“With that same spend, some mileage-earning checking accounts and a few more credit card applications between your spouse or travel partner and you …”

My family doesn’t use a cash back card at all because we highly value international travel in business and first class, so we get more value out of applying for and putting all our spend on travel rewards cards. We rarely travel domestically, and when we do, a cash ticket (paid for with a card earning 3X points) is usually a better value for us than redeeming points for it. I usually advise my clients to aim for at least 3 cents per mile/point in redemption value for domestic tickets, and of course much higher than that for international premium class tickets.

I would definitely caution you agains closing a credit card too early, since some cards do have clauses that stipulate that the miles or points can be taken back if you close the card within 6 months or another time frame. So my advice is to keep the card open for at least 9 months before you consider either asking for a retention bonus/fee waiver, downgrading to a no annual fee card or closing the card. If you close it, don’t forget to move your credit line over to another card from the same issuer, since large credit lines help you maintain low utilization of credit, which helps your credit score.

the idea of a travel card is say you wanted an NYC to LA ticket which is normally $275 but the dates you want it is $350, you can use 25,000 mile and book it. obviously black out dates and other things come into play. or a last minute ticket you can buy for 50,000 miles and would cost $700 cash. it is all relative to how you spend and what your goals are. don’t want to see the rest of the US or the world? then just use a cash back card.

Miles are a fiat currency that the airline or hotel holds for you in an account with your name on it.

You keep the miles, even if you cancel the card.

All airline-specific cards hold the miles with the airline. American Express and Chase both have their own proprietary programs, where the bank itself actually holds the miles for you. But the strength of both programs is that they both have a substantial number of partners where you can transfer your miles to.

What’s much better in my view is to leverage the best transfer opportunities of programs such as Chase Ultimate Rewards (points transfer 1:1 to several airline and hotel programs, with United and Hyatt as the best value uses) and AMEX Membership Rewards, which also transfers 1:1 to several airline and hotel programs, with my favorite being Singapore Airlines.

On the earnings front, you want to ensure you’re getting 2X-5X or more for most spend in a worthwhile program, and not just 1 point per $1.

If you don’t actually travel a lot but want to collect travel points, a lot of these cards aren’t worth more than 1 or 2% cashback.

A good travel card option for general spending (not at hotels or on airlines) is the AMEX Starwood preferred card. Depending on how you redeem the points, they can be equivalent to over 3 or even over 4 % cash back, especially if you find a cash+points deal. Booking with points can even keep you from getting burned by foreign exchange rates. Of course, the SPG card has a $65 annual fee and isn’t very good for spending in foreign countries, as it has a foreign transaction fee. Further, you have to be satisfied staying at starwood properties, which aren’t an option at every destination. There is the flexibility to transfer to airline miles, but airline miles are generally not as valuable as starpoints.

Personally, I use the AMEX blue cash card for gas and groceries, amazon card at drugstores and amazon.com and restaurants, and starwood for anything else. It takes me longer to accumulate rewards on any one card, but my overall rewards are maximized. I was thinking about adding in a Discover IT card as well (a good idea if you plan on traveling to Korea, Japan, etc). All of these except the SPG card has no annual fee. Also thinking about adding a Venture Card for no foreign transaction fees.

For me to upgrade to more premium cards e.g. AMEX Gold or add more travel cards I would have to spend substantially more or start traveling a whole lot more.

http://www.kidsmeetworld.com/2012/08/rtw-with-air-miles-math.html

I can see benefits to points/miles cards if you use the signing bonuses…but I have enough credit cards open…I’m working on increasing my average account age so I don’t want to close them and open new ones.

I have looked at a lot of the travel cards as well as the cash ones and agree with the poster about the cash cards being much better return. The caviat here is if you get paid to travel for work, then these programs can be useful. The biggest thing though isn’t to try to maximize spending on your credit card to maximize the number of points etc.. . But to minimize spending to save more $. Getting .01-.05 back on a dolar spent really isn’t worth a whole lot of effort!!!

It’s worth a ton of money so stop whining and start with her blog and go from there.

This last year my spouse and I have flown free to New England, Europe, Florida and the Pacific Northwest. We have had 9 free hotel nights. These were all from sign up bonuses and we have more plans this year.

We don’t pay a nickel in interest and have excellent credit scores.

The biggest thing about miles and points with credit cards is you have to have a good credit score and never ever carry a balance.You also have see value in opening multiple credit cards. I have opened 11 new credit cards in the last year. My credit score did drop slightly but moving from 785 to 770 really does not make a difference. I am not planning on any new loans in the next year.