Giselle

Hope this is the right forum for this question, but I use my FF miles to go to Europe, generally.

My interest was peaked the other day when my bank called and said I could transfer my present miles on Alaska Airlines Visa to their card. The annual fee was lower, too, though we usually pay it off monthly. I'm still thinking about it. I didn't like that they didn't partner with BA, as Alaska does.

Presently we only have about 19,000 miles on the Alaska card, but I hate to lose them. Then, lots of cards give you miles up front.

Anyone know of other cards that allow FF mile transfers?

A few friends have told me about their cards but I thought I might get even more info here.

Who out there has a killer card with great features that I don't know about?

travel52

I just switched VISA cards from Hawaiian to Alaska because we can go to Europe on it. We are finding the $50 companion fare on Alaska very nice. It allows us to travel more and that alone helps add miles for our next Europe trip. I'd also be happy to hear if anyone has found a better deal.

Giselle

Travel52, yeah, you may have a point. I might just be whining.

Alaska Platinum also gives us 2,000 miles each year we renew. Cool!

But they do have blackout dates. They do have a $75.00 annual fee.

And many cards allow you to fly all airlines, so, for instance, you can do one of those great go-today (or whatever) deals which come up, and don't partner with Alaska's.

Alaska partners with BA, AA, Continental for Europe. Others for other places.

Like you, I'm interested if someone has a better deal.

ddgattina

My philosophy is if they travel where you want to travel, and you both fly them, travel enough and charge enough to make it worthwhile, stick with the airline you use. Speaking personally, if Alaska/BA/AA is who you fly and who you want to use for awards, I don't believe you will get a better deal elsewhere. I always fear that seats are limited/not available when you want to use them...or that the generic bank cards will change their terms and conditions. I thin you get better treatment with a true "airline" connected card. (But if anyone else has different experience, over the longterm, I'd like to hear about it...

artlover

We are members of Alaska Airlines FF and are using our miles for travel in Europe next May, but am thinking of joining Continental FF program because we have FF miles with AMEX and these miles can be transferred to Continental (and their partners) but not to Alaska.

You might ask this question in the airlines forum as well.

astein12

While I have a Delta card (AMEX), I put most of my charges on my regular Amex card (membership rewards).

Given the current state of many airlines, this gets me out of worrying about bankruptcies. Plus with double miles on some purchases and tranfer bonuses (25% mileage bonus for transfers to Continental recently), you can do pretty well.

Starwood AMEX is also good for this (5000 bonus on 25000 transfers).

MaureenB

We use a United Mileage Plus Visa card, even though it costs $60/year, because we can combine our miles earned from the card with the ones we earn in the air. I couldn't find a FF credit card w/o an annual fee that does that.

degas

MaureenB, don't ALL of them do that?

P_M

Maureen, I'm trying to understand what you said. I have the AA Master Card. I earn points for my Aadvanatage account by using the MC, plus I earn miles by flying, and a few other ways. These are all combined into my Aadvantage account. I thought this was standard practice.

Patrick

Maybe I'm naive and it no longer works this way. But about those annual fees. . . In 1986 I got a Citibank AAdvantage card for American FF miles (and yes Maureen like nearly all the others it does what you're talking about). After one year having paid a $35 fee, when it was time to be renewed, I called and said I would like to keep the card but wouldn't pay the fee as there were too many other cards that didn't require one. They didn't balk at all, but removed the annual fee and I've never had one since. As I said maybe they don't do that anymore. By the way, I had charged about $25,000 on the card in that first year and had paid the full balance monthly.

But I also agree that I like my AA Citibank card because it offers soooo many ways to earn miles and they all automatically go to my AA acount. And I'm happy with the use of American as my primary carrier, so have no desire to find a card that will allow the miles to be used for other airlines.

MaureenB

I guess my earlier message was confusing. Here's what I meant: the flexible-plan mileage credit cards I researched last summer (especially those with no annual fee) restricted how you could use the miles/points. They were not 'combinable'-- i.e., I couldn't combine my credit card miles/points with my own United Mileage Plus account. Yes, the credit card miles/points were applicable to more than one airline, but still it seemed that I wouldn't get much use out of that kind of set-up. So I went back to paying $60/year for my Bank One United Mileage Plus Visa card. Bank One says they can't waive the annual fee because it is imposed by United Airlines, not the bank itself. Clear as mud now?

artlover

Just wanted to add to this that we just got a new AMEX program info in the mail and it appears that no longer is the rate of exchange 1 to 1 but rather 2 to 1! Boo!

eschule

Patrick:

I think you got lucky! I tried that twice and both times they said they are currently not offering waivers of teh fee (and I charge in that same range annually). Since I only fly American (victim of hub city not really a fan of the airline) I won't get rid of teh card because it is very valuable.

BTW: Hilton Honors AMEX has no annual fee for those that are looking.

Patrick

Well, as I mentioned that was in about 1987, so it's no surprise they don't still do that. They sure must have flagged my account though. I'm surprised that each year they don't try to add a fee back in for me.

By the way, I use my card so much I just had to get a new one. The girl at the grocery almost refused it one day. The signature strip on the back has worn through so badly you can now see the word VOID repeated behind it.

RobynFrance

Please allow me to add my 2 cents. When my United Visa card came up for renewal, I called to cancel. After a super sales job, she said I could keep the card but would only get 1 mile for every $2 instead of 1 to 1. No fee. The miles accrue monthly to our FF account. I use this card whenever Visa is required and they do not accept AMEX. Otherwise, I use the Starwood Amex, where miles can be transferred to any airline, usually on 1:1, but not United which is 1:2. Hope that helps. Meanwhile back at the ranch, we are finding it harder and harder to plan ahead for our European trips using FF miles--we just returned from France using Delta, going into Bordeaux and out of Toulouse--big ticket costs otherwise--but we had to book a full year in advance. With the current situation, I don't know how it will work next year for us, but hope springs eternal.

Take care,
Robyn France

marilynl

I use my AA Citibank Master Card for everything, and recently got another one because the card stops giving miles at $60,000 annually, plus you can only put the miles in one person's account. But we are going to Europe in April for free, and I particularly like to use miles for going to Mexico with a stopover in Miami--feels like I'm getting 2 tickets for my 30,000 miles.

I think the credit card companies like the people who charge a lot WITHOUT paying whole balance each month best of all! Not that I am advocating that!

wren

I use mine FF credit card for paying for everything, but are there things you wouldn't ordinarily think of that you use yours for?

wondering

You may not be able to get a fee waived anymore, but you can get other perks. I just received extra miles from citibank today when i said i wanted to close the account. i truly expected to get the fee waived but settled for what i could get!

artlover

marilyn,
does AACitibank card give 1:1 or 1:2 on FF miles?

I managed to book 2 tickets with Alaska to Europe (with KLM/Northwest) for next May, but thanks to Fodors, I knew to do it 330 days in advance.

Patrick

AA Citibank gives 1 mile for each dollar charged. But there are also special bonus mile offers all the time, some with Citibank and some with AA. In addition Citibank sometimes offers discount mileage awards with AA. And of course the miles can go right into your AA account so that they combine with all the others you earn from other sources.