03-05-2015, 05:10 PM
For those talking about expiring miles, annual fees, and blackout dates, there are ways around those things.
First of all, miles don't expire unless you add zero miles over an 18 month period for pretty much any of the cards. There are tons of ways to add miles, so even if you have a somewhat inactive account it only takes about a $5 purchase to refresh it for another 18 months.
Annual fees are almost always waived for the first year on rewards cards. Also, I've had good luck calling them at the end of each year and saying "I charge tons of purchases to your card and I'm going to cancel it and get another card if you don't waive the fee". They usually either waive the fee or give me a credit (last time one of my cards gave me a $100 credit even though the fee was only $60).
I've never had any issue with blackout dates. They are few and far between. Only the really important holidays are blacked out, and then for my United miles they are only blacked out for the "saver fares". I can still fly on those holidays if I use the more miles to buy a non-"saver fare" ticket.
I will say that if you only fly domestically then miles cards aren't worth it and stick to cash back or other rewards. However, if like me you love to travel and see the world then miles cards make a huge difference. If you do this, educate yourself to the big bonus offers you get by getting new credit cards (typically 30k to 50k miles) and to the different ways you can use them. For example, United allows one free stopover and two open jaws on a single RT ticket (this means you could fly to Turkey, find your own way (e.g. ferry or train) to Greece, fly from Greece to Spain, find your own way to France, then fly home from Paris, all for the price (60,000 miles) of one R/T saver ticket. We did almost this exact itinerary last summer.
First of all, miles don't expire unless you add zero miles over an 18 month period for pretty much any of the cards. There are tons of ways to add miles, so even if you have a somewhat inactive account it only takes about a $5 purchase to refresh it for another 18 months.
Annual fees are almost always waived for the first year on rewards cards. Also, I've had good luck calling them at the end of each year and saying "I charge tons of purchases to your card and I'm going to cancel it and get another card if you don't waive the fee". They usually either waive the fee or give me a credit (last time one of my cards gave me a $100 credit even though the fee was only $60).
I've never had any issue with blackout dates. They are few and far between. Only the really important holidays are blacked out, and then for my United miles they are only blacked out for the "saver fares". I can still fly on those holidays if I use the more miles to buy a non-"saver fare" ticket.
I will say that if you only fly domestically then miles cards aren't worth it and stick to cash back or other rewards. However, if like me you love to travel and see the world then miles cards make a huge difference. If you do this, educate yourself to the big bonus offers you get by getting new credit cards (typically 30k to 50k miles) and to the different ways you can use them. For example, United allows one free stopover and two open jaws on a single RT ticket (this means you could fly to Turkey, find your own way (e.g. ferry or train) to Greece, fly from Greece to Spain, find your own way to France, then fly home from Paris, all for the price (60,000 miles) of one R/T saver ticket. We did almost this exact itinerary last summer.