I have read everything, but I have one question: We very seldom stay in hotels, (have lots of timeshares and a vacation home.) We have always transferred our AMEX StarPoints directly to airline miles and got the bonus for transferring in increments of 20K SP's.
So, should we just go with our favorite airline card? Currently we have 2 airline cards: Alaska Air and Hawaiian Air. Those are our primarily airlines. What's the best airline card?
Denise, the best credit card is Chase Sapphire Reserve. It has a fee of $450 per year but gets $300 returned for any travel booked with the card. We use it to pay all of our maintenance fees because we get 3X points.
I have Alaska miles I have built a large number of miles over the years, but it's a rare occasion that I can get a first class seat for 40K points. I have had to pay 80K points for that seat, when I missed out on the only seat because someone else grabbed it ahead of me. If I am going to pay 80,000 miles for an award seat, I will only book Denver-Maui.
I don't mind paying 40K points from the coast for a first class seat, and I do that sometimes, but I can only get ONE of those seats, and the rest are 80K miles. Would you pay 80K miles for a seat you could pay $500-600 to book?
This is confirmed through Alaska's customer service. Only one seat for 40K miles in first class, and the rest are 80K. So what to do? I book the 40K seat, if I can get it. Then I have to buy that second seat. Well, a 1st class seat is usually about $560 out of San Jose, so I book the award seat through Alaska and then book the second seat through Ultimate Rewards.
I used to just pay cash for the seat, but I now book that second seat with Chase Ultimate Rewards. That seat will be 37,520 in Chase points. I only spent between $12,000-13,000, which nets me 36-39,000 points on timeshare maintenance fees to book that second seat.
And another thing that is GREAT about that seat is that I build miles on the seat because it goes to Alaska as a cash sale. And as long as there is a first class seat, I get it with the points because it's a purchase, as far as Alaska is concerned.
This has caused me to be lazy about booking airline seats right at the mark where the award seat will open up.
Points are different currencies, but this is why we love our points with Chase:
When I pay $20,000 in maintenance fees on that card (just as an example), I get 60,000 points. Those 60,000 points can be transferred to any airline or used through the portal for $900 in travel. And as I stated above, I still build miles with whatever airline I fly.
I can book car rentals too. Car rentals are sometimes a great deal through the portal.
I can transfer my points to Hyatt and get incredible value for them. Some hotel rooms are $300 but only 10,000 Hyatt points. That 60,000 points ($20K spend) gets me $1,800 in hotel rooms with breakfast included. The high-end hotels with Hyatt are not more than about 25,000 points. I love Hyatt quality.
Transferring points to various airlines is easy. I can transfer to United, British Airways, Aer Lingus, Air France, and several others. Those award points will be the way we get to Europe and Australia. And of course the points can stretch to other airlines that are partnered with those. (Like Alaska has the partnership with Aer Lingus.
We love the airport lounge benefit, which is especially great with our own home airport, Denver International, because we get $28 in food from Timberline grill in concourse C with that card, and it's free. We also get free $28 in food for our guests. All 8 of us ate at the restaurant in May, on the way to Orlando. SJC has a great airport lounge, and so does Seattle, but not as great as Denver's. Oakland doesn't have one, which is disappointing.
I tell my kids about these cards, and only one of my kids really gets the benefits. He is kind of funny because he asks me every now and then what new thing I have discovered. I don't come up with new stuff every week, and I am so happy with this Chase card, I cannot even consider others.