Wait, what happened to your Lending Club thing?
We got a US Airways card recently for the sign-up bonus. We're finding it challenging to redeem those miles because unlike CSP, you need enough existing points to purchase the ticket - no partial purchases allowed. There are so many blackouts and awful point redemption rates, too.
So you're left with buying a ticket ridiculously far in advance, buying points on their site, or using the credit card to accrue more points (we had no intentions of doing the latter) so that you can use those sign-up miles.
Like HTTD is finding, airline cards are usually not worth it unless you are earning a lot of miles other ways (flying or high spend) and/or you are an elite who gets better flight availability.
The cards with either straight cash back or travel purchase reimbursement are usually a better deal for the casual flyer.
Like HTTD is finding, airline cards are usually not worth it unless you are earning a lot of miles other ways (flying or high spend) and/or you are an elite who gets better flight availability.
The cards with either straight cash back or travel purchase reimbursement are usually a better deal for the casual flyer.
It also depends where you're flying. 60,000 air miles with Star Alliance will buy you a r/t flight to South America from the US. If you're flying to Colombia, that's a $300-500 value. If you're flying to Chile/Argentina/Brazil, that's $1,000+ value. That same 60,000 miles on a Capital One card is worth $600.
But don't forget you're often earning up to 2 miles per dollar on Capital One spend, while you're only getting 1 mile per dollar on an airline card.
The vendor promotion stuff is exhausting to follow. I've cooled a lot on my Sapphire after the monster bonus and you get 3x bonus pts the first Friday on restaurants so that's cool I suppose but I use it for only restaurants now. I'm pumped about my Citi Hilton HHonors...free wknd at any Hilton resort let's go!
Can you elaborate? And yes, it appears the CSP is mainly about the bonus, after that, there are better options. Right now I'm rocking 4:
1) CSP - 40,000 bonus, 2% on restaurants, 25% redemption bonus, 7% dividend. Probably cancel before a year is up.
2) Barclays MasterCard, 2% on everything, 10% redemption bonus, 40,000 points at signup
3) Amex Blue Cash - 6% on groceries 3% on gas.
4) Rotating 5% categories cards
You also get 10HH pts for every dollar at a Hilton hotel, 5HH pts for every dollar on flights and rental cars, and 3HH pts for everything else. 10HH pts is 5% etc.
Google "Citi HHonors Reserve $100 statement credit" and call customer service about a promo for $100 if you spend $100 at a Hilton hotel. Should work, just be polite.
There is an AMEX version as well (free and fee versions) but it gives you a bonus of a shitton of HHonor pts. I preferred the 2 night promo w/ Citi.
Im really happy with my Amex Gold Delta Skymiles card. Got a 50,000 mile bonus by spending over 2K on it in the first 3 months and then get a mile per dollar on every other dollar I spend on it. I usually have around $1500-$2500 in company expenses a month that I get repaid for so it's been great. I've built up a little over 80,000 frequent flyer miles so far and based on the Delta info a "standard" ticket round trip to the continental US is 20,000 points so i've basically built up 4 free flights in a little over a year. Plus I get a free bag and a few other perks with Delta. Been really happy with the service so far as well.
Whats a HH worth? I don't get the bolded statement.
Just seems to me based on this thread and a google search you can do better than 1 point per dollar, especially given you're getting like a free $25k spend per year on your card. Probably worth $250-300/year in points alone on another card. The sign on bonus is nice though, but after getting it better of using a different one.
Im really happy with my Amex Gold Delta Skymiles card. Got a 50,000 mile bonus by spending over 2K on it in the first 3 months and then get a mile per dollar on every other dollar I spend on it. I usually have around $1500-$2500 in company expenses a month that I get repaid for so it's been great. I've built up a little over 80,000 frequent flyer miles so far and based on the Delta info a "standard" ticket round trip to the continental US is 20,000 points so i've basically built up 4 free flights in a little over a year. Plus I get a free bag and a few other perks with Delta. Been really happy with the service so far as well.