I was a holdout, too, preferring to pay cash, but a friend persuaded me to try the FF card and now I'm a convert! It is actually easier to budget since you see your food bills in total every month, plus the restaurant/takeout bills; you have a much clearer view of what is being spent and where you can cut back. Besides putting groceries on it really adds up. I found I can even charge the kid's orthodontia work, so I'm getting something for nothing in both cases.<BR>I use a Citibank card that had a one-time offer of 10,000 free miles. It is tied to AA, where the cheapest redemption starts at 25,000 miles. I think the yearly cost is $35.

Yep - that's the only way to get enough miles. Pay for everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, with your FF-miles credit card and then pay it off in full every month. Use it for your daily purchases, ask whether you can set your electric/phone/cable and other monthly bills on automatic payment, etc., use the card for all your big purchases and even pay for your lower fare airline tickets with the card. You'd be surprised how it adds up. <BR><BR>We decided to use our accumulated miles all at once (others use for upgrades - your choice) and are going to Europe for free this summer on the miles built up over the past few years. If you do it right, it's about as close to free as you'll ever get.<BR><BR>

Diner's Club will give you 12,000 bonus frequent flier miles on the airline of your choice (1,000 miles each month for the first 12 months), in addition to 1 mile for every $1 charged. The annual fee is high but it's worth it for the 12,000 bonus miles and the flexibility to use them on any airline (or divide among various airlines). Just cancel at the end of the first year. The downside is that Diner's Club is not as widely accepted as Visa/Mastercard. There is a good website for perusing FF mile credit card offers (and other offers like for phone service) which is www.mileageworkshop.com.

sometimes cards will offer one year with no fee - we have a Delta Amex right now that is that way. It also offers double miles at home improvement stores. We are renovating a house right now - doing all the work ourselves and getting tons of miles for free right now (we pay in full every month, which is the key). Look for the no fee specials - and then cancel the card the 11th month you have it - to avoid paying any fee.

<BR> Amy.<BR> To get the big bang out of your <BR> FF card it should come from major<BR> airline so you can collect miles<BR> if you fly them anyway and a mile <BR> for every $ spent.Keep a sharp <BR> look out for specials ie:2 miles<BR> per dollar spent,double miles for<BR> flying that airline. <BR> Good luck T<BR>ps I use Usairways and I love it . <BR> Three first class trips to Europe<BR> in 5 years.Make that envoy class.<BR><BR>

I didn't want to start a new thread, but wanted to share this: Before our recent trip to Europe, I obtained a NWA (US Bank) card with no annual fee. Unfortunately, I did not read the small print. All my purchases included a 3% "conversion" fee (for purposes of converting the foreign currency to US $. OK, so I should have noted this, but I am a little put off that an airline card (i.e. one that expects your to travel) would dink you on your travel purchases.

I have the AOL Visa. I was tempted to pay $50 for a USAirways Visa, but I decided against it. I charge enough on the AOL card to get free AOL worth $23 every month. It's a sure savings of $23 that adds up. Earning miles is not quite a sure bet. USAirways can go under, or they might not allow me to cash in on the exact flight I want. I'd rather have the money in hand to spend how I want.

To trying and the coversion fee. All the cards do that with the exception (I think) of MBNA whatever that is.

I looked into Capital One and found that they charged a LOT more miles for a ticket then the airline. So I'm staying with my Citi Bank AA card.

Another trick for people that just have to pay cash and are afraid of overdoing a credit card is simple: OVERPAY YOUR CREDIT CARD. If your bill reads $1000 before a trip to Europe and you have $1000 cash budgeted to go to Europe simply pay the card $2000 instead of the $1000 you actually owe. Then use the card in Europe instead of budgeted cash and you will be eating into the credit you built up and get the miles plus do not have to worry about over doing the card. This works well for people that are not good at watching their money or budget.

Overpayment method, as mentioned by Bob, along with others, USUALLY works most of the time. The gotcha is the usual fine print on your CC agreement. I had a card that placed hard limit on how much credit I am allowed to leave at any time. I also had a card that will not allow credit to be left on the card after some arbitrary limit. When I was about to take advantage of the "CREDIT" I thought I had, the CC company forced clearing my account by sending me a check.

I am interested in getting a credit card to accumulate ff miles. Can someone just give me an idea of how many miles one one need for an economy class ticket to Europe? For example, with an AMEX card.

We use the Marriott Rewards Visa card--points can be exchanged for airline tickets, hotels, car rentals, etc. The first year there was not annual fee, now it's $25. We change almost everything we can to it and pay off the balance each month.

Ana,<BR><BR>The answer is you need between 40 - 50,000 miles for an economy ticket to Europe. American Express often gives double miles for lots of things, but they tied in with Delta Skymiles, which is fine with me, but it may not be with you. Delta charges 50,000 miles economy to Europe. I believe Continental still charges 40,000 and American charges 40,000 off-peak (October - May) and 50,000 peak. Hope that helps.<BR><BR>Duane

Ana, I don't know how it works with AMEX, but I have a Citibank AAdvantage<BR>(American AA)Visa. Flights to Europe are 40,000 miles for travel from Oct. 15 to May 15 and 60,000 miles other times. Last year I took trip to London in early May, and Paris in late October, both for free! I use the card for just about everything, including expensive home improvements - but pay it off in full every month. I think it's great.

Here are some things to consider:<BR><BR>1. Pick a card associated with an airline (United, American, etc) if you fly that airline as well. Then the miles you earn with the card, combined with the miles you earn flying, can get you to that award threshold faster. Also consider sign-up bonuses that are offered from time to time. Get a card if a significant sign-up bonus is offered, as that can get you well on your way to an award. Ignore free companion offers. Right now United is offering 15,000 miles to sign up for their FirstUSA card.<BR><BR>2. The Capitol One and similar cards allow you to accumulate points towards a threshold, which are then worth $ towards a ticket that is purchased through their associated travel agency on a choice of airlines. Essentially Capitol One buys you a ticket valued at a maximum of, for example, $500, depending on destination and point level. Since all the points have to be earned by charging on the card, it may be harder to get to the award threshold than with a FF airline associated card. You've got to be in a position to charge a lot in a year to make this worthwhile. Also, in some of these types of cards, points expire after some period of time.<BR><BR>3. The AMEX Membership Rewards program does allow you to transfer miles into several different programs, but the big boys such as United, American and Delta aren't among them. It also has a $40 annual fee in addition to the AMEX Green Card annual fee of $55. The Rewards Plus Gold Card includes the Rewards program but costs around $125 per year. [The AMEX Delta Skymiles card is a one-airline card that provides Delta miles and has double miles possibilities mentioned earlier].<BR><BR>4. Only MBNA, of the major national card issuers, does not have an extra conversion fee for purchases in foreign currency. First USA (United), Chase (Continental), and Citibank (American) all tack on an additional 2% to the standard Visa/MC 1% fee. AMEX has a flat 2% fee. MBNA has been out of the FF airline card business since TWA disappeared.

I hope this doesn't open a can of worms, but I don't get the attraction with cards that give FF miles. I have a Fleet Cash Dividend Visa card that pays me 1% cash back with NO annual fee. If it takes you 25,000 miles to get a free domestic R/T ticket, you would have to charge $25000 to get a free ticket. If I charge $25000 I get a check for $250 (actually a little less if you read the fine print). If you take 2 years to charge that $25000 you will pay about an extra $100 to cover the yearly fees for the CC ($50/yr). So that free ticket costs you $350. I can usually get a flight for &lt;$350 and I don't have to deal with any restrictions on Flights. I am a member of AAdavantage and do receive FF miles as I fly (I have to fly every 3 years to keep my account active). Anyway this system seems to work better for me.

Eric, Capital One doesn't charge the extra 2% conversion fee either.<BR><BR>I have Citibank Aadvantage card, but don't use it in foreign countries, primarily on principle. I use my MBNA or Capital One.<BR><BR>I do charge everything else on it and use my miles mainly for upgrading. Got a $220 RT Las Vegas-DC ticket and upgraded the outbound section for 15,000, which should make a long trip a lot more comfortable. Did the same to Paris in the spring. (Coming back, what do I care--let those ankles swell up!)<BR><BR>Plus for 25,000 miles got my $650 RT Alaska trip for free, worth a lot more than the $350 Dave cited.<BR><BR>To me the miles are worth more than a free trip--they buy an otherwise expensive free trip or upgrade comfort I would never be able to afford.

Point of information...the British Airways card offered by First USA is their only credit card which does not impose the 2% fee for foreign currency transactions (perhaps because BA is a foreign carrier and objected when they asked).<BR><BR>The BA program is a good one as it has an alliance with AA among others so that you can get all the advantages of using AA frequent flyer mileage (except on routes where they compete such as to LHR).

Does anyone know if any of these cards are open to non-US residents? <BR><BR>I'm an American living in China, and recently decided to get a ff card for the reasons others have stated above. We typically fly United (and therefore other Star Alliance members), so I went online to apply for the UA/Star Alliance Visa. It's only available to US residents.<BR><BR>We'd probably even be willing to change airlines/ff networks if we could find a ff card/network available to us. Any Europeans who have a ff card?<BR><BR>Thanks!