some of the huge ongoing point amassing is dependent on bonus given to only the frequentest of frequent fliers...so seek out some discussions of mileage runs.

Continue to read this site. Spend some time in the "search" areas of forum of interest, as so much has come before that will hone your future questions.

Think airline, hotel, car rental, credit card (paying insurance, doctor bills and biger ticket items helps), phone company, investment company, mortage, groceries, Entertainment card, web based booking for everything, and watch for miscellaneous bonus for everything...most of which ends up somewhere on this board. Also don't join anything until you see what, if any, bonuses you can score in doing so.

Will that is what hoped into my head right off, I am sure you will get lots of advice. It seem like it has been awhile since we have discussed someone retiring and yet just starting.

Good luck. And again welcome

Well, 2 hours is a start, and it sounds like you have some good ideas. I suggest you take a look at my web site below, and perhaps begin at the How to Begin page listed near the bottom of the left index. Then go to the pages that interest you. The big miles that currently can be had are on the Credit Card, Telephone, and Finance pages (especially US Savings Bonds and Credit Cards combinations.) And don't sign up for a program until you look for it in the Airline Registrations and Other Bonuses page. There might be a signup bonus available.

Good luck, and expect addiction.

------------------
Free Frequent Flyer Miles

I am just overwhelmed with the help I have received! Thanks so much!

It seems like most of you need to know where I live to help me further. I live in the Ozarks and want to travel in all directions and to Canada and Alaska. Maybe some international travel also. So help me choose the right card. I will be looking for bonus miles to add to my FF miles. Other than that I am planning to pay my bills, buy gas and groc etc with the card/cards. I don't plan to buy a ticket and fly somewhere in order to get miles but maybe I will have to, I dunno. I do understand (now) that I need to pick an airline. What happens if I pick say United and United doesn't go to Alaska?

gogoflyer

[This message has been edited by gogoflyer (edited 07-14-2003).]

Cancelling your card before you sell your home may not necessarily do anything to help your credit score, it may actually hurt it.

For questions about credit and how to improve it, I'd recommend the CreditNet message boards (I think it's www.creditnet.com but not sure)

[This message has been edited by PsychoFreakGoalie (edited 07-14-2003).]

If you want to go to Alaska, and your primary carrier doesn't fly there, then this is where the partnerships come into play. Thus, you should look at all of the airlines within an alliance (American's OneWorld and United's StarAlliance were mentioned before, and are very extensive) and compare the destinations that they serve with your potential destinations. I would also suggest Northwest or Continental (they are partners along with Delta). This means, for example, that you can accumulate miles on NW when flying CO or DL. You can then redeem NW miles for a free ticket on NW/CO/DL.

Thanks JLD22, for such good info!
This is all new to me! How many different alliences are there? How to I find them?
gogoflyer

Most every airline is part of a larger alliance (except for discount carriers like Southwest, JetBlue, etc). You can find out who these partners are from the website of any airline. For example, the following link is from NW's website.

http://www.nwa.com/freqfly/earn/airfl.shtml

I'm sure you can easily find similar pages from United and American's website.
Remember that each airline has its own frequent flier program (like AAdvantage for American and Mileage Plus for United), while also being part of a larger alliance (OneWorld for American and Star Alliance for United).

You may also want to look into using your residential long distance service to get you more miles. Sprint and AT&T have partnered up with some airlines on this. You get a sign-up bonus of several thousand miles if you keep the service for 6 or 12 months.

Welcome to FT!

Q2 - You don't need credit cards for all airlines. For instance, you can have an AMEXCO Delta Card card and collect Delta miles. Then you can fly with Delta and their SkyTeam partners (Air France, Alitalia ....) all over the world. The same is true with the other air alliances.

Q3 - Pay your balance off each month ... No interest!

Here are links to the 2 major alliances: Star (of which United is a member) and OneWorld (of which American is a member)

http://www.staralliance.com/star_all...e/main_10.html

http://www.oneworldalliance.com/

Remember, too, that each airline within an alliance may have partnerships with other airlines that are not yet within their respective alliances.

On United, for example, one can earn miles flying USAirways (though they will soon enough be a member of Star).

Look here:

http://www.touroftheozarks.org/

and you can win 2 tickets.

As long as you don't open up a bunch of accounts at once, keep your bills paid up, and don't carry high balances, you should be OK.
I bought a house about 5 1/2 years ago, and just refinanced it. I have many, many Visa MasterCards with large credit limits, plus an enormous amount of other credit cards which I don't use.. But they're almost always paid in full and never paid late. I have a very high credit score, thus my mortgage company (Wells Fargo) seems to care less how many credit cards I have.
Just, FYI, last month they gave me a no-fee/no-points/no-closing costs 15 year / 5% mortgage as a refi.

I don't use the hotel programs - I use priceline for hotels because the expense is so much lower and you'll get so much more for your dollar.

Go to biddingfortravel.com and you'll see what hotels go for what amount.( Makes bidding very easy and they will teach you how to determine a bid price.) How do you earn miles since priceline bids don't count torwards mileage? Easy, I use a world perks Visa card to pay for the transaction. The best of BOTH worlds, and I save a ton of money.

Last weekend Sofitel (4*) in Minneapolis for $65 + taxes and fees.

burgerwars,
Congrats on the great ref! I don't know your status in life but I am retired and really don't want or need all those cards but (and that a big but) I do want to learn how to start accruing FF miles, fast. You think a lot of cards is the answer? Do you keep your cards within the same alliance?

gogoflyer

Student Explorer, Your post was a great help! Thanks for the links, they put some light on the subject!

gogoflyer

Bradford,

Thanks, I applied and got the Starwood card. Are you saying to have only one card? Makes a lot of sense. Most people here are getting multible cards and playing them like they would the stock market! Do you do a lot of flying? If so I can see where one card might be enough because you get so many ff miles when you fly. I don't fly but would if I could afford a ticket so I need to get miles other ways. I don't want it to take me several years. I would like to have enough miles to get at least 2 tickets a year, 4 would be better.

gogoflyer

hnechets,
Thanks for your answer. It's confusing as some people here have many cards and some, like you are saying, not! Don't worry about that third question, I didn't understand it either! :-) Can you tell me more about "elite"? How do I get there?
gogoflyer

I have just reread all post here and know that I have a wealth of info! I have visited all links (great web site, Pgary!)several times. I learned about alliances and see that United has 18 partners, whereas the others don't have near that many. Each card has good and not so good points. So I guess I just need to pick one! I am leaning towards United, but there are several cards to pick from within United, so I will need to look at each one. You have all helped me to understand more. I think you would get bored if I answered everyone so I'll just say Thanks, but don't stop! If you have more to tell me, please do!
gogoflyer

Just keep in mind, that more partners does not a better alliance make. It really comes down to where u want to fly. Carefully consider the various alliances. And again, remember that there can be partnerships outside a particular alliance.

So look at the various airlines and see where they fly and how often.

For myself, I am based in Chicago and do mostly mid-con flights. United just makes sense. Particularly since I will soon be based in San Francisco.

You mentioned, however, that you want to go to Alaska. In that instance, you might consider airlines Alaska Airlines is partnered with. After all, when it comes time to getting an award ticket, it will be much easier to snag a seat on an airline that serves your destination far more then, say, United.

Again, just keep in mind your own travel plans and where you would like to go. You don't necessarily need an alliance with 18+ partners.

How do I find partners outside an alliance?

Look at the particular airline you are considering flying. Their websites will list all partner airlines.

This is United's: http://www.ual.com/page/article/0,1360,1177,00.html

Note, those are their partners IN ADDITION to the Star Alliance members.

You're quite welcome, gogoflyer!

1. It's OK to belong to a lot of FF programs. You never know when you will need to fly on an airline that you don't usually use. So it is prudent to get whatever miles you can get.
2. What I meant was, **given a choice**, don't spread your flying out amongst all of them. If you can, concentrate on one or two and get all the miles you can in those accounts.

Elite status is such a basic question, that it tends to be taken for granted by frequent flyers and what it is isn't given much discussion. So, if all will bear with me, here's the skinny in a nutshell:

When you fly a certain number of miles with an airline, you will be given more status than the average flyer. For instance, if you fly 25,000 base miles* (see below) Northwest will grant you WorldPerks Silver status. You will get to board ahead of non-elites, therefore not usually having a problem finding overhead space for your carryon luggage. You will be able to get settled down instead of standing in line in the aisle. And, in line with your desire to get the most miles the fastest, you will get a 50% bonus on your frequent flyer miles. In other words, if you fly 1000 base miles, you will be awarded 1500 ff miles. See?

If you fly 50,000 miles, you get gold status, and get double miles(2000 total ff miles if you fly 1000). 75,000 (oh, my aching backside!) and you get 125% (1250 extra miles for a total of 2250 ff miles) more miles.

There's more to elite, but these are some of the bigger advantages.

* Base Miles: Sometimes called elite qualifying miles...the miles that count towards earning elite status. Take the example above, you flew 1000 miles, and earned 1500 miles. Only the 1000 count towards elite status, whether getting higher elite, or maintaining your present status next year. The extra 500 miles DO NOT count towards that. They do, of course, count towards ticket redemption, as do other non-flying miles. This does cause confusion at times. Just remember, Base miles for earning elite status, all miles for free flying.

Warning, this is very general and how Northwest does it isn't how all airline do it. For instance, Delta would not give you 1000 base miles for the above trip if you purchased one of their cheaper tickets. You would get the full 1000 ff miles plus any elite bonus ff miles, but only half of the 1000 base miles would count towards elite status; Delta does not call them base miles, but Medallion Qualifer Miles, or MQM if you were wondering what that meant on the Delta forum...yes, it can get complicated sometimes, so I picked an easier example with an airline I am very familiar with. Read the Delta forum for how ff'ers feel about this "feature" of the SkyMiles program.

Hope this helps. It by no means covers all the minute details, specials and exceptions, but by now, you're probably getting a handle on things. The search function here works pretty well--wear the sucker out whenever you get a chance!


[This message has been edited by hnechets (edited 07-20-2003).]

So, partners are all the airlines in the alliance of the major airline?

Thanks for that great explanation of "elite". So, I can only get there with my flying miles, other accured miles don't count and it is not this way with all the cards...I just have to check. I will go see how Delta feels about MQM.
thanks,
gogoflyer

Close. There are three major alliances: Star, Oneworld, and Skyteam. Yes, each of the airlines within each alliance are partners with eachother.

However, airlines also have partnerships with other airlines outside their alliances.

Take United for example: they are "partners' with those airlines that are members of the Star Alliance.

In addition, they have several other airline partners. This includes airlines like Emirates (not a member of any alliance currently) and even Delta (members of Skyteam).

Sorry if I confused you. I was just trying to point out that the airlines you are looking at (United and American) have partnerships beyond their respective alliances. Basically, just something else to compare as it can open up other mileage earning possibilities.

Happy travels!

[This message has been edited by StudentExplorer (edited 07-20-2003).]

I didn't see anywhere that Delta was a member of star alliance? If I get the Milage Plus Visa (United) and I fly Delta, I will get the miles?

gogoflyer

gogoflyer:
I think that you got a little confused!?!
Actually, StudentExplorer explained everything very nicely.
When you use (pay with!!) your United Credit Card you will get United Miles for each dollar you spent (may be more, I don't know) at your gas station, your supermarket .... fly Delta, American, whatever ....

United and Delta are non-alliance partners. You can get miles in your United account by flying Delta (and vice versa), but those miles are not treated the same as if you were flying an alliance partner. First, I think its only if the flights are domestic and also, the miles do not count towards your status miles that earn you elite status. In some cases, if you are an elite you would not get your elite bonus (you get miles above what you actually fly as a bonus, once you reach elite status).

You can also redeem miles from United for select awards flying Delta. These awards are more restrictive than if Delta was an alliance partner of United.

Hope this helps and didn't confuse the issue further.

[This message has been edited by GoingAway (edited 07-22-2003).]

I have taken the plunge! I am now a MP FF member and have applied for the United Airlines Milage Plus Visa! Thanks for all your help. Yes, I was confused about how to use the card. Thanks for putting some light on the subject. I still have a lot to learn but I think I have made a good choice. Here is a new offer I found that I don't think has been here yet.

http://www.unitedgreatoffer.com/

Thanks,
gogoflyer

You will get some great sign up bonuses with any credit card but I am a bit concerned that you believe the "free tickets" will be rolling in now. If you are only accruing miles by credit card purchases it could take a while to get enough miles for an award. The sign up bonuses are one time thing. It takes 25,000 miles to get a free domestic round trip ticket. You say that you would like 2 to 4 free tickets a year. There are sometimes bonuses for shopping at specific stores during a period of time but the general rule of thumb is $1 spent = 1 airline mile. Do you have $50,000 - $100,000 in credit card charges a year? Otherwise there is really no way to get that many "free tickets"

Thanks for posting this. That looks like a great offer to get miles.
However, many of us will have trouble faxing UNITED a recent frequent flier statement. Most of us opted month, years ago to receive the statement by e-mail.

Hello Prncess674, I didn't have a clue about anything connected with how to built FF miles when I started this but now I do realize that the free tickets will not be rolling in. However, I am very happy with all the info I have learned and will be satisfied to work towards any free trip as long as it will take. I am only doing this for the free ticket to fly somewhere. I don't need the miles for hotel stays as I own 2 gold crown timeshares. Thanks so much for helping me get the info I needed! This community is awesome!
usafan, that is bummers!
gogoflyer