Airline Credit Cards
With the increasing difficulty of getting free seats using an airline's airmiles, travellers might want to look at whether or not it is worth having an airline's credit card. Some of the credit cards aren't cheap. Until today, I had the Citicard AA Advantage card. This credit card costs $85 a year and only gives you one airmile per dollar charged on it. To me, that is very steep. Unless you charge a lot of stuff on just that one card, you won't get a good ratio of airmiles to the dollar. In fact, you might get a ratio buying them from the airline. However, if you do buy them, remember they might not do you a lot of good considering the difficulty of using them. I've been a big fan of frequent flier programs but I confess my ardor is cooling. The airlines keep raising the number of airmiles you need for a free ticket and there are more ways to earn them which means there are more people trying to get the limited number of free seats. In my case, I plan to cancel a number of the airline credit cards I have. I just don't think their worth the yearly fees the credit card companies charge for them. You might want to think about doing the same.
2 comments:
Ditto, I would recommend the Qantas programme. It’s A$50 to join, which is pretty good value. As we discussed elsewhere, I am on an American Express programme, which I might begin to spend after accumulating over 300,000 points, but the ratio is not good.
To Jack Yan,
First, thanks for your comments. Second, I'll have to look into the Qantas program. Third, I also belong to American Express's rewards program though I don't have any where near 300,000 (WOW!) with them. One thing I like about American Express is you can use their points for 10 different airlines. It gives you more options.
Concerning the ratios, it depends on how much you use the card. With the Citi AAdvantage card I mentioned, you would have to charge almost $3,000 worth of whatever in order to get a ratio equal to what you would get if you bought the airmiles at American Airlines. I can easily charge $3,000 worth of stuff in one year and then some but it would mean using only that card. I also use two different hotel chain cards as well as Amex.
One point about the hotel chain cards, I think it is easier to use their reward points (though I haven't used any yet) then it would be with the airlines. One down side with the hotel points is you're not going to have the enormous savings you would on the airlines ex. I use 40,000 airmiles to upgrade to Business Class on British Airways and the airmiles save me at least $2,000. I use 40,000 Priority Club points and I'll may get two free nights or less with one of their hotels (it costs 30,000 points for one free night at an InterContinental Hotel). The cost savings would be around $250 to $300. That's a considerable difference.
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