<p>newmassdad: my answer is same as dt123: no charge to charge credit card, but there is a charge to pay monthly. well worth it, IMO.</p>
<p>My H uses United and I use Alaska, which allows us 2 airline options. Im not sure other programs allows this but with Alaska you can use 15,000 miles to cut the price of the ticket in half. Actually it is a little more than half (1/2 of ticket price plus the entire tax amount). I like this option because when flying on a free (mileage) ticket, if the flight cancels or is delayed the airline will make you wait for the next available flight on THEIR airline. If you have paid for a ticket you can request the next available flight on another carrier. For those of you in major urban areas cancelled and delayed flights may not be a big problem but for me it could mean extending my trip an entire day.</p>
<p>I use my Quicken visa card for EVERYTHING. <a href=“http://www.quickencard.com%5B/url%5D”>www.quickencard.com</a>
No fee credit card but $39/yr to sign up for their travelermiles program,
<a href=“http://www.travelermiles.com%5B/url%5D”>www.travelermiles.com</a></p>
<p>I get 1 mile credit per 1$ spent. 8000 miles gets me $100 discount on any air ticket, so that is basically like 1.25% cash back. They also have a free ticket with a few restrictions for 25000 miles, but the $100 discount per 8000 miles can be used on any ticket. I just booked 4 RT tickets between Philadelphia and Phoenix. After much much searching I found a $199 roundtrip fare. After applying my miles (I only had enough for 4 X $100 coupons at this time) I paid $100 per ticket.</p>
<p>Don’t know if this is the “best” but it has been very good for me. In addition to the benefit on “paper” the actual ease of use is extremely important to me. The $100 coupons are not restricted and can be used to buy any ticket. I can search for low fares on all the websites, travelocity, expedia, orbitz (obviously not priceline) and then get the same fare and book the flight through the travelermiles program which has their own travel agency.</p>
<p>USAA Gold for accumulating miles on any airline (excluding the usual discount ones) – if you qualify – must be retired military – they book everything for you.</p>
<p>Thanks all. Some great ideas here. D will be going to Brown so Jet Blue to Boston may be an alternative. Also the Capital One card seems to have a lot flexibility with dates and airlines, has no annual fee, competitive mileage requirement for flights, low interest rate, cash back alternative, but has a 50k mile a year limit. Of course, that is quite a bit to charge a year unless I can put tuition on the card, which I am looking into.</p>
<p>We use the Capital One card, and have been happy with it. When we recently had a problem with trying to change an already scheduled flight which they wouldn’t lallow and that resulted in missing a flight, having to wait 24 hours in airport, etc., when I wrote and complained about all the problems, they responded by giving me 25,000 miles back, enough for one round-trip domestic ticket. So the outcome was at least favorable and I feel I can recommend their service once again.</p>
<p>I just read an article that advised skipping the frequent flier cards and just doing cash back rebates.</p>
<p>I have an Amazon card that I get a good rebate rate on. I save the coupons and use them for textbooks. It adds up fast!</p>
<p>As far as charging tuition on a credit card-some schools allow it with no fee, some with a fee, and some don’t allow it at all. I got a Hilton AMEX several years ago, use it as our prime card and put D’s tution and R & B on it this year. With the Hilton points I have earned, our family of 4 is spending 6 nights on the Big Island of Hawai this summer ( 2 rooms) for free! However, D’s school will not accpet credit cards after next fall semester-GRRR!</p>
<p>lizschup,
Thanks for the studentuniverse link. I’d totally forgotten about that site, and we need to get my s. up to NY from his summer job for my m’s unveiling. Their fares were great!!</p>