jrchapma

I'm inexperienced with whole frequent flyer thing, so please excuse me if I say anything naive.

My husband owns a small business and I finally convinced him to sign up for a corporate credit card that offers frequent flyer miles. Well, it's been a month and he's already accrued 58,000 miles. Great! Except that we just read the fine print and the account maxs out at 60,000 points per year. Oops! So now his accountant is searching for a new corporate card. Any ideas?

Other than the 60,000 point limit, his current account seemed good. No blackout dates, points don't expire for 4 years, can fly almost any airline, and they don't purchase from a block of tickets (as long as a seat is available, we can fly). Just to give you some idea of what our points got us, 40,000 points would get us to Hawaii (capped at $800), 60,000 to Europe (capped at $1200). We could also book open jaw travel.

We fly out of Wilmington, NC, so our airlines are limited to Delta and US Air. Raleigh would be an alternative for travel (more options if we fly from there), but we like avoiding the additional 2 hours of travel and longer lines at their airport.

Can you recommend a good corporate credit card? One with unlimited points? Annual fees are not a concern. Thanks all for your assistance!

Patty

I have no experience with the type of airmiles rewards card that your husband has (I prefer to use cards which earn miles that can be transferred into an existing FF acount and combined with flight miles). I also don't like the dollar limitation that these cards impose as it pretty much rules out business class travel. However, it does sound like the free tickets are easier to redeem vs. traditional FF programs operated by airlines. So if you plan to use it for free economy class travel, it seems to be a good option.

Otherwise, consider a card that's affiliated with a particular airline or one of the Amex cards from which you can transfer miles to various airline FF programs. You mentioned Delta, the Platinum Skymiles business card allows you to earn an unlimited amount of miles. These miles are deposited into your Skymiles account so can be combined with your flight miles. You also earn a 10,000 mile + 5,000 MQM 1st purchase bonus and another 10,000 MQM bonus if you charge a minimum of $25,000. The MQM's count toward elite qualification. There are lots of other bonus mile opportunities throughout the year. The only thing is you'll have to do some advance planning to redeem the standard level SkySaver awards. If you opt for the double mileage SkyChoice awards, there are no capacity limitations or blackout dates. I haven't had too much trouble getting the SkySaver awards I've needed in the past.

To compare with your examples of Hawaii and Europe (I'm using the post March 16, 2004 mileage requirements):

Hawaii economy - 35,000
Hawaii first - 75,000
Europe economy - 50,000
Europe business - 90,000
Europe first - 100,000

For SkyChoice awards you'd have to double those requirements. Keep in mind that SkyChoice is only an option on Delta operated flights and not partner airlines. Like I said, I've never had to use the SkyChoice option.

For a complete list of SkyTeam airline awards, go here:

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use/sk...t_us/index.jsp

And for partner airline awards:

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use/pa...ards/index.jsp

You're allowed either a stopover or open jaw on award itineraries. You'll have to pay the Sept 11th security fees ($5-10) on domestic award tickets and taxes (varies) on international award tickets. There's no fee to make any date changes as long as it's within the ticket validity (1 year) and you aren't changing origin or destination cities. I like and take advantage of this feature often because I can remain somewhat flexible and/or make last minute changes. To change origin/destination or add/delete a stopover requires a $100 reissue fee, same for redepositing an award.

Hope this helps.

Patty

Forgot to mention... Skymiles don't expire as long as you have account activity within a 3 year period. Credit card spending counts as account activity, so in essence there's no expiration.

Good for you for catching that 60,000 mile cap early. I can't imagine having spent nearly $720,000 a year and then realizing that I would only receive 60,000 miles in return!

sue5250

sometimes the higher level of card allow you to accrue more miles per year eg platinum vs gold

petlover

I don't believe the American Express Starwood card has any maximum amount of points you can earn.(please double check this though).
The points sit in an account until you decide which airline F.F. program you want to transfer them to. Another real bonus is for every 20,000 miles you transfer...they add a 5,000 mile bonus so this is enough for one domestic R.T.coach ticket. They work with all airlines EXCEPT Southwest Airlines.
Although I'm not a business, this is the card that has worked best for me accruing F.F. miles.

DJE

Another good credit card is the Platinum American Express card which offers 2 for 1 business class seats with a number of carriers. It's a great deal if you fly business as you can save a lot of $$$. We have used this card benefit a number of times. With this feature you must purchase the first ticket in order to get the other free as their points don't apply in this case.

jbella

We have 2 business cards:
Capital One Miles One program:
limit 10,000 miles per card per month no yearly limit. miles valid for 5years.
Advanta Travel card:
no monthly mileage limit. miles valid for 3years.
Both programs have no blackout dates and valid for any airlines. We've been to Europe, Alaska & Costa Rica in the last 3years with these miles. Great programs.

tashak

When you pick a card, think about which airline he usually flies, and where you want to use the miles, too.

Cards associated with a particular airline typically provide the biggest bang for the buck when they combine with the mileage earned for flying. So I, for example, prefer American and have a American AAdvantage Mastercard, which puts miles into my AAdvantage account. I like American because they have British Airways is a partner, and they can get you virtually anywhere in the world, including Africa and Asia. (AA covers North and South America). A friend who has United Miles can get anywhere in Europe and lots of places in Asia, but she wants to go to Africa...unfortunately, the United miles can't get her there.

Diners Club miles can be transferred to many airlines and have no cap...but they have a 2:1 swap rate, which is not as attractive as the direct airline cards.