Travel Miles Credit Card Recommendations

[FF / EMT]

I’ve got two Amex cards
One for my business that I spend about 120k a year on and a personal one that I spend only several thousand a year on.
The business is a delta reserve which has an annual fee and a personal delta platinum, also an annual fee.

I get complimentary companion flights and free upgrades, and sky lounge access and blah blah blah, I get Delta Platinum out of it, which offers perks like the Hertz gold plus or w/e it’s called now. I’m sure there’s more benefits that I don’t use, but it works.
It’s nice because delta has hub in Detroit, but I’m not flying more than 1-2 times per year.

 

[RobPNW]

I see myself going to the Caribbean more than other places because the flights would be more manageable and fall into the better bang for buck category. Seems that United and American are the two big airlines to Roatan as an example but not sure if that's the case to other islands. I would likely use the single card for most daily expenses. Capitol One looks like they have a generic CC for travel rewards but not sure if it's better than just using the Costco card.

 

[Jaan]

Consider also travel insurance benefits .. many of the travel cards offer interruption/cancellation even evacuation.
While it's not DAN it might cover the non-diving travel parts that you'd otherwise want. We have the chase one. hefty yearly fee but so many credits it easily makes up for it ..

 

[Big Dan K]

Two card combo hard to beat. Chase Freedom Unlimited gives you 1.5 points on most purchases and you can transfer the points to a Chase Sapphire Reserve and redeem them for a 50% bonus, so they redeem like 2.25 points. The reserve does have a high annual fee, but also great points on travel and dining, plus a $300 annual credit on travel purchases (anywhere, not just purchases made through Chase). Decent travel insurance and lounge access too

 

[ontdiver]

We have a (Canadian) card that earns us miles on daily purchases that can be used on Star Alliance carriers. Over time it has given us more global options that we have come to value. All to say that restricting yourself to a card that does not give you choice of carriers may end up being source of frustration.

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

We have a (Canadian) card that earns us miles on daily purchases that can be used on Star Alliance carriers. Over time it has given us more global options that we have come to value. All to say that restricting yourself to a card that does not give you choice of carriers may end up being source of frustration.

And be prepared from some disappointment if you are not a well organized early planner. There are often limits on the number and type of reward seats available on each flight.

We just booked a reward flight for next april. We wanted to fly on Sunday, but ended up with a Saturday flight due to no reward seats left on the Sunday plane.

We have the highest level of airline status, so we get access to more seats on more flights at lower redemption levels. This did not matter as all seats were already gone on our preferred flight.

Plan ahead...

 

[CptTightPants21]

Yes, there are lots of variables to consider depending on personal circumstances.

Chase Reserve Freedom and Freedom Unlimited is a nice combo.

Capital One has upped their game and could be an alternative for those that don't want to worry about recouping annual fees, but still want some of the elite benefits like Priority Pass and Travel Insurance.

For the average person, airline credit cards are most efficiently used for their sign up bonus and to pay the annual fee to keep the free checked bags and/or Priority boarding. They are not good everyday spending cards as the rewards rates a typically lower than alternatives and the miles less valuable than a bank point system (Chase, AMEX, Citi Thank You, or Capital One)

 

[wnissen]

I looked at this recently and I agree that for people who typically have a choice of airlines, you don't want an airline card unless you're planning to hop from card to card. If you're going to be flying United (e.g.) most of the time, the card would pay off, especially if you were regularly checking luggage or paying for a better seat in coach.

I looked at the fee cards, and it generally seemed like I would be better off using the cash back from Costco to buy what I wanted, rather than trying to use card benefits like lounge access. This is not true if you're going to book first class way in advance, then you can do better.

 

[tridacna]

I have the United CC. I have been using United for a long time and I am a Million Miler so I (and your significant other) have lifetime benefits. I also live at one of United hubs so flights are easy to arrange.

FTFY. I'm a United 2M. Worthless these days. You need to be 1K or GS to get an upgrade. I'm out of Newark. I'm 1K until next year. Then the fun starts again with Pt. Also use United Presidential Plus. Best benefit is boarding any time.

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

FTFY. I'm a United 2M. Worthless these days. You need to be 1K or GS to get an upgrade. I'm out of Newark. I'm 1K until next year. Then the fun starts again with Pt. Also use United Presidential Plus. Best benefit is boarding any time.

This also reminds me that some plans have (used to have?) points that expire and dissapear if not used. The original AirMiles plan in Canada had that feature. Basically made it useless as it was only possible to accumulate enough points for something as trivial as a cheap clock radio before your old points started to age out and dissapear. Not a very useful loyalty program.

Alternately your complete account may expire if you do not remain "active". An Air Canada Aeroplan account will expire if it remains inactive for over 18 months. All your points dissapear. Not a real big deal as all you have to do to be active is charge something on your Aeroplan credit card.

If you are playing the long game and intend to collect and keep points for later in life, be sure to be aware of possible expiration policies.