With standard airline affinity cards don't forget to consider bonuses.

Bonuses vary by airline and sometimes participating in just one makes the card worthwhile for years.

For example, in 2001 NWA Visa gave up to 15 miles/dollar for every dollar spent on NWA tickets.

Many flyers - who would have bought NWA tickets anyway - received the maximum bonus of 75,000 miles. NWA is not known for award availability, but the above promotion was worth a $950 Hawaii ticket for me. That pays for many years of annual fees.

I think hotel cards are better only if you regularly stay at the particular chain and thus get the higher hotel-charged points/dollar.




[This message has been edited by Family flyer (edited Jan 02, 2004).]

Ummm, if I recall correctly, you get the 3,000 MyPoints bonus points when you use the card to charge something (and I think in some promotions, that "something" had to be from a MyPoints ad). If you, like I, keep a copy of promotions we respond to, you might want to check the fine print on this. That may be why your bonus points haven't posted.

I made one small purchase shortly after receiving the card. The T&C's did not specify it had to be a purchase thru a MyPoints ad. The offer, which I still have in my e-mail folder, says to allow 15 business days from the purchase for the bonus points to post. With the holidays, that would push it out til sometime later this week. If nothing by Monday, MyPoints can expect e-mail. I'm sick and tired of companies failing to live up to their offers.

I agree that the Starwood Amex is a great card, and we use it. However, the Delta AMEX is a good card too, and we use it for its benefits as well. Double miles on home stores, gas station purchases, and groceries are the most important. And if you reach $25,000 in spend, you get an extra 10,000 mile bonus, which also counts as MQMs for elite status. (You'll have to read the Delta forum to fully understand that.)

Even without the elite qualification though, we try to spend right at about 25,000 on it. For this, we get 25,000 base miles, about 15,000 double miles (lot of groceries, gas, CVS, etc.), and 10,000 bonus miles at year end. Thus, about 50,000 miles for $25,000 spent.

All other purchases we try to pile onto the Starwood card. The reason I think those points are most valuable is not because of their conversion capability, but rather because of the no blackout dates (generally) on Starwood awards. That is a great feature, and ensures that you can actually use the points (unlike Hilton and Marriott, of which I have many, but frequently cannot use).

Have a visa for when AMEX not accepted, but try to use either of the two AMEX's at all times if we can.

Some may complain about the fees charged by the cards. However, between the costs saved in rental car insurance charges, and the benefits of the loss or theft protection and extended warranties of the cards, I have gotten full value for the cards every year without ever considering the value of the FF points. (For example, last year Inkjet printer breaks in 2d year of use, 1 year manuf. warranty, AMEX pays to replace it during second year of use.)

If I lived in another city I would probably try to accumulate more AA miles, because of their lifetime Gold courtesy at a million miles (and for which they count CC miles). However, being stuck in PHL hub, hard to get many places on AA easily.

Djlawman

I always use Diners Club car for Car Rentals.
Its provides PRIMARY car insurance anywhere in the world on a rental. If you read the fine print on other cards you will find that they will pay what your personal car insurance won't ( and your rates go up as well). That is easily worth the $80/year I pay.

Agreed on DC: the two biggest benefits are the primary car rental insurance (AFAIK, they are the only card that provides this) and the ability to funnel points/miles to many programs in small chunks. Last year, I pushed a few thousand into Marriott to redeem a 250,000 point award and a couple thousand into two airline programs to redeem basic award tickets.

The hotel cards are great if you actually stay at the chains. I have an HH Amex and an MR Visa - they aren't very good for general purchases, but they provide a nice boost for stays at the properties. I will add an SPG Amex as soon as a good sign-up bonus turns up. I will be using Starwoods a few times in '04, and I like the ability to move points out to airline miles at a good exchange rate if I need to.

But if I had to do it all over again from scratch, and I only wanted to carry a couple of cards, I'd do this:

- SPG Amex as my primary spending card
- Straight cashback card (e.g., Chase Cashbuilder or similar) as my backup MC/Visa
- Diner's Club for car rentals

What does SPG mean?

Starwood Preferred Guest (Westin, Sheraton, etc.)

Couldn't disagree more with just about everything you state, other than SPG AMEX should be the primary spending card.

Diners Club is a real non-starter. I can't understand the draw to this card. They have a steep annual fee and then charge you to move points into miles. Who needs that? If you don't have car insurance (no personal auto) I can see that the car rental provisions of Diners Club make the card a good deal for anyone with even a few rentals a year. If you do have personal auto insurance, then there is no need for the card's insurance in the U.S. and Canada (and maybe Mexico). Why pay more money to Diner's for what you are already covered for? For international rentals, you could get a no-fee Platinum Mastercard (MyPoints Citibank MC for example) to cover insurance.

I also disagree with the statement that the HH AMEX is not good for general purchases. This card offers 3 points per dollar for all non-Hilton purchases. Even at my conservative valuation of $.0055 per HHonors point, that comes to $.0165 per dollar spent which is a better value in my view than airline credit cards. And it has no annual fee. Many people value HHonors points at $.01 each. I think these people are crazy, but if you do value them that way then this card effectively offers $.03 per dollar. That is even a better value than the Starwood AMEX.

Lastly, I can't understand a cash back card as your back-up MC/VISA. From what I've seen, these cards offer, at most, 1% back. Sure, some have a sliding scale, but the total end result seems to be 1%. No matter how you slice it, that's less value than a miles/points card (with the possible exception of the Marriott Rewards card or the Priority Club VISA). The Hilton VISA offers 2 points per dollar. Again, at my conservative valuation of $.0055 per point, you would be getting 1.1% "back".

Finally, why are you waiting for a bonus offer on the SPG AMEX card? ALL bonus promos associated with that card have been stay related. I think the current offer is 6000 bonus points. I don't think it's been higher than 10,000 bonus points. If you think it's the card to have, why wait?

I might also add that for all gasoline purchases I use the AAA VISA card. Offers 5% rebate, credited immediately, on ALL pay-at-pump purchases from almost all gas stations and no annual fee.

[This message has been edited by MileKing (edited Jan 08, 2004).]