<p>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.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I’m wondering if it wouldn’t hurt to take the card for the no fee first year…</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Exactly Busdriver. That’s what I’m realizing - that route isn’t probably for us ! </p>
<p>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!!!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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.</p>
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…</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>I’d say your best bet is to just find the Visa/Mastercard (since you don’t want an AMEX) that has no annual fee (at least for the first year) that gives you the most points as a signup bonus. That link I put in post #22 breaks down the latest best offers. Of course, sometimes you can get a better targeted deal when you open up your mail!</p>
<p>That Chase Sapphire now has 40K bonus points signup, with a low required spend to get it. And they will send you a check for your points too, nice to get that kind of money just for signing up. Though I have to admit, my favorite was the Gold Amex business, we just cashed it all in, and we used our 75K signup bonus to get $800 worth of REI cards. My husband is in hiker heaven. Now the annual fee is coming next month, so we’ll cancel that puppy. Never paid a dime of interest or fee.</p>
<p>We recently got the Capital One Venture Rewards card. We’ve had their regular cash rewards card for years, and love Capital One because (at least until recently) they were one of the few that didn’t charge any type of foreign transaction fee.
With their Venture Rewards card (free for 1st year, $59 after that) you get 2% back on <em>everything</em> you buy in points to be used for travel - airlines, hotels, car rentals. So if you buy, say, a $400 airline ticket, you tell them to deduct $400 worth of points from your account to pay for that ticket. Thus, there are NO restrictions on which flights you can book.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, actually using airline miles through FF programs can be VERY difficult - you have to book WAY in advance, take the flight that leaves at the buttcrack of dawn, and still might not be able to get two tickets on the same flight. So this Venture Rewards system is very attractive.</p>
<p>Our points accumulate very quickly since we charge virtually everything - pay that $300 utilities bill in the summer, get $6 back to spend on travel - a good deal. $750 life insurance premium = $15 back, $900 car insurance bill = $18, etc. With 2 kids going to college far away, we will certainly not have trouble using the miles/points while they are still in school. When we go to Chicago after Thanksgiving, we’ll use miles to pay for our hotel. We pay our CC bill in full every month, so they never get a penny in interest out of us.</p>
<p>With the Venture Rewards card, if for some reason you choose to use the points/miles for something other than travel, such as gift cards, cash, or an account credit then the points redeem at half the value, meaning that you are effectively getting 1% back on your purchases rather than 2%. Still not bad - we’ve been getting quite a lot of cash back in previous years with the 1% rate. Having that doubled is great!</p>
<p>OP, we aren’t allowed to link to blogs on CC but if you google “The Points Guy” it will take you to a blog that tells you how to maximize FF miles and does an excellent comparative analysis of different credit cards & their travel benefits.</p>
<p>Not a dumb question at all, abasket. I googled it, looked at their site, and I couldn’t even tell! So I looked at my card…it is a Visa. The deal I saw on pointsguy was this:
Chase Sapphire Preferred℠ Card</p>
<pre><code>Earn 40,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months – that’s $500 toward travel rewards!
2 points per dollar spent on travel and dining at restaurants & 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases
Get 20% off airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises when you redeem through Ultimate RewardsSM
No foreign transaction fees
Receive a 7% Annual Points Dividend on all new points earned on purchases – even on points already redeemed
1:1 point transfer to participating frequent travel programs
Direct access to expert service advisors anytime
Introductory Annual Fee of $0 the first year, then $95.
</code></pre>
<p>Now what was intriguing to me, that I didn’t realize, was the 7% annual points dividend. Another good deal is that they give you a 1 for 10 payback in cash if you want it. Ie, if you get the bonus offer of 40K points, you can get a $400 check sent to you. Some of the other cards I have would only give you $250 or $300 cash for that. I think I’ve talked myself into having my husband get one of these too.</p>
<p>But that Capital One Venture Rewards card looks intriguing also.</p>
<p>Got a thing in the mail today for Discover - charge at least $2000/month from December 2012 through June 2013 and get an extra $500 cash back, on top of their other rewards.</p>
<p>We were “specially selected for this exclusive opportunity” so I don’t know how widely available this will be. We aren’t that special, so probably everyone will get it. :D</p>
<p>Just got in the mail my Delta Skymiles AmEx bill. There has been a change to the terms. The $99 Companion Ticket offer, that had been given with a paid up $95 renewal of the card, is being eliminated as of the middle of January 2013. It will still be given to those who apply or renew before the changeover date. </p>
<p>This benefit will be greatly missed. Without it, the card does not have the same value.</p>