PP^^ here. The Citibank premier also doesn't have any foreign currency exchange fees when you use it abroad.

We have the Citibank Premier which allows you to accrue "ThankYou points." We get double and triple points on some purchases but I can't remember what. The Thank You points center has all sorts of way to redeem points. We use it exclusively for travel and I book the reservation directly on their website. Also, if you don't have enough points for the entire trip, you can book it and pay the difference.

For example, we just booked a trip to Orlando from DCA and we needed to pay $54. Last year we went to Spain and we didn't have enough for both flights so we ended up paying around 1000 for the two tickets in addition to spending our miles. We also went skiing in April and we spent the points and paid around 300.

I think the Capital One rewards might work the same way. They have a travel center where you can book using your points. My dad has that card.

Chase Sapphire was great for us. On the whole we don't use credit cards but we each got one, racked up 3K in 3 months, and got 40,000. My husband did his right after I hit my 3K. Tucked them back away and now have quite a few miles saved up for our next R&R back to the states!

If your goal is rapid accrual, look for the card with the best bonus. Also consider which airlines fly the routes you want. For example, from the Dulles, United has lots of direct flights to Europe. You could sign up for the United credit card, which comes with a 30,000 mile bonus, or you could sign up for the Chase Sapphire preferred, which comes with a 40,000 point bonus (you can transfer the Chase points to United). I would go with Chase, not only for more points, but also because if using the miles doesn't work out for your trip to Europe, you will have more choices of how to use them. And frankly, redeeming miles for a summer flight to Europe is not the easiest thing to do, so you may be glad you have other options at your disposal.

OP here: Thanks!

sapphire preferred works well for me. can transfer to lots and lots of programs on a 1:1 basis. We just spent our miles on biz class to asia.

Bump! I am interested in this too.

I just applied for the Delta Skymiles AMEX and the Citi AAdvantage because I live overseas now and these are the two carriers with daily flights from here to the States. I wanted the miles that come with opening an account and they both offer 30K miles if you spend $500 (Delta)/$1000(AA) in the next 3 months.

I would look at which carriers fly to where you're planning to go and which tend to be cheaper...that tends to be American Airlines for me.

NP- you guys were seriously helpful on what CCs have the best cash back/rewards. [I am not the OP of that thread]. Which CCs are the best for accruing $ for flights?
looking to fly our family to Europe next summer...

Thanks.