TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Booked my return from SXM today

Was able to book our return on Miles with AA for a Saturday departure at 12:15 pm to CLT-SEA getting home around 8:40 pm same day if all goes well. We usually come home on a Friday with miles but miles were the same for FC on Saturday and that earlier CLT flight wasn't listed for a Friday which would have us arriving around 11:00 pm.

Have a safe trip.

Thanks. This is for our May 2026 trip. Guess I should have included that in title or post.

Obviously the fares in May are far different from those in November. I've never been able to use miles from Eastern NC to SXM. Miles are over 100K each for FC.

Ours were 95k pp one way.

Gotcha. I'll have to build more up!

And our total cost for both of us was $183.48.

Booked our May return as well. 8,000 miles per person. Second class.

Which I guess is better than no class.

So how much money do you need to put on cc to accumulate that many miles?

I'm not exactly sure the number of miles to get 8,000 points but most point cards give 3 points for one dollar on select items such as groceries or/and gas and 1for1 for everything else.

We put everything on a card. As long as you pay it in full it works to add up points. Two years ago we used points for rt for 2 people from BOS. Last year got a good fare so didn't use points and next trip (2026)is another great deal for under a grand so didn't use points. Probably will use them for 2027 God willing.

I may be guilty of pimping here, but I won't name the actual card, lol. We find airline miles are very hard to use, so we use a cash back card instead. As Ro says, put everything on the card and pay the balance in full monthly.

Good deal.

As mentioned before, AA miles seem to get more bang for the point than DL miles. The deals also seem to linger between initial search and follow-on searches for one or multiple tickets until booked. With Delta, often times the initial search says X miles and you often dont see that cheap deal on subsequent searches or if you want to book multiple passengers.

So, we rarely use the AMEX card anymore and use the AA Advantage.

Took about 2-3 years to accumulate mine. Used wife's miles last year so we are both rather low now. Might have to buy both ways for 2027.

AA is our only choices from clt and the fares for cash or miles aren’t particularly good. We used to fly from Boston thru Clt for much less money. Therefore we gave up on AA miles card and just go for cash back card.

I've found very good fares on AA. Just need to buy when they first break. Having my fixed week timeshare makes it easy knowing the dates.

American Airlines deal with opening a new card
70,000 points
$99 annual fee

68,500 points for two tickets from Philadelphia to SXM, plus $98 per person taxes and fee

Total spent this year, less than $300

Non miles would cost around $1600

Nice savings of $1300

One domestic companion tickets on anniversary date

after that, miles may be hard to accumulate to make it worthwhile, but savings enough for this years trip

prefer other credit card which gives back more than one percent

mahokid--which specific card is that?

That's the Barkley AA card that announced ealier that after Dec 31, 2025 they are discontinuing AA miles program. We use that card in addition to our Citi card as they still cover collision for car rentals in SXM.

Just for curiosity, I looked at what we had spent for our round-trip, first class, tickets for this year's SXM trip, and how much we had earned on credit card cash back awards last year. Our cash back awards more than paid for those tickets. And since we charge those tickets to the AAdvantage Executive World Elite Master Card, we earn 4 miles for every dollar spent on those, as well as the miles for the flights. Hopefully one day, we'll acctually be able to use those miles, lol.

OK. Eric has that card, so we do need to check what to transfer to at the end of the year.

Unless AA decides to keep Barkley miles program. 🤞

My understanding is that another bank will take over the account and honor accumulated miles

Probably keep card to use anniversary companion ticket and then open a new card offering jumbo free miles

Always keep AMX which we have forever

we are fortunate that we have several airline options to fly to SXM and even optional airports if we wished to drive to JFK for a direct flight although a bit of an inconvenience

a four hour direct flight is a blessing compared to a long all day travel starting at 2:00 AM

The miles are accumulated with AA, not with the particular bank, so the miles will still be good, obviously. I have several AMEX miles because my business card is AMEX. But Delta flights from here are always a lot more miles than AA and require a connection, versus non-stop on AA (although AA requires a 3.5 hour drive to Miami).

"My understanding is that another bank will take over the account and honor accumulated miles"
Not so. Those are miles in your AA account not in a bank account and are yours to use whether Barkley is dropped or not. Our primary use cards are through our AA Citi Bank cards and only use the Barkley for a backup or car rentals in SXM.

So much of the decisions on what is good for you on which card or program to be part of depends upon individual travel habits. If you are the occasional traveler with no shot at status with an airline or hotel chain then you are going to look at things differently than if you are in the hunt for status levels at the hotels, airlines and even car rentals. Your card choices will change. I have been consistently in the Alaska Airlines 100k Gold group and Globalist with Hyatt. Noting those preferences I have cards for both, and especially with Hyatt the benefits of using the card associated with that program helps me maintain my status and the benefits I receive because I have that status. I chase status as much as I chase points, I like the upgrades and benefits associated with the status levels.

If you chase status you will know the terms "mattress run" or "mileage run" that is done for the express purpose of reaching a status level. Yes, I have flown to NY, Ft Lauderdale and even SXM to get status miles and/or hotel status points.

My business travel will be dramatically reduced going forward. That will change my focus on which cards, etc.

My favorite status tier that I have had with any travel related company has been Hyatt Globalist level. Late check out, free breakfast, suite upgrades, ability to gift status to others when they stay at a Hyatt, specific lines that are shorter at the busy Hyatts, and the list goes on.

2026 will be a light travel year for us, I will lose top tier with airlines but will work to keep my Hyatt Globalist, might be mostly with spend!

American announced in late 2024 Citi would be the exclusive issuer of Advantage branded CCs beginning in 2026. Citi is acquiring the Barclays CC portfolio. American Citi cards