i am thinking of getting a airline credit card to build up miles/credits for future possible free flights. i have looked around the net for a bit and unsure of which one i should sign up for. I dont know if I will get enough points within a year to even get a free flight but I would still rather get some sort of points because right now I don't really receive the greatest rewards with my bank credit card which is my primary CC. right now i am leaning towards the southwest rapid rewards card. does anyone here know what is the best value airline/mile building program card out there? what program accumulates the fastest? any help would be appreciated...thanks!
well if its any indication of what "most" people use from what i have seen in retail and server jobs its easily southwestern or delta in texas. they probably have about the same benefits i would look at the cities and locations they fly to, that would seem the most important thing to me.
my only issue with jet blue i looked at that card is that their locations they fly in. they dont fly out of LAX to a lot of places, they do fly out of long beach to a lot more places though...but the long beach airport is really small and in ways ghetto/unsecure. i looked at jet blue its 200 bucks for 1 pt 50 pts = free one way
Get an American Express card that earns rewards, preferably free rewards like the Blue card (skip the Jet Blue). Then you can apply points to any of the airlines AMEX is partners with. You also then have the option of applying the rewards points towards things other than airline miles. I got a iPod shuffle recently from them. I think there is a catch on them though - you have to pay your bill off in full on time.
Yep, you generally don't get credit for your AMEX rewards points until your bill is paid for. AMEX generally gives you a penny a point towards any airline ticket. For the Visa types of airline cards, they generally offer a flock of points once you make a purchase and it is typically enough to get a free ticket.
the jet blue amex card isnt too bad from what I read. but i am going to have to wait to get the card now. I tried applying for the jet blue amex and got declined: the reason my ratio of balance to available credit was too high. I got scared cuz I have a good credit score (751) and always make payments on time and my student loans have gone down since the last time I opened up a card and i only had two cards to my name, my bank cc and a circuit city cc. the limit of the circuit city CC was twice of that of my banks. the circuit one was closed when the store went bankrupt so I lost 83% of my available credit. so i had re-apply at chase to get a new credit card so i can just up my available limit to get the card i really want. I apply got approved and now need to wait 2 weeks to get my card and in the mail. a simple activate and never use ever again card like my circuit city one was. freakin lame but at least it will give me some more time to research what card will be best for me.
I wanted to get an Airline credit card, but I couldn't find one that didn't have an annual fee. I hate annual fees.
There is nothing better then the Citi American Airlines Advantage card. Gives you 1 mile per every dollar spent. Some crap earns you even more. They had a special on valentines where $1 spent on 1800flowers got you you 20 miles. I spend 75 dollars and got 1500 miles! They constantly have specials where you can fly to a lot of places in the US for 17,500 miles. Their international rewards flights are cheaper and second to none. Much cheaper then Delta and Continental. (trust me, I have all airlines card). Flew to Argentina and Chile last year for 40,000 miles. That is pretty damn cheap. Those American Express cards and various other cards that give you "points" to be used on any airlines are bull****. It almost always requires too many points compared to what you get on American Airlines. Cons - American Airlines have the ****tiest service and ****tiest planes. - You have to most of the time catch a connecting flight in Dallas.
I have the Continental credit card. The Continental pfreq. flyer rogram sucks, but the credit card itself has some perks. The annual fee is a whopping $80, but if I book continental flights with it I get my first bag fee waived. I fly round-trip from LA to Houston twice a year, and that's already $100 in fees I saved. However, I do have trouble accumulating enough miles. I have president's club coupons and free drink coupons .... I should probably switch to a cash reward card next year
I have seen them advertised with no fee for the first year. Cancel after you reap the benefits and before the 2nd year fee is due.
One particularly nice perk about the Continental FFmiles program is that the miles don't expire. I cashed in miles I earned five years ago for a ticket this year.
Don't get it. Get a cash reward card instead. I dropped my Continental Card for the American Express Blue Cash instead.
If you don't have any mileage activity on your account for 18 months, your miles may be forfeited: "If no mileage is deposited in your account for 18 consecutive months, your membership may be cancelled, and your miles may be forfeited." This is similar to other FF programs, but as long as a deposit is made into the mileage account then the forfeiture date gets automatically extended.
