I signed up for an airline credit card and succeeded in booking a trip using points. I feel like I've beat them at their

[mattkime]

>Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all airline miles credit cards have an annual fee?

They usually do - I cancel it before I incur the fee.

[davester]

wurm wrote:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all airline miles credit cards have an annual fee? Every time I've looked for a new credit card, an annual fee is the first thing that eliminates a candidate. Maybe if we traveled a lot it might be worth it, but for us, it's cash back. I can spend that anywhere.

Many do, but some don't. The ones that do have additional benefits such as free checked baggage trip insurance and double miles for certain categories (the savings realized from that will generally offset the fee). Also, most fee cards waive the fee for the first year. I've also found that if you call them and tell them to cancel the card because you don't want to pay the fee, they will either waive the fee or will provide you with a statement credit for more than the fee (I last week called Alaska Air to cancel my card with $95 fee and they offered me a $175 credit if I kept the card and used it for at least $1500 in purchases over the next three months. A no-brainer decision.

Since I just retired last year, we are catching up on our plans for worldwide travel that were severely cut back during Covid. If you're traveling, it is highly advantageous to have airline miles cards (we've already been to Mexico, Switzerland, England and Tahiti in the last year, not to mention domestic destinations) because they are much more valuable for traveling than cash back cards, especially if you check baggage. We've done a lot of worldwide traveling over the last decade and have only paid cash for flights on very low cost domestic routes where it would be a waste to use miles. The only down side of mileage cards is that you do need to do a small amount of homework and pay attention to managing your miles to get the greatest benefit from them. If you can't do that then by all means get a cash back card. The airlines are gambling on the fact that most people are not willing to do their homework, which is exactly what happens.

My mileage card hero is the pudding guy! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Phil...repreneur)

[wurm]

Fair enough. If we were inclined to travel, I might consider it. But as you said...

The only down side of mileage cards is that you do need to do a small amount of homework and pay attention to managing your miles to get the greatest benefit from them. If you can't do that then by all means get a cash back card.

Some things I don't mind (over)researching, but I'm having enough trouble watching flight prices for one trip I might want to make. After a slew of google price alerts, I turned it off and will likely not even go.

[Buzz]

Cash back, because airline tickets have been free since hooking up with a stewardess over thirty years ago.....
but still periodically have to rethink that miles vs. cash back conundrum.

==

[ka jowct]

I had a really decent air miles card about 20 years ago. You only needed to have enough points to equal the route’s actual round trip distance. I used it a couple of times, it was great. Then, of course, the requirements changed. I still have the card but am thinking of canceling it. I don’t need it and I can’t see myself flying anywhere anytime soon, if ever.