Question
Hi -- I am not terribly knowledgable about frequent flyer cards, but here goes...I am trying to get to a million miles on American Airlines so I can have the permanent elite status (and hopefully transfer it to other airlines). I have a Citi AAdvantage card that I use for most of my purchases. However, I received an offer in the mail for the Capital One No Hassle Miles Ultra Card, and according to the offer, I get double miles on all purchases, and there are no blackout dates or seat restrictions. Also, there is no annual fee. Sounds pretty good! But what's the catch? I'm also considering getting the Starwood card since I can convert 20k into 25k...that sounds good too. (Is there a catch on that one?). I have the Delta Sky Miles Amex as well since I occasionally fly Delta and I get double miles for certain purchases (so I put those purchases, and only those, on my Delta card). What do you all suggest? Thank you for any assistance and opinions!!!
Peter
Answer
Well first off, I would say check and make sure the Capital One NO hassle Miles ultra card has no annual fee since their website shows a $39 annual fee. Maybe the annual fee is waived only for the 1st year. Secondly, the card offers double miles on all purchases, however, these miles cannot be transferred to American Airlines so that doesn't seem to help you reach your stated goal of getting 1,000,000 American miles. Thirdly, the card is meant for professionals who travel frequently for business. Thus capital one explicitly states in the terms and conditions I see online that "The No Hassle Miles Ultra MasterCard is intended to be used for business-to-business purchases only.". Lastly, the miles are not like your typical airline miles where you can redeem 25,000 miles for a ticket w/i the continental US but rather have no blackout date and no restrictions but it takes 125 miles to get $1 off of a ticket. For instance if you bought a ticket for $100 it would take 12,500 Capital one Ultra miles ($6250 in spend). If you got a $400 ticket it would take 50,000 Capital one Ultra Miles ($25,000 spend). You can redeem for any dollar amount off the airline ticket but each dollar requries 125 ultramiles. So it is comparable to the airlines credit card with no blackout dates but you must remember that only the dollars you spend on the card count toward the miles. Also, the miles will expire 5 years from the quarter in which they were earned (unlike regular frequent flier miles which don't expire). Also, Capital one is known to give pathetically low credit lines, terrible interest rates, and not report your credit limit to the credit bureaus. Also, they are often extremely stingy with credit line increases if you are even able to get one from them. Additionally, they have changed their airline rewards cards so frequently that I can't even keep track of the redemption levels for the rewards, the names of the cards etc. Also, I would check and make sure in your terms and conditions that it does say 125 miles for each dollar redeemed toward an airline ticket because in their previous program depending on who you were the solicitation had varying number of miles per dollar from 70 to 90 which makes a big difference in the redemption value.
Hope this helps.
JC
S
Answer
No, no no no no. Capital One is the worst mileage card out there. It takes about $10-20,000 in extra spending to earn the same reward you can earn elsewhere. I don't know much about the ultra card, but in my 5 years of dealing with them, they are constantly trying to downgrade the program and devalue your miles. The most recent comes tomorrow (nov. 1)
If you are looking for a miles card with no annual fee without the blackout dates I would look into Citi Simplicity with Thank You Rewards. It gives you an awesome 10,000 bonus miles for signing up, the usual free ticket with 25,000 spent plus the flexibility of using your miles for other things. Also the Citi Premier Pass is great. If you get the one with the annual fee, you can earn miles for both your purchases AND your miles flown in addition to what you earn on your airline frequent flier card. That is even better than the Citi Simplicity despite the annual fee if you travel a bunch. Also, Discover, Chase, and US Bank have mileage cards worth looking into.
The moral of the story... there is always a better option than Capital One.
Answer
Why would anyone get a Capital One card?
I agree that there are many other cards superior to Cap One.
Please read Gary Leff's blog on best mileage earning cards: http://blogs.flyertalk.com//blogs/viewwing/archives/2005/10/repost_how_to_c.html#more
Answer
One catch with Capital One's program is that you can't use points to buy part of a ticket (for example if the ticket costs $600, and you only have enough points to pay for $550, you're out of luck - they won't buy the ticket for you and allow you to pay the remaining $50 in cash). Other rewards programs do allow you to pay the excess in cash.
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Also, in my experience, Capital One's customer service is highly unresponsive.
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I suggest checking out Zion's Bank and Wells Fargo - both offer programs with points valued at about 2 cents each (example - 25,000 points for domestic RT up to $500; if ticket costs more than that you can pay the difference in cash). Both have various restrictions, but may be a good complement to regular FF miles.