Best Airline Miles Cards?

[Mattleycrue76]

I know alot of you use your CC miles to get vacation airfare. Which ones do you use/recommend and why?

[BDub]

BECU has a Visa that has mileage points. The nice thing about that one is you can use it for any airline, with no blackouts. When you accrue enough miles, you purchase a flight on your card, redeem your points, and BECU credits your account for the amount of the flight.

There's also an Alaska Airline Visa that gives you an annual companion ticket for $75.

[2loud4u]

Alaska Airlines Credit and Debit cards, both issued through Bank of America. For every dollar spent on credit card we get 1 mile, for every 2 dollars spent on debit card - 1 dollar. Have had them for over 5 years now and made numerous mileage trips throughout the country and once abroad.

Not a big fan of BoA, but we stuck around specifically thanks to the mileage program.

Yuliya

[Jeff Kruse]

IMO Airline mile CC are a scam. My sister has an Alaska Air card and just tried to use it for a trip in July. She had to use something like 50K miles for a ticket because the 20K tickets are all spoken for.

Most of the air mile cards have a yearly fee. That’s insane.

Get a card with no fee and at LEAST 1% CASH back. My card is 2% cash back on ALL purchases. It’s from Charles shwab. $20K spent = $400 in my pocket and not a “free ticket” that’s hard to use at best. My sisters $50 yearly fee plus the 50K miles (.02*$50000) ticket cost her $1050.

YMMV

[oregondiver]

We looked into this for a few months but darn, we should have asked here too! We just got the Alaska Airlines card about 3 months ago. Yea, it is BOFA...but everyone has something against some bank (my beef is with BofA & usbank...but the mles/card works out for us).

There is an annual fee of $75. That part sucks. Companion tickets are $99 (not $75 unless something has changed...?). Alaska is really pushing the NW right now and you can use your miles on the PARTNER flights (this is very big). You can get 25K in miles just for signing up and using card once. 25K in miles is a free tix in the continential US. 40K is to HI. And yes, you can pay these same miles when buying a partner tix (so you aren't stuck with just Alaska flights...somethign I didn't know before we joined) I think it was 40K to Mexico as well. So my Delta tix I bought to fly back for an ill family member (purchased on the CC) also had miles added to it since Delta was a partner of Alaska (so I got 2 benefits, once for the charge of money/miles and once for the actual flight miles).

This credit card (not all do, so check) also provides extra insurance protection for car rentals. Their (CC) agreement states to turn down the car rental company "extra" insurance as they will cover it if you pay/purchase by this CC. This is a good benefit.

after we got the Alaska Card, USBANK told me that they PAY any luggage fees. WTF??! :luv: If you fly twice a year....that is plenty of savings in dive gear baggage fees! Plus you get miles on any airline to use. Don't remember the annual fee, but I may look into this when we are nearing a year with Alaska. Oh Wait..except I am currently pissed at USBANK right now. :angry:

Lets see...what else? THe $99 companion fare was basically that (but within US)...you get it up front (you don't have to wait a year) and all you pay above $99 was for taxes. But you can also use it for Mexico...but I think it was $125 to use it as a companion fare.

I like the cash back idea (didn't know about Charles Schwab...thanks!). REI has an annual fee, and sometimes you get up to 3% back so that is an option too. But we are looking at flying more this year so right now...by paying $75 annual fee we already have 1 free tix to mexico (cozumel?!?!?) and one companion fare to use. Or we may have enough for 2 free tix by end of year.

[sheahanmcculla]

We looked into this for a few months but darn, we should have asked here too! We just got the Alaska Airlines card about 3 months ago. Yea, it is BOFA...but everyone has something against some bank (my beef is with BofA & usbank...but the mles/card works out for us).

There is an annual fee of $75. That part sucks. Companion tickets are $99 (not $75 unless something has changed...?). Alaska is really pushing the NW right now and you can use your miles on the PARTNER flights (this is very big). You can get 25K in miles just for signing up and using card once. 25K in miles is a free tix in the continential US. 40K is to HI. And yes, you can pay these same miles when buying a partner tix (so you aren't stuck with just Alaska flights...somethign I didn't know before we joined) I think it was 40K to Mexico as well. So my Delta tix I bought to fly back for an ill family member (purchased on the CC) also had miles added to it since Delta was a partner of Alaska (so I got 2 benefits, once for the charge of money/miles and once for the actual flight miles).

This credit card (not all do, so check) also provides extra insurance protection for car rentals. Their (CC) agreement states to turn down the car rental company "extra" insurance as they will cover it if you pay/purchase by this CC. This is a good benefit.

after we got the Alaska Card, USBANK told me that they PAY any luggage fees. WTF??! :luv: If you fly twice a year....that is plenty of savings in dive gear baggage fees! Plus you get miles on any airline to use. Don't remember the annual fee, but I may look into this when we are nearing a year with Alaska. Oh Wait..except I am currently pissed at USBANK right now. :angry:

Lets see...what else? THe $99 companion fare was basically that (but within US)...you get it up front (you don't have to wait a year) and all you pay above $99 was for taxes. But you can also use it for Mexico...but I think it was $125 to use it as a companion fare.

I like the cash back idea (didn't know about Charles Schwab...thanks!). REI has an annual fee, and sometimes you get up to 3% back so that is an option too. But we are looking at flying more this year so right now...by paying $75 annual fee we already have 1 free tix to mexico (cozumel?!?!?) and one companion fare to use. Or we may have enough for 2 free tix by end of year.

Seems like a lot of work for a cheap ticket.

I like the idea of a debit card with a milage plan. C.C. are never good!

Airsix, whats your opinion?

[oregondiver]

If you were looking at flying to Carib.. Alaska CC has the following mileage "costs" plus $25 if you use the partner airline posted below (copied/pasted from their website):

A $25 (USD) nonrefundable fee will be collected per person for each award booked on a partner airline.

American Airlines
Coach Caribbean 35,000

Delta Air Lines
Coach Caribbean 35,000

So if you sign up for the card...you would get 25K miles right off the bat after you use it once. And then just pick up 10K more in purchases for the last miles and you now have a free tix to Carib quite quickly into your "enrollment" in the card.

Wanna meet us in the Caymans? hahahahah

[oregondiver]

Seems like a lot of work for a cheap ticket.

I like the idea of a debit card with a milage plan. C.C. are never good!

Airsix, whats your opinion?

I know you weren't asking for my opinion...haha... but it isn't any work. We don't carry a credit card balance so it doesn't bother me to charge stuff since we pay it off each week or so (yea, nerdy but keeps our checkbook current!). I get gas..I give the CC instead of Debit card.

We get the statement, we have a free flight waiting for when we want to use it. I was just trying to give a bunch of extra detail since some of the stuff I mentioned was hard to find when I was doing my research.

[Jeff Kruse]

Please see what consumer reports says about debit cards vs credit cards.

Debit cards don’t give you the protection CC do. With Debit cards you have to fight to get your money back if there is a problem.


What CC gives you 3% on ALL purchases???!!!! I thought 2% was great.

[Mattleycrue76]

Here's a related question. I've heard of people using a CC to pay their morgage. Sounds like a great way to rack up miles FAST. I would imagine that if this is possible the card would have to be from a bank other than the mortgage holder. OTOH that kinda seems too good to be true...

Has anyone heard of this/done this?

[CaptnJack]

Here's a related question. I've heard of people using a CC to pay their morgage. Sounds like a great way to rack up miles FAST. I would imagine that if this is possible the card would have to be from a bank other than the mortgage holder. OTOH that kinda seems too good to be true...

Has anyone heard of this/done this?

Its not an option on our mortage. I have had 7 (8?) different servicers and none of them are eating a ~3% CC fee so I can pay with plastic.

[CaptnJack]

Please see what consumer reports says about debit cards vs credit cards.

Debit cards don’t give you the protection CC do. With Debit cards you have to fight to get your money back if there is a problem.


What CC gives you 3% on ALL purchases???!!!! I thought 2% was great.

Yeah when you debit card gets stolen (they don't even need the actual plastic) you will have to fight with the issuer tooth and nail to get your money back. Mine was stolen once and they got $1500 in 2 days before I figured out what had happened. Took me a couple weeks to get that money back. Fortunately we had another account with which to pay the bills in the meantime otherwise the mortgage, the car payments, the phone and utilities would have been late or bouncing. Much better fraud protection on a CC. With the rampant ID theft in the USA now I almost never use a debit card and when I do its at reliable looking ATMs or mechant scanners. Never at a gas station, restaurant or other place which might harbor a skimmer.

[Pinkpadigal]

When I was with BoA, I had both debit and CC card with Alaska. Debit card was $30 a year.

I would rack up a lot of miles fast, and double miles when you paid for a tix with the BoA credit card. I rarely used the freebees. I always went for the upgrades. But I was working in the travel industry and was on a plane 1-2x a month. Now, since I don't go anywhere, it doesn't make any sense and I am not getting the benefits I used to out of it.

There are much better ways to rack up miles and save money. However, if you are flying a lot for work and pleasure, it makes sense to have a mileage card. If you are flying 1-2x a year, it is better to get a cash back card.

If you travel a lot, it makes sense to throw your mileage onto 1 mileage plan. My business travelers used to have Alaska and UA only. It seemed to cover them no matter who they flew with.

[ArcticDiver]

Debit cards make very little sense for most people. Plus, statistics show that people who use debit cards spend more money than those who don't. Plus, those who use debit cards and don't keep their receipts and use them to keep track of expenses spend even more. Some debit cards cost the merchant more in service fees than credit cards. Banks push debit cards because they are more profitable than either cash or credit cards.

In our case we fly at least every other month and sometimes more than once a month. Plus, Alaska Airlines is the only airline who serves us on a year around basis. We do not carry a balance (It is dumb for anyone to carry a credit card balance but that is another thread). So, Alaska Airlines credit card makes sense for us.

We've made several trips with the miles. But that isn't the primary reason for the card. It is the ompanion fare tickets and seems to be pretty generous relative to other airlines with bennies. We don't get charged for luggage, luggage isn't usually weighed, more legroom on airplanes in the preferred customer section. Now if we didn't fly a fair amount our answer might be different.

[azathoth]

BECU has a Visa that has mileage points. The nice thing about that one is you can use it for any airline, with no blackouts. When you accrue enough miles, you purchase a flight on your card, redeem your points, and BECU credits your account for the amount of the flight.

There's also an Alaska Airline Visa that gives you an annual companion ticket for $75.

This sounds like what I need. There is no 1 airline that fits my travel. Delta is good for Asia, but is way expensive for anywhere else. SW is good for KC, but a pain anywhere else. Nobody is good for Mempphis. For close tropics, it's Hawiian or maybe Alaska. The only problem is I'm more intrested in an upgrade on the big trip to Asia, not a free ticket.

[spatman]

This sounds like what I need. There is no 1 airline that fits my travel.

we have the alaska card, and the miles we accrue can be used with a lot of their partner airlines.

http://www.alaskaair.com/as/mileageplan ... irline.asp

[BASSMAN]

Just a tip... I have not used this myself, but.
A dive buddy once told me he would buy US Coin from the mint at face value and then use it to pay off the same card for the air miles. Were talkin' $1000's at a time.

[ktb]

We have the BofA Alaska Airlines credit card and debit card. We charge as much as we can to the credit card and pay it off every month. We haven't had great luck with upgrades, but free tickets are awesome, especially since hubby likes to fly first-class.

We just booked our first-class, roundtrip tickets to Maui in Oct/Nov, but we had to be creative so we didn't completely deplete our miles. Since our CC miles get dumped into Derrick's account, we booked his ticket using miles only and it cost $5. Since my account just has miles from when I've flown, I had just enough to book a one-way with miles for $5. We paid full-price for the other one-way, right around $650. That's slightly more than my mother paid for her coach round-trip on another airline. And with first-class, of course, we get 2 checked bags for free . . . which is so worth it on a dive trip, no? Sadly, I'm getting to that age where free checked bags means more than the free alcohol.

We also went to Europe in 2006 on our miles. We both flew first/business class both ways, open-jaw, for less than $90 total after taxes, fees and such.

[ArcticDiver]

Miles aren't what they once were. After all airline miles are worth exactly what the airlines say they are worth, no more and no less. With the airlines cutting back capacity they have increased their load factors and their profitability but decreased the opportunity to use miles. Oh one can still do that. But, the circumstances are shrinking. For example: One person I know is now in France after using miles for First Class/Business Class travel for the entire trip. That trip was booked a year ago. Now the seats would not be available. As a matter of fact even though the miles had been spent American (Alaska Partner) held the Business Class seats until the very last minute before leaving the gate before allowing the passenger into Business Class.

The Alaska Airlines Credit Card does come with a side benefit that offsets its' annual cost. I don't know about other airlines. So that might make it worthwhile for some people.

On the other hand the bennies for frequent fliers make it worthwhile to put your travel on one airline.

When I compare benefits from my Alaska Airline Credit card to those of other credit cards I have to confess I use the others more than the Alaska Airline card. Their points are more useful than airline miles. But, all of them are just marketing gimmicks that have their roots in the days when load factors were low and the airlines would do most anything to fill seats.

[oregondiver]

US Bank is offering one of those "apply now" specials that allows you to get a $400 ticket right off the bat. You earn miles towards the cost of any ticket...from any carrier. And US Bank told me last month (I haven't checked their website to verify) that any baggage fees you pay, they would reimburse you.

So you may pay $50 for the card annually ($75 for the alaska one)...but get money towards a ticket of any airline AND zero cost for checked bags. That might be worth it more if you fly and check yer bags....

[Jasi21]

very useful info. Hope to see more posts soon!

[ArcticDiver]

A follow up based on recent experience.

American Airlines didn't want to honor a Business Class upgrade purchased through Alaska Airlines with miles until the traveler had paid an additional "tax" at the counter. This illustrates how things have changed over the past couple years. Used to be miles really had a value. Now, not so much.

What really matters is being a frequent flier with a specific airline. That status brings some perks that do make travel more convenient and a skosh more comfortable. Then using miles on top of the frequent flier status can be helpful.

Since things have changed so much we have reanalyzed our credit card use. We have kept our Alaska Airlines card because the Companion Fare Certificate is worth more than the annual fee. Plus, when we buy our tickets with the card we get bonus miles that help us become frequent fliers sooner. But, it is the frequent flier perks we are after.

Most of our credit card use now is with cards that give us either discounts on purchases, or cash back. That makes far more sense than airline miles that are becoming more and more difficult to actually use.