United is the "Cheapest" as far as using flyer miles is concerned. You can get a round trip ticket to europe for 60,000 flyer miles. That's basically $600 worth of reward points. Most tickets to Europe are around $1000, so it's definitely better to use a miles card then to get a cash back card and buy it yourself.
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I think there's a $600 balance on it right now. (I'd previously run the balance up to $17K, but paid it off specifically to avoid paying interest over the next 10 months or so.)
How do you get "free money" from 0% APR balance transfers?
I hate to bring the bad news to you but the new requirement is coming. United will require about 50% more miles to redeem tickets from what I read.
For example: a coach round trip ticket from US to Asia was about 65K miles, now it will be about 90K miles or so.
Read this and weep = http://www.usatoday.com/story/today...eded-for-many-frequent-flier-tickets/3344437/
United is the "Cheapest" as far as using flyer miles is concerned. You can get a round trip ticket to europe for 60,000 flyer miles. That's basically $600 worth of reward points. Most tickets to Europe are around $1000, so it's definitely better to use a miles card then to get a cash back card and buy it yourself.
In the last 5 years I've redeemed two round trip tickets to Italy, two round trip tickets to Hawaii, 2 round trip tickets to california, and I have enough points now for two round trip tickets to Europe again.
Chase United Explorer has (or used to have) a sign up bonus of 45,000 miles, which means you only need another 15,000 for a ticket to Europe.
My wife and I usually spend around 30-40K/year on our credit card, which gives us 40,000 miles + I think they give you another 10,000 if you spend over $20K in a year.
I usually rack up another 30-40K miles/year from work travel.
I hate to bring the bad news to you but the new requirement is coming. United will require about 50% more miles to redeem tickets from what I read.
For example: a coach round trip ticket from US to Asia was about 65K miles, now it will be about 90K miles or so.
Read this and weep = http://www.usatoday.com/story/today...eded-for-many-frequent-flier-tickets/3344437/
I'm up to 3 now. Keep getting roped in by the promotions they offer but I'd be stupid not to get 10% off and interest-free financing on something expensive I planned to buy anyway.
I always imagine there's someone at the credit card company being personally disappointed they earn $0 from my account. There probably isn't though.
This...and for everyone who does that properly there are dozens who don't pay it off in time or miss a payment and end up paying through the nosethey still get to sell all your account information to third parties, though, so there's some profit.
Thats only really true for Star Alliance redemptions. And I don't know where the your 90k came from. RT coach to Asia 75, 80 and 85k
http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/news/United_Award_Chart_2012-03-03.pdf
http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/news/United-Award-Chart-02-01-14.pdf
If you can stay on United and not fly partners your increases will be around 5-10%. If you go through partners though it can be as high as 80%
I'm up to 3 now. Keep getting roped in by the promotions they offer but I'd be stupid not to get 10% off and interest-free financing on something expensive I planned to buy anyway.
I always imagine there's someone at the credit card company being personally disappointed they earn $0 from my account. There probably isn't though.
http://milecards.com/7599/a-comparison-of-uniteds-new-and-old-award-charts/
According to that a Saver ticket was 60,000, and will still be 60,000 to Europe. Hopefully that site is accurate. It doesn't look too bad for most saver awards.
United is the "Cheapest" as far as using flyer miles is concerned. You can get a round trip ticket to europe for 60,000 flyer miles. That's basically $600 worth of reward points. Most tickets to Europe are around $1000, so it's definitely better to use a miles card then to get a cash back card and buy it yourself.
In the last 5 years I've redeemed two round trip tickets to Italy, two round trip tickets to Hawaii, 2 round trip tickets to california, and I have enough points now for two round trip tickets to Europe again.
Chase United Explorer has (or used to have) a sign up bonus of 45,000 miles, which means you only need another 15,000 for a ticket to Europe.
My wife and I usually spend around 30-40K/year on our credit card, which gives us 40,000 miles + I think they give you another 10,000 if you spend over $20K in a year.
I usually rack up another 30-40K miles/year from work travel.
No matter what, you want to collect amex points. You can convert them to star alliance points (I'm with aeroplan), or to avios, amongst others (starwood, delta etc).
From your link (2nd one), 40K per leg from US to South Asia or 80K round trip for coach seat.
The new number came directly from UA website. I checked for 1 round trip from US to a medium size airport in Asia and it was 90K miles (30K from US to that market and 60K to fly back to US). The same ticket would be 60K to 65K or so last year.
The new higher mile requirements are not fully being implement in all markets yet. I can't just fly UA only from US to Asia. I will have to switch to either Japan Air, Nippon, Eva, etc. when I am out of the US and into smaller markets/airports in Asia.
I don't think that is true either. There really is no 'best' program and I say that as an avid MR point collector. They have their strengths (except Delta ) and weakness so it depends on where you want to go and what you want to do. Amex MR has some great short haul US domestic options if you can find AA space or great options to Ireland and Spain. Unfortunately most of your other Trans atlantic or Pacific options come with really high fuel surcharges. ANA does have some potential but can be tricky to work
IMO their hotel redemptions are lackluster. Nothing really compares to Chase UR's Hyatt 1:1 transfer rate. If there is a Hyatt where you want to go this is almost certainly a far better option than MR Hotel options.
Chase also gives you access to United which, while it doesn't always have the best redemption rate, they typically have great availability options and almost no fuel charges.
Thats why its higher then. As I mentioned if you involve a partner then its going to cost notably more. Travel on United metal only isn't changing that much so its not fair to say 'United is going to require 50% more miles to redeem tickets'. There are a number of options that haven't changed at all (although not the most attractive ones)
I hate to bring the bad news to you but the new requirement is coming. United will require about 50% more miles to redeem tickets from what I read.
For example: a coach round trip ticket from US to Asia was about 65K miles, now it will be about 90K miles or so.
Read this and weep = http://www.usatoday.com/story/today...eded-for-many-frequent-flier-tickets/3344437/
Nope. Best deal to Europe is Aer Lingus from Boston to Dublin. 40k avios points for round trip business class. Yes, business class.
No matter what, you want to collect amex points. You can convert them to star alliance points (I'm with aeroplan), or to avios, amongst others (starwood, delta etc).
A few times a year, amex has a conversion bonus. Normally it's 1 amex point = 1 avios, but occasionally they have 30%, 40%, or 50% bonus during the year.
My friend converted ~27k amex points to 40k avios and went round trip business class to Europe. That's roughly equivalent to $270.
One other thing: amex points work like cash. If you find a trip for $1000, you can use 100k points and not pay a dime. With air mile type programs, you usually still have to pay the taxes and fees. I flew my wife from London to Vancouver for the holidays, paid 100k miles and still had to shell out $650 in fees and taxes. Still beat paying $2200 for the ticket though.