Travel Credit Cards
 

Who offers the best travel credit card? You know, air miles for charging $$$ on their credit card. Who gives the most miles for charging a dollar? Do they have a yearly fee? What is their %25 rate? Are the generic (not associated with a specific airline) ones better or as easy to use? I would really appreciate your help in deciding!!!

I think one of your major considerations should be whether or not your origination airport is dominated by a major carrier. In other words, which airline are you MOST likely to fly on. Where I live, USAirways dominates 90%25+ all of the outgoing flights; therefore, even though we could fly and have flown other airlines, it might inconvenience us to do so by flight availability, connections, etc. So naturally, we chose their card which offers one miler for every dollar spent, whether on it is spent at the retail level, for travel, etc., and we know that we will not have problems when it comes time to cash in the points. If you access www.webflyer.com, I believe they have an option on this site where you can check ratings and comparisons of all the frequent flyer programs. If it's not that site, try www.bestfares.com.

I looked up the address and the site is Webflyer but the exact address to get to the FF program reviews is www.insideflyer.com/@reviews/protoc.htm

Lynn...
Thanks for the info!

You really have to do some calculation to figure out what's best for you. If you have a head start with some miles from travel on an airline, you might do best to earn a free ticket from that airline (like US Airways/Nationsbank VISA). Otherwise, it might take several years to earn enough miles for a free ticket; meanwhile, you will have spent $100-250 just in annual fees for the card, not to mention the finance charges if you don't pay off every month. So, a card in and of itself may not be a good deal.
I've just earned a free ticket on US Airways with flights and purchases, so I will soon cancel their card after paying just one annual fee and no interest; now, I've switched to using Northwest Air's VISA plus switched my phone long-distance service to MCI which gets Northwest air miles.
On any of these programs, the challenge is to minimize fees so that the free ticket really will be worth $400-500 when you qualify. Diners Club lets you apply your miles earned to most airlines; but DC has only a few establishments which accept the card; Delta limits itself to an American Express Skymiles card; again, AMEX has limited merchants; so, a VISA airline card will usually build miles the fastest if you charge most everything to the card. You can also find another cheap line of credit to use for balance transfers if you need to pay some expenses over time. Just charge stuff on your airline card, which usually have 17%25 or more interest rates, then transfer any balance over to another card, etc. (I've used teaser rates from other cards at 5.9%25 for several years; just be sure to cancel each card that you don't want to use anymore). Good luck.

Stay away from Banc One Visa. They just "improved" their policy so that cardholders who pay off their balance each month now earn 1 mile for every 3 dollars spent. Needless to say I cancelled. If you carry a balance on your card you'd be better off going with a low rate, no fee card and purchasing your ticket outright. Do the math - pay a $55 a year fee and 17 - 22%25 interest. It's not a great bargain!!

I'm now using the Hilton Optima. It's no fee and the points accrue for Hilton stays and airline tickets. It's not as good as some cards but there's no cost to me as long as I keep my monthly charges paid in full. There is a downside -- it's an American Express so it's not as widely accepted as Visa. Also, I fly a lot so I get tickets through my frequent flyer programs.

I use the Citibank visa tied in with American Air. I concur that an airline that doesn't fly out of your airport might be less useful. I've checked, and I can't find an airline affinity card that does not have a fee. I pay $50 per year. I charge everything I can, so I hope to get a free flight every two-three years just on the card. One mile for each dollar. If it's less than that, get another affinity card. I also have a Pacific Bell visa, which gives 1%25 of the bill off your phone bill, which is real money. Don't get trapped by the lure of flights; look at the money it costs you. Remember to always pay your bill in full!

We had a USWEST VISA that gave cash back and miles for $40. There was no airline restriction and no black out days and lowest fare prices. The program stopped <BR>1/99. We want to find a new miles VISA card that is not connected to a specific airline. No penalty for paying off the balance each month.

With any credit card, when you get billed for your annual fee, call them up and tell them you would like to cancel. Most of them will send you to a "save" customer service rep. who will try to keep you as a cardholder. When you tell them the annual fee is making you leave, often they will waive the fee. If you are a good customer (lots of charges), they will try to keep you. Particularly if you don't pay your balances in full.