Congratulations! You're on your way to free travel by playing the points and miles game! All the previous posts have great info. An airline-specific credit card can be restrictive because you are tied to earning miles with that airline. Note, also, that in the very recent months, many airlines have devalued their award programs by raising the miles required for an award flight. They've also gone away from standardized award charts to dynamic award redemptions based on distance, demand, etc., just like it is when you buy a ticket for cash. Alaska Airlines is one of the last holdouts that is giving in to this change and will be implementing a new awards system that is not to the customer's benefit in the near future. At least, that's the buzz in the travel blogs.
The higher the annual fee for all cards, the more benefits you get and the higher bonus earnings on spending. Most airline credit cards will give you 2X the miles spent on that airline's products and only 1 mile for everything else. If you have a high annual fee card, that may be increased to 3X and 2X, respectively.
For a broader choice of redemptions, you can get a family of branded cards such as Chase, Capital One, or American Express. Citi is not as popular, as their bonuses for initial sign-up are low compared to the other three. Be aware of the 5/24 rule with Chase. This article from The Points Guy is a great resource and explains the 5/24 rules.
TPG beginners guide: Everything you need to know about points, miles, airlines and credit cards - The Points Guy
If this link doesn't work, the article was written on 1/1/21.
Here's another resource.
Points Navigator: Best Credit Card For Points
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Current point transfer bonuses
You can accelerate your earnings by adding an authorized user to your account, or your partner/significant other can open their own account to receive their own bonus offer by opening a new account. For instance, last year, I acquired the Chase Ink Business Preferred and Chase Sapphire a few months apart (to protect my credit score) and each had a 100,000 bonus for signing up and spending X amount of $ in X amount of months. At the end of the spend requirement, I had a starting balance of 200,000 in my family of Chase cards, not counting the points that have been earned from spending alone.
The Costco Citi Visa is great for getting a year-end check. I think of it as a contribution to the vacation fund. With 4% cash back for gas, 3% for travel, 2% for Costco purchases, it adds up. Plus, if you're an Executive member, you'll receive an additional 2% on Costco purchases. If you use Costco Travel, that is also eligible for the additional 2% back, although, I wouldn't recommend using Costco Travel at the moment because they are having severe staffing problems, and I have discontinued using them for now.
