Best airline credit card?

[Hazzard]

I'd like to get a credit card through which I can get some "free" flights. Which credit card offers the best bang for the buck? Or would I be better off getting one of the cash back credit cards and using that cash for my flights?

If you have researched this, I'd love to hear your input. I googled it and the web sites I found didn't do a good job of breaking down the true benefits/drawbacks of all the different credit cards and comparing them to each other.

[MikeWaters]

we have a citibank card that gives us 5% for groceries, gas, and drugstore and 1% rebate on everything else.

We prefer cash to credit.

[Hazzard]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

we have a citibank card that gives us 5% for groceries, gas, and drugstore and 1% rebate on everything else.

We prefer cash to credit.

Do you have to pay an annual fee?

[realtall]

We use AAdvantage MC. We get 1 ff mile per $1 charged. We thought that it was a good choice because AA goes everywhere and the 1=1 was as good as anyone else at the time. We only use it for things that we would buy anyways, though, and we pay it off at the end of each month. One example, when we bought our sofa, we already had the money saved up. Rather than pay cash for it, though, we charged it to the MC and payed it(the mc) off with the saved money when the cc bill came. That way it was all payed for AND we got the ff miles.

It 'paid' for our(wife & I) rt flight to Hawai'i last summer.

I think that the annual fee is $25.


You will probably find that almost all rewards cards have some sort of annual fee to them.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by Hazzard

Do you have to pay an annual fee?

no

[realtall]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

no

That's pretty good on the grocery, gas, & drugs if you have a mind to charge those. Personaly, I don't like to charge the more common items.

[MikeWaters]

I charge everything.

Why? Because then I don't have to carry cash.

I have better protection--i.e. can dispute charges. Don't have to worry about my Debit and pin being stolen, and my own actual money disappearing.

the longer I hold onto my own money, the more it grows in the bank (and I pay off at the end of each month).

plus I get a report telling me about all my purchases.

plus I get up to 5% off.

plus I don't bounce checks, because I only have 1 check to write (this was a problem in college, when I kept only a small amount in my checking, because I was greedy and wanted to make interest in savings). Now my wife does all the checks.

Get with the times realtall! the card is free, get it!

[MikeWaters]

the 5% off is for anything at the grocery store. So my understanding is when you go to a supercenter Walmart, everything gets the 5% rebate.

[realtall]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

the 5% off is for anything at the grocery store. So my understanding is when you go to a supercenter Walmart, everything gets the 5% rebate.

Interesting. You get 5% back for ANYTHING that you get a walmart? That's pretty cool esp because they carry those big screen tvs now :twisted: .


I'm kind of in love with the idea of ff miles. It allows us to go places we never could have afforded otherwise. On the other hand, I can see how someone who watches their money very carefully might be able to make that 1%/5% do the same thing(although I'm not sure about the cost-benefit analysis comparing the two plans).

One thing is for sure; rewards are good!

[danimal]

Originally Posted by realtall

You will probably find that almost all rewards cards have some sort of annual fee to them.

Many reward cards will eliminate the annual fee if you bitch and moan enough.