W the oldest in CO and more personal trips I find myself buying plane tickets way more often than I have before.
Any easy and/or good ways to rack up some rewards for these? Does it amount to anything in the end or is it just a lot work for very lil?
Airline affiliated credit cards would be your best bet to earn rewards I believe.
I use google flights when pricing out trips. It allows you to view pricing history, set alerts for specific flights if prices drop etc.
We use American Express Delta Skymiles card. Not familiar with other options, but it works for us. We charge most purchases/monthly bills to it and pay in full each month. Usually is enough to fly the 4 of us south every couple years. My wife uses it for work expenses which help a lot.
It does add up but the more effort you make, the more you’re going to be able to cash in on the rewards.
First off in my opinion you have to be willing to pay more to stick with one airline for your flights. If you hop from airline to airline based on who has the cheapest ticket that day you’re never going to get enough miles with any one airline to matter.
The second thing is to get a credit card that maximizes mileage rewards. In Minnesota that’s almost certainly going to be the Delta American Express card.
Then charge absolutely everything to that credit card so you maximize your rewards.
The credit cards are a get what you pay for situation. The more you’re willing to pay for an annual fee the more rewards points you will get for purchases and the better the perks on the card.
If you are already signed up for Delta’s frequent flyer program you should be getting offers that will get you a bonus for getting the Delta American Express card. Otherwise search online for offers. Don’t sign up without getting a healthy mileage bonus as a sign up reward.
Mrs Grouse and I both have the American Express Platinum card. It is an expensive card but between the increase in rewards points and the perks you get like lounge access we seem to come out ahead every year.
And don’t believe anybody that says you can’t use American Express cards anywhere. I’ve traveled all over and use them and now that most merchants are signed up with processing networks it’s very rare to find somebody that doesn’t accept the American Express card.
I would agree that the Delta American Express is by far the best miles card. If you choose to get one if you would let me refer you and you get the card I will get 10k bonus miles. Depending on which card you get, you receive 50k-90k bonus miles once you spend 3k-5k in the first 3 months depending on which card you get. I have the reserve card that has a $600 yearly fee but you get a membership for the delta clubs that in itself is a big perk, you also earn more miles per $ spent. If you don’t travel that much then the platinum card is a better choice. My kids both have that.
X3 on the American Express Delta Skymiles card.
-J.
Many of the large airline cards also provide reimbursement for Clear or Pre-Check.
For domestic travel, southwest is probably your best bang for your buck mileage wise, especially if they have direct flights to areas you frequent (often find flights for 4-7k miles one way). Otherwise the Venture Card (redeem for any travel/hotel), Chase Ultimate, or as others noted, the Delta Amex is probably the best value though they also have the highest yearly fees. Make sure you take advantage of the Clear/Pre-Check/lounge offers.
American Airlines is my bread and butter. After reaching the highest status I get upgraded over 50% of the time and I always board in group 1. Admirals club is a great perk also, along with free baggage check and guaranteed overhead space.
Free miles add up quickly too.
Besides the Airline perks I would sign up for TSA and what’s even better although they don’t have it at all airports is Clear. At Clear they walk you in front of the TSA people.
With that sad I’m on my way to the airport in an hour to visit the Belle.
I don’t have a credit card at all. My wife does though…1 and only 1…and everything under the sun she purchases goes on it. Anything big I purchase that she wants the rewards for I’ll just hand her cash and she puts it on her card and pays everything off monthly.
I think she has a Capital One card with miles as her reward choice. I don’t manage it or know the specifics, but we have not paid for a flight since 2017. We make one annual trip to California and generally one flight to someplace warm in the Caribbean or FL. We’ve also sprinkled in a few long weekends to Colorado for her to snowboard and me ski. She probably takes 2 trips per year stateside with friends that she uses miles for as well. In October she’s trying to send us to Curaco or Aruba for our vacation. She said she has those flights covered without paying a dime either.
Half the flight purchases are done on a travel site since one carrier rarely can get the there and back times when we need them. I’ll usually check the airlines site first, then resort to Expedia etc.
How does that change things with thr delta miles card, assuming it’s strictly for delta flights?
Good info thus far thank you
It would be for delta flights or a regional partner airline. You can use the miles for hotels, and rental cars as well, but not for a different airline. One other perk if you fly delta it speeds the process to become a delta medallion member. You get free upgraded flights. I am at the platinum level, so I get upgraded to comfort plus when I book the ticket, and most of the time get upgraded to first class unless it is a full flight 5 days before the flight. It is a nice perk as well.
Half the flight purchases are done on a travel site since one carrier rarely can get the there and back times when we need them. I’ll usually check the airlines site first, then resort to Expedia etc.
How does that change things with thr delta miles card, assuming it’s strictly for delta flights?
Good info thus far thank you
If you want to get the most points, it is by getting sign up bonuses (SUB)! There is a lot of money to be had, especially if you and your wife will both open cards. Join the facebook group: FBZ Elite – Travel and Points by FinanceBuzz. It has a specific plan on which cards to open first and step by step instructions on how to do it. Usually one of the chase saphire cards are the first to get before going with co-branded cards. SUB’s and referrals between player 1 and player 2 will certainly beat any daily spend card for points earning!
This is an example of our cards that we got sign up bonuses for with no businesses:
Looking for next suggested cards:
Player 1 is 2/24 and player 2 is 0/24.
We are ok with 6k spend in 3 mos. with planning, but would prefer 4k or less in 3 mos. We are ok with annual fees if it’s worth it. We normally fly Delta. We have the following cards:
Player 1 has:
IHG premiere
AX Aspire
AX Honors
AX Ascend -cancelled
AX Gold personal
AX Platinum personal
AX Delta Platinum
AX Blue cash
CSP in 9/20
Chase Freedom Flex
Chase Business Unlimited
Citi Double Cash
Player 2 has:
IHG premiere
AX Aspire
AX Honors
AX Ascend -cancelled
AX Gold personal
AX Delta Platinum
CSP in 9/20
Chase Freedom
Chase Ink Business Unlimited
Chase United Explorer
Citi Double Cash
What should be next?
Ha I was just going to say the card points game has it’s whole genre that game the system to maximize their points/rewards aka exactly what Fishtoeat just posted. We fly about 3-4 times a year, and have never looked too deep into it. We usually fly whatever the cheapest flight is for when we want to go, so could be any airline, and figured the savings on flight price would exceed the difference in points and/or effort in tracking/maximizing miles/rewards. Could definitely be missing the boat though.
We usually fly whatever the cheapest flight is for when we want to go, so could be any airline, and figured the savings on flight price would exceed the difference in points and/or effort in tracking/maximizing miles/rewards. Could definitely be missing the boat though.
Once upon a time when there were dramatic differences in flight costs for similar flights and frequent flyer miles expired most of the time you were better off just finding the cheapest ticket.
Now airline travel is in high demand and the airlines have gotten very good at monitoring each other’s pricing. Price differences between airlines with similar routings is very minimal in my experience.
Combine that with the fact that many frequent flyer programs do not have miles that expire and the balance has started to tip toward the person who flies one airline and maximizes their miles earned.
As far as earning miles go, you have to take a lot of longer flights for them to really add up quickly. I fly for business regularly to the east coast, and at a 1000 miles each way, it doesn’t really get you anywhere in terms of status or anything.
I agree with others that the smart to do if you fly a certain airline a lot is to get their credit card and charge everything to it. The Delta AMEX is the best.
I’d also say that the hotel cards are even a better deal. If you stay at hotels a lot, I’d recommend the Marriot Bonvoy program and their credit card. It’s very easy to earn free hotel nights and perks like access to their lounges, free breakfasts, room upgrades, etc.
Do you have a travel agent or a corporate travel coordinator? They know who to contact for things like this. It would probably be worth paying a travel agent for his/her time to do this. Try to sort out your priorities before the TA calls the airline: discounts? upgrades? elite status? You have a good shot at getting something, but it won’t be “all of the above,” and you don’t want the agent to go “uh – geez – I dunno” when asked.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
