BootsnAll Travel Community

Hello folks,

I'm currently using a Citibank American Airlines card, which has a $50 annual fee. I use the card for everything I can, and pay it off every month.

I was seduced by the free mileage (25,000), but don't know if I'll be spending enough to really make the card worth the annual fee. If I'm only earning around 3000 miles per year, is the card worth it?

Call 'em...

I have, in the past, called and had the fee waived when I threaten to cancel, or been given bonus miles for renewing.

You can always cancel the card - re-apply in a month or two - get the card back for another year for free PLUS the bonus miles. It's a pretty common practice....be aware though, if your credit score isn't in the 690 or above range, this practice can have detrimental affects on you score...even still, if you only have one or two inquiries in a year, and a fairly good score to begin with, these inquiries will have negligible affect.

Citibank also has a business card which offers the 25,000 mile bonus and first year free. You can apply for that - just use your SSN as the taxpayer number...get approved for that card, cancel the personal one..

lots of tricks to beating the fee. So the short answer is that the fee is NEVER worth it.

Do you know anyone that has applied for the business card that doesn't own a business?

I looked at the application page, and they want a business name, yearly income, etc. I suppose I could fudge it all, but I'm one of those scardy cats that's always worried about getting caught in a lie

I considered getting one of those credit cards, but decided it was silly for us. We don't fly that much any more - mostly just travel by bicycles, and we don't know when we will fly. And I haven't had a whole lot of luck in the past getting tickets when I wanted them with my points.

Now we just got an REI Visa card with no annual fee and we get 1% of all purchases back plus 5% of all REI purchases back. They give it to us as a dividend to spend at REI, but we can request a check if we want it.

I'd rather have the cash than a plane ticket any day!!

quote:

Originally posted by nancy sv:


I'd rather have the cash than a plane ticket any day!!

AAARRGGH! Blasphemy I say!

Well, it's all in the math. If you're collecting enough point for an overseas flight roughly every 10 years (costing you $500 in fees), you're probably breaking even. That said, at that rate, you might be better off with a cash back card and stick it in a savings account.

I recommend getting a job with an expense account. I usually pull in about 300-500 points every month off stuff that I'm not actually paying for. Add in my own spending and I'm usually in the 1000 points per month range. Domestic flight every 2 years, international every 4.

quote:

Originally posted by 2wanderers:
Well, it's all in the math. If you're collecting enough point for an overseas flight roughly every 10 years (costing you $500 in fees), you're probably breaking even.

OK. Help me out with the math here.

Overseas flights are usually over $1000. in low season on major carriers(the ones who have mileage programs) at least from CA. In a month or two, they will be more like $1500. And, they are going up rapidly. How do you figure the break-even at $500?

quote:

Overseas flights are usually over $1000. in low season on major carriers(the ones who have mileage programs) at least from CA. In a month or two, they will be more like $1500. And, they are going up rapidly. How do you figure the break-even at $500?

Well, my number may have been conservative, but you have to remember that points only save you the base fare. You still have to pay the taxes and, with some airlines, fuel surcharge. If you're watching for seat sales, I'm sure you can still find some overseas flights with base fares in the $500-$600 range, even from the west coast.

Still, if where you want to go is going to be $1000 base fare, you only have to earn a flight every 20 years to break even on the card.

The opportunity cost (points as opposed to cash back or other programs) gets tricky, though.