Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Last year, I had many reward cards. Hilton, Double Cash, Amex Blue and Everyday, Discover It, Chase Freedom etc... It was too confusing to earn cash back, points and rewards because of the time to manage it all. I decided to go simple. Really simple. I use the QuickSliver for 1.5% back on everything, no foreign transaction fees plan and simple. No need to remember to sign up for categories and limits restrictions. I was tired of playing the rotating cashback and rewards game.
Yep. I don't have "Maximize rewards on my credit card" OCD. I use a Citi DoubleCash 2% card for everything and have a CapitalOne 1.5% card tucked away in my wallet for international travel and as backup if my primary card has a security problem.
I need to check my mail. I have some Chase/United card likely sitting in my mailbox. My business travel pattern just changed. I have no status with United. That United card gets me early boarding so I at least have a spot for my roll-aboard. It also has a 50,000 mile bonus associated with it so I'll push $3K through it to get the bonus and then stop using it. It's no-fee for the first year. I'll see what my travel pattern looks like next December and decide whether to pay their $95 fee. Not having to check my bag is easily worth $100 to me.
When it comes to keeping it simple, Fidelity 2% cash back Visa makes it as simple as can be, whenever it reaches $50 worth available, they deposit cash into my Fidelity cash management account and then I use that money to buy stocks or add to my existing funds and they are offering a $100 bonus right now. https://www.fidelity.com/go/rewards-...MEBw&gclsrc=ds
i stopped using my fidelity card when i got the chase trinity . not only do the rewards work out better when used for travel but i had a problem with using the fidelity money .
the problem is unlike the travel points , the fidelity money just got lost in the sauce . it never seemed to get used for the extra's in life . it ended up just going in to the bill money and that was that .
you really can't use it for gift cards as all you get is 1% .
so now i use the chase freedom ,limited and sapphire reserve to maximize points and it all goes for trips .
when i transfer all points to sapphire they get a 50% boost for travel . so now i get 2.25% on all purchases , i don't use it for travel or restaurants , i get 7.50 % on the 5% categories and 4.50% on travel and restaurants .
the points accumulate at a faster rate then when i used my 2% fidelity .
That's the key, from my experience, being very flexible or booking 300+ days out when the Saver Award seats are uploaded into the award seats program on United.
I don't have Sapphire Reserve or Preferred so I can't comment on using the Chase portal to book award flights. Over the last 11 years I have booked 4 award flights through United/Star Alliance for Saver Awards (the cheapest) and one on American Airlines.
My first Saver Award ticket was to Australia (Sydney) from Tucson, it was back in 2006 when it was "only" 50,000 miles, and I booked a ticket for three weeks during Christmas/New Year's which is the peak of the peak season. I truly lucked out on that, but also booked it 300+ days out, when the award seats were uploaded. Normally that ticket would have been $2000+, so I got at least $0.04/mile for the miles I spent, my best redemption ever.
Since then, I booked a United Saver ticket for January 2011 to go from Scranton-Chicago-Hong Kong for 4 weeks, had no problem. Then did Africa, another Saver Award, from Raleigh-DC-Addis Ababa-Johannesburg going and Johannesburg-DC-Raleigh returning for 3 and a half weeks back in 2014. My last award ticket I booked through United was in 2015 also a Saver Award, this time an "open jaw" that went Raleigh-DC-Munich-Budapest going, then Dubrovnik-Frankfort-DC-Raleigh returning for 3 weeks.
I also booked an award ticket (their cheapest) through American from the US to New Zealand for 4 weeks in 2012. I wanted to go for the entire month of December, but couldn't get the return ticket, so I moved my trip up a month and did the entire month of November, that year, in New Zealand, booking it in February.
i have a bunch of United points because i got the United Club card and it was my primary card for a while. but every time i need to purchase a flight i cant get saver fare so i dont use them. i have since switched over to using the chase cards for the portal. im tired of trying to figure out how to maximize my united point value.
i have a bunch of United points because i got the United Club card and it was my primary card for a while. but every time i need to purchase a flight i cant get saver fare so i dont use them. i have since switched over to using the chase cards for the portal. im tired of trying to figure out how to maximize my united point value.
I'm not a huge traveler (maybe one big trip abroad a year) or spender for that matter, so there's probably others on here that can give you more/better tips and tricks (besides being flexible and booking early) to maximize redeeming your miles and getting the best value out of them with the United portal.
I'm definitely not one of those who redeem miles for domestic flights, I guess if I had millions of miles, I wouldn't mind using them for domestic flights. I always thought when redeeming miles if you can make the miles worth at least $0.02 or $0.025 you did well, since don't most airlines value miles at $0.01 and some credit cards $0.015, so anything above that is a victory!
And Cap, who knows maybe I just lucked out with my 4 redemption fights using the United portal. I think I'm up to 135,000 miles with United right now, but haven't decided when/where I want to use them, it will definitely be international and probably someplace I haven't been yet.
I love this thread so much. I just recently got my first credit card and I've been regretting all these years going without one because I didn't want to "spend money that isn't mine" when in reality, the concept is to not spend what I can't afford. I'm building up my credit slowly in order to apply for other cards and reap in the benefits!!
I travel via plane only about once or twice a year.
But I eat out at restaurants at least once a week.
And I get fast food at least once a week (does that count as "Restaurants" in terms of credit card rewards?)
Would the Chase Sapphire card be good for me?
i would say that it may pay off ultimately but if you have to ask that question then you are probably better off with a 2% cash back card. the sapphire isnt going to be anything special for you. you just may get one of those plane trips for free at some point.
I travel via plane only about once or twice a year.
But I eat out at restaurants at least once a week.
And I get fast food at least once a week (does that count as "Restaurants" in terms of credit card rewards?)
Would the Chase Sapphire card be good for me?
That’s about the same profile as me, and I determined no.
Here’s what I did instead......found a credit card offer for 60K points. I’m my case, Southwest is by far the most convenient airline, so the Southwest/Chase card, with annual fee of $69 made sense. By putting $2k on the card in 3 months, I got the 60k points deposited into my Rapid Rewards account with Southwest. With my limited travel, those points will probably last me 2 years. Also, 3k points are rewarded annually for keeping the card, so the carrying cost is minimal. When I use up these points, I’ll cancel the card and do another bonus offer. These offers are everywhere....I use southwest only because the closet airport to me (Oakland) is a hub.
I put virtually all my expenses on this card, except for groceries. Because you can buy alcohol and all kinds of other things in a supermarket here in CA, my “grocery” bill runs about 500/mo. I use the Amex blue preferred for these purchases, getting 6% cash back. It costs $95 /yr.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
