The Good and Bad of Credit Card Frequent Flyer Miles
Do you use your credit card to pay for everything? I do. I don’t use cash often, it is dirty. I love to use my credit card because at the end of the month, I get one simple statement with every purchase I made on it. Not to mention, I get frequent flyer miles for using my card(s).
If you use your credit card often, and do not get miles, you are missing out big time. For each dollar you spend, you get 1 mile in frequent flyer miles.
We used to have just one card Citibank. Citibank is linked with American Airlines. We have accumulated lots of miles with American. However, you have to be very flexible when traveling with these miles. Weekend travel is difficult to get and you may not travel at the most convenient time for you. Because we needed more direct flights to Denver, we recently got the Juniper Bank card for Frontier Airlines. Now most of our spending is placed on this card. They have direct flights to most of the domestic places we frequently travel. On Frontier, you only need 15,000 miles for a domestic trip! With American, a domestic flight is 25,000 miles. International flights on American are 65,000 miles. We have gotten two international flights with our American miles!
Using miles sure beats spending the $200-$450 for a domestic flight and $600-$1800 for an international flight.
Advantages:
1. One consolidated monthly statement of your spending.
2. “Free” domestic flights (you are going to spend the money anyway, so you might as well get something out of it.)
3. “Free” international flights.
Disadvantages:
1. $50 annual fee (tough for penny pinchers, good for travelers)
2. Travel is not always on your preferred dates.
Bottom Line:
Enroll today and start flying.
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My frequent flyer miles are all on Delta. I've been tempted, but their Amex card has a $75 annual fee (first year the fee is waived.) I could sign up for the free 10,000 miles and then cancel but I hate using credit cards so frivolously.
Thanks for the advice.
I am sharing my Credit Card Strategy on my weblog. It also includes a rewards card, but I mention other interesting tips as well.
Thanks for the advice.
I am sharing my Credit Card Strategy on my weblog. It also includes a rewards card, but I mention other interesting tips as well.
If you really want to hit the jackpot on miles from credit card charges pay for your kids' college tuition with your mileage card. Pay the balance by whatever financing arrangement you had made to pay for tuition. Sitting on the beach across the world after having flown there for free takes some of the sting out of the tuition bite.
Capital One has a card with no annual fees and miles earned are good on any airline for any flight. You can purchase the flight through any web site you wish with your capital one card and then contact capital one within 3 months and they will credit you account for the price of the ticket. (8000 miles earned=$100 towards a ticket)
I agree with Benjamin, get a no annual fee card which will get you a ticket on any airline.
Your $50 annual fee can add up if it takes longer than one year to accumulate your miles. Tickets now can be quite cheap if you live near a large city and you don't want to end up spending almost as much on annual fees as a ticket might cost.
