<p>Anyone have any thoughts on which airline rewards cards are worth the annual fee? My travel has picked up lately and I would like some of the perks that seem to only be available with these cards. No baggage fee, choosing seats early and private lounge access are things that appeal to me. Do any of these cards apply to more than one airline? With annual fees of up to $400 I would like to choose wisely.</p>
<p>Do you have an airline you mostly use or do use use many?</p>
<p>For instance, Capital one has points that equal airline/car rental money on any provider versus a single airline affiliated card.</p>
<p>We like our Alaska Air card. With it we get a buy 1, get one for $99 RT(!) each year, plus miles whenever we use it of course, and other random perks throughout the year. The $99 RT is worth it alone-I’m from the other side of the country so it makes visiting there with D very affordable.</p>
<p>The fees on my two cards are $95 per year, each, though they have higher price options available. In the process of starting one card, and will drop the other. </p>
<p>Delta gives no baggage fee, early boarding, and historically the $99 companion fare. Though that is a sad waste, as I travel alone to visit family. Am Ex is a bit of a pain, as they are not as widely accepted, and I feel guilty with some retailers, as their fees are higher. </p>
<p>United gives a few lounge passes yearly , and no baggage fee and early boarding. My S, the expert on these matters, says they have greater flexibility in redeeming miles, and you can redeem for one way tickets. This is a Visa. </p>
<p>Using a card that works with your local airport connections is to your advantage, as you’ll accrue miles faster. I don’t travel for business, but find the cards well worthwhile. </p>
<p>Watch for offers for more free miles for signing, google those cards before filling out applications. Sign an offspring for an extra 5000 miles on signing. </p>
<p>Check The Points Guy website for details.</p>
<p>The points guy is my hero. We have gotten thousands of dollars of gift cards and checks sent to us, just from sign up bonuses on different Am Ex cards, when they run promotions. Cancel the card before the fee hits- first year free. So many free airline tickets too. Look at points guy website, for sure.</p>
<p>I don’t have any loyalty to one particular airline and usually just book by who is offering the best fare. 85% of my travel is domestic with maybe 1 international flight per year. Is there any one card that gives you privileges on more than one airline for things like no baggage fee or lounge access?</p>
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<p>I do not think so. Capital One is really a generic rewards card that “advertises” the travel rewards. Get a cash rebate card, and you can use the rewards (cash) anywhere.</p>
<p>The ones, like Amex and Delta (free bags) is carrier tied, and you have to get that special Amex card. Although Delta has bought other airlines, so it may start working on the acquisition too.</p>
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<p>Usually there is a predominant airline you can use. Most airlines match each other’s fares, they just have different schedules, non-stops, etc. With a little inconvenience, you can usually book most flights on one airline.</p>
<p>Looks like it is going to be Southwest for me. My D is choosing between two colleges in Boston. Southwest has the cheapest fares from my city, and no baggage charge.</p>
<p>great lakes mom, United does not have one way booking like Jetblue or US air. They charge the same price for one way and round trip so I would not use them or my miles for a one way trip. I have a United Visa and they are good for early boarding and luggage.</p>
<p>It all depends on where you travel and how much you spend. I like my Costco No-fee Amex card. Cash back rewards range from 1% to 3% depending on what you use the card for. I like my Capital One for international travel: no fee, and no charges on the international exchange rates. And strangely enough I have a Wells Fargo MC for business that costs me $75/yr. They don’t advertise this, but if you dig deeply on the web site their cash rewards are much more generous than their flight rewards. Each dollar spent equals a point and for 60,000 points I get a check for $750. (easy to rack up that amount on a yearly basis with my company expenditures.)</p>
<p>Lakemom, I did a fake search on the United site, and did find a one way for 12,500 miles from my Midwestern city to CA. One, for the rest of the year! The site was easy to use, better than Delta in terms of searching for low mileage requirements. The rest were 25,000 miles one way, so yes, like paying for return. </p>
<p>Using the miles can be a bit hard depending on the airline. I’ve ended up using 32,500 miles for my “free trips” at times on Delta.</p>
<p>How do you do a fake search?</p>
<p>Well, a real search, but am not buying. Just enter the info as if you were buying a ticket, or rather, redeeming miles for a ticket.</p>
<p>We have had Delta/AmEx platinum ($135, I think) forever and love it for the following reasons. These may not be applicable to you.</p>
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<li><p>annual free companion ticket: you do have to pay taxes (about $40-50) and seats are limited but it’s nice that I can take a family member along on business trips for free.</p></li>
<li><p>tickets are pretty flexible and you can do last minute tickets (although more points) for much less dollar equivalent than you would pay if buying.</p></li>
<li><p>If you charge up a fair amount, you get bonus miles (10K for $25K spent) with Medallion miles. They add up.</p></li>
<li><p>With some travel and the bonus Medallion miles, I’ve gotten Gold status last couple of years. Get free first class upgrade with some regularity and also get double bonus miles when I fly. So a trip to Europe ends up with almost 20K miles earned. Adding double miles for the ticket, get almost enough for a RT ticket in the US. </p></li>
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<p>DS is a Jr across the country. All his travel home has been free using miles. Lot of times we couldn’t buy Xmas tickets home until he knew his final schedule and by that point, the tickets were very expensive. Even 50K miles for a ticket home were a bargain in those situations.</p>
<p>great lakes mom, I’m surprised. Yes one leg is 12,500 but RT is 25K. I have tried to look for one way fares in Kayak and then gone to the United site to confirm the fare price. It was always twice what Jetblue would charge. I will do a pretend booking to check. Maybe it is different with miles.</p>
<p>BTW, back to airline cards reasons. The United Visa acts as primary for car rental insurance. One of the reasons I got it.</p>
<p>So other cards do have auto insurance but they are secondary to your own auto insurance. United’s is primary.</p>
<p>Amex does offer a primary option but you have to pay each time you use it for such.</p>
<p>I have used that auto insurance in Europe with Amex, and saves a bundle. Costs $25 per rental, no matter how long the rental is for. However there are odd exclusions, so read the fine print. Happy to have the United card, which is primary. </p>
<p>Laketime, I could find many one way fares with miles, but they were no bargain! 25,00 is standard cheapest round trip for most mileage programs, if hard to find at times. What I checked would have been an expensive trip if paid for with money, and who knows with other routes. One reason I wanted this card, is because I do a lot of open jaw type travel.</p>
<p>Some credit cards come with Priority Pass, which gives the primary cardholder complementary access to selected airline clubs/lounges. Other credit cards will give cardholders a $250 credit towards airline fees.</p>
<p>Check to see which airlines are consistently inexpensive for your city pairs and try to earn elite status on that airline, which gives you many benefits of the airline’s branded credit card and then some. I would then suggest looking into that airline’s credit card options and possibly getting one of the credit cards with a higher annual fee. Many frequent fliers get airline credit cards with annual fees of up to $400 because of the credit card benefits.</p>
<p>There are also frequent fliers who prefer to use cash back or other non-airline mile-earning credit cards. </p>
<p>It’s also worth saying that as you start earning more airline miles, you may be less inclined to spend them on relatively inexpensive domestic coach tickets. Award travel may involve more stops than typically-purchased revenue travel.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that benefits do change over time and that it may be in your best interest to switch credit cards and/or airlines. Someone who flies airline A now may decide to switch to airline B in a couple years and airline C or back to airline A a couple years after that. For example, the trend now is for airlines to move towards more revenue-based frequent flier programs with minimum spend requirements and such.</p>
<p>One of the goals of frequent flier programs is to incentivize travel on that airline even when other airlines may be less expensive before fees and such. For example, I will often pay extra or fly at less convenient times in order to fly my preferred carriers because of my elite benefits. Flying is much more enjoyable to me when I don’t have to wait in long lines, pay to check bags, or sit in middle seats in the back of the economy cabin.</p>
<p>It really comes down to which airlines you are likely to use in your travels.</p>
<p>For example, if Airline A and Airline B have extensive convenient non-stop options to the destinations you want to fly to, but Airline C and Airline D would require connecting flights to your destinations, then you may want to look first at whether Airline A and Airline B cards would be worth the fee and foregone rewards you might get from other cards like a cash-back card.</p>
<p>Don’t forget also that frequent flyer partnerships and alliances may allow you to combine flights on several airlines into one airline mile program, and use those miles on the other airlines in the partnerships and alliances.</p>
<p>I really, really like my Southwest rewards card. I can buy tickets on sale with very few points, and I can redeposit if I need to make changes.</p>
<p>My brother swears by his Spirit card, but he is self-employed & can handle the more restricted travel days/times.</p>
<p>I like our Capital One Venture Visa card. Two points earned for every dollar spent. You can redeem the points at a rate of 1:100 for any travel you’ve already taken. So after $25,000 spent, for example, you get $500 against any travel (bus, hotel, train, parking fees, airfare, etc.) with just a click of the mouse. You can do this whenever you’ve accumulated some points; no milestone amount needed. It works out better for us than points that must be used for an airline’s limited mileage plan seats.</p>
<p>My D fly on Southwest from Midway all the time, so we got to use the SW cc, they give 50k miles if you pay the annual fee.</p>