Credit card advice

[Picker57]

We presently use United's Mileage Plus card and Frontier's Mastercard. We fly out of Denver, and those are the two major airlines here. We prefer to fly Frontier but they don't go to a lot of the places we'd like (eg. Hawaii), so we're looking to switch to a card that works for all airlines and has no blackout dates, but that offers flights for a reasonable number of miles. (United keeps raising theirs while Frontier's domestic ticket is still 15K miles). Any experiences with cards that give open choice of airlines?

Thanks

Zach Kaplan

[Dave M]

Most major airlines require about 25,000 miles for an economy ticket, just as United does. Some of the regional airlines (or those with limited destinations) have a lower threshold, just as Frontier does.

United has actually made very few changes to the mileage requirements for award tickets in recent years, other than to Hawaii and some other foreign destinations and for premium class tickets. You won’t find any major airline programs with significantly lower mileage requirements for plane tickets.

There are several credit card choices.

Diners Club points can be turned into FF miles (or the equivalent in Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, Midwest, Southwest and a variety of foreign airlines, as well Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Radisson, Starwood and several cruise lines. The card doubles as a MasterCard, but the annual fee is stiff - $95 per year.

American Express has its Membership Rewards program, which is affiliated with Continental, Delta, AirTran and a variety of non-U.S. airlines, as well as all of the hotel chains mentioned above for Diners. Annual fees range from $95 to $450, depending on which card you get.

There are also some bank credit cards where you accumulate points that can be used for a specific dollar amount towards a plane ticket. Capital One is such an example. No blackout dates, but you’ll pay whatever the ticket cost is after the credit against that cost for points applied. In terms of relative value, most of these cards require you to spend more on purchases than the above options to get the same travel value.

Lastly, you can stay with what you have. I think keeping and using the UA Chase Visa card is an excellent option for you. It generates FF miles for the airline you are most likely to use most often in flying out of Denver. You can double the miles you earn with various promotions during the year and can concentrate those FF miles in a single program.

That UA Visa, along with a Diners Card, had been my choice for many years and it has served me well. I dumped the Diners Card two years ago, after the card’s points program was significantly downgraded and the card’s free car rental insurance was changed from primary to secondary coverage.

I replaced the Diners card with a Chase Marriott Premier Visa, which earns five points per dollar for every Marriott charge, an annual free-night Marriott stay, either two points (air, dining, rental car) or one point on other purchases, along with some other goodies for signing up. The free night more than pays for the annual $65 fee.

Both of my cards have various promotion periods during the year when FF miles or points are doubled or tripled for selected purchases.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, UA and Marriott are normally my first airline and hotel choices!

[x3 skier]

I have a AA Master Card that applies the miles to your account. Unlike some, it counts for lifetime Million Miler status as well. I also have an AMEX with Rewards that can be transferred into the program of choice. They also allow you to use the points to directly "buy" flights direct but the amount is exorbitant. I recently checked two business class tickets to Europe and it was over 500000 points IIRR, compared to 90000 each on Delta (via Air France).

Being you are in Denver, I would stick with United and Frontier or pick up an AMEX with the Membership Rewards.

Another good source of info is www.flyertalk.com that have forums about credit card reward programs. Lots of opinions there.

Cheers

[pointsjunkie]

i think the starwood amex is your best bet. do you spend $15000 in a six month period on a credit card? if you do i have a site that will get you 40000 starpoints rather quickly. the reason i like starwood is that if you have 20000 starpoints in your account and want to switch to the many airlines they are affiliated with they will give you 5000 starpoints for nothing to get you to 25000 which you would need for a domestic flight. if you stay at any starwood hotel you will and use the amex they will give you double starpoints.

there is a good promo with southwest that will give you a free flight after the first use.www.southwest.com/flyfree. you can use swa on ata to hawaii but you need double the credits.

with all the bank cards you will be spending $25000 for 25000 miles. i would never do that.

i have cards with jetblue, delta, american, southwest, and starwood.and have multiple free flights with all of them . i let my charge cards work for me and i fly first class and free all the time.

[Pat H]

Originally Posted by pointsjunkie

i think the starwood amex is your best bet. do you spend $15000 in a six month period on a credit card? if you do i have a site that will get you 40000 starpoints rather quickly. the reason i like starwood is that if you have 20000 starpoints in your account and want to switch to the many airlines they are affiliated with they will give you 5000 starpoints for nothing to get you to 25000 which you would need for a domestic flight. if you stay at any starwood hotel you will and use the amex they will give you double starpoints.

Unfortunately the SPG to UA transfer is not a good deal. You only get 1 UA mile for every 2 SPG points you transfer.

[spatenfloot]

Originally Posted by Picker57

We presently use United's Mileage Plus card and Frontier's Mastercard. We fly out of Denver, and those are the two major airlines here. We prefer to fly Frontier but they don't go to a lot of the places we'd like (eg. Hawaii), so we're looking to switch to a card that works for all airlines and has no blackout dates, but that offers flights for a reasonable number of miles. (United keeps raising theirs while Frontier's domestic ticket is still 15K miles). Any experiences with cards that give open choice of airlines?

Zach Kaplan

Southwest Airlines Visa card is pretty good. They also fly to Hawaii via Airtran. Earning free flights is pretty easy and doesn't take long to do.

[Picker57]

Thank you all VERY much for the suggestions. Methinks I'll probably stay with what I have and hope that Frontier starts flying to Hawaii sometime during my lifetime. Some of the other options are attractive, but as I get further into geezerhood I increasingly dislike multi-flight trips. This leaves....United and Frontier (from Denver). Thanks again.

--Zach