Reply to Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Ok, but if I have a 1 or 1.5% cash card, and I only buy discounted hotel rooms in US, and I don't have work travel, how can I really make thousands of surplus dollars of points by having a points card?

It seems to me that 10K of real money is better than 20K worth of points that don't apply during blackout dates or aren't for the right airline.  Or require American Express use.

I'd love some free airline tickets but I'm not convinced I'd end up benefitting greatly from points cards.[/quote]

You can earn points on anything you spend money on, not just travel. Do you eat at restaurants? Buy gas? Shop at the supermarket?[/quote]

PP, yes I do all of those, but mainly groceries.  However...as I recall..when my husband had one of these cards briefly, we were disappointed a few times that large logical purchases ended up getting disqualified because the merchant's category to the credit card company was different/excluded from the promo category.  So, for example, our indie grocery store where we buy half our groceries did not count as grocery. Also we buy very little gas...especially with work from home...despite having two cars. So...let's say $200 a month just as an example.  I understand I could maybe get 5% in points on gas...so $10 in points. Versus $2 in cash.  But across a whole year, I'm up maybe $100 or so in points. But that's not going to get me 4 tickets to Europe any time soon.  Let's maybe imagine I can get maybe 3 other rotating category bonuses...so maybe I could be up $400 per year in points above a cash card.  So...maybe in 12 years or so, I would have earned 4 tickets to Europe at $1,200 apiece in points maybe?  We take vacations every year...

We do not eat at restaurants much either.  Vacation hotels, yes...but we do already get cash back plus some various discount programs.  Does AirBnB count these days?

It just seems like our few tentative steps in this direction did not look favorable in the first few months.  I wonder if conditions have changed enough to try again.  Pure cash back just requires a lot less mental energy.

I think groceries are the only promo category of predictable spend that I have that's worth leveraging.

Also, I have had trouble getting full value out of Delta miles despite living in a Delta hub so I'm not confident that credit card points would get me the tickets I want at a good price in points.  If the point redemption values are a poor deal, then it doesn't matter if you get a multiple of point currency units compared to pure cash back.  I have school kids so I have to vacation at peak times.

I'd be interested in knowing about really good experiences with the point redemption side of credit cards.  Specifically for air tickets.
[/quote]

What is your overall monthly spend on credit cards? There are cards that provide 1.5 points on everything and then additional points on specific categories. But if you don’t spend much each month, then it doesn’t help.

The other problem honestly is Delta. Their miles are worthless. So if you’re trying to fly them on miles, nothing will help you. They aren’t called Skypesos for nothing. [/quote]

Fellow churner: this is the exact kind of person who probably shouldn't be trying to get into using points/miles. They don't have the desire to put in the time/energy to maximize points value, which is totally fine. Not for everyone.

PP- get a 2% cash back card like Citi Double Cash.  Simple and easy. If you ever decide it's worth it for you to get into points/miles, start somewhere like here:

https://frequentmiler.com/start-here/

[/quote]

LOL.  I am PP you are trying to help.  Not crazy about dumping full details of my spend on here but estimate at least 1.6K per month on groceries.  Also have expensive but "no category" stuff like phone and kids franchised math tutoring that never gets promo'd.

I will read through links provided.

I have run across "Skypesos" before and it's appropriate. I spent years accumulating for a big trip, had the perfect trip booked for 4, the pandemic hit, trip got cancelled and post-pandemic could only get 2.5 tix with same amount of miles.  So officially I no longer care about that program.

So which airlines play nice with points cards?

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