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Best Freq Flyer Credit Card??
Question:
: > : >: AA Citibank Visa card with a free companion ticket. : > : >Before you do this, note that the "FREE" companion requires you to buy either : >a full fare coach ticket, or something else ridiculous, and has tons of : >restrictions. … : > : >Scott : Actually the certificate does NOT require a full coach ticket purchase. : It only requires a ticket that costs at least $298. : …Ken I found this to be a great deal. I recently ticketed (haven’t traveled) a trip using the AA Citibank companion ticket, and was actually able to use the companion coupon on a sale fare. The regular price was $470 or so, the sale price was $330 and I got two tickets at $330 total, or $165 each. FWIW, this is for Minneapolis (MSP) to Midland-Odessa travel in May. I’d guess that the usefullness of such a companion offer depends upon the typical airfares available. For me, travelling out of MSP. it was a pretty easy choice, since even sale fares to most parts of the country are usually over $300. (at least anywhere I go) My only regret is that I had already accepted this offer when they sent me another a few months later for a companion ticket that was also good for travel to the Carribean and Mexico. Oh well. Also, I’ve had really good luck using any form of companion/FF travel on AA, and am 3/3 on getting the flights/dates desired. United and Northwest… steve
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: AA Citibank Visa card with a free companion ticket. Before you do this, note that the "FREE" companion requires you to buy either a full fare coach ticket, or something else ridiculous, and has tons of restrictions. I researched this myself when looking for a credit card for the family, and reasoned that it was worthless, because one can regularly purchase cheaper tickets for two during a fare sale or by using other discounts that would be less than the cost of one full fare ticket. Scott
Response:
>: AA Citibank Visa card with a free companion ticket. >Before you do this, note that the "FREE" companion requires you to buy either >a full fare coach ticket, or something else ridiculous, and has tons of >restrictions. I researched this myself when looking for a credit card for the >family, and reasoned that it was worthless, because one can regularly purchase >cheaper tickets for two during a fare sale or by using other discounts that >would be less than the cost of one full fare ticket. >Scott
Actually the certificate does NOT require a full coach ticket purchase. It only requires a ticket that costs at least $298. …Ken
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I just finished using two of these (Citibank/American Airlines 2-for-1). They do require tickets of $298 or more, but that wasn’t a big deal. One trip would have been $528×2 (for both of us – ouch), but w/ the coupon became affordable at $528/2, or $264 for each of us. The second trip was $324 TOTAL, or $162 for each of us. These were mainstream, r/t tickets in the US. Now they were very cheap. The coupons I have on American that I feel are bogus are the Wyndham Hotel certificates (free upgrade for both 1 segment of flight and for the hotel and for a rental car)…now read the fine print on that promotion!! Even Aadvantage awards people told me this Wyndham Hotel promo is rarely used, although lots of people try…and are really mad when they can’t "meet" the requirements and fine print. But the 2-for-1 companion coupon was acceptable to me. Golf
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>>Which bank is working with TWA? How is TWA credit card compared to others? >What is the number to call to apply for one? > TWA’s credit card is with EAB (formerly — or perhaps still — known as >European American Bank). Their credit card offer is the just about the same >as everyone elses — $50/year, no fee first six months, 1 mile/$. I don’t >believe they have a spending cap.
I have their sales blurb here; there is no spending cap that I can see, but you do not get miles for cash advances. (I believe this is standard with all cards.) As for the bank, they list themselves as: "European American Bank (EAB) is an affilate of ABN AMRO Bank N.V., the 15th largest bank in the world …." They also have no phone number listed; their address is: EAB BankCard Customer Service PO Box 835 Garden City, NY 11530. — Chemist, IH & Environmental Safety USX Engineers & Consultants, Inc. "Never show a fool an unfinished project." – Bucky Fuller
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>Which bank is working with TWA? How is TWA credit card compared to others? >What is the number to call to apply for one?
TWA’s credit card is with EAB (formerly — or perhaps still — known as European American Bank). Their credit card offer is the just about the same as everyone elses — $50/year, no fee first six months, 1 mile/$. I don’t believe they have a spending cap. The benefit of the card is that TWA’s FF program still only requires 20K miles for a domestic ticket and the miles don’t expire. Greg
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>I’m aware of several of these programs fairly-well. This information is >off the top of my head…even though based on hours of research and >calling around….so please excuse any errors on my part. Hope this >serves to help some in this confusing, but potentially lucrative, business >of "collecting" miles.
[DELETED] Which bank is working with TWA? How is TWA credit card compared to others? What is the number to call to apply for one? Thanks, —– Naftaly Stramer University of Iowa Oakdale Research Park Voice: (319)626-5072 2600 Crosspark Rd. FAX: (319)626-5001 Coralville, Iowa 52241
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I’m aware of several of these programs fairly-well. This information is off the top of my head…even though based on hours of research and calling around….so please excuse any errors on my part. Hope this serves to help some in this confusing, but potentially lucrative, business of "collecting" miles. Citibank/American Airlines (my personal favorite), although Citibank "caps" at 60,000 for standard credit cards, and at 100K miles for Gold card. This means that after $60,000 in charges a year (or $100,000 if a Gold card holder), American Airlines will not credit your account with any more miles. One exception – American Gold and Platinum fliers (actual flown miles – not credit card miles) – caps are waived. So, except for this limitation, which is sickening to me (I usually cap out before year-end and have to start overlfowing miles on other cards), the program is nice. And American Aadvantage seems to always answer their phones and has seats available..compared to the others I use. I don’t think literally Aadvantage answers the phones 24hrs a day, but it clearly is the biggest program, and seems to me to be the most aggressive in selling miles through 3rd parties…while not overloading their "frequent mile seat capacity" and making a joke of the program. So – it has critical mass, is tied into a very strong airline, and hubs out of a major airport (DFW) and offers a huge choice of partners and overseas programs. SeaFirst Bank Credit Card (used to be a Schwab credit card) – they tie into Alaskan Airlines. Alaskan also partners with TWA and NorthWestern and some interntional carriers. If I flew out of the west coast, this would be one of my favorties programs, as there is no annual cap on charges (miles). However, last time I checked, Alaskan didn’t fly out of DFW, or one flight a day at most….so little use to me. I use it for overflow charges after I cap out my American/Citibank. NationsBank / USAir – I use this for overflow also; no cap that I recall on USAir mile acumulation. USAir freq. flier reps are very hard to get through to, although helpful once I speak to a voice. Limited hours, and no weekend hours, to book flights (frequent flier programs I’m speaking of, not regular flights), and then the relative fraglity of this airline (perceived, or real, I don’t know) means I don’t use this that much. Not sure they’ll be around forever. Actually I am sad to see Nationsbank aligned with this airline. I wish NationsBank would re-align with Delta. NOW…that would be one heck of a partnership. No flames to me, please, NC-based and Pittsburg-based folks who use USAir. Just wishin ‘ based on my locale and credit card in my pocket. Since NationsBank and Sovereign Bank (based in Atlanta, GA) merged several years ago, the Atlanta "connection" is in place, and these both are majors in their respective industries, and this alliance makes sense to me (Delta and NationsBank). Marine Midland / Continental – I do make decent use of this card, since there is NO cap on annual mileage accumulation, AFD Houston flies out of my flying area, AND Continental miles do not expire. Sad to hear about OnePass programs’ degradation over recent years …I only recently got into this plan, so I have not had a chance to actually use the miles. But, from what I read, the program used to be the best…now is 2nd or 3rd place. AMEX / Membership Miles (Delta, Continental, etc)…I HOPE someday American joins this program, then it will be an equal favorite along with my Citibank program…but keep in mind lots of vendors do not accept American Express becasue of the stiff fees charged to vendors and merchants (someone pays for these miles, right ???). I looked at First Bank/United Airline…but once I realized they cap at 60,000 miles also (ie $60,000 in charges), I didn’t need the extra overflow….and sure didn’t need the $80 (I recall) annual fee. The AMEX program fills my "overflow" need. Bank One (South Dakota) / NorthWestern – not real familiar with this program, nor a member. NO NAME BANK / Delta – can you BELIEVE they don’t have an affinity card program ? Only major I know of like this. Actually, this is not totally true, as they are affiliates with American Express’ Membership Miles…but, because of the high fees of using the AMEX service, PLUS the fact that lots of large charges cannot be dumped on AMEX (vendors who accept AMMEX routinely pay 4% and higher fees)….this affiliation, in my mind, is not optimal FOR DELTA’S SAKE. As Delta changes their plan significantly this very month (April), I hope they’ll look around, discover they are an island unto themselves, and then go with a BIG BANK with national coverage and leave the AMEx program (or stay in it also – get some REAL international coverage and differentiate yourself by being in both programs: Delta, are you listening??). Bank ?? / United Airlines. Never checked into this one either. Sorry. Bottom line – here is how I choose a plan, in order of priority: 1) Best [for me ] to fly out of for convenience, given a local hub or major city (thus, Alsakan Air / SeaFirst would be a poor choice for a Boston-based person). I live in a small city, so I actually have to consider the COMMUTER AFFILIATE..in our case, we have Continental Express, ASA, and American Eagle, that aligns with Continental, Delta, and Americna AIlines, respectively). All ok in my perspective. You’ve GOT TO LOOK AT THIS if you live out of a large city and must use commuters. 2) No annual cap on mileage accumulation (only has significance if you can dump LOTS of expenses on your card). If you plan to use for only $3K-$5K-$10-$30K or whatever a year, but not to exceed $60K per year (the average cap, I would estimate, if any, in a given program) this item probably has less significance to you than to me. 3) Credit line of the applicable credit card – if you have a low credit line, you’ll be forever accumulating real miles. Citibank has a policy where they will increase your credit line every 6 months…just for the asking, for accounts in good standing. You cannot get huge increases, but with a plan, and diligance, over the years you can work this limit to decent size. This is just one example. 4) Mileage expiration. If your miles will expire in 3 years, this limitation HAS to be considered, if you accumulate miles faster than you can use them. For this reason, you might move this consideration higher up the list…in favor of Continental and USAir, which are two airlines that do not currently expire. I’m sure there may be a few more…I just am not familiar. Sad to note both of these airlines have been, or seem to be, under duress, financially. So you may "bank them" for years, only to find out they expire in a bankruptcy event. 5) Partner airlines – look at the major airline "behind" your affinity card, then look to see if they have some decent partners. I don’t fly international, BUT…if flying overseas is imporrtant, then examine the partner closely. Some of these plans rip you off for overseas flights, while some seem to be strongest for overseas flying. I am not that familiar with overseas programs of any of these plans. 6) Easy to get in touch with ? Enough seats allocated to effectively offer a choice ? How many miles = one single, round-trip airfare in the US. This last consideration is a good "benchmark" to compare programs…until recently, Delta charged 30,000 miles, while several of the majors charged only 20,000…making Delta a lot less competitive in their frequent program, in my opiion, Effective Feb1st of this year, lots of programs becamse almost the same across the US…lots less differentiation now. Final tips – look at innovative ways to DUMP YOUR PERSONAL expenses, of everyday life (utility bill, phone bill, cable bill, cellular bill, monthly rent, furniture purchases, mortgage payment (???), etc…onto credit cards, then send off your payment to THE CREDIT CARD COMPANY same as you would otherwise send it off to the given bill creditor…the NET effect is the same, as in the bill is paid, but you gain frequent flier miles for little effort. A more risky strategy – ask your relatives to let YOU charge THEIR big-ticket items, then they can pay you directly…but you gain miles. Make sure you have dependable relatives, though. Ha-ha. I use a rule of thumb when figuring out how far I should go to ask relatives for miles…that a el-cheapo, 30-day notice, round-trip ticket is worth about $300-$350…which is equal to 25,000 miles ($25,000 charged)…in raw numbers. What is it worth to be able to hop on a plane with NO NOTICE, and CHANGE PLANS ON A WHIM, for little-to-no-cost ? Lots more than $350. Anyway….would I therefore pay for a relatives dinner out or tip them $20 if they let me charge a $5000 purchase of theirs to my credit card…yep, since this is worth 1/5th (5K miles against the 25K mile requirement) a free r/t ticket in relative terms in most programs. Easily worth a meal to me because freedom to fly on a moment’s notice is really worth hundreds, if not thousands. It’s strange, but true, to me, that frequent flier programs, at least with American Airlines, my greatest experience, is so, so flexible. These guys will get you on a plane, almost any day in the year, for some given mile turn-in, with no notice. Now that convenience, year-around, costs business travelers thousands…in no-notice flights. Aagghh…ain’t it great to be in America !!!! Anyway…these are some quick comments…hope they help. Am I fanatical about collecting frequent flier miles – almost. A hobby is what I prefer to call it.
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|> I’m thinking about getting one of the USAir affinity credit cards. Are |> there others that have reasonable fees and work with multiple airlines? |> |> The best "frequent flyer" credit card I have seen is from Old Kent Bank (1-800-245-5353). Here’s how their program works. They are not affiliated with any one airline. Instead, for every $5000 you charge, you get a certificate for $100 off any round trip ticket. If you charge $20,000 (and thus have four certificates), you get a free RT domestic ticket. This can be on any airline, any time, no blackout dates. They offer two different cards – one "low" interest with an annual fee and a no annual fee ca rd with higher interest. — Mark Luttrell ####### / ####### 3404 E. Harmony Rd., M/S 55 ##### /__ __ ##### H E W L E T T Fort Collins, CO 80525 #### / / / / #### (303) 229-3346 #### / / /__/ #### P A C K A R D ###### / ######
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I’m thinking about getting one of the USAir affinity credit cards. Are there others that have reasonable fees and work with multiple airlines?
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>I’m thinking about getting one of the USAir affinity credit cards. Are >there others that have reasonable fees and work with multiple airlines?
I’ve heard bad things about the UA card, all the rest seem to be about the same. If you want multiple airlines, Amex has about five airlines and Diners Club has them all. Rather than getting the US Air card, consider getting the British Airways card (issued by Chase) since BA is a lot more likely to be in business a few years from now. — Regards, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies"