Question
Does anyone have suggestions for the best card to initially sign up for. I will be flying to India this febuary and then london in july for economics research and want to get my fair share of miles. I was currently considering the Discover Flight Card or the ML + card. Basically my priorities are flight upgrades and airport lounge access. While I wont be earning any free tickets getting an upgrade or two would be nice. If you have suggestions or advice let me know.
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It would be helpful if you mention the airline(s) you will fly to India and London.
Upgrades on international flights typically require redeeming miles issued by the airline operating the flight. This means you need a card which earns points that can be converted to miles in the appropriate airline flrequent flyer program, not "generic" miles that can be redeemed only for an award ticket. The upgrade rules vary more between carriers than do the rules for award tickets, but one class international roundtrip upgrades typically require 25,000 to 60,000 miles and may also require purchase of a specific fare class or a "co-payment".
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For the airlines I plan on flying Virgin and Delta. Ironically when I looked at the Delta Amex card it didnt offer admission into its crown room. From what I understand however all amex cards are perfect for overseas because they have no currency conversion charge.
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<<all amex cards are perfect for overseas because they have no currency conversion charge>>
American Express cards issued in the USA charge 2% foreign currency fee. You will find several existing message threads on this topic, including this one with 900+ messages...
http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=401958
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The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card (issued by American Express) earns points which can be converted to Delta Skymiles and Virgin Flying Club Miles, as well as to many other airline programs. The annual fee is waived for the first year, and is only $30 thereafter. It is not necessary to stay at Starwood hotels (e.g, Westin, Sheraton) to participate in the program. Generally 1000 Starpoints will convert to 1000 airline miles, but if you accumulate and transfer in blocks of 20000 points you would receive 25000 miles, a 25% bonus.
Other possibilities...
American Express Membership Rewards points can be converted both to Delta SkyMiles and to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles. Membership Rewards points are earned with American Express charge cards (Preferred Rewards Green, Preferred Rewards Gold, and Platinum). Charge cards require full payment of the entire balance each billing cycle. Note that some American Express credit cards (Blue, Knot, Nest) participate in a program called Membership Rewards Options, but these points can no longer be converted to airline miles.
Diners Club Mastercard, issued by Citibank, earns points which can be converted both to Delta Skymiles and to Virgin Flying Club Miles and to a couple dozen other airlines. The annual fee ($95) is higher than the Starwood card, but because it is a Mastercard it is more widely accepted. Note that Diners Club is still a charge card which requires payment in full each cycle. Diners does have a network of lounges, but only two of these are in the USA at Newark and Miami.
Lounge access...
The American Express Platinum Card includes lounge access when flying Continental, Delta or Northwest Airlines only at the club operated by the same airline operating the flight. Note that lounge access is a feature only of the $395 annual fee Platinum charge card, not any other platinum colored card such as the Platinum Delta Skymiles credit card.
dennis
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Delta upgrade awards are described here:
http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use_miles/award_upgrade_mileage/delta_upgrade_awards/index.jsp
Note that the mileage amounts listed are one-way. Note also that upgrades are offered only from "full" and "select" fares.
Virgin Atlantic upgrade awards are described here:
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/us/frequentflyer/spendmiles/companionsandupgrades.jsp
Note that the mileage amounts listed are roundtrip. Qualifying booking codes are buried here:
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/us/frequentflyer/tsandcs/spendingmiles.jsp
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Does anyone have suggestions for the best card to initially sign up for. I will be flying to India this febuary and then london in july for economics research and want to get my fair share of miles. I was currently considering the Discover Flight Card or the ML + card. Basically my priorities are flight upgrades and airport lounge access. While I wont be earning any free tickets getting an upgrade or two would be nice. If you have suggestions or advice let me know.
You can forget the Discover card, it is not accepted overseas.
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Does anyone have suggestions for the best card to initially sign up for. I will be flying to India this febuary and then london in july for economics research and want to get my fair share of miles. I was currently considering the Discover Flight Card or the ML + card. Basically my priorities are flight upgrades and airport lounge access. While I wont be earning any free tickets getting an upgrade or two would be nice. If you have suggestions or advice let me know.
Unless you are planning on spending $50,000.00 rather soon the ML+ will not be too helpful to you either.
For flight upgrades you will need status or money. Status on DL and Virgin come with flight time.
For airport lounge access you could simply purchase a membership at $400.00 or do the one pass fee at $23.00 per visit. The AX Plat will allow you DL/CO/NW clubs when you are flying on the respective airlines ticket. You could also purchase Priority Pass for $99.00 per year or one of the higher levels and get lounge access in most airports regardless of the airline ticket you are on. There are other cards that will get you access but you will need to make a large investment in a brokerage account or pay a hefty fee after qualifying.
You have stated that you will not be getting any free tickets, that is 25k and in order to get any upgrades you will have had to fly at least 25k. So I am afraid that upgrades are out of the question for you.
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So now what might work for you that is available now:
AX Plat at $395.00 per year
AX DL SM Gold at $75.00 per year
DC at $95.00 per year (it is a MC and there is a credit version)
Carte Blanche also has Priority Pass at $350.00 per year
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<<DC at $95.00 per year (it is a MC and there is a credit version)>>
It's still unclear on dinersclubus.com whether Citi is actually accepting applications for the credit card version. The "Apply for a personal card" link lists only the charge cards.
<<Carte Blanche also has Priority Pass at $350.00 per year>>
To my knowledge Carte Blanche uses the same lounge network as Diners Club, not Priority Pass. Do you know otherwise?
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You can request the conversion of your card to charge. Some are accepted some are not.
I was told by a citi exec that they sub the lounge access to PP just like they sub the travel and everything else almost.
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told by a citi exec that they sub the lounge access to PP
Priority Pass may well handle the billing, but the lounge network is not the same...
http://www.dinersclub.com/en/DCIHome/airport.jhtml
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Priority Pass may well handle the billing, but the lounge network is not the same...
http://www.dinersclub.com/en/DCIHome/airport.jhtml
Your correct the network is modified a bit.
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For the airlines I plan on flying Virgin and Delta. Ironically when I looked at the Delta Amex card it didnt offer admission into its crown room.charge.
IIRC, only AMEX business plentium card offer acess to crown room.
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IIRC, only AMEX business plentium card offer acess to crown room.
First it is an AX Platinum Business card and both the personal and business cards offer crown room access.
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Thanks Guys,
I ended up taking the discover card offer. I didnt have the credit score for the Starwood or any Amex card.
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I'm sorry you made that choice as the card will not do you any good out of the USA and basically the NA area. No Europe charges for you, or India. Miles will not earn or trade very favorably either.
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Its pretty tough to get a good cc with a beginning credit score. I figure with discover I can just use the cashback to buy a ticket. Also I got a deny on the city pp card but figure that in 5 months of good standing with discover they might accept me if i reapply for credit.
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Citi and Amex (and presumably others) offer cards targeted towards college kids. I think you need a pulse to qualify for those. Go to Citicards.com and click on College Student Cards for example. The mtvU card is pretty decent. They offer an AA card (only 1 mile for every $2, no annual fee), Dividend Platinum Select, etc. Will help you a lot more than Discover. Once you've had a card for a few months, you can try applying for the various airline cards with big sign-up bonuses. Those tend to have relatively lax acceptance criteria.
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This card would be easy for you to get from Amex:
https://www201.americanexpress.com/cards/Applyfservlet?csi=14/20/b/10/1773964701/177224224449/0/n&from=0&us_nu=dd&mgmID=undefined
This citi card is also designed for college students or those with limited credit:
https://www.accountonline.com/ACQ/Apply?m=5CSR000000W&app=COLLEGE&sc=4CTCW276&langId=en&siteId=CB&BUS_TYP_CD=CONSUMER&B=M&ptc=MC&pid=272&ProspectID=158FABDF8D864FE9B69BBF112C24592C
Apply for the AX first and then after approval or 5 business days apply for the other one.
The Discover card is not looked upon favorably and will not help you as much.
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A ticket to India will normally cost over $1200. That would be $120,000 spend on your Discover Card. Not all cards and points are created equal!
If you sign up for one of the Citibank Thank You Points card, you can cash in $60,000 points - ie $60,000 spent (or much less - see below) - for a ticket to India...regardless of ticket price for your needed dates.
Not only so, but there are lots of ways of multiplying your Thank-You points. For example, the Diamond version earns 5 points/$ spent on gas/groceries/drugstore purchases. You can also earn bonus Thank You points from hundreds of online merchants, from Expedia.com, and from flying (with the PremierPass Card). If you sign up for the card when they are offering 10,000 sign up bonuses again (they have been going back and forth) earning 60,000 Thank You Points could look something like this:
1) 10,000 Points - Sign up for first card
2) 25,000 Points - Spend between self/family $5000 on groceries/gas/drugstore purchases
3) 10,000 Points - Sign up for second Citibank Card
4) 15,000 Points - Student bills of $15,000 charged to card
Net result: You spent $20,000 on Citicards and earned 60,000 Thank You Points for a free (often prices as $1500-$2000) ticket to India.
Earning 120,000 Discover Points is much much harder and would only cover your ticket to India if you need cheap dates - for a $1200 ticket.
Citi does issue these cards to students. My brother just applied for and was approved for the Diamond Card - as a student with a beginning credit history.
The best Thank You Points card for the infrequent traveller is the CitiBank ATT Universal Card (http://www.universalcard.com/). It offers 5X in the same categories at the Citibank Diamond Card (https://www.accountonline.com/ACQ/Chooser/LearnMore?siteId=CB&CARD_KEYS=4D3Z58K6-M)- but with the Diamond Card the 5X is only for the first 12 months. The Diamond Card is however easier to get approved for than the ATT version based on the experience of 3 people I know who applied for both and were atleast initially rejected for the ATT but approved for the Diamond.
Once you have a credit history with Citibank you should apply for the Premier Pass Card if you fly much. This way you can match all the poins you earn from spending when you fly the tickets you would normally fly already. Say you spend $6K a year on gas/groceries/drugstore purchases on the ATT card. That is 30K points/year. Then spend only another $15K a year on everything else on the Premier Pass Card and fly one ticket to Asia a year. That ticket to Asia would earn you another 15K points = 30K points. Total: 60K points year without any signup bonuses. I recomend doing some churning (closing a couple accounts a year and applying for a couple similar new ones) for the sign-up bonuses. All in, fly for free without being able to spend hundreds of thousands a year.
Never mind the fact Citibank would issue your card as a Visa or MasterCard meaning it would actually work in other countries. Your Discover card will be Useless.
There is a reason I like Thank You Points and am currently offering the house for them on coupon connection. (http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=623072) They can be used without problem for expensive tickets - it is easy to get 2 cents/points or far more if you need expensive tickets.
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Note that the AT&T Universal Rewards seems to have stopped giving the 5x on groceries/gas for new accounts. 5% seems to be dying out with Citi. Dividend Platinum cut back to 2% on bonus categories, Diamond Preferred is 5x only for the first year. Driver's Edge is still a good choice (not the student version though). 6% for the first year on bonus categories, 3% thereafter. Plus I think those can be matched with driving miles. And the Driver's Edge points can be converted to TY points (not sure about the driving points).
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Thanks Guys,
In 3 more days I will apply for the City PP card. Does anyone know if you can transfer pp points between citi cards. IE if I open the elite card with 15k bonus if I can open another one with 5k bonus a few months later?
Also I was wondering how so many of you get gold status at hotels, is it through cc offers or just staying alot?
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You are unlikely to get approved for the Premier Pass card with beginning credit - and if memory serves right - they do require a minimum income.
Give the Diamond card a try. I think you are likely to get approved to that one - and it gives the bonus for gas/groceries/drugstore purchases.
All Thank You points can be combined into a single account. That should have been clear from my post above.
Wow - I hadn't see the ATT card change - I am sure glad I now have 3 accounts with them! I thought this would go away for new account but just wasn't sure when.
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Thanks Guys,
In 3 more days I will apply for the City PP card. Does anyone know if you can transfer pp points between citi cards. IE if I open the elite card with 15k bonus if I can open another one with 5k bonus a few months later?
Also I was wondering how so many of you get gold status at hotels, is it through cc offers or just staying alot?
Each card earns points which are transferred to a Thank You account. Have Citibank link them to the same ThankYou account. You should check mtvU. As a student, I would have earned more with mtvU than PP.
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Thanks Guys,
In 3 more days I will apply for the City PP card. Does anyone know if you can transfer pp points between citi cards. IE if I open the elite card with 15k bonus if I can open another one with 5k bonus a few months later?
Also I was wondering how so many of you get gold status at hotels, is it through cc offers or just staying alot?
Don't waste your credit applying for the PP, approval is slim unless you have a 35k income or extensive history. I posted two links for you and the amex will actually help you travelling on DL.
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Hotel status is earned by staying in a hotel the required nights or having extremely good credit and large spending so that you can get a card with a high annual fee that will allow you the benefits without the stay.
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You are unlikely to get approved for the Premier Pass card with beginning credit - and if memory serves right - they do require a minimum income.
They do have a minimum income, but this can always be gotten around by a creative definition of household income. Or by realizing that they will never try to verify it unless their credit exposure to you starts to get extreme. Not that I would actually advocate such behavior. Ahem.
Otherwise historically people on creditboards.com have reported the PP card as actually one of the easiest Citi cards to get. This may have just been in the early stages when they were trying to get people to sign up for it. There is an extra benefit for Citi in that MC World cards have higher interchange fees than regular platinum MCs.
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They do have a minimum income, but this can always be gotten around by a creative definition of household income. Or by realizing that they will never try to verify it unless their credit exposure to you starts to get extreme. Not that I would actually advocate such behavior. Ahem.
Otherwise historically people on creditboards.com have reported the PP card as actually one of the easiest Citi cards to get. This may have just been in the early stages when they were trying to get people to sign up for it. There is an extra benefit for Citi in that MC World cards have higher interchange fees than regular platinum MCs.
You are advocating bank fraud and that is a Felony.
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You are advocating bank fraud and that is a Felony.
I would not recommend PP to someone with limited credit history. They do not report the credit limit or high credit. This causes a negative impact on credit scores.
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That is a very good point, maybe we should make a list of the cards that do not post limits or high credit.
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You are advocating bank fraud and that is a Felony.
:rolleyes: Please show me a relevant statute that says this is a felony. Fraud is typically a civil matter and requires the aggrieved party to show they were materially damaged by the adverse actions. If you intend to uphold the contract and pay your card on time and all of that, the bank has suffered no damages. And certainly not anything rising to a felony level. Maybe you should check your facts before you start falsely accusing other people of advocating felonies. (and I'm sure you've never exaggerated anything in your life, right?)
But yes, awake_at_midnight's point about not reporting limits is a good one. See this thread at FatWallet for a list:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=52&threadid=644364
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:rolleyes: Please show me a relevant statute that says this is a felony. Fraud is typically a civil matter and requires the aggrieved party to show they were materially damaged by the adverse actions. If you intend to uphold the contract and pay your card on time and all of that, the bank has suffered no damages. And certainly not anything rising to a felony level. Maybe you should check your facts before you start falsely accusing other people of advocating felonies. (and I'm sure you've never exaggerated anything in your life, right?)
But yes, awake_at_midnight's point about not reporting limits is a good one. See this thread at FatWallet for a list:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=52&threadid=644364
I'm sorry but apparently you went to sleep in your law class, I did not and regularly put people in jail for this felony.
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 63 > § 1344. Bank fraud 2004-08-06
Punishment $1,000,000.00 or 30 years or both.
Please don't throw stones at me, I am willing to help anyone that needs it.