More miles are awarded for credit-card spending than for flying. In fact, some bank offers are so lucrative it can seem like their goal is to send their customers jetting around the world in a premium cabin for free. But with so many offers, how do you make sense of them?
The first piece of advice is to pick a reward goal. If you want to fly to South America, your best bet is American miles. If you want to fly to Europe or Asia then United or US Airways miles are best, followed closely by American miles.
For Australia and French Polynesia, I often recommend Delta (because Delta's partner Virgin Australia has the best business-class award availability Down Under, and Delta partners with both airlines flying from Los Angeles to Tahiti).
Second piece of advice: Ignore the “proprietary bank rewards programs” like Capital One's, especially if you're interested in premium-cabin international awards. In these bank programs, the points do not transfer into actual miles; instead, the banks value the points at about a penny each (at the most), and then charge you in points for the ticket, based on its retail value. That means that a $5,000 ticket will cost you half a million points.
The third piece of advice is to know your spending habits, because different cards provide bonuses for different categories of purchases, including airline tickets, hotel spending, office supplies, gas and groceries. So if you spend most of your money eating out, it makes sense to pay with a card that awards double points on restaurant purchases.
The fourth principle is that flexible points are best — you want to be able to pick where you will use your points after earning them.
Based on those principles, these are my three favorite credit cards:
1. Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa. It’s advertised on TV as earning points worth 1.25 cents a piece toward purchased travel, but that completely misses the beauty of this card. Points transfer 1:1 into several airline and hotel programs: United, British Airways, Korean Airlines, Southwest, Hyatt, Marriott, Ritz Carlton, Priority Club and even Amtrak. The card earns double points on all travel and restaurant purchases. And you can even transfer points into anyone else’s frequent flyer account. Foreign transaction fees don’t exist with this card, so you save 3 percent on all of your spending outside the U.S. Plus, there's a 40,000-point bonus after spending $3,000 within three months, and the $95 annual fee is waived the first year.
2. Starwood Preferred Guest American Express. This is the credit card for Westin, Sheraton, St. Regis, W Hotels and associated brands. Points can be used for free hotel stays or transferred to miles on more than two dozen airlines. When you transfer points into 20,000 airline miles, you receive 5,000 bonus miles, meaning you're earning 1.25 miles per dollar rather than just one. The $65 annual fee (waived the first year) is lower than on most airline credit cards, and the card earns more miles than its competitors — but the key value here is the flexibility. The card is great for earning points with most airlines, except for United, which requires more points per mile than other carriers.
3. American Express Premier Rewards Gold. This card earns Membership Rewards points, which transfer to a variety of frequent-flyer programs. The key benefit of the card is earning triple points for purchases of airline tickets and double points for gas and groceries. Airline-mile transfers are always the best use of Amex points. But keep in mind that most Amex airline partners add fuel surcharges onto award tickets (practice that is common for airline programs outside the United States), so reward tickets are more costly out of pocket. But Membership Rewards frequently offers transfer bonuses, such as 50 percent extra points when transferring to British Airways or Delta. The hefty $175 annual fee is waived the first year.
If you're going to pick a single credit card, it's hard to go wrong with the Sapphire Preferred, and add the Starwood American Express if you’d like a second card. My suggestion: Use the Sapphire Preferred card whenever you’re abroad, making travel or restaurant purchases, or at a store that only accepts Visa. Everything else can go on the Starwood American Express card. If you spend a lot on airline tickets, gas and groceries, substitute the Starwood American Express with the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card.
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