Not exact matches
Experienced players of the
rewards program game often do
best by combining travel at a single hotel or
airline with everyday use of its co-branded credit card.
A
good airline card should combine a high value
rewards program with enough exclusive perks to make it worth your loyalty.
While the IHG ®
Rewards Club Traveler Credit Card's points are really only
good when used for hotel nights, the Starpoints that the Starwood Preferred Guest ® Credit Card from American Express earns can be transferred 1:1
with a number of leading
airline loyalty
programs including British Airways, Alaska
Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
For the
best credit cards
rewards programs, you can redeem travel for airfare
with multiple
airlines or to stay at hotels.
Our picks for the
best rewards credit cards have
rewards programs for varying card needs, including if you're looking for
airline miles, cash
rewards, cards
with points, or just searching for a card
with no annual fee.
For travelers in range of a JetBlue hub, the JetBlue card offers a
good value both in terms of its
airline and its
rewards program, though others may be
better off
with a more general
rewards card.
What's much
better in my view is to leverage the
best transfer opportunities of
programs such as Chase Ultimate
Rewards (points transfer 1:1 to several
airline and hotel
programs,
with United and Hyatt as the
best value uses) and AMEX Membership
Rewards, which also transfers 1:1 to several
airline and hotel
programs,
with my favorite being Singapore
Airlines.
Perhaps the
best part of an overall travel
rewards program, though, is that you can often use your
rewards in conjunction
with other
airline rewards, such as frequent flyer miles, to really make the most of your savings.
Still, it can also pay off to accrue points
with programs like Chase Ultimate
Rewards, Citi ThankYou
Rewards or American Express Membership
Rewards (that's right, it might be
better for you to ditch the Delta co-branded American Express card since the
airline has carved most mileage perks to the bone).
Marriott
Rewards does offer the ability to transfer your points into other rewards programs, but the transfer rates are dismal compared to the SPG ® program (which offers plenty of airline mileage programs with much better transfer
Rewards does offer the ability to transfer your points into other
rewards programs, but the transfer rates are dismal compared to the SPG ® program (which offers plenty of airline mileage programs with much better transfer
rewards programs, but the transfer rates are dismal compared to the SPG ®
program (which offers plenty of
airline mileage
programs with much
better transfer rates).
While there are often distinct advantages of credit cards directly attached to an
airline (a miles - based
program), I thought it
best to provide you
with a
program that will allow you to learn what types of
rewards you actually want and need from a travel
rewards program.
Most travellers will sign up
with the loyalty
programs offered by some of the leading international
airlines, care rental companies as
well as hotel chains but are completely oblivious of the fact that the online travel agencies such as Expedia, Priceline, Travelocity, Orbitz, and Hotels.com also have their own
reward programs and that you will be able to earn...
One of the
best parts of the Ultimate
Rewards program is that because it's a credit card company
program rather than an
airline program, Chase is very generous
with sign - on bonuses, so after you get your first card and meet the minimum spend, you can book a roun - trip for two right away.
Now on paper the Amex Express looks like the
better value for a few reasons but when I compared flights
with a friend of mine as an example witht the same dates and
airline, a flight using the CIBC
rewards program from Toronto to Calgary and back was 48,000 pts (taxes inc) from CIBC
rewards and and 71,000 pts from Amex
rewards.
A
good airline card should combine a high value
rewards program with enough exclusive perks to make it worth your loyalty.
A
good value for Alaska and Pacific Northwest residents, the Alaska
Airlines Visa Signature card pairs a moderate annual fee and affordable interest rate
with a valuable
rewards program and a strong sign - up bonus.
One of the
best parts of the Ultimate
Rewards program is that because it's a credit card company
program rather than an
airline program, Chase is very generous
with sign - on bonuses, so after you get your first card and meet the minimum spend, you can book a round - trip for two right away.
You'll need to familiarize yourself
with the ins and outs of each
program — e.g., whether you can book one - way and open - jaw tickets, routing restrictions, hidden costs and fees (many
airlines include fuel surcharges that can equal the cost of your airfare)-- to find the
best value for your
rewards.
As
with nearly every
airline, Southwest also offers a co-branded credit card that allows you to earn
rewards in its frequent flyer
program, as
well as other benefits.
See related: Your rights when dealing
with canceled flights, Debunking myths about frequent flier
programs, How to find the
best airline rewards bonus miles deal, Tricks and tips to keep frequent flier miles from expiring, Do you lose your miles if you cancel your
rewards card?
With The Ritz - Carlton Rewards program, you have the opportunity to enjoy the very best of everything we have to offer as you accrue points or airlines miles with each stay at participating Ritz - Carlton propert
With The Ritz - Carlton
Rewards program, you have the opportunity to enjoy the very
best of everything we have to offer as you accrue points or
airlines miles
with each stay at participating Ritz - Carlton propert
with each stay at participating Ritz - Carlton properties.
If you are trying to decide which frequent flyer
program to be loyal to and your primary goal is
reward redemption for
airline tickets, take note of the following: experienced flyers, i.e. those who know the ins and outs of the various
programs, rated Alaska
Airlines» Mileage Plan the
best, and are also quite happy
with American, Southwest, JetBlue, and United, in that order.
Singapore
Airlines offers the
best availability to its own frequent flyers so a
good bet is to transfer American Express Membership
Rewards points to the
airline's KrisFlyer loyalty
program and book the tickets directly
with Singapore
Airlines.
To get the most value out of an
airline rewards program, the
best advice is to familiarize yourself
with the details of how it works, says Brian Kelly, founder of ThePointsGuy.com, a blog that helps people maximize their award miles and points.
Perhaps the
best part of an overall travel
rewards program, though, is that you can often use your
rewards in conjunction
with other
airline rewards, such as frequent flyer miles, to really make the most of your savings.
The
good news is that Singapore
Airlines is already a transfer partner
with several other bank loyalty
programs including Chase Ultimate
Rewards, Amex Membership
Rewards, and Citi ThankYou
Rewards.
If, on the other hand, you're not a regular
with Marriott at all then collecting
airline miles makes sense — you're unlikely to build up any kind of meaningful Marriott
Rewards balance if you only stay once in a while so you may as
well accumulate miles in a frequent flyer
program you use more often.
Usually the
best value you can get from these points is to, as is usually the case
with all transferable
reward currencies, transfer them into
airline programs for award flights.
«American
Airlines is evolving AAdvantage to continue our tradition of having the
best loyalty
program in the world by
rewarding our most loyal customers
with the benefits they value the most,» said Andrew Nocella, American's Chief Marketing Officer.
Though it has 12
airline partners, you might have to look a little harder for the
best redemption options
with the Citi ThankYou
Rewards program.
The Ultimate
Rewards program has the fewest
airline transfer partners, but it makes up for this in part by having an affordable and
well - rounded lineup of cards
with excellent earning potential.
These
airlines, as
well as American AAdvantage and Lufthansa Miles & More, are transfer partners
with SPG but not
with the other three big transfer
programs: Ultimate
Rewards, Membership
Rewards, and ThankYou
Rewards.
Now there are
rewards programs that you can use to pay for
airline tickets
with rewards points and still earn the miles, but usually if you are paying for a flight
with rewards points you aren't getting the
better value than if you were to pay for the same ticket
with miles.
Your
best value
with No Hassle
Rewards will be for flights, hotels and other travel expenses that you would never be able to get for free through another
program, like non-chain hotels you got for a great deal on hotels.com, or flights
with a regional
airline overseas that don't partner
with any major carriers and probably wouldn't be worth the miles even if they did.
The
best of these
reward programs offer points that can be redeemed directly for travel or transferred to points and miles
with airline or hotel
programs.
Do you agree
with U.S. News findings of Alaska
Airlines Mileage Plan rated
best Rewards Program?
Add to that a large number of hotel and rental car partners as
well as online shopping and you have more opportunities to earn KrisFlyer miles than
with most Asian
airlines, making it a
good choice of
reward program even for people outside of Singapore!
With access to some of the
best First and Business Class cabins in the sky, this is an
airline reward program worth considering!
While they don't have a
reward currency that can be transferred to partners like Chase, Amex, and Citi, they do have a solid offering
with their Flexperks
program, as
well as some decent co-branded cards like those
with Korean
Airlines.
You could use this
program to buy gift cards at Office Supply stores — while you'd normally earn 5X Ultimate
Rewards with Chase Ink card, those don't transfer to American
Airlines miles, so 3X here is still a pretty
good temporary offer.
The
best feature of the Membership
Rewards program is being able to tie your American Express account
with an
airline or hotel loyalty
program.
Our picks for the
best rewards credit cards have
rewards programs for varying card needs, including if you're looking for
airline miles, cash
rewards, cards
with points, or just searching for a card
with no annual fee.
There are dining
programs affiliated
with all the major domestic
airlines, as
well as Hilton HHonors, IHG
Rewards and more.