Best travel rewards cards

[OCGuy81]

Just curious who here uses either a hotel or an air miles card to quickly rack up travel rewards?

I alternate between an American Airlines card (nice partner network).  My wife primarily uses a Hilton card to work towrads earning free nights. Nice way to lessen the two largest travel expenses.

Anybody have a good deal they've found (nice sign up bonuses for example) or have a card/plan they like?  I'm always on the lookout.

[realjd]

I'm partial to American Express for their Member Rewards points. They can be converted into airline miles or hotel points, or used to book through the Amex travel website as cash. That's what I usually do.

[1995hoo]

I'm partial to American Express for their Member Rewards points. They can be converted into airline miles or hotel points, or used to book through the Amex travel website as cash. That's what I usually do.

I second that because of the flexibility. We're not flying much these days, but I've used Amex points to get $300 off the fare on the Auto Train on trips to Florida. That's a nice discount because it allows us to get sleeping-car accommodations instead of riding in coach class (money is tight for us these days). The sleeping cars are a considerable upgrade in terms of peace and quiet and the food in the dining car. Some of the people on FlyerTalk.com will tell you that you can get more mileage (sorry about the pun) out of every dollar using certain dedicated cards, especially the Starwood Amex card, but the people who give that advice are also the ones with the time and the patience to try to wring out every last minuscule piece of value from every reward point, and I simply don't have the time nor patience for that. The Amex Membership Rewards program has worked very well for me....back in April 2007 I opened a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account and transferred Amex points into it so that I could fly to London in Upper Class for free (well, almost free, had to pay $300 in taxes and crap, which is nothing on what would have been a $3800 ticket). That's the only time I've ever flown Virgin Atlantic, although I'd do so again if I got a good deal as it was a nice way to fly.

I also have a British Airways Visa from Chase because I have around 150,000 BA miles and I don't want to lose them. I originally got the card for the specific purpose of purchasing a Concorde ticket because of the substantial miles bonus I racked up using it (many of those miles were later used to upgrade to Club World, i.e. business class, en route to Copenhagen for a Baltic Sea cruise in 2007). As a general matter I think most of the time an airline card is only useful if you know you will do pretty much all your travel on that airline or its partners, unless you have a particularly compelling reason for getting that card (such as my reason for the BA card). If you will not be confining all your travel to one airline and its partners, an airline-specific card probably doesn't make sense.

Discover is popular for the Cashback Bonus, but you have to be careful of Discover because of the way they calculate interest with the two-cycle average daily balance. If you carry a balance but pay off the majority of the balance in Month 1, you'll still be dinged for a higher interest charge the next month because Month 1 is part of the "two-cycle" used in calculating interest.

[agentsteel53]

I just have an old Bank of America visa with cash incentives which come out to 2%.  It is WorldPoints, and I am sure I can get other items for my points (on occasionally at a 2.3-2.7% return), but basically whenever I rack up 50,000 dollars, I just ask them to write me a check for a grand.

that way I don't have to attempt to wrangle the points into something meaningful, while avoiding the exception clauses like "you must depart on a Tuesday afternoon", "you must fly only along ley lines", or "you must take off from Denver International Airport and land at Stapleton".

[US71]

CitiBank Thank you Rewards used to be good, but keeps changing the rules of the game. 

[hbelkins]

I'm a member of several rewards programs -- Wyndham Rewards, Choice Privileges, Best Western, ABVI, Priority Club and Hilton HHonors. Most all of them have their own credit cards that give extra reward points. ABVI just offers a flat discount and free room upgrades, however. They don't have a point system.

My favorite is Choice Privileges. They frequently offer point bonuses -- quadruple points, stay two times and get a free night, etc. -- and those can add up pretty quickly.

[relaxok]

I have a Virgin America credit card with Barclays.. Fantastic airline, and unlike a lot of airline cards, you don't just get a free ticket after x number of miles/points.  The points actually convert proportionally to dollars.  The tickets are available in both points and dollars.  And just like dollar amonts, the points costs are less far in advance. So an LAX-SFO flight might be as little as 2 months worth of CC usage for me.  You also get lots of points for tickets you pay for, both for the flight (frequent flyer points) and using the card on top of that.  When I was flying me or my girlfriend back and forth between those airports it was an incredible deal.  Right now I have enough ponts for 3 round trip tickets to the east coast.

They have a limited number of airports but if you travel a lot and they go where you need to go, I highly recommend the card.

[Brandon]

I'll pass on any rewards card that charges an annual fee.  Consequently, I have none, but I do have cards with no silly annual fee crappola.

[Jim]

Another vote here for Choice Privileges.  I've had mostly good experiences with their brands (especially since the advent of TripAdvisor so I can avoid the lousy ones) and as H.B. said, they have frequent promotions that let you earn free nights pretty quickly.  I have made use of quite a few free nights.  I usually make an effort to stay in a motel/hotel in the Choice Hotels group if possible.

I also have a credit card in the "World Points" and opt for a rewards check whenever I get enough points.

Airline miles rarely seem to work out for me - I guess I don't fly enough.  The new Southwest Rapid Rewards system does seem to mean I'll eventually earn something there.  For a while 6-8 years ago I was flying Delta quite a bit and earned a couple free flights, but they limited the availability of reward tickets so much, it was hardly worth it.  At some point, I cashed them all in for restaurant and retail gift cards -- the value there was so much better than anything they were offering in terms of flights.

[realjd]

Another vote here for Choice Privileges.  I've had mostly good experiences with their brands (especially since the advent of TripAdvisor so I can avoid the lousy ones) and as H.B. said, they have frequent promotions that let you earn free nights pretty quickly.  I have made use of quite a few free nights.  I usually make an effort to stay in a motel/hotel in the Choice Hotels group if possible.

I also have a credit card in the "World Points" and opt for a rewards check whenever I get enough points.

Airline miles rarely seem to work out for me - I guess I don't fly enough.  The new Southwest Rapid Rewards system does seem to mean I'll eventually earn something there.  For a while 6-8 years ago I was flying Delta quite a bit and earned a couple free flights, but they limited the availability of reward tickets so much, it was hardly worth it.  At some point, I cashed them all in for restaurant and retail gift cards -- the value there was so much better than anything they were offering in terms of flights.

Using Delta SkyMiles on domestic flights is essentially throwing them away. Other than gift cards, hotel stays, etc., the best value you can get for them is international business class flights. And availability at the "low mile" level is poor on Delta itself but booking on other SkyTeam airlines (KLM, AirFrance, etc.) with your miles is always at the low level and has good availability.

RapidRewards used to be the best for domestic flights. I don't know anymore now that they restructured it.

[hbelkins]

Another vote here for Choice Privileges.  I've had mostly good experiences with their brands (especially since the advent of TripAdvisor so I can avoid the lousy ones) and as H.B. said, they have frequent promotions that let you earn free nights pretty quickly.  I have made use of quite a few free nights.  I usually make an effort to stay in a motel/hotel in the Choice Hotels group if possible.

On my trip to Kansas back in the spring, I didn't have to pay for any of my nights on the road. Had enough points to redeem for four reward nights. On my upcoming trip to Vermont, I'm cashing in a  Choice reward night on the way there and a Wyndham reward night on the way home.

[OCGuy81]

Just signed up for the Marriott Rewards card through Chase.  Up to 4 free nights upon approval, and the annual fee waived for the first year!

[SteveG1988]

If you find a grocery chain that offers free turkeys, and also operates gas stations....any time you fill up you get points towards that turkey. I know Acme operates a few gas stations, not sure about any other grocery chains.

I count this as a travel card if you buy gas from them.

[PAHighways]

Giant Eagle has their GetGo chain, some of the locations are as extensive as Sheetz.  Using their rewards card at GetGo earns FoodPerks at the stores and using it at the stores earns FuelPerks for use at GetGo.

Kroger's has gas stations which uses a similar system, although in their case, you can use your rewards card for a three cent discount even if you haven't reached the $100 discount limit.

[realjd]

Winn Dixie now does a gas discount program also. For every $50 in groceries you buy on their new loyalty "swipe" card (physical card only - not phone number lookup), you get 5 cents off of gas at any Shell station in Florida. It is cumulative. I saved 20 cents per gallon last time I filled up.

[Jim]

In the northeast, Price Chopper has a deal with most Sunoco stations for "Fuel AdvantEdge" which is the same as what you describe with Winn Dixie, except it's 10 cents per gallon for each $50 spent at the store.  Since we usually shop there anyway, I will take advantage of it when a decent discount has accumulated.  I think I've gotten up to as much as 70 cents/gal.  You can buy up to 20 gallons on the discounted price, but my tank only takes about 16 gallons when I really run down closer to "E" than I usually like to do.  Even so, I'll take the few dollars I save.

[OCGuy81]

I'll pass on any rewards card that charges an annual fee.  Consequently, I have none, but I do have cards with no silly annual fee crappola.

Best trick of the trade to avoid that is sign up for them when they're waiving the annual fee for the first year, and cancel in the 11th month.