Credit cards that earn miles

Sunny0325

Hi everyone,

I'm mostly a lurker on here, but thought I would come out of hiding because I need some opinions

My fiance and I are planning our wedding and thought it would be smart to make the large purchases on a credit card that can earn us airline miles. We're both finacially savvy, so we know the responsibility of making sure these cards are paid off on time.

We're considering the Discover card, but I wanted to see what other people are using.

Thanks!

horn_jm@hotmail.com

We use the Chase Continental credit card and have been able to book several free or reduced flights through Continental/United.  We also have not had to pay baggage fees.

houstonkdw

jeneric04:

We use the Chase Continental credit card and have been able to book several free or reduced flights through Continental/United.  We also have not had to pay baggage fees.

 

We have this exact same card and have bought 8 tickets free (other than the taxes) since we opened it.  Something to think about, a lot of places do not take Discover.  

jenohouston

We also have the Chase Continental Card and like it a lot!

odear

jenohouston:

We also have the Chase Continental Card and like it a lot!

Ditto! I googled for a 50,000 mile offer to open the card (I was getting 30-40k mile offers in the mail and knew there were better offers out there).  

CareBear01

We live down south, so Hobby airport is more convenient to us, therefore, we got the SW airlines card (Chase).  We got 2 roundtrip tickets just for signing up, and we have already used 3 flights (over $600 value) last year.  There is an annual fee, though - I think it's $60? or $75?  Cant' remember, but it's worth it for us b/c we do use the flights, and using at least just 1 a year would totally overpay for the card itself (not that we haven't already paid for the next 7 years with the flights we used last year alone!).

SigmundsGirl

odear:

jenohouston:

We also have the Chase Continental Card and like it a lot!

Ditto! I googled for a 50,000 mile offer to open the card (I was getting 30-40k mile offers in the mail and knew there were better offers out there).  

We did this and were able to fly to Prague for free with all the points we racked up.

Sunny0325

jenohouston:

We also have the Chase Continental Card and like it a lot!

This seems to be a popular choice, so we'll definitely look into it! Is there an annual fee? 

Temp38995750004016

The fee is $85 but we save that in baggage fees, since anyone flying with you gets to check bags for free.  It's normally $25 per bag (I think).  So both of us taking a round trip with one bag would cost $100.

We ONLY use the Chase for airline purchases.  For everything else, we use AMEX Blue.  It gets 1-5% cash back on everything.  We've had it for years and I did the math.  For what we spend, we get way more cash back on that card than we would earn in free flights in a year.  Just do the math on what you spend to see what might work out better.  We use the cash we earn back to pay for a vacation every year.

I do love the Chase card and fly enough to earn some free flights every year. 

CareBear01

I also agree with Pook about the math.  I have a Target card (have for years), and since they give the 5% discount on everythign you buy at Target, I did an estimate of the savings vs. the points at SW card, and the 5% discount was worth more to me, so I use my Target card at Target only (it doesn't benefit me to use it anywhere else).

iluvmylab

CareBear01:

We live down south, so Hobby airport is more convenient to us, therefore, we got the SW airlines card (Chase).  We got 2 roundtrip tickets just for signing up, and we have already used 3 flights (over $600 value) last year.  There is an annual fee, though - I think it's $60? or $75?  Cant' remember, but it's worth it for us b/c we do use the flights, and using at least just 1 a year would totally overpay for the card itself (not that we haven't already paid for the next 7 years with the flights we used last year alone!).

All of this. We never carry a balance and we put whatever we can on the card. I don't remember the last time we paid to fly domestic. We've had it for 5 years.