The Cards Worth Carrying in My Wallet — and Those Stuck in My Sock Drawer

Credit cards now represent a plurality of all miles earned, in fact more miles are earned through credit cards than actual butt-in-seat flying. I haven’t seen the numbers recently enough to know whether that remains true if you include class of service bonuses and elite bonuses or not, and airlines don’t generally break out the numbers enough to answer that with certainty.

And credit cards remain the best way to earn miles quickly, if you have strong credit and you pay off your bills in full each month.

As a part of my coverage of the most rewarding card offers for different circumstances, I think it’s important to share with you the cards that I actually carry. That’s good disclosure, and I try to tell you when I write about something that’s good for some people in some circumstances that I don’t have the card myself or that those circumstances aren’t mine.

Plus it gives me the opportunity to walk through the analysis of what I value in each card, whether it’s a keeper for me or just one I got for the bonus. So a pretty good outline of my personal credit card mileage strategy follows. Hopefully you’ll find it useful.

Here are the cards I currently carry in my wallet.

• Chase Sapphire Preferred. This is still the reigning king of all credit cards, it is a Visa so more widely accepted than Amex products. It earns 2 points per dollar on all travel (airfare, hotel, rental car, even tolls and taxis) and for restaurant spending. It provides a 7% annual bonus on points earned, meaning bonus categories really earn 2.14 points per dollar. Those points transfer to several airlines including ones in all three alliances (United, British Airways, Korean Air, Southwest), to several hotel programs (Hyatt, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Priority Club) and to Amtrak. There are no foreign currency transaction fees so it’s great for use abroad. This is a real go-to in my wallet whenever I am not using spending to qualify for the bonus on a new credit card I’ve signed up for. The card comes with a generous 40,000 points after $3000 spend within 3 months.

• Chase Ink Plus. This is a small business credit card, I like that because It’s a whole separate category of cards I can sign up for and earn bonuses. It has what is in my opinion the richest signup bonus in the market at 50,000 points after $5000 spend within 3 months. Just like Sapphire Preferred the points transfer to several airlines including ones in all three alliances (United, British Airways, Korean Air, Southwest), to several hotel programs (Hyatt, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Priority Club) and to Amtrak. The real differentiator here is that it earns 5 points per dollar on telecommunications (such as cell phone, and cable TV charges) and office supplies. I buy gift cards at office supply stores so that I can earn 5 points per dollar on all of my spend, and if I need to cash out a card’s balance I add the funds to Kiva (which I can do with no fee – since Paypal donates the credit card processing), make loans and do good in the world, and then transfer the funds back to my bank account once the loans are repaid. Ink Bold is essentially the same card as Ink Plus but is a charge card (required to pay in full each month) rather than a credit card (can revolve a balance, which you shouldn’t ever do).

• American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card. This is the strongest Membership Rewards-earning card, offering 3 points per dollar on airfare and 2 points on gas and groceries. Signing up for the card comes with 25,000 bonus points after $2000 spend within 3 months. It’s a no brainer for the first year since the annual fee is waived. After that it’s a pricey $175, but I keep the card because I put over $30,000 in airfare on it (for myself and for others of course). And $30,000 spend on the card in a year is worth 15,000 bonus points — points that are themselves worth more than the fee. I then use the points to transfer to airline miles either when there is a transfer bonus (as happens frequently) or for things like transfers to Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, the only realistic way to redeem miles for Singapore first class awards.

• Starwood Preferred Guest American Express. This was the very first card I recommended on this blog back in 2002, and is one I have been carrying for over a decade. Even after all these years it provides outstanding value since the points are great for hotel stays but also to transfer to airlines — with a huge variety of airline partners (more than Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards) and with a built-in bonus where transferring points into 20,000 miles generates a year-round 5000 bonus miles. Effectively with most airlines then you earn 1.25 miles per dollar on all spending. I use this for unbonused spend at merchants that take American Express and that isn’t being used to earn bonuses on new card signups, and it comes with up to 25,000 points as a signup bonus..

• American Express Platinum Card®. I do not put very much spending on this card, I use this card for the benefits. It carries a $450 annual fee but that gets me:
  
  • Lounge access – Delta and American lounges when flying those airlines same day, US Airways lounges any time, and a Priority Pass Select membership that I use to get into Alaska Airlines lounges and also lounges abroad (it got me a shower in the Gol Smiles domestic lounge in Sao Paolo this year, for instance)
    
  • $200 annual airline fee credit and $100 credit for Global Entry expedited immigration
    
  • Gold status in the Starwood Preferred Guest program
    
  • Fine Hotels and Resorts program which can be great for booking higher end and independent hotels with benefits like late checkout, daily breakfast, and an additional amenity usually worth about $100. It’s worth comparing to Virtuoso benefits and in a few cases to Visa Signature hotel benefits.

  The current bonus is 25,000 points after spending $2000 within the first 3 months after signing up, which is also worth the annual fee in and of itself. The first year on the card, between the bonus and fee credits and lounge access, is a no brainer. Time it right and you can even do two fee credits in the first year since it’s per calendar year not cardmember year. Another option with the same benefits and a $25 higher annual fee ($475) but a bigger 50,000 point bonus is the Mercedes-Benz co-branded American Express Platinum.

• Hyatt Visa. I stay at plenty of Hyatts so this card stays in my wallet, even though I pretty much only use it for Hyatt spending which generates 3 points per dollar. That’s arguably better than earning 2.14 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar which can be transferred to Hyatt or to other programs. Although I probably should be putting my domestic Hyatt spend on an American Express business card since starting January OPEN automatic savings on those cards will net a 5% rebate in addition to the Membership Rewards points earned for the spend. I’ll keep the card anyway as the annual free night (up to category 4) is worth more to me than the $75 annual fee, and the card has no foreign currency transaction fees so it’s also great for international Hyatts; something which matches my own spend patterns.

In addition to the cards I’m carrying, I have a stack of open card accounts that I do not carry.

These don’t get much use. In some cases I got the cards just for the bonus but they aren’t rewarding enough once the bonus has been capitalized to justify continued use. Or I keep them for a very narrow purpose. Thus they’re in a secure place at home.

• British Airways Visa. I’ve met the signup bonus requirements, and am waiting for the annual fee to come ’round and will ring them up about a retention bonus. Or I’ll use the credit on this card to trade for getting a new Chase card approved (so they don’t have to extend more credit to me) as part of the cancellation. The British Airways Visa has the biggest headline signup bonus of any card in the market at the moment — up to 100,000 points (50,000 bonus after $1,000 in purchases within the first 3 months; 25,000 after $10,000 in purchases within the first year; an additional 25,000 after an additional $10,000 in purchases so 100k bonus total after $20,000 in spend within the year).

• Diners Club. I keep the card and use it only for car rentals. If I got a United Explorer card I could swap it out because like Diners, United Explorer’s car rental collision damage waiver is primary (most credit cards offer credit card coverage that pays costs associated with damaging a rental car that your insurance won’t pay, primary coverage means they pay and in many cases you don’t even need to notify your insurance company). But I also keep the card for nostalgia. You can’t apply for it anymore. It was once truly class. It also happens to be chip and pin for the very rare occasions in Europe where that’s necessary and mere chip won’t suffice (though you pay foreign currency conversion fees for the privilege).

• Virgin Atlantic American Express. I’ve met the requirements of the bonus, so it’ll be time to cancel this one soon. I’m not a huge Virgin fan but I add to a not insubstantial account balance I’ve achieved through one-day Avis rentals, and will ultimately redeem probably just for an Upper Class roundtrip to London (with extortionate fuel surcharges). Still, decent signup bonuses from Bank of America are strategically useful since you can apply for those at the same time as all of the best offers which tend to come from Chase, American Express, and Citibank. I got the card when the bonus was ‘up to 65,000 miles’ and personally I would wait for a similar offer to come around again rather than getting the card as part of a churn now (even though one can generally get Bank of America bonuses more than once).

• Citi AAdvantage Visa Signature. Keep for 10k annual miles rebate, will get another in a few months (replacing the current one) as they’re usually churnable every 18 months. 50,000 bonus points after $2500 spend within 4 months, no fee the first year. The links are direct to application pages

• United Mileage Plus Select Visa I’m not even sure if you can still apply for this, it’s the old United Visa Signature (and in my case, Visa Signature Gold Class). They push the ‘United Explorer’ card now, but my card is grandfathered into its previous status. I keep it largely for nostalgia purposes, I can’t bring myself to cancel it since it is my oldest credit card. There’s an annual fee but also a retention bonus that covers part of the value.

• Hilton HHonors American Express. This is the free Hilton Amex, and I keep it just for access to AXON awards. I suppose if American Express wouldn’t give me more cards until I cancelled one I might give it up. My credit limit on it is just $1000 since the rest of the card’s credit had long since been moved over to my Starwood Amex. I used to have the Surpass card which gave me Hilton Diamond status after $40,000 in spend but I’ve dropped that card. I have Diamond through the beginning of 2014 already. When I’m ultimately downgraded below HHonors Gold I will get the Citi® Hilton HHonors™ Reserve Card which for a $95 annual fee comes with a signup bonus of 2 free weekend nights at most any Hilton property after $2500 spend within 4 months and comes with Gold elite status (free breakfast, upgrades, free internet) as long as you have the card.

• US Airways Mastercard. This is one of the best signup bonuses at 40,000 points after first purchase, no minimum spend, and fee waived the first year. There’s an $85 fee after that which is worth it for the 10,000 mile annual bonus, mine even posted the month prior to my annual fee. I’m pondering cancelling, though, because it seems in the experience of most that it’s easier to get the card again when you don’t already have one open although certainly some report having more than one US Airways credit card at the same time.

For those considering breaking into my home, I should say that these are not actually in my sock drawer. Instead, they are in a different undisclosed secure location.

Some of the cards in this post do offer referral credit to me if you use my link to apply and are approved. Many do not. In each case I try to highlight the best offer available for the cards that I’ve found worthwhile acquiring myself. And I do appreciate your use of the links when it’s convenient and helpful to you.