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

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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.

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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!