Flight Tickets for Travel Points - a Better System than a Frequent Flyer Program?
For millions of people, the use of a credit card, if it is attached to a specific preferred airline, will probably gain them, each time they spend a dollar on it, more frequent flier miles than they could ever get if they actually flew with the airline. But things have been changing of late; to begin with, the credit card companies are parting ways with the airlines they've been affiliated to, and have been putting together their own packages of travel rewards - and very often, they have better rewards than the airlines themselves. If all you can think of each time you spend a dollar is how you are contributing to getting free flight tickets to a favored destination one day, the landscape is changing quickly enough that you need to re-evaluate your loyalties in the free miles area.
Now most people don't really get anything in return for their loyalty to any one airline. A system where your credit card rewards you in travel points rather than miles can often be a better choice. You can redeem those points with any airline - why trade flexibility for loyalty to one airline? This worked really well for me, after I reorganized my credit card portfolio; for quite a while I had an AmEx Delta SkyMiles card; what I understood when I got the card was, that I would get 25,000 bonus miles as soon as I signed on the dotted line, and that I could redeem those miles fora flight anytime. But when I tried to actually get free flight tickets to anywhere, the quoted minimum price was 40,000 miles - for any kind of ticket. My free bonus miles were really not good for anything. That's when I decided to switch.
All of my current loyalties are with a Visa card issued by the U.S. Bank, and it's calledFlexPerks, a name that seems pretty descriptive to me. Kiplinger, the online finance magazine voted this the best card ever for free travel bonuses and rewards. Each dollar that I spend on this credit card earns me a point; 20,000 points is worth a ticket that costs $500 - that I can use these on any airline at all. There are no limits to how many seats are open on a flight to freebie tickets like these. It's like I'm paying cash for my flight tickets. Compare this to how the limit the number of seats they give you on a frequent flier scheme, and there is just no comparison.
There are other cards too, like the American Express card that is affiliated to the Starwood hotel chain. It's a great everyday card too, and for every dollar you spend, you earn a point. 30,000 points will get you a free flights ticket that costs something under $500, and a free night's stay at any Starwood hotel. The Chase Sapphire card is great for points too. And so is the Capital One Venture Rewards card.
You might wonder about what it might do to your credit score when you cancel a credit card and switch allegiances to another. It certainly can hurt your credit score - to begin with, you don't have enough of a history with any one card to show in you score; and second, what if you end up getting a card with less credit? The more credit you have, the better your score is. It can never be a good idea to get a new card just for the sign-up bonuses in the travel points you get. Free flights tickets are just perks; and not very generous ones at that. Your one and only consideration when you get a new card should be how low their fees are, and how low the rates are.