Question
Is there a better low annual fee credit card than the SPG AMEX???
Priority Club has a credit card that gives you 1 point/mile per dollar spend, which can be redeemed for ANY airline INCLUDING UNITED AND CONTINENTAL(my two most frequently used airlines). The annual fee for the credit card is $29.
Anything better out there???
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I *think* the priority club thing has some restrictions on expiry of points (2 years or so). United / Continental have shielded their programs pretty much (like from Membership rewards / SPG / Dinners club). Also Marriot visa ($30 fee) also allows you to transfer points to most airlines. Since the united /continental cards start at 60-90$ in think there are not many options out there.
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Priority Club has a credit card that gives you 1 point/mile per dollar spend, which can be redeemed for ANY airline INCLUDING UNITED AND CONTINENTAL(my two most frequently used airlines). The annual fee for the credit card is $29.
Not exactly. This card earns 1 Priority Club point per dollar. Priority Club points can be converted to airline miles on the basis 10000:2000. This means you would need to spend $10,000 to earn only 2,000 miles. (There is also an annual bonus, spend $15,000 earn 10,000 points, which can be converted to another 2,000 miles.)
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I know this may be heresy for this Flyertalk website, but I often wonder "Why bother!"
I carry two types of cards, a Chase United-MP Visa that costs $60/yr and a no-annual-fee MC that gives cash back, reliably 1% rebate. With the rebate money, I can go buy airplane tix WITHOUT worrying about limitations, being tied to one airline, blackouts, or peak travel times when they want 2x the miles for "Choice Awards" etc. After all, selling tix is what the airlines most wanna do, so they compete for that cash of mine. Giving out free seats is NOT what they want, so they grant them grudgingly, charge extra fees for not planning ahead, make us jump through all sorts of hoops, and continually devalue the value of the miles we earn. Although I have gotten some nice bonuses on my MP-Visa and some good free flights from United, I will have to struggle with the decision of whether to pay the $60 again this year. In so many ways, frequent flyer programs have been so degraded that it's possible to view them as little more than a scam.
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You can do a lot better than 1% back when using Citi TY points to get plane tickets. Lots of people have reported redemptions in the 2-3 cent per point range and you should earn at a minimum 2 pts per $ spent.
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OP: usually not. It is good to have the other cards because sometimes they offer double or even triple miles.
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Well Amex Rewards works for Continental I do believe. I don't fly it, so I have not checked lately.
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Well Amex Rewards works for Continental I do believe. I don't fly it, so I have not checked lately.
I think the exchange rate is what is the issue. Amex rewards to united and continental i think are 2:1, Amex rewards pretty much useful for DL/NW and couple of other foreign airlines
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I think the exchange rate is what is the issue. Amex rewards to united and continental i think are 2:1, Amex rewards pretty much useful for DL/NW and couple of other foreign airlines
Completely wrong. Amex has never had untied as member in membership rewards nor have they had AA. As far as continental the ratio is still 1:1.
Amex has Mexicana One World Partner so you can redem miles on them via membership for free awards travel. Only Down side is you can not get upgrades on partner airlines. Ie no BA or AA upgrades.
Amex has always had Air Canada a Star Alliance member so again you can redem free award tickets on any partner airline via Air Canada except again you can not redem upgrades. Ie UAL.
And If Amex has annouced they are raising the convertion from 1:1 into Continenal I still do not understand the problem as you can transfer into Delta, Korean Air or Alitalia who are all Sky Teams members and redem Co free awards tickets but again you can not redem miles for upgrades on partners.
But I guess in the past you could have been an idoit and transfer miles into starwood at a 3:1 then to UAL before they changed the transfer ratio. Or been smart and transfered to Air Canada and at a 1:1 ratio and redemed via them. Redeming a free ticket via Air Canada cost less miles than an upgrade via starwood because of the 3:1 loss getting thoses points into Starwood.
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international F tickets > cashback
people want to transfer miles into the programs they have status with.
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people want to transfer miles into the programs they have status with.
That makes no sense on free award ticket as it does not matter if you have status or not. You can not get upgraded on a free ticket to next class of service based on status.
I understand people like certain airlies more than others. But a free First Class ticket on UAL for LAX-CDG redemed via UAL program or Air Canada program is the same thing. You sit in the same seat no matter who FF program you used to redem the award. You get served the same meal and see the same movie and still get no miles or FF points for that flight.
Like I said only difference between redeming via a partner airline and directly with the airline you want to fly is you can get 1 class upgrade with miles at the time of booking. If you do get this upgrade having status is irelivent as all airlines do not allow already upgraded tickets to recieve next class of service upgrades. The only advantage would be the fact you would earn coach based miles for the trip and bonus based on your status for the trip while seating in the next class of service. And if your only miles were with a partner airline then an upgrade at the time of booking is just not possible at all.
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if you earn a hundred thousand miles a year on UA, it kind of makes sense to be earning UA miles via credit as well, instead of some other *A partner
also, basically only CX Diamond can redeem for CX F (although for CX, i presume you would be right, since you can earn miles with other programs while earning status on CX)
but with other carriers, status can get you things like one-way, discounts, better availability etc
SQ requires SQ miles for their new business/first classes
therefore it makes a whole lot of sense for some people
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I think the exchange rate is what is the issue. Amex rewards to united and continental i think are 2:1, Amex rewards pretty much useful for DL/NW and couple of other foreign airlines
:confused: Confusion began with this message. drbond was referring to American Express Membership Rewards. budugu replied but was referring to Starwood Preferred Guest which is not an American Express program but includes an American Express credit card. Then dolmar replied referring again to Membership Rewards.
CO and UA do participate in Starwood Preferred Guest, but on a half value 2:1 basis.
CO does participate in Membership Rewards on a full value 1:1 basis. UA does not participate.
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That makes no sense on free award ticket as it does not matter if you have status or not. You can not get upgraded on a free ticket to next class of service based on status.
It matters if you need to combine miles earned from flying with miles earned from spending to have enough to claim the award.
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It matters if you need to combine miles earned from flying with miles earned from spending to have enough to claim the award.
Your Right MIA if you are trying to combine flight miles with purchase miles then using a partner is pointless. But for people like me who earn hundreds of thousands of miles a year it really does not matter if I redeem via airline I want to fly or a partner. I normally earn less than 10K fight miles between multiple airlines combined a year as I only pay for short haul flight under 1 hour or tickets worth less than $500 per person as I fell my miles are worth more when redeeming for FC trans continental flights or FC international flights.
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...for people like me who earn hundreds of thousands of miles a year it really does not matter...
:rolleyes: Indeed, but I daresay most Flyertalk members do not have your income.
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So what did you decide?
Is there a better low annual fee credit card than the SPG AMEX???
Priority Club has a credit card that gives you 1 point/mile per dollar spend, which can be redeemed for ANY airline INCLUDING UNITED AND CONTINENTAL(my two most frequently used airlines). The annual fee for the credit card is $29.
Anything better out there???
Answer
dolmar, your situation is the opposite of many (if not most) FTers, so trying to generalize based on your situation is ridiculous.
i gave some clear examples of why status with the airline that you have miles with can, in some situations, be a VERY good thing.
personally, my situation is more like yours. i dont care about status, and like the mileage programs of CX,NH,AF.
for me >
AMEX has NH and AF
SPG has CX and SQ
unfortuntately neither has BD, which would be nice for one-way, but NH's total mileage awards aren't too bad of a substitute.
IMHO the domestic award programs just aren't that good, although the expiry policies seem to be better in general. UA and CO are the best in terms of partners. And AS having multiple alliance options is certainly interesting.
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There are several reasons to transfer to a FF program that you have status with:
1. You can combine FF miles with points from MR/Diners/Starwood/etc.
2. 50% of the time I buy my own ticket, upgrade it with an upgrade certificate/miles and use miles for the tickets of my companion(s). I only do this on my preferred airline.
3. You get points for booking your award ticket online with some carriers (e.g. DL gives 1,000 miles)
4. In the case of AA you get points credited toward lifetime status
etc.
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more good examples ^
although for #2, that's where the *A upgrade program is trying to increase alliance bookings
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So what did you decide?
Amtrak awards offers a 1:1 exchange with Continental. Their credit card was free of an annual fee until they got rid of it. I will wait and see what they come out with in April.
I have read on here that Marriott has a 1:1 exchange with airlines BUT according to this website its 5 Marriott points : 1 airline mile.
http://marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/moreairmi.mi#AirMileageRewards
Anyone have any insight into the 1:1 Marriott exchange with airlines???
I like the looks of the Hilton Rewards American express. It has no annual fee, easy FREE points(mypoints, E-rewards), although exchanging points for airlines miles is a losing proposition.
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Amtrak awards offers a 1:1 exchange with Continental. Their credit card was free of an annual fee until they got rid of it. I will wait and see what they come out with in April.
I have read on here that Marriott has a 1:1 exchange with airlines BUT according to this website its 5 Marriott points : 1 airline mile.
http://marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/moreairmi.mi#AirMileageRewards
Anyone have any insight into the 1:1 Marriott exchange with airlines???
I like the looks of the Hilton Rewards American express. It has no annual fee, easy FREE points(mypoints, E-rewards), although exchanging points for airlines miles is a losing proposition.
Marriott offers better transfer rates to the airline programts if you transfer more points.
If you want to you use you points for premium hotel stays, Hilton AMEX is an excellent rewards card. 5 pts per $ for restaurants is a great feature. Your reward rate will be effectively 4-5% per $ spent. The reward rate is less for the non-premium hotels.
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I have read on here that Marriott has a 1:1 exchange with airlines BUT according to this website its 5 Marriott points : 1 airline mile.
http://marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/moreairmi.mi#AirMileageRewards
Anyone have any insight into the 1:1 Marriott exchange with airlines???
Marriott 1:1 airline miles is based on redeeming a "Travel package". For example award 083 requires 235,000 points for 7 nights at a category 1-5 hotel plus 120,000 miles. 7 nights at a category 5 hotel is priced at 115,000 points and the incremental 120,000 points yield 120,000 miles. At one time it was possible to redeposit the hotel portion of the award to reclaim the 115,000 points. You would need to confirm that this is still permitted.
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comparison of starwood and marriott, earning miles with stays >
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7149987&postcount=42
later summary >
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7253507&postcount=108