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Best Airline Rewards Credit Cards

dartsndeacs said:
Any of you folks have big status with American, if so, how often do you get free first class and shit?

Currently on my way of cheesing status by signing up for Blue Apron and wine clubs and shit on the shopping portal. Between that, an AA credit card for misc purchases & the dining program I should be able to get to Platinum Pro without actually flying all that much.
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Screamindemon3 said:
My best friend does and it was super convenient for our travel this summer to Mexico. He has Plat Pro with American. Everyone on the itinerary got 3 free checked bags which was good as gold traveling with kids. On the flight back, him and his wife got upgraded to FC, but we had to stay behind in economy. He did get us all extra legroom which was nice with the toddler traveling for the first time.

Hilarious timing, I logged into my American account this morning to see what I would have to do to get Plat Pro status. Please share you tips for accelerating the process without flying.
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i am now Exec Plat with AA and I'm getting a lot of upgrades (70% of my flights) out of CLT. The Citi card is great - love the lounge access and i just put everything on it. I hit EP in July and have been loading up on Marriott points since then with my Amex.

Note: Plat Pro is a substantial drop off in upgrade experience....you might get 25-30% upgrades. But the MCE/prem economy is nice.
 
DeacDiggler said:
i am now Exec Plat with AA and I'm getting a lot of upgrades (70% of my flights) out of CLT. The Citi card is great - love the lounge access and i just put everything on it. I hit EP in July and have been loading up on Marriott points since then with my Amex.

Note: Plat Pro is a substantial drop off in upgrade experience....you might get 25-30% upgrades. But the MCE/prem economy is nice.
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From my research, Marriott points are worth about .8 cents each. Whereas Hyatt points are worth almost 3 times that. Like a nice Marriott hotel is going to set you back 75k points easy, but a nice Hyatt will only cost you 25,000 points.

So you would be much better off switching to a Chase card and transferring those points to a Hyatt than loading up on Marriott points through AMEX credit card spending. Heck the new BILT card which is through Wells Fargo has both Hyatt and AA as a transfer partner (almost nothing else has AA as a transfer partner) and is 3x at restaurants, so just maximum flexibility. Marriott has a bigger footprint than Hyatt, but you'll be better off just buying the Marriott hotels in cash through Chase Travel portal (and getting 10x points or roughly 24% back when applied to future Hyatt stays).

Hyatt and AA are also partners. Status at one gets you status at the other. You just need to link the accounts, and then every dollar you spend with AA gets you a Hyatt point as well and vice versa. Adds up fast.

I spent a lot of time looking at Marriott and trying for status there, but there was no great way to apply everyday spending towards hotels with the Marriott program.
 
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at this point i'm almost lifetime platinum with marriott so kind of committed, but that is really solid analysis.
 
DeacDiggler said:
at this point i'm almost lifetime platinum with marriott so kind of committed, but that is really solid analysis.
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A couple questions for ya then: how many nights a year do ya stay at a Marriott , and which , if any , Marriott credit cards do you have ? And which Amex card are you using for every day spending ?
 
vtwhat etc said:
I've probably already bragged about the experience... but, I was flying out of Seattle for a red-eye & realized that I had access to Alaska's lounges for 24 hours preceding my flight.

So, I showed up ~8 hours early.

I guess it all depends on carriers and locations, but jfc.... that experience was better than any cruise/vacation I've been on lately.

... I just rode the trams around the airport & got absolutely obliterated while crushing the buffets.

I keep an eye on 2k+ mi. flights with cheap F.C. upgrades now. I'm going to take my wife on a vacation to nowhere one of these days.
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Can confirm the Alaska lounges are top notch
 
WindyCityDeac said:
I'm trying to decide which will be my go to airline for 2024. United probably has the best routes for work... Other than Southwest..which i just don't want to do anymore
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TPA is your home airport, right?

Delta is a no-brainer unless you live close to an AA hub (MIA/CLT/DFW/etc.) which pains me to say because AA sucks.
 
Colonel Angus said:
TPA is your home airport, right?

Delta is a no-brainer unless you live close to an AA hub (MIA/CLT/DFW/etc.) which pains me to say because AA sucks.
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yeah... but my work will tend to take me to DC, NY/NJ, NC and Denver
TPA to Denver is Definitely a United trip. The rest of the East Coast is split between,,, United, AA and Delta. irritating
 
dartsndeacs said:
A couple questions for ya then: how many nights a year do ya stay at a Marriott , and which , if any , Marriott credit cards do you have ? And which Amex card are you using for every day spending ?
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15 nights/year now; used to be 30-50

Marriott Amex and AA Citi for everyday spending
 
Thinking about applying for the Venture X for the joint account we just opened - doesn't make sense to pay via a debit card for that account either

Anyone use the VX?
 
yeah I've got one. It's great. Probably the best card on the market for non-bonus spending. (i.e. you can do better with other cards on things like restaurants).

Just need to remember to use the $300 credit booking travel through the portal every year and the annual fee pays for itself along with the 10,000 miles you get each year. Free Presidents Circle at Hertz has been useful
 
Kory said:
Thinking about applying for the Venture X for the joint account we just opened - doesn't make sense to pay via a debit card for that account either

Anyone use the VX?
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I like my VX a lot. Nice to have a lounge in my home airport. Priority Pass access came in handy while traveling abroad this summer and dealing with a long lay over. I'm probably not maximizing the benefits of the card, but I am planning to keep it for the foreseeable future.
 
Anyone have tips for searching for and booking award travel? I haven't really figured out the best way to look for flights across multiple airlines so right now I'm grinding through individual searches across multiple rewards programs. FWIW, will be combining AMEX and Cap1 points so trying to target the carriers there where there is overlap (i.e., Virgin, KLM/AF, British Airways, AirCanada).
 
leftcoastdeac said:
Anyone have tips for searching for and booking award travel? I haven't really figured out the best way to look for flights across multiple airlines so right now I'm grinding through individual searches across multiple rewards programs. FWIW, will be combining AMEX and Cap1 points so trying to target the carriers there where there is overlap (i.e., Virgin, KLM/AF, British Airways, AirCanada).
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One of the paid for services like point.me or expert flyer are the quickest ways


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
dartsndeacs said:
From my research, Marriott points are worth about .8 cents each. Whereas Hyatt points are worth almost 3 times that. Like a nice Marriott hotel is going to set you back 75k points easy, but a nice Hyatt will only cost you 25,000 points.

So you would be much better off switching to a Chase card and transferring those points to a Hyatt than loading up on Marriott points through AMEX credit card spending. Heck the new BILT card which is through Wells Fargo has both Hyatt and AA as a transfer partner (almost nothing else has AA as a transfer partner) and is 3x at restaurants, so just maximum flexibility. Marriott has a bigger footprint than Hyatt, but you'll be better off just buying the Marriott hotels in cash through Chase Travel portal (and getting 10x points or roughly 24% back when applied to future Hyatt stays).

Hyatt and AA are also partners. Status at one gets you status at the other. You just need to link the accounts, and then every dollar you spend with AA gets you a Hyatt point as well and vice versa. Adds up fast.

I spent a lot of time looking at Marriott and trying for status there, but there was no great way to apply everyday spending towards hotels with the Marriott program.
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You are missing half the equation here though... earn rates. Yes, for every day spend, the higher earn rate on Marriott cards (2-4x vs 1-2x depending on card and category) is not enough to overcome the lower value of an individual point - assuming Hyatt has properties that you would want to redeem at.

But, for the high frequency member, the math looks a lot different on the stays themselves. Marriott you earn 10 pts per dollar vs 5 for the base program. And the max elite bonus is 75% vs 30%. Run that math through, and the gap is 14 cents earned per dollar for Marriott vs 14.95 for Hyatt. The vastly superior Marriott network is certainly worth that hit for most. Now that assumes you are not using a branded credit card (very often the case for corporate travelers).

Math changes if you are able to use a branded card for hotel stays, Marriott cards generally return 6x per dollar vs 4x for Hyatt. That gets you to a total of 18.8 cents per dollar for Marriott vs 24.15 centers per dollar for Hyatt. Certainly a significant gap but not almost 3x.

TLDR - Hyatt has better cards and base program, Marriott has a better elite program. Based on the weighting of those things for an individual context (and willingness to split loyalty / points), different people might get to different outcomes that are still reasonable. It is not necessarily a no-brainer.
 
leftcoastdeac said:
Anyone have tips for searching for and booking award travel? I haven't really figured out the best way to look for flights across multiple airlines so right now I'm grinding through individual searches across multiple rewards programs. FWIW, will be combining AMEX and Cap1 points so trying to target the carriers there where there is overlap (i.e., Virgin, KLM/AF, British Airways, AirCanada).
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part of the reason I've more or less gone all-in on Chase is because that's where I started and it's just easiest to keep consolidating/using points through one platform

exceptions being cards directly with the airline (SWA, AA)
 
After all that Hyatt vs Marriott math I Ed your neglected to include the delta.
 
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