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Best Airline Rewards Credit Cards

What are you guys trying to use the miles on? I had no problem using mine to book a flight to Vermont a couple weeks ago.
 
What are you guys trying to use the miles on? I had no problem using mine to book a flight to Vermont a couple weeks ago.

I signed up for the card because I thought I could use the bonus points on THAT flight. Nope.
I wanted to just apply the points to my card payment like I can with the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Nope.
I wanted to use the points to bring the cost of this most recent flight purchase down to $250 (because the companion ticket requires the purchase of an at-least $250 ticket)... nope.

I read all the most readily-available fine print when I signed up for the card, and I read the companion certificate rules like 80000 times before using it - no mention of these issues. I guess I'm not SUPER surprised and I do still have plenty of miles to use for a couple other flights I need to take, but I'm so used to the easy ability to use points however with the Chase card that this seems inordinately difficult.
 
I signed up for the card because I thought I could use the bonus points on THAT flight. Nope.
I wanted to just apply the points to my card payment like I can with the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Nope.
I wanted to use the points to bring the cost of this most recent flight purchase down to $250 (because the companion ticket requires the purchase of an at-least $250 ticket)... nope.

I read all the most readily-available fine print when I signed up for the card, and I read the companion certificate rules like 80000 times before using it - no mention of these issues. I guess I'm not SUPER surprised and I do still have plenty of miles to use for a couple other flights I need to take, but I'm so used to the easy ability to use points however with the Chase card that this seems inordinately difficult.

So with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can buy a ticket and then apply your accumulated points to the cost of that ticket? That sounds awesome. I just got the card a couple of months ago, but I haven't redeemed anything yet.
 
So with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can buy a ticket and then apply your accumulated points to the cost of that ticket? That sounds awesome. I just got the card a couple of months ago, but I haven't redeemed anything yet.

For Chase you can use the points just as cash and apply as a statement credit towards any purchase. With the Chase Sapphire card, the supposed best use of the points is transferring the points to one of its partners at a particular time when they have a special, like there will be times that you can use the CSP points to transfer to say Hilton Honors at a time when Hilton is running some promotion, so you would get like $1,500-$2,000 worth of value on what would just be about $500 worth of points as a statement credit. Practically, most people are probably too lazy or would find it too time consuming to take advantage of this.

For the Barclay's card, the best use of the point is redeeming them as you quoted above as a credit on any travel.
 
For Chase you can use the points just as cash and apply as a statement credit towards any purchase. With the Chase Sapphire card, the supposed best use of the points is transferring the points to one of its partners at a particular time when they have a special, like there will be times that you can use the CSP points to transfer to say Hilton Honors at a time when Hilton is running some promotion, so you would get like $1,500-$2,000 worth of value on what would just be about $500 worth of points as a statement credit. Practically, most people are probably too lazy or would find it too time consuming to take advantage of this.

For the Barclay's card, the best use of the point is redeeming them as you quoted above as a credit on any travel.

Yeah - using the Chase card like that makes it the most valuable rewards program out there from what I've read. But if you're not going to put in the effort to move your points around, the Barclay card is slightly better.
 
Good info here everyone, appreciate everyones input. How many different credit cards does everyone have? I've got two and was trying to figure out if I should add one of the good ones you all have suggested.
 
I mean between Chase sapphire and the Barclay's MasterCard its like a free $1,000. I have 5.
 
I have 4 (REI visa, chase sapphire preferred, BOA standard credit card, us airways mastercard).

I haven't used the BOA card in years but it's my oldest credit account.
I only use the REI card in REI (where it gives 15% cash back - standard member dividend of 10% on eligible purchases, plus additional 5% on every purchase regardless of dividend eligibility)
I only use the US Airways for flights.
I use CSP for everything else.
 
I mean between Chase sapphire and the Barclay's MasterCard its like a free $1,000. I have 5.

Good deal. I think I'm going to pick up the Barclays MasterCard. Seem like it fits perfect for what I'm looking for.
 
i think i've earned 3 flights with my cap1 venture card in the year+ i've had it. so monte.
 
I think I'm finally going to pull the trigger on applying for a credit card that will earn me money or whatever other benefits there are. I haven't paid interest on a credit card in several years and refuse to do so, so I don't think I would get into any kind of trouble by having a card that offers rewards . The card that I have now is just a basic credit card that I hardly ever use, and I always pay the balance off in full if I charge something, and it doesn't offer any benefits that I'm aware of.

Right now the new Citi card looks the most appealing, it sounds simple enough and I didnt' want to stress out over annual fees, blackout dates, etc and I don't really travel all that often. 2% cash back with no strings sounds like a great concept and I could rack up lots of extra money by paying stuff like my mortgage, car payments, etc with it and then just paying it off right away, instead of paying those through my checking accounts.

Any thoughts or drawbacks that I'm missing?
 
You put your mortgage on a credit card? What lender lets you do that? Sign me up!
 
I have no idea how that works...Can you not pay your mortage, car, student loan, etc payments using a credit card instead of having it drafted from your checking account?
 
I have no idea how that works...Can you not pay your mortage, car, student loan, etc payments using a credit card instead of having it drafted from your checking account?

Mortgage, almost assuredly no. Car, depends on the lender - I think Infiniti let you make lease payments with a credit card, but only something weird, like Discover. Student loans, depends on the lender, but to my knowledge, most don't allow for credit card payments.
 
Thanks. I rarely use my credit card so I had no idea if you could charge stuff like that. I still might look into it though since I could probably charge a lot of stuff to it that I would normally use my debit card for.
 
If you have the capability (and restraint) to just leave your card on auto-pay in full every month, it's free money. Put everything you can on the card, switch it up every couple of years for the sign up bonuses. It adds up faster than you'd think, especially at 2%.
 
Given that there are merchant fees of 1-3% for credit card transactions, it would really kill banks, etc if they allowed customers to make payments with their cards.
 
we can charge our rent to a credit card... for an additional $75/mo.

lol
 
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