Best credit card for aircrew?
 

Hi guys,

What is the best credit card for us? I feel like most airline credit card Reward you with the most miles when tickets are purchased, which we don’t do often since we get to non rev. I would like to get something that through normal purchases get me the best deal on hotels, and also on airfares in situations when I can’t nonrev easily. Thanks! PS I’m fine with annual fee if it is worth it.

Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve for transferable points. Double or triple points for travel expenses (covers a wide range of stuff).

AMEX Platinum if you travel a lot due to the perks and lounge access more than the points.

Hilton cards have huge earning potential, but I’ve been more impressed with the hotels in the Marriott/Starwood/Ritz network.

Check out The Points Guy blog for lots of CC info.

Chase Sapphire Reserve gives 3x points on dining out and I believe the points are worth 50% more when used for travel purchases. So basically spending $1000 on food will give ya $45 towards travel. Additionally there is lounge access with priority pass, if you want to play the controversial game if going into the lounge during long sits with your north face jacket on...

The annual fee is very steep at $450 but it comes with $300 in travel credit reimbursement and which I believe can be used towards hotels or Uber’s. Also global entry. One nice thing about this credit card as well as the cheaper chase sapphire preferred is that they act primary rental car insurance, meaning you can rent a car without having personal insurance... eg if u live in a big city.

Thanks for the reply. I have heard alot about Chase Sapphire Reserve, it def sounds like I can't go wrong with it. One question though,do we get priority passess without seat assignment, if so, do lounges allow it? I never noticed it as I always show up at the gate and get one with a seat assignment through the gate agent, but by then it's definitely too late to enjoy the lounge unless if I get cleared really early correct? I will have to airport ready reserve pretty soon, I can't say I haven't dreamed about hanging out at the lounge all day while at it.

Does anyone use any of the CCs that are attached to hotel brands? My wife and I travel a lot and one thing I miss about life outside of 121 is getting to keep all of my Hilton points and using them for essentially free vacations. I was looking at some of the credit cards that build points for the respective brands but I’ve never been a bit CC person in general. Any recommendations for one of those?

I think the bottom line is it varies... priority pass isn’t it’s own lounge they use others’ lounges or even a credit at restaurants so rules will vary tremendously.

There’s a few that should be in your wallet;

Ducks unlimited; 5% off gas at pump

Uber credit card; 4% off all food, restaurants, fast food, and bars
3% off hotels and air bnb as well

Citi double cash - 2% off all purchases all categories no limit

The platinum preferred and chase sapphire are great if you can justify the lounge access or have a great sign up bonus but will fall short if you can’t use the benifts to the max.

Hotel credit card points usually are worth less then half a cent per dollar spent which is .5%. Not always the best way to make your money work for you.

This is going to vary lounge to lounge and person working to person. Some are super strict and will look for specific items on your boarding pass. Others don’t even ask to see one.

Usually it works best for arrivals since you already have your seat assignment.

Even the ones that don’t require confirmed seats are cracking down by monitoring if you actually try to get on a flight you listed for.

Also, priority pass can be denied early if a lounge is near capacity.

I use the Hilton Amex and its pretty good. No annual fee and earned 80,000 points for spending $1,000 in the first 3 months.

Airlines will frown on on-duty crew-members using their premium lounges. You'd have to wear civvies and somehow de-identify your luggage (probably need generic, non-crew style luggage). If you do it on reserve eventually the staff would probably notice that you hang out there a lot and the gig would be up.

Major airline crew lounges are usually pretty nice. Regional lounges not as much.