The Hotel points/Airline miles game
 

As a new hire at CS, I'm looking forward to racking up the points and miles.... any of you veterans out there have any advice on how I can maximize the accrual of said benefits? In other words, should I get an airline milage credit card and charge all hotel rooms on the road with it or get a hotel points credit card and rack 'em up that way; if I need more airline miles to take my family on vacation, I can then convert the points into miles? What's more valuable? If the hotel card is the way to go, which one....? I have heard of guys carrying a book full of cards to charge the hotel on that card.... is this practical? Thanks in advance....

Dunno how the fractional guys do it, but I keep a Marriott and Hilton credit card. When I stay at one or the other, I use the corresponding card- that way you get bonus points.

THe airline miles should rack up quickly enough for you if you're commuting back and for from the plane each trip.

The AMEX HHonors card is the best one hands down. If you like cash better, the AMEX Blue Cash card is the best rewards card period if you do the math on the reward/dollar charged ratio. And I don't even like AMEX. It's just that MC/Visa will not come up with anything close to these two choices. You will also have to search for them on the web. They are not advertised well.

I agree about Amex if you would like the option to convert points to cash or use it for anything other than airline points, etc. Personally, I use the Southwest card because my family and I fly them a lot to other family. I've averaged a free round trip flight every 2 months because I use the card for all hotel stays and most hotel chains allow double dipping with hotel points and points/miles on an airline of your choice.

It all depends upon
 

the contract that your company and the hotel sign!
We have only 2 places in our domestic system where we can get Hilton points. In one of our contracted hotels in asia (NARITA HILTON) we can't even get Hilton points on incidentals:eek:
fbh

I appreciate all that have responded, but I realize I should have been a little more specific about the "veterans" I was asking. Being CS is a fractional, I was wondering about those who have been in the frac industry a while.... seeing how the majority of the airlines do not let their pilots keep any points due to negotiated rates. So all those at CS, NJA, Flex, FLOPS and Avantair, give me the low down. Thanks again, especially about the AMEX... I'll check into it.

I primarily use the Skymiles Amex. I hate to pay for a credit card but with the platinum card you get medallion qualification miles. This gets you to elite status faster so that you can get bonus miles and free upgrades. This has made it worth it to me.

The fractionals don't have hotel contracts because we don't use hotels in the same cities every night as the airlines do. We (our employers) pay alot more for the room, so we get the points.

At Flex, hotel charges must be charged to the company's card. You get the points for staying, but not for charging (unless you pay $75 to join the rewards program - not a good investment). We have very few other charges, especially as FO, so I would not worry about points from the charge card.

Just get membership cards in all the hotel and airline programs. For airlines, pick one of the shared programs: United/USAirways; Delta/Continental/Northwest. You don't want to split the miles up more than necessary. And enjoy. I've got almost 20,000 airline miles since the first of the year.

In regards to NetJets, that statement is 100% wrong. We have negotiated rates with the top tier hotels nationwide. We also have blocked rooms/floors in (our) major cities. Loyalty benefits have always been given to the pilots and the provision has been included in the 2007 CBA.

Has NetJets mandated the use of the company credit card?