Meadowlark Posted August 22, 2017 Share Posted August 22, 2017 We currently put almost everything on our Discover cards because of the cashback. My (pretty intelligent) husband has always pushed this card and I've never questioned it. But then a friend said that she hardly ever pays for airfare and I'm wondering if we should pick up another card. We want to take a big trip in the next few years and it'd be nice to help cover the cost of 8 people flying. What card do you use and why? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted August 22, 2017 Share Posted August 22, 2017 we use an American Airlines card because they fly out of the city closest to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitestavern Posted August 22, 2017 Share Posted August 22, 2017 Capital One has no blackout dates. Most people I know that use them are very happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted August 22, 2017 Share Posted August 22, 2017 Do all the airline mile cards have an annual fee? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted August 22, 2017 Share Posted August 22, 2017 Make sure you can use the air miles for anyone. My south west card is tied to my rapid rewards number so I can only use the points for my own ticket. That said, there are no blackout dates and the points are easy to use. I got 60,000 of them to sign up and it's common to find a round trip ticket for under 25k points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted August 22, 2017 Share Posted August 22, 2017 Do all the airline mile cards have an annual fee? The Southwest one has two tiers. The regular one is fee-free. The fee based card gave me more points to sign up, more points for purchases, and a significantly higher credit limit. I like high credit limits becasue having them but not maxing them gives you a higher credit score. I increase the limits on my cards every six months or so. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamolina Posted August 22, 2017 Share Posted August 22, 2017 If you know where you want to go I would see what airline you are most likely to use to that destination and use their card. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted August 22, 2017 Share Posted August 22, 2017 There are probably web sites that have comparisons of the different cards. I suggest one for the airline you use the most and that has flights to your destinations Sent from my SM-G355M using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 23, 2017 Share Posted August 23, 2017 I use Alaska. There's a $75 fee. That got paid for with our first trip, just on baggage costs. I have always been death on paid credit cards, but this one makes sense for us. You get one companion fare per year at $99. That means our airfare to Hawaii for 2 this year will be $600. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 Do all the airline mile cards have an annual fee? No they don't Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 Do you know where you want to go? We are just starting into the hacking game. Started last year and it has been amazing. I wish we would have started years ago. One card got the 7 of us to Calgary. 2 cards more than paid for 7 tickets to Europe. With points leftover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 I use both Capitol One Rewards and USBank Flexperks. I alternate between the two, and have earned a lot of airline tickets through them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prairie~Phlox Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 I changed our Discover Card from cashback to a miles card without any problems. They do offer miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meadowlark Posted September 8, 2017 Author Share Posted September 8, 2017 I changed our Discover Card from cashback to a miles card without any problems. They do offer miles Which card? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meadowlark Posted September 8, 2017 Author Share Posted September 8, 2017 I'm still confused you guys! We are looking at going to FL so would have to fly out of Chicago where practically every carrier is. Southwest, Allegiance, Delta, etc. Which card? I don't want to regret not doing this years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Random Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 (edited) I'm still confused you guys! We are looking at going to FL so would have to fly out of Chicago where practically every carrier is. Southwest, Allegiance, Delta, etc. Which card? I don't want to regret not doing this years ago. http://www.bankrate.com/ Bankrate has a credit card search tool that will let you compare different offers from different companies, and find the one that best suits your needs. I think you've illustrated a glitch with the airline company credit card, rather than the money back credit card. With the cash back card, you can just get cash to spend on whichever plane tickets are cheapest to where you want to go, when you want to go. Edited September 8, 2017 by Random Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Random Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 Do you know where you want to go? We are just starting into the hacking game. Started last year and it has been amazing. I wish we would have started years ago. One card got the 7 of us to Calgary. 2 cards more than paid for 7 tickets to Europe. With points leftover. Wow! How much do you have to charge on your card in one year to get 7 tickets to Europe and/or Calgary? Which cards do you use? I'm curious if it's realistic for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 Wow! How much do you have to charge on your card in one year to get 7 tickets to Europe and/or Calgary? Which cards do you use? I'm curious if it's realistic for us. I put almost everything on our credit card; I pay my house and car insurance bills, the cell phone, the gas, the food, the wine (there's 2 tickets right there), new big purchases, everything I possibly can, I put on the credit card. And then I pay the bill 100% every time it is due. The only thing I *don't* put on the credit card are government things like property taxes and car tabs and so on because they charge you back the 2% that the credit companies charge them. This only works if you pay them off completely, without fail, no exceptions, when they come due. If you don't do this, you can very easily go down a deep and steep rat hole. And if you don't check your bill, you can get overcharged (but that has happened to us twice in 25 years). Our bank has such good monitoring on our cards that we have never found fraud before they did...they are very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trilliumlady Posted September 9, 2017 Share Posted September 9, 2017 For what it's worth, I had chase sapphire preferred recommended to me. It does have an annual fee after the first year but when we reach that point we plan to switch to a different chase card which doesn't have a fee and transfer the points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted September 9, 2017 Share Posted September 9, 2017 I put almost everything on our credit card; I pay my house and car insurance bills, the cell phone, the gas, the food, the wine (there's 2 tickets right there), new big purchases, everything I possibly can, I put on the credit card. And then I pay the bill 100% every time it is due. The only thing I *don't* put on the credit card are government things like property taxes and car tabs and so on because they charge you back the 2% that the credit companies charge them. This only works if you pay them off completely, without fail, no exceptions, when they come due. If you don't do this, you can very easily go down a deep and steep rat hole. And if you don't check your bill, you can get overcharged (but that has happened to us twice in 25 years). Our bank has such good monitoring on our cards that we have never found fraud before they did...they are very good. Ditto We pay everything on it and pay it off every time it is due. No paying interest for us. People feel that paying the 2 percent is worth it to meet spends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted September 9, 2017 Share Posted September 9, 2017 For what it's worth, I had chase sapphire preferred recommended to me. It does have an annual fee after the first year but when we reach that point we plan to switch to a different chase card which doesn't have a fee and transfer the points. Great card. Chase just changed their rules in the last 2 weeks that you can't have both of the Chase Sapphire cards so you have to make a choice btwn the preferred and the reserve. But the with 50k worth of points if you meet the spend can get you great rewards. I just book through the portal, but people say transferring the points to airlines is better. But 50k of points can get you two tickets to Europe on a good sale. We just paid 31k per ticket for ours. If anyone wants a referral to either card let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted September 9, 2017 Share Posted September 9, 2017 Wow! How much do you have to charge on your card in one year to get 7 tickets to Europe and/or Calgary? Which cards do you use? I'm curious if it's realistic for us. It was just meeting the min spends for opening the cards for each one. For going to Calgary we opened a Delta Gold card. We had some Delta points before. For going to Europe we opened 2 chase sapphire reserve cards when the bonus was 100k points each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted September 9, 2017 Share Posted September 9, 2017 I'm still confused you guys! We are looking at going to FL so would have to fly out of Chicago where practically every carrier is. Southwest, Allegiance, Delta, etc. Which card? I don't want to regret not doing this years ago. The best way to rack up points fast is to open new cards and meet the spends. Daily spending is going to be a slower way. Are you open to that? Tickets to Fl from Chicago are not that expensive. So honestly getting airline points and using them on that isn't the best redemption. I would probably go with a card that like Chase Sapphire so that you can just spend the points on tickets. There are other cards that are like this too. Or with Southwest cards. There are so many options to do this with if you want to go with cc to get the tickets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebbyribs Posted September 9, 2017 Share Posted September 9, 2017 My favorite deal with the airline credit cards is to get both Southwest credit cards (the Plus and Premier), and complete the minimum spending on them to get the sign-up bonus points for each card. Once you have earned 110,000 points within one year, Southwest gives you a companion pass so that your designated companion can fly with you for free on every Southwest flight you book for the remainder of that year plus the whole next year. There are annual fees with each card, $69 for one card and $99 for the other, so you might not want to keep them long-term. It is possible to use your Southwest Rapid Reward points to book flights for anyone in your family, not just yourself. The sign-up bonuses from 2 Southwest cards should be enough to fly your family anywhere in the country round trip if your schedules are flexible and you can keep an eye on their fare sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted September 9, 2017 Share Posted September 9, 2017 My favorite deal with the airline credit cards is to get both Southwest credit cards (the Plus and Premier), and complete the minimum spending on them to get the sign-up bonus points for each card. Once you have earned 110,000 points within one year, Southwest gives you a companion pass so that your designated companion can fly with you for free on every Southwest flight you book for the remainder of that year plus the whole next year. There are annual fees with each card, $69 for one card and $99 for the other, so you might not want to keep them long-term. It is possible to use your Southwest Rapid Reward points to book flights for anyone in your family, not just yourself. The sign-up bonuses from 2 Southwest cards should be enough to fly your family anywhere in the country round trip if your schedules are flexible and you can keep an eye on their fare sales. Great advice. Some people's thoughts are that is best for people with smaller family. If you have a family of 4 and the husband and wife both get cards of their own earning 2 CPs then 50 percent of the family is flying for free. Vs doing the same thing for a family of 7 (or more) and it is a smaller chunk of the family flying for free. I get it and it makes sense. But to me whenever you can get free flights it is a win. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prairie~Phlox Posted September 9, 2017 Share Posted September 9, 2017 Which card?Wehad a regular card & they changed it over to a Miles card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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