<p>I want a new credit card with miles… So what are the best cards out there?</p>
<p>Who do you prefer to fly on? Would you be flying by yourself all the time, or sometimes with a companion? What are the odds you’d go to Hawaii? Do you fly on a specific carrier often enough that you’d like elite status?</p>
<p>Skip it - they’re worthless. You have to acumulate an obscene amount of miles to get one ticket - just buy the tickets.</p>
<p>I have had AmEx Delta Platinum ($150/yr) for years. In fact, I have 2 (personal and business) that feed into the same FF account.</p>
<p>Benefits I have personally had this year:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>4 round trip free tickets including DS coming home for Christmas (reservation made in November for 60K miles when tickets were priced at about $1000). We usually get about 4 free trips/year. Sometimes get lucky with 25K/ticket. </p></li>
<li><p>Elite status such that I am upgraded to first class about 50% of my trips. Also get double miles for flights with the elite status. One $1000 trip to europe garnered me about 20K miles. There are also a lot of bonus miles if you spend >25K/year or >50K/year.</p></li>
<li><p>Flexibility to make reservations last minute. Just flew cross country for an unexpected funeral last weekend. Reservation made on tuesday for friday flight. RT 40K miles, ticket otherwise priced at $850. </p></li>
<li><p>Free companion ticket every year. We actually don’t always use them up.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Love, love, love it. DS is a senior in college and we have yet to pay for any of his trips home. We often don’t know his exam schedule until late on in semester so making late reservations over Christmas would have been very expensive.</p>
<p>I also use United but fine that they are much more difficult to cash the miles with the exception of you can sometimes nab 1st class tickets for 50K RT. I use that for my 80 year old mother.</p>
<p>Totally disagree with PhotoOp. My two kids fly free 3-5 times per year on tickets that I earn. You have to learn to be smart about it, make all your purchases on the card, as many as possible. Hit certain thresholds so you get bonus miles, churn the cards so you reapply and cancel approx. once a year to get the huge signup bonuses (sometimes up to 100K miles…that can be 3-4 round trip tickets alone). I detest paying for airline tickets, and I love the flexibility of being able to change or cancel my mileage tickets.</p>
<p>thepointsguy.com has all the best deals and information on this. The greatest deals are sporadic, so I check his site often.</p>
<p>PhotoOp, for things I buy anyhow I get enough miles on my AAdvantage card to fly first class with DH every other year to HI. There is a nominal annual fee but it is way less than an airline ticket 
You do have to be on top of when the tickets become available and sometimes use routings that are not direct, but I have always been able to get the first class tickets. DD slowly accumulates enough on hers for an occasional free ticket, which is worth it to a poor grad student. Not sure what you mean about obscene amounts of miles, but a roundtrip US is about 25000 and the first class to HI are around 75000. When you use the card for everything the miles add up and if it is an airline you use anyhow that add up faster. </p>
<p>i am not familiar with how good cards like Capital One are, they usual get good ratings thougn.</p>
<p>I want to be able to fly to Hawaii. I want to be able to fly to Europe. </p>
<p>I dont care about a specific airline.</p>
<p>I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred. The points can be redeemed for cash or can be transferred to a number of reward programs. The current list: British Airways, Korean Air, Southwest, United, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, Ritz-Carlton and Amtrak. They also double the points earned for restaurants and some other stuff.</p>
<p>The reason I asked about Hawaii, is that no matter what other cards you get, you might want to consider an Alaska Airlines credit card. Think their signup bonus is 25K. We used to apply for those when we wanted to go to Hawaii, and get a cheap companion pass for the kids. I believe the first year annual fee is waived, and they give you a companion pass for $99 for anywhere they go (even Mexico or Hawaii) every year. I wouldn’t apply for the card unless I knew I wanted that companion pass for that year, as the next year there is an annual fee, and of course I’d cancel after I used the pass, and sign up again the next time we wanted to go to Hawaii. One year both me and my husband signed up, got the kids each a companion pass ticket. The great thing about the Alaska passes is that they aren’t limited to certain flights or a certain number of seats. You find an acceptable fare for yourself, and then get the kids a seat for $99.</p>
<p>Delta companion passes are really annoying to use. Mine usually go expired because they are so limiting. Not available on this or that flight, or anywhere I ever want to go. Though the Amex cards are the best for Delta, I sure don’t get them for the companion passes!</p>
<p>I am not going to use Delta. Delta is not a big player where I live. </p>
<p>United, Southwest, Jet Blue, Virgin, British Airways, maybe American and Alaska Air (for Hawaii).</p>
<p>I havent used an airline mile credit card for several years. The amount of points to travel is based on the costs of flights now?</p>
<p>Used to be domestic flights were one price… hawaii was another…foreign destinations were another. This isnt true now?</p>
<p>“Used to be domestic flights were one price… hawaii was another…foreign destinations were another. This isnt true now?”</p>
<p>There are so many different mileage costs for each situation, it is mind boggling. Usually you will pay more for Europe than Hawaii, more for Hawaii than domestic. So many different categories, based on peak travel days and how many seats are left. I’ll give you an example based on Delta (I realize you don’t use them, but I do, therefore my frame of reference). I have seen coach domestic tickets requiring as low as 25K miles, and as high as 80K…to the same destination. I have paid 60K miles for tickets to Europe (awesome deal), to see those same seats require 280K (?) the next day.</p>
<p>You have to go on each airlines site to see the mileage requirements, but I’m sure that they all have differing amounts based on peak/non peak travel</p>
<p>The pointsguy has a pretty good beginners guide, if you have a lot of time to go through it. He is the guru and master of the deal.
[Beginner’s</a> Guide | The Points Guy](<a href=“http://thepointsguy.com/beginners-guide/]Beginner’s”>TPG’s guide to getting started with points, miles and credit cards - The Points Guy)</p>
<p>Busdriver11, thanks. I was kind of hoping for a simple solution. :)</p>
<p>The Saphire Preferred Card looks like a possibility, but there are so many different names… Club this … Exclusive that…Preferred XXX… </p>
<p>I wonder what is actually covered. :)</p>
<p>GP what is covered? Can I fly on any United flight? Any British Airways flight?</p>
<p>Ok… Later today… I will check out the points guy.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I have used Ink and Sapphire to their their 50,000 to 100,000 point bonus. I have also signed for United to get their bonus. When booking on their preferred travel agency, you get a 20% bonus, stretching your points further. This has allowed me to book flights and get credited as if I had flown paying full fare with the airlines, counting toward our premier status.</p>
<p>This reminds me, I need to book a flight for H & me using the INK points. One of the things I like about the points is that you can book a multi-flight trip, where you start at HI and then fly to two cities and then back home. Nowadays it costs more points to do that with frequent flyer miles.</p>
<p>Chase Sapphire is pretty good, and they have some decent sign up bonuses. No annual fee. But I never use them to book tickets, I can’t resist just having them send me a $500 check for their 50K signup bonus.</p>
<p>I know it would be much better if someone could just give you the easy answer. And I could, if your primary airline was Delta. But if you can figure out if there is one airline that you will probably use the most, and if you want to get elite status on it, someone here could no doubt give you the easy answer. Having several different airlines to use makes it a bit more complicated, but honestly…if you put a priority on getting high signup bonuses (which can be very valuable), there aren’t actually that many cards to choose from. The reason I recommend the pointsguy is because even if you don’t want to spend a lot of time learning about the process, you will find all the best deals linked there. You should get a few cards, for sure.</p>
<p>Okay, this is the last link I’ll put in here. It is an interview with the points guy about how to pick the right credit card. This guy has made me thousands of dollars yearly in free tickets, REI gift cards and just cash back. If I ever run into him, we’re taking him out to dinner!</p>
<p>[The</a> Points Guy: How To Pick A Rewards Card | Bankrate.com](<a href=“http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/the-points-guy-how-to-pick-rewards-card-1.aspx]The”>19 Best Rewards Credit Cards of June 2023 - Bankrate)</p>
<p>I like the points guy. I am reading the links.</p>
<p>I have a United card. I havent been using it. It has too many blackout dates.</p>
<p>If I had to choose an airline it would be United… Or Southwest. :)</p>
<p>I have been using a cash back card.
Busdriver11, I have sent the point guy links to my wife. </p>
<p>You can sign up for the Chase card and then cash out?</p>
<p>Edit: i see the link is going to answer my question.</p>
<p>I love Capital One!</p>
<p>I have the Southwest cards. A couple months ago, there were promotions from Chase with 50,000 bonus points if you spend either 1K or 2K in 3 months. It maybe worth your while to wait and see if this promotion comes back. They have 2 cards, Plus for $69 and Premier for $99 annual fee. The Premier has no foreign transaction fee if this is important to you. I got approved for both cards and have been using the points for my D flights home. Southwest airline points are the easiest to use and you can cancel/rebook with no cancellation fees.</p>
<p>I have the CapitolOne business card that gives me 2x points that are for cash. We get LOTS of cash, especially when we used the CC to fund H’s retirement fund through an odd glitch I found. Those were the biggest cash rebate checks we have gotten from a CC.</p>
<p>When we need to fly, it is cheaper to use the points to book the ticket than using cash. You also get 5x the points by paying certain bills, including your phone, internet, cell, etc. I admit it was tempting to just take the check, but we fly a lot and like to pay as little and infrequently as possible for the privilege. ;)</p>