Credit Cards - Miles, Points...
 

Our favorite frequent flyer credit card is Citibank for American Advantage miles we have traveled all over the world using our miles.

We also use the Starwood Amex card for hotel points.

Have you had good success accumulating points/miles with any other card?

Thank you,

AMERICAN EXPRESS is great. They link up with many airlines,too many to mention .If I remember Delta,Continental,Alitalia are just a few.
I have taken many trips using their mileage.

I use Amex as much as possible and have had great luck traveling with points from that. Many of the small local businesses that I shop at will not accept Amex so I have the Chase Mastercard connected with Continental. While we have plenty of mileage points with American, the best flight schedule for our family Greece/Rome trip was with Continental but we were somewhat short; it was a five minute transaction to move points over to complete the transaction and have tickets confirmed and booked.

I've had very good use of a Citibank World Elite Credit Card which accumulates "thankyou" points. We have successfully used them to get hotels while driving thru Netherlands, and Germany, with smooth sailing on last minute reservations. All you need is the lobby computer in your hotel to get on and book on the internet, using your password for ThankYou.com

Just used them again to book three hotel nights while driving to get to Umbria and Tuscany to our rental houses, and back to Malpensa to fly home.

You can get all kinds of thing, including air travel with your points. Haven't tried that yet.

Anyone else used these "Thankyou" points?

Joestrip,
Which Amex card do you use? I did see that our starwood card is great for hotels, but for flights the points needed are much more than the AA Citi card.

I use United Mileage Plus card. I got tickets for my sis and I to go to Spain and a couple years later to go to Ireland.

I also used them for my ticket to Europe last year. The only disadvantage that I see to using them are that I think I spend more money than I would if I were using cash.

I have the AmEx card with Delta miles -- have nearly 300k now and the DH and I will take a nice trip next year

I used to have Chase United VISA but I HATE Chase so dropped the card.

I now have a Capital One MC for business and am accumulating some type of points but have no idea how to redeem them!

I use the Starwood card exclusively. The points are likely more valuable than those you earn with any other card.

Consider the Citibank/AA card vs the Starwood card. Assume that you are looking to earn AA miles with either card. With the Citibank/AA card, you earn 1 mile per $1 spent. With the Starwood card, you earn 1 point per $1 spent. You can transfer those points to AA at a 1:1 basis. BUT, if you transfer 20k points, Starwood throws in 5k extra AA miles, so your effective earning rate is 1.25 AA miles per $1 spent. When you toss in the flexibility of having more potential airline partners + hotel rewards, you have a better value, IMO.

Now, there are a few reasons I could see for using a dedicated airline card:

1) If you predominantly fly a carrier that only offers a conversion of 0.5 miles per Starwood point, or which don't participate at all. Continental is a carrier that only offers 0.5 miles, for example.

2) You receive other perks, such as checked bag fee waivers, lounge access, or elite qualifying miles that tip the balance toward an airline-branded card.

3) You simply don't like Amex.

As for the Capital One-type cards... I know people love them, but I have never seen one that offers a better return than a mileage card, since the value of the points is usually capped at $0.01 per point. At the rates such cards offer, you would usually be better off with a cash-back card.

We've had AA Advantage card since it first came ot when DH worked for Citibank. Can't begin to remembr how many trips we've made. Also each have seperate Amex , gold and platinum. I like it because I can use it at Costco and they give double miles on lots of things. It is connected to Delta and they have a pay with miles option if you don't have enough miles. They tale $100.00 off for each 10,000 miles you use. Also have BA since we can fly direct to London from here. They also have a pay with miles option.

Use Starwood AX for hotels and Chase Marriot when AX is not excepted. Marriot has some very nice hotels that don't resemble their standard type, such as www.Wentworth.com

We use the citibank advantage card and have been very happy with it. Some credit cards have limits on how many points or award miles you can earn in a months time, citicard does not. If you reach your limit for your charges,pay it on line and then you can charge more.
We also have the Chase Marriott rewards card and have loved our free stays with this card.

I can book a flight with my AA miles to Europe in off season fo 40,000 miles. When I looked to use my Starwood amex card for the same flight it was 60,000 points or even more.

<i>I can book a flight with my AA miles to Europe in off season fo 40,000 miles. When I looked to use my Starwood amex card for the same flight it was 60,000 points or even more.</i>

Why not just transfer your SPG points to AA miles and spend them with AA at the 40k miles price? That flexibility is the beauty of the Starwood card.

mike_b12 - it is the gold amex. When trying to put the trip together we discovered we had some old contenental points from the 90's that for some reason never expired. "merry christmas to us" Each of the kids had a pool of miles in their names too so we only had to move/ add enough from the amex to top them off for their plane tickets. I haven't flown contental in years--use to be flight of choice to disney for us--anyway I have found their call center staff very patient and helpful. The wait is long. I have averaged 45 min but it was well worth the wait. they put together trips I could not find on line using my points.
Travelgourmet: I am going to look into the Starwood. Thank you for taking the time to put the info in writing.

Joestrip,
Thanks, I just found out I have some Continenetal miles also. You are right, I guesss they never expire!

CO miles do not currently expire. However, one should note that the fine print of the program says that they can terminate your membership after 3 years. I don't believe that they have any intention of doing this, but if you have a lot of miles, I would make sure that you keep on top of them.