Credit card rewards
Equipment
First I want to thank Bowsite for a previous topic on credit card points…. I just booked a 20yr anniversary trip for my wife and i for free..
Now I am looking for a new card to get points for an upcoming trip to Alaska…
What are some good cards to look at right now? I have been using chase, but thinking about using Alaskan airlines
Look at CITI American Advantage, haven’t bought an airline ticket since 1987. Have flown First Class to Alaska several times for hunts or vacation.
Painless is that based off bonus points or based on what you spend?
Best by far is citi 2x cash back CC, I have compared them all and so have a few close friends. I used to charge $100k - $200k a year on my CC's for my business so it was worth my time.
Spend $20k on this card and you get $400.
Airline points that even comes close, even assuming I can book a $400 flight for 30k miles (hard to do and very limited). $20k on a CC is 20k miles, worth about $250 on a flight best case - better of with the $400 AND you can use the $400 ANYWHERE, and are forcing yourself yo use one airline and miles.
Reason I've had my Citi double for years. Good return and not limited to usage. Only other card I have is my B of A for the 3% on gas purchases.
I disagree that the chase card is always the best choice. The guy stated clearly what his goal was, a trip to Alaska. Hell the bonus miles alone upon sign up is more than enough for that trip. I’ve also found if miles are used strategically and not just burned on the next flight regardless then it comes back higher than the 2% cash value on the equivalent spending. (I might buy 3-4 trips in a row despite sitting on 150k miles due to the exchange ratio at the time).
I fly Alaska and Delta about equally anymore so my personal expenses down to a pack of gum all go on AA card. Business runs on Delta (am ex can be a pain in the ass sometimes cause not everywhere accepts them). Both accounts paid off weekly to never accumulate interest. I’d wager I’m close to exceeding $10k in free flights at this point over the last decade.
The thing about the AK airlines card is that you get like 60K miles just for signing up, which will get you there and back and it doesn't need to be accrued. And you can get a new one every couple years.
I also have an Amazon card just for Amazon because it's 5% back and a Shell card that I use just for gasoline at Shell because it's 15 cents off per gallon.
Those are my biggest expenses so I use those cards for that.
I fly 40-80K miles per year and live in AK so it's a no-brainer. I use the accrued miles to fly my kids around mostly because you don't accrue status if you use the miles for flights and if you keep MVP Gold 70k, you'll get 1/2 or more of your flights upgraded to 1st class if you book 3 months in advance like I do.
Just look at what you spend most of your money on and see if there's a card specific to that. I have those 3 cards and pay them all off every month and it ends up saving me a few thousand dollars per year.
I really like my Amazon/Chase card, in any given month I can get 8% back in points, as the point structure is based on what ya purchase by %, of course A-Prime gets ya 5% when I order from them.
This month, mid- January, I transfer the points to cash, direct deposit, into my Hunt acct savings and most years pay for my Wyo Elk application.
Good luck with whatever card you decide on and have a great trip,
Robb
Been using the Alaska Airlines CC for years and rarely pay more than $25 for flights...many of those being first class flights. Big fan of flying Alaska Air for my hunts.
AA it is!
The bonus offerings with chase and AA are too much to pass up
Thanks guys…
Tring to figure out if points are going to be wort it. The money from points comes not from the card companies. But from the business you use the card at. I'm starting to see more and more businesses charging a fee to use a credit cards. One family-owned restaurant was getting over 5k a month in these fees. Their answer was to raise the prices to offset these fees. I know that the credit card companies, as long as they think a card user is getting points, they are going to keep pushing points card. Processing companies are now starting to add what's called a convince fees to points cards at time of processing, if the merchant has it setup that way. But most merchants are just hiding they fees in raised prices. Gas stations just have the cash or credit prices. I truly believe they are trying to do away with cash. To me that's a bad thing. A fact is that folks that pay with cash are paying higher prices for stuff because of the added in points fees to the costs of goods. So, if you're paying 5% more for products because of added in points fees, you're paying that 5% when paying with cash. Fact points card is costing us more.
Companies are more and more, just passing on the 3% they have to pay the cc company to you. With how hard it is to stay in business that is an expense they can recover. It adds up. I part time bartend at a golf course, open match to October. Before adding 3% to all cc transactions it was costing over $10k to the bar. Don't want to pay it, use cash
teeton, that is a good point and often overlooked, at least by me anyway..
If there were cash discounts available, i would pay cash but that rarely if ever seems to be an opportunity. Might as well get the points if we are all "paying" for them anyway..
Most businesses I encounter that changed prices due to operating costs don’t have a cash discount, prices just went up. In the scenarios that a discount is offered, using the card is worth 2% give or take so the 1% savings isn’t worth me always keeping cash on me. I do pay cash/check for service calls if they offer cash discounts but never at stores or restaurants. I keep a few hundred for emergencies but every penny of daily spending goes on the card. Easier to track my spending/adjust budget, get free flights. I agree the monopoly the card companies have is out of control, but until the fees go down or points go away I’m not boycotting it all together.
