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.

I've had the Chase Sapphire Reserve for about 3 months, and I really like it. I'm a commuter and frequent pass traveler, so I hit the $300 travel credit in the first month. The 3x points are nice, too. I've earned 3x at my commuter airport's parking office, as well as when reloading my Starbucks and Caribou cards. As for the lounge access, I haven't tried it, but the fine print does say one needs to have a boarding pass for a confirmed seat, or something to that effect. Like everyone else said, YMMV.

My local bank debit card which gives 3% on all purchases...for a total monthly purchase amount of $500 ($15 cashback max).

When I bust that, capital one @ 1.5% or my Amazon prime card (varies depending on category).

No annual fees on any of them. The Prime one is a Visa Signature, if that means anything. The credit cards have no international fees.

I also use Samsung Pay whenever possible. Redeem later for "gift" cash cards that I spend using Samsung Pay.

Tempted to get a 2% cashback on everything card, but those all seems to have international transaction fees.

Amex blue cash preferred.

You get all the benefits of Amex plus 2% cash back.

In the end that's all you really need.

Depending on the card, Membership to respective airline premium lounges are included, without requiring a seat assignment. AMEX platinum and other generic lounges do require a seat assignment to enter.

Civvies are a requirement for entry (and company ID not visible), however no restrictions on luggage...

NOT recommended while on duty (might even be prohibited but folks should do their own research on the terms of the card/club membership), but not an issue changing in the crew room after a trip and heading over to the airline premium lounge while you wait to commute home, or while you're non-revving if you've got a card that has a membership included.

Outside of my airline lounge pass card, the card I use most is the Fidelity rewards card which gives you 2% into a fidelity account (IRA or brokerage etc.). I use it to help fund my IRA yearly.

Far from all Amex benefits. You don't get half the insurance, lounge access, Global Entry reimbursement etc benefits.

It's a good card, but won't replace an Amex Platinum or Centurion.

Amex does not require a seat assignment to enter.
Not for the Amex Centurion lounges, or Skyclub, or Priority Pass via Amex.

Apparently, “metal escalation” has rendered a mere gold card the mark of a peasant. I must obtain a plutonium card! :p

I'm also a fan of the Chase Sapphire Reserve. I got in on the deal when they were offering 100,000 chase ultimate points. Both my wife and I signed up for it and with just one sign up bonus, we got a free Mediterranean cruise with a balcony out of the deal. Still have the points from the other sign up bonus. Chase points are very valuable because you can transfer them to a couple of other companies. One of the best uses for them is through Hyatt. We don't stay at hotels too oftern (usually do VRBO) but we have used them in Fort Lauderdale where hotels are a little pricey. Got a room that they wanted $250 plus tax for only 8,000 points (cash value of $80). There was no tax either.

The Sapphire Preferred is also a good card if the $450 annual fee scares you away. I usually keep a card for 1 year and then cancel it if it has an annual fee. Everyone believes your credit score tanks when you do that but I sign up for about 2 cards a year and my credit score is well above 800. Yes, it goes down about 10 points after you cancel but it goes back up after a few months.

One of the great hotel cards out there is the IHG card. A few months ago it was one of my favorite cards but they recently changed it. It's still a good card but no where what it was before. I never use it besides for one purchase a year (to keep my IHG points from expiring) but you get an annual hotel stay up to 40,000 points for free (minus the annual fee of $89). It's a nice perk when you travel internationally where the IHG hotels are usually better.

With the old IHG card, you got a stay at any IHG property for only a $49 annual fee. Both my wife and I have these cards so we get a free weekend every year. We stayed at the Intercontinental Paris next to the opera house. It was a 450 euro per night and for the $49 annual fee, we got to stay there.

Another decent card is the AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite. Most cards you need to spend $3000-4000 dollars in the first 3 months to get the promotion sign up bonus. With this card, you just need to purchase 1 thing of any value and pay the $95 annual fee and then you get 50,000 miles. If you work with AA or one of their regionals, you also get 20% off flights when booking with points.

As you can probably tell, I'm mostly into sign up bonuses with cards. Yes, getting 3-4% is nice for certain categories but you can get a lot of points very quickly with the sign up bonuses.

Nice thing about plutonium cards. If you have enough of them, they will keep your behind warm and will even nicely glow in the dark.

What if a hard landing butt-compressed them to a critical density? :eek:

Interesting, Good to know. I’d heard the opposite from several users in the past.

Sky club and most priority pass lounges do not require a seat assignment but centurion lounges do and are usually pretty strict on it

https://thecenturionlounge.com/info/access

Good news it is extremely hard to detonate plutonium. The reason the Trinity Blast was done at Alamogordo, NM on July 16, 1945 was to ensure the very complicated conventional explosive lenses work to set it off, rather than fizzle out like a fireworks dud. (I am serious about this.)

(I am not a nuclear physicist, but I stayed at a Holiday Express last night.)

Maybe it depends on the staff at the individual lounge. I’ve been to a Skyclub that definitely wanted to see a Delta boarding pass and I’m fairly certain that the Centurion lounge in Miami wanted to see a boarding pass as well, but I’m not 100% certain on that one.

That's gonna leave a mark... :eek::D

Ok, I've been lucky then, I've only used the Centurion lounges a few times though with a standby ticket, but I've never had issues entering the lounge with a ZED boarding pass.

When you say "boarding pass", I get a normal boarding pass when I'm listed on standby on a ZED fare? It just doesn't have a seat allocation. Are ZED tickets different with this?

Yes, the card number may be transferred by nuclear tattoo. It will allow you to make future purchases by simply mooning a scanner. :D

Costco Citi
4% Gas
3% Restrurants
2% anything from Costco. (Travel, online and so on)
1% Everything else.

No annual fee

It has nothing to do with the AmEx policy. The boarding pass policy is a Delta policy that requires you show a boarding pass or seat request ticket for travel on Delta for that day. Some lounges enforce that policy more than others, but it is a Delta policy nonetheless.

Seat Request Tickets (standby travel) work as well.

So back to the original question.

I would say the card(s) you want are ones with the possibility of transfer to multiple different hotels and airlines. The main players in that arena are Chase Ultimate Rewards points, American Express Membership Rewards, and Citi for TYP. There are others, but let's stick with the major players.

I might recommend UR for your purposes initially. If you are new to the credit card points game then it is the logical place to start based on a rule known as 5/24. That is a Chase rule designed to stop credit card "churning". It limits anyone from getting approved for many of the Chase cards if you have applied for, and been successful, in obtaining 5 or more credit cards (from any bank) in the last 24 months.

The reason that is important is that there quite a large number of good Chase cards to get. URs are a very versatile currency. The list of transfer partners can be found with a simple search. There are 9 airline partners and 4 hotel partners. Hyatt was mentioned above and is a good value for hotel bookings.

UR earning cards include:

Chase Sapphire Reserve
Chase Sapphire Preferred
Chase Freedom
Chase Freedom Unlimited
Chase Ink Business Preferred

What I might suggest is getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred primarily because the initial bonus of 50,000 points is reasonable right now and because it is a lower annual fee (waived the first year). At the one year point downgrade it to a no annual fee Freedom or Freedom Unlimited then wait for a good sign on bonus for the Sapphire Reserve (greater than 60,000 points). In the meantime you can also get a Chase Ink Business Preferred for another 80,000 points bonus if you want to build points quickly.

The Freedom has a good rotating points bonus system that allows one to earn in various categories each quarter. The Freedom Unlimited is a straight 1.5 points/$ spent or 1.5% cash back.

The advantage of the CSR over the CSP is a higher value for points when booing through the Chase travel portal. 1.5 cents/point versus 1.25 cents/point. Also the other benefits previously mentioned for a slightly higher effective annual fee of $150 versus $9

Other good Chase cards are the Chase IHG (mentioned above) and the Chase Marriott for their annual free night certificates.

The Amazon visa has 5% back at amz.com, and wholefoods.

I've had an ALPA Mastercard for over 15 years. It was originally issued by Household Bank, then they were acquired by Capital One. No annual fee and 1.5% cash back on everything from day one. I charge everything and pay it in full each month. Can't remember the last time I had to get cash from an ATM.

I think the cash back beats most hotel/airline cards. The wife and I do about $50K/year on the card which gives us $750 cash back.

I've seen some posts on this thread about 2% cash back cards. Do those have annual fees and how widely accepted are they?

If anyone uses a debit card, you need to watch this video by Frank Abagnale (Catch Me if You Can). It was made just last year. The first half is him talking about his life (funny stories when he starting impersonating a Pam Am pilot), the 2nd half is Q&A where he gives out some good info. Short version is never use a debit card, and use credit cards to pay for everything. He says passwords will be obsolete in 5 years. He still works for the FBI, has over 40 years with them now.

https://youtu.be/vsMydMDi3rI

Citi Double Cash - 2% on every purchase - no restrictions , no annual fee, 100 dollar sign up bonus

It’s a mastercard and accepted everywhere

I read the info, sounds good except I don't see anywhere that it's a Mastercard. May have to call them and see which credit bureau I'd have to unfreeze my credit with. Equifax is incompetent, nearly impossible to deal with but the other two are easy, one phone call and I can lift the credit freeze for a period of time.

CSR $450 annual fee. You get $300 back for travel credits. What about the other $150/yr? Don't say that global pass thing, that's about a $100 for 5 yrs. So what are you wasting $150/yr for?

I don't know, just thousands of dollars worth of Ultimate Rewards points earned every year just for using the card to pay for things I would have spent money on either way. The card more than pays for itself.


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Example:

https://www.thesimpledollar.com/cred...-fee-worth-it/

Since we travel ALL the time, you will spend more than $5000 a year on travel (to include restaurants). For the Reserve, for an extra $50, It also comes with the Priority Pass membership which, in many airports, is a statement credit at restaurants, up to $30 per person. You get 3x points vs 2x points and an extra 25% bonus upon redemption.

But what's that math work out to? Earning points, well it seems like you get 1 pt on the "everything else" category, 3% on travel type. As opposed to some other cards out there like the one that's just 2% cash with no annual fee. So how does it even compare, considering you first have to 'pay' the $150 annual fee remaining before winning over a cash back 2% card?


I plugged in my values, I still don't see how it's worth it over a 1.5-2% cash back with no annual fee:

https://i.postimg.cc/dVW5pCkL/Untitled.png

Best credit card for aircrew?
 

I guess it just depends on what fits for you personally. As many others have mentioned on a another thread on topic, there are multitudes of ways that the card makes up for the measly $150 fee (after the $300 for travel compensation) per year that you feel you may be shorted. I average crediting at least 9000-10000 points per month on points in which the vast majority is accrued at 3x what I paid. Add that up and if you redeem that on other travel expenses, it's an extra 1.5. Not to mention if you use priority pass just 3 times over the course of a year at restaurants with your wife at various airports while you travel, that's another $168 you saved that more than covers the $150 you're so concerned about.

Also, if you just want cash back, guess what? You can do that as well. Check it out on The Points Guy or other similar websites and I think you'll find that the benefits are vast.