Looking to get an airline credit card in order to get double miles for hotels and car rentals for my upcoming 3-week trip to France. When checking out Continental vs. United, even though they're gonna be one and the same in the future, as I understand it....there were only a few hotels on the Continental site vs. 100s on the United site.....Wonder why? Also,
does anyone know if that is the very BEST way to get credits/miles, etc. when traveling?
Using Airline Credit Cards
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I gave up on the "usual" credit cards (United, AA, Delta, etc) several years ago when they stared charging me a 3% currency conversion fee, and I could rarely get the FF free flights I wanted. Never had any luck getting a non-stop to Europe (our most frequent destination) from SFO.
I now use the Capital One card which charges a 0% currency conversion fee, gives me double miles on my purchases, and "refunds" me the cost of my airline ticket when I have enough miles/dollars. There are no restrictions on who/where/how I purchase my airline ticket - as long as I charge the ticket on my Capital One card.
Stu Dudley
This isn't going to answer your question but I dumped my airline credit card because it was too hard to use the miles. It was Northwest Airlines, now Delta, but they have the same terms. I can not recommend either to use. I don't think this subject should be tagged France, more like air travel or maybe the lounge.
I've had an American Airlines Citibank card for 5 years and I'm perfectly happy with it. I use it for everything and accrue enough miles for flights to Europe almost every year. I use a cashback Capital One card for out-of-the-country purchases because it has no foreign transaction fee, the AA card for everything else. I plan far enough ahead for award flights and have had no trouble using my miles for the flights I want.
We do exactly the same as Joannay. AA FF program is great ! Never have difficulty getting seats. We have many miles on Delta, 250K, but do not like their way of charging miles for flights. They want you to spend 100K on a trip to Europe now. Used to be different, better. Also use Capital One Venture card for purchases abroad.
Not sure which CO card you compared to which UA card - double hotel miles are earned at any hotel at which I use my CO Presidential Plus MC. The annual fee is steep but it also includes membership in the airport clubs formerly known as Presidents Clubs and Red Carpet Clubs, now merged and known as the United Club, along with some other nice perks, like no foreign currency conversion fee, concierge service, doubling time of manufacturer warranties on items purchases with the card, checked baggage fee waiver for up to 8 people traveling together, priority flight boarding.
I'm somewhere in between. I stick with my US Airways World Mastercard which has a moderate yearly fee, and gives double miles for US Airways purchases. We too are able to accumulate enough miles for a round trip ticket to Europe nearly every year, and use the $99 companion tickets for US trips. We each have a card and each get a pass to the US Airways club once a year.
We don't stay in chain hotels in Europe and have never really use the card to collect points for staying in hotels.
But we find by sticking with this card (have a Capital One for foreign purchases) we get enough points to take most of the trips we want. We plan way ahead and are flexible, and using the miles hasn't been a problem.
I also think you have to read all the rules very carefully. On hotels and rental cars, there are often qualifying rates for accumulating points, and they are usually more than we want to pay.