great lakes mom

RTR, I just looked on the Delta Amex website, and see no mention of the companion ticket. It was not free, rather $99. I did have occasion to travel with my D and use it a year ago. Otherwise, I travel alone, so have not looked for it. The other benefit to the free luggage, is that your companions also get a free checked piece.

edit: just signed into my account, and yes, the benefit is still there, though something is about "with card renewal". Delta flights only, economy only, and taxes are applied.

The other benefit I use is the car insurance you sign up for. It is an additional flat fee per rental, and it saved me a bundle on insurance when renting in France a few years back.

Also, add a card for a family member when signing up, and you get an extra 5000 miles.

dmd77

I have two different mileage cards. The USBank Rewards card gives you credits that are actually usable to purchase flights through Travelocity. That means you're not restricted in what we buy, but the price decides how many points it takes. The points also can be used for car rentals, hotels, etc. Very useful for flights in coach class, where they are a bargain.

We also have an Alaska mileage card for our business expenses. Somewhat less useful for most flights, since it only works for Alaska's route system (which is extensive for the west coast), but great for getting business class tickets to Europe...

RoselawnMom

I have a Delta Skymiles credit card through AmEx. We got it when our D decided to go to Boston for college and there was a direct Delta flight from our airport to Boston. The first year there was no membership fee and we got enough free miles for signing up (it was a promotion) that we able to get a free roundtrip ticket.

After that year, we have paid a $95 membership fee for each year, but the membership brings with it a $99 companion ticket voucher. Whenever my H and I flew to Boston, we paid full fare for one ticket and $99 for the other. The full fare tickets were always well over $200 (the cost of membership and the $99 companion ticket), so we felt we were getting a bargain. Now our daughter is living in CA and we have used our $99 voucher to fly in/out of LAX - an even more expensive ticket.

We use our AmEx almost exclusively (rerouting expenses we would have before put on a VISA or MC), building up the miles on the account to get even more free flights. In four years, we were always able to bring our D home for the holidays with a free Skymile ticket. She is coming home for Thanksgiving this year with a ticket paid with Skymiles.

And - When you book your Delta ticket with the Skymiles AmEx, you (and your traveling companions booked on the same AmEx card at the same time) do not pay for the first checked bag, saving us another $25/person, each way.

We have found this program easy to work with and a big savings in our pocket.

MD Mom

I did not read through the whole thread, but I heard an ad today from Southwest. It is offering two free tickets in the U.S. if you sign up for tis card and spend $2000 in the next two months. I am thinking about getting one.

ucbalumnus

Re: #18

You probably live near Atlanta or Cincinnati, or perhaps Detroit, Minneapolis, or Memphis, if non-stop flights on Delta to Boston or Los Angeles are conveniently findable for you.

abasket

OP here. As I read your comments what worries me is that the flight 5 or 6 of us will need to take (that we would hope to earn some miles to help pay for) seems to somewhat limited on options. It is a Detroit to Portland flight - only Delta has a non stop option but doesn't seem to have many flight option times and out flexibility in terms do antes may. It be too flexible. So it worries me that ate needs are too particular to make this really benefit us.

On the other hand, I'm wondering if it wouldn't hurt to take the card for the no fee first year.....

busdriver11

abasket, I'm not sure why you would want to get an airline credit card when you only fly once a year, generally for business (so I'm assuming that you don't pay for it). Purely for the one wedding? Maybe consider a card that isn't necessarily just an airline card, but lets you transfer points to get miles, or book tickets.

We have a handful of credit cards (consider that someone who has a big hand). Sad, but these companies keep sending us miles and points just to get their cards, so why not?

My favorite is the Delta Reserve card. Expensive ($450/yr), but the benefits are great if you are a constant Delta flyer. Which wouldn't be worth it to you.

Chase Sapphire sent us a $500 check to get their 0 fee annual card. American Express Delta gave us 75K points (consider that is basically worth $750). Chase Slate gave us 25K at 0 interest, 0 transfer fees for a year.

What I recommend is go to the pointsguy.com website, and he has it all broken down. In fact, this link has his top credit card deals. Maybe you can find something here that works for you, it is very descriptive: Top Deals | The Points Guy

abasket

Exactly Busdriver. That's what I'm realizing - that route isn't probably for us !

Just trying to find a way to save some money! Flying the whole family, renting a car and maybe staying a for a couple days beyond the wedding is the plan, but maybe we should just look at try and find something that will allow us good at rental antes or hotel costs or something else. And then take my Costco AE reset in February and sock it away for the trip!!!

busdriver11

RTR, here is how you access the companion ticket. They just changed their website, I think today (what a pain in the butt, now you have to relearn how to find everything).
What you do is go to "My Delta", go to "My Wallet (it's on the top right)", then mine says "1 credits and certificates", yours may have more. Click on that, and it will open up the screen that allows you to use the certificate.

It is free if you have a Reserve card, otherwise I think it's $99. But man, unless you are really flexible about dates, it can be very hard to use that companion ticket. Some years we've just had to let ours expire. They have very limited seating and flights that allow you to use it. Fine if you have plenty of opportunities or aren't traveling peak routes or times, but annoying if you can't use it!

busdriver11

You are looking at some money, flying that many people. I hate paying for airline tickets. But....even though Delta is the only one that flies that route direct, you might get a deal on other airlines. Southwest flies that route, with one stop. Seems like if you keep your eye on it, you might get something for $400 or less. Yuck, that's a lot of money for so many people. Maybe also check going through Seattle, that route could be cheaper.

gosmom

abasket, for rental car, a few ideas:
- I've used Costco travel for rental cars when we go cross country to visit kids at college. We usually rent for a week or so....and they've been quite competitive--and I do keep checking rates with others. (Granted, I have not tried Priceline) If you know approximate dates, I'd book now, especially if you want a mini-van during high summer travel months. I've always been able to revise later if my dates changed a bit.
- Also, if you have 6 travelers, check out possibility of two cars vs. mini-van. Last summer we actually saved ~$400 doing this for a 3 week trip, including gas.
- Another trick my DH is using for next summer: rent from an off airport location. When we arrive, he's hopping in a cab to go 3.1 miles off airport to pick up car while I go grab luggage. Somewhat of a hassle, yes, but--the on airport rental was $1,073. The off airport site (same company, same size car) is $497! H more than happy to do a cab to and from for that savings. Granted, this is for two weeks and at an airport known to have huge taxes....

fwiw......

ucbalumnus

Do you mean Portland, OR (PDX) or Portland, ME (PWM)?

Non-stop options appear to be few or none in either case, although there appears to be more competition and lower prices to PDX than to PWM.

gosmom

original post indicated a wedding out west......

SteveMA

We have a reward card through Bank of America (originally an MBNA card). We earn points on the card and can use those points for a lot of things, not just airline miles. We can also just get cash, which is what we usually do because I can usually turn the cash into more plane tickets then the what the points will buy. The 5 of us flew to DC a few years ago using the cash from the card to buy our tickets. If we had used the points to get plane tickets, we would have gotten 2 tickets instead of the 5 the cash bought.

Last year I did almost all of my Christmas shopping for the kids with our points. They asked for gift cards for a lot of things and I got them with my points.

abasket

Yes, PDX-Oregon .

Since I'm looking to replace my LLBEAN Visa anyway, thought this was a good time to shop around for something that might he us for the trip .