Dividend Miles - Useless

Several years ago after continuous travel with a former airline, we signed up for dividend miles thinking that someday we would be able to fly down on their dime. Lately my wife has started receiving e-mails notifying her that she would have to use them by October or buy more miles to keep the account open. So I started the process of looking online to see how to go about this. Wow! is all I can say. I don't know how the rest of you are able to use them but boy are there restrictions and stupidity involved. I looked at my "flexible dates" first and found that I could use a low # of miles but that the flight would leave at 8 in the morning out of Detroit and arrive an hour later in Chicago. I would then get to wait at the airport until 10 that night where I would fly to Philadelphia and spend the entire evening. In the morning I would finally fly direct to SXM. The flight home was not any better. I would leave SXM at 10 in the morning and fly to Miami and then onto Phoenix and finally home to Detroit. Makes a lot of sense to me to fly west when I live north doesn't it? So I plugged in my exact dates that I wanted (which by the way was only a day or two from their lowest mile chart and early in the week by the way) and found that to use what I had in my account which was 33,000 miles, I would need an additional 31,000. The cost of buying more miles would be $927.57. Pretty darn good math if you ask me. I use all my dividend miles which I have been saving for years, then pay them $927. What is so incredible to me is that the regular ticket price is $712 per ticket. (if you recall I ranted about this a month ago since I could not figure out how with fuel prices lower than ever, ticket prices were still through the roof.) Where were any savings for us the consumer? So my conclusion is that dividend miles are a fictitious illusion created by the airlines pretending to give you something in return for your loyal patronage, but screwing you over in the end process. The airline I am referring to is at the beginning of the alphabet by the way. Forgot to mention that to share your miles with your spouse is not free either. There is a huge fee associated with sharing even though you paid for them in the first place. Great eh? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

Miles are not all that easy to use, many expire and with limited availability, they just don't work for many people. Delta does not expire (at least as of earlier this year) and I was able to use them for a trip but all my USAir/AA miles expired.

My personal advice, get a cash back credit card, rack up the credits there and take the $$$ and put it towards a ticket or whatever you choose.

Discover was doing a double cash back for new accounts for purchases made in the first year. Capital One VISA is 1.5% cash back from what I recall. Look around, find a card that fits your needs and go that route.

I just booked RT from Dallas for 2 for 55,000 miles on Aadvantage. The return trip is great - depart 3:25 to CLT with 2 hr layover, then arr in DFW at 10:24. The outbound is not so great, DFW at 9:00, IAH, MIA, then arr SXM at 10:24.
Last March we went from SAT at 6:05 to MIA, arr SXM 2:15, the return pretty much the same as this year, but SAT instead of DFW, for 50,000. Today it would have been 27,500 pp each way. Anything cheaper would require an overnight both ways. We have to drive to Dallas and back, but we're travelling with friends from Dallas, so no big deal. Taking out a new card every 18 months and getting 50,000 miles for charging $3000, makes it pretty cheap, even with the $150 or so fees.

Like you, I looked at buying 20,000 miles or transferring from wife's account, would have cost $600.

Airline miles suck compared to Capitol One. we were AA FF for years. Every time we tried to book, they would route us from Colorado to N.Y., Philly, or some out of the way airport, long layovers and the direct flights were always available for cash, but not with miles, or the the mileage .increases exponentially to get a direct flight. Cap 1, book your own ticket on your terms and Cap 1 reimburses the flight, easy peasy.

It really depends on where you're flying from. We have been pretty lucky with AA miles from Miami, even fairly last minute.

As far as miles expiring, it depends. On AA, it's every 18 months now. I no longer have a credit card that I get AA miles on, so I have to watch my AA account sometimes, since we generally fly on FF tickets. Recently, I booked a rental car and paid a bit more, and got FF miles for it. Now I'm good for another 18 months.

We gave up on using our miles years ago. We have the CapOne Venture card and get double "miles" for every purchase, which we use to erase travel purchases. Since our timeshare maintenance fees are charged to that card, we're able to erase them, and other hotel stays, etc. Much better than airline miles.

Years ago we did get a couple of trips to the island using miles, the last one was actually first class. That's when my husband was traveling a lot for work and racked up a ton of miles. We knew that was ending soon, so decided to use up all the miles while we could. I do check each time we fly to see if we can use the miles in some way, but it never works for us.

You can always buy magazine subscriptions with them. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

Just booked our flights back from SXM for the two of us on First class. Got the flights we wanted. Leave at 9am and in SEA at 7:50pm same day. Love those AA FF miles.

What about paying to fly to [and back] from Phily and use the miles to fly Phily nstop to and back from SXM

Does that still work out to lower price?

J&B

We've found the same to be true.
USAir miles converted to AA but are basically worthless.
Credit cards are all over the place. Recently there was an article on internet that listed best 8 cc for excellent credit people. Especially with regard to travel.
I took their advice and got most bang for buck and cancelled my other credit cards. You may want to check it out.

Everything is relative to you own situation. Many different deals out there, some good and some not good. Depends on your own situation. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

Currently we are fine with AA FF. Every Program has their own perks or whatever, we have taken advantage of the AA perks, so that is also a consideration for us anyway. Your FF milage could vary a lot, depends on your situation.

You need to choose the "program that works for you!"

Simple as that. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> What works for Jim may not work for Joe. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

We joined IDINE.com a program that gives you miles/points for an airline or hotel chain. I used to get AA miles. Now I've changed to Hilton Points.

I turned my AA miles into gift cards for Lowes, Home Depot, restaurants. Remodeled a room in the house and didn't cook. I still have two one hundred dollar Home Depot cards and one Appleby's left.

I too found it almost impossible to utilize the points on flights.

I agree with the AA miles ticket comment...I have over 300k and have NEVER been able to get a decent flight to SXM.

On the other hand I have booked at least one way (x2) on JB for the last two years with no issues...if there are seats for sale available then they are also available for FF miles/points. Same with SWA but not applicable for SXM.

obviously some people have better luck than others...we've used AA miles to fly from houston to SXM via miami many times, in first/business, using the lowest point requirements, and on the exact dates we wanted...the key has been looking for our seats as early as possible, usually 330 days in advance

but we now prefer to use our points for trips to europe, as we feel we get more bang for our buck (points)...again, we've had no trouble getting the seats we wanted on both AA and United <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clever.gif" alt="" />

Over a lot of years we've made a lot if trips compliments of AA FF miles, sometimes booking free tix and sometimes buying inexpensive seats and doing upgrades. A couple of months ago, but as soon as the flights were announced, I was able to book FF first class seats from NY to HI on exactly the flights I wanted for 70000 miles each round trip so I'm not complaining. If I were to try to book the same flights today they're showing 150000 miles each for first class. We still maintain our AA Business card but I really like my Cap One that sends me checks every couple of months and has all kinds of benefits that work for me, but I've found you really need to plan ahead and book very early (or get very lucky...) to really make the FF miles work for you. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

I always try for miles as soon as flights are available and have been very lucky in the past. That's the thing "Past". Every one is always saying how lucky we are to fly out of NY, but I think other places have it easier to use FF miles, since NY is so busy they don't have to give anything away.

We have been using US Air/AA out of Providence through CLT to SXM for years With miles. I think 300,000 miles would get the wife and I 3 trips.

Great advice. I checked into points.com and found that the way to go since using the AA dividend miles for flights out of Detroit impossible. Might as get something out of them and then cancel AA advantage!

I have a large number of miles on an airline which I rarely fly on anymore. I keep those miles "alive" by "trickle charging" them. Every time that I rent a car from Avis my account with Delta gets a hit. My 600K miles stay alive. One day I will use them for F tickets to SXM, but for now I'm draining my account with a different airline.

So, to keep miles alive:

1) Fly
2) "Trickle charge" with partners, rental cars, hotels, etc.
3) Online shopping thru airline website
4) Buy miles

1, 2, and 3 are good. Never do 4.

I really feel lucky after reading some of these posts. Here in Seattle I use Alaska Airlines a lot. With American being a partner I was able to book the round trip Seattle to MIA with miles for two of us without any problems for dates and seats. The MIA to SXM was a separate ticket. Trust me, this is great coming from the West Coast which is a hassle every year as you can't get to SXM in one day but you can get home in one day due to time change.

I have recently booked two flights to SXM, one in November and the other in June, from Portland to SXM, using Alaska miles on American. I'm able to get to SXM in one day although arrival isn't until 10 PM.

We are very happy with the miles program. Using American miles in Sept.-Oct. for Italy and Spain and Delta to Italy Dec. 19-Jan.4. Paying for tkts. to SXM February.

Jet Blue has a very user-friendly miles program, and you can sign up for a family plan and share miles. The miles required are a percentage of the cost of the ticket. I keep our account active by linking the Barclay's MC to my Amazon account. We have used miles a few times for the direct flight from BOS -SXM.

I didn't read through the entire thread, so, if this is a repeat I am sorry.

The best card I have found is a Capital One Venture Card. Double miles that don't expire. You can find your flights and book through them. Or you can book your flights, use their card and apply for the refund. You get points per dollar spent. It converts like this example. $500 spent earns 1000 points. 1000 points = $10 So if you have 50000 points and spend $500 on a ticket you are covered.

I know it sounds like a lot, but if you use it like cash, which we do, it builds up quickly. We just remember to treat it like a cash card and pay it in full at the end of every month. Any way, it works for us.

That's exactly what we do with our Venture Card. We use it for absolutely everything, including recurring bills as long as the payee doesn't charge a convenience fee for paying by credit card. I don't bother to save my miles for a ticket, I just go online every couple of months, and use the purchase eraser to get credits. I keep track of all of our expenditures in Quicken (it's the retired banker in me, lol) so at the end of the year, I can see how much I've earned. In six months this year, we've already earned over $900, so our SXM tickets will likely be free by year-end. The key is to use the card like cash, and pay in full every month.

We take the 10:00pm red eye from SEA to CLT then to SXM. Arrive 11:30 Saturday morn in SXM. All on American Air miles. Love it. Then leave SXM at 9am and arrive in SEA same day at 8:00pm. All on miles. Already booked for next May-June.
Miles on AA have always worked for us.
I use my Alaska Air miles for domestic flights with no problems either.

For us anyway AA FF work and work well overall. It depends on where you live, connections, options for airports, etc. We have quite a few options to choose from, so that helps a whole lot. So there is no one plan that works for everybody. If there was, then there would not be any other options.

For us anyway, CapOne is more expensive than our current AA FF miles program. But that is our situation only, so it works for us beneficially but may not work for others. We fly AA the majority of the time as we can get non stop out of MIA, ALL others mean a change. We can get FF seats at this point, most of the time anyway. Maybe not the exact dates, but always options that we can live with and many times the exact dates that we want. But then again, we are not tied into a specific week each year either, so for some I can see where it does not work.

Also I am always making sure that I sign up/register for the various bonus miles that are offered. Even if I do not have any plans on that particular puchase. Many times it has been things that we do routinely, others not, but sign up regardless. Generally those for us anyway, at triple miles and a cap of course, but it adds up fast.

And for us AA FF has the best policies regarding FF tickets. So that is a huge advantage for us anyway, since we are flying on AA the vast majority of the time.

That's probably my issue...I never book 11 months in advance. I have issues with the flight I like being changed months later to an inconvenient flight.

We are presently in Las Vegas and booked one way on AA (cash) 5 moths prior...nice one hour layover connection...reasonable arrival. It was changed to a 6am departure with a 32 minute layover and a much too early arrival...but it did work out after some fancy footwork in Phily...

Article was:
"Top 8 Credit Cards For Excellent Credit"
You may want to read it and choose for your own needs.

50,000 AA FF miles got me a first class ticket from SEA to SXM on the dates and flights I wanted. That was a $900.00+ ticket. I'll stick with my Citi Bank AA card.

Use my Citibank AA card long enough to get the points necessary for 2 tickets ord to sxm, then switch to cap one and use points to partially cover cost Club O. Usually get about 50% back on resort cost - Leaves lots of extra $$$ for spending on island

Whatever works for ya. OP asked a question, I answered with a possible solution. Didn't opine right way or wrong. I had a Citi AA card years ago. It didn't work as well for me as it works for you. Venture Card does.

We also use CapOne and get double miles. We gave up the Citibank AA card because it was just about useless when it came to booking "free" flights especially when they added a fee to book those flights.

We all have to do what works best for us - but my question is when did AA add a fee for booking FF seats? I didn't pay any fees to book my tickets, and when they changed the flight time and put us on a flight that was totally NOT to my liking, as is so often the case with airlines these days, I called and they changed me to a flight of my choice at no charge to me. Is this 'added fee' something new?

There were no extra fees for our flights in May. Maybe they are thinking about the taxes, those are not part of the FF ticket?

I didn't think about taxes.......although you pay them seperately on Jet Blue tix, too. I guess you could call that a fee but they do clearly show them as taxes on both AA and JB, the only airlines I have any FF experience with.

The only fee that I know of is if you want to redeposit your ff miles. Then there is a $150 redeposit fee. But I don't consider that a fee to use your miles.

Delta charged no extra fee and taxes are a part of any ticket. I know some credit cards with "points" charge a booking fee when one goes to apply points towards the purchase of a ticket.

TY - didn't know that and again, my only experiences with free tix have been AA and JB and I haven't paid 'fees' on either one.

AA miles suck we live in the northeast I know times change we were loyal AA people only used AA it used to cost us 25000 per round trip with 1 lay over then they changed 3 years ago to go from Hartford to SXM we would have 3 layovers and arrive late on some it would be the next day and that was for 37500 each we alway travel in late October and return in November . The last time we used our miles we had to use 75000 each to get there with 1 layover in miserable Miami . Now we use capital one like they say no hassle the double mile build up fast and they are easy to work with bye bye AA

Was really burned when Continental merged with United, lost 100,000 miles, when I protested to United was told tough luck.

There is no fee to book an AA frequent flyer flight, unless it is really close, like less than a week away, something like that.

as has been said several times, different options work better/worse for different individuals...we realized a few years ago that it worked out much better for us to use airline points for travel to europe rather than for travel to the caribbean....although it does require more miles for a ticket, the $ value of a FC/BF ticket to europe is much more than a FC/BF ticket to the caribbean, with better inflight service and usually a much nicer aircraft for longer flights

we usually take advantage of airline credit card "new customer" promotions to earn bonus points, and then after we reach the minimum spend to earn the bonus points, we go back to using the CapOne Venture for daily use <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" />

p.s. for earning airline points, the Chase Sapphire is a pretty good card, it allows points earned to be transferred to several airline reward programs (ie. United)

It's possible that AA decided to drop the fee that I mentioned. it's still a hassle to use AA frequent flyer miles to book since they limit the number of seats. We once qualified to get 2 tickets to anywhere in the world AA flew(it wasn't FF miles but nevertheless it was similar) . We wanted to fly to Tokyo and since we are both retired, we could fly any time on any day no matter how far in the future. We AA had no seats at any time up to 9 months into the future on any day that we could use. Buh bye AAdvantage card. There were other reasons why we dropped the card as well.

We have had AA frequent flyer memberships since at least the 80s and I don't remember there EVER being a fee to book, unless it was last minute. I know that US Air did have a fee to book FF seats.

Regardless, it all depends on where you are, as far as whether you can use them or not. When we were in DC, we always had good luck with getting them, and in Florida also. US Air or Delta, no. I have a bunch of Delta miles and cannot ever use them to get to SXM. We almost used them to go to Europe and ended up cancelling the trip.

Last couple of years we've used AAdvantaage for trip down to SXM and then paid one way fare to come back. Going down uses less miles than returning. Ends up at about half price for the whole trip. Works for us.

I have AA and JB cards/programs. Have never had an issue using points for the non stop flights out of JFK. And many times I have used points in one direction and cash the other. Or AA one way and JB the other. However it works best

We have AA Advantage and flew from LAX to SXM on earned miles and $80.00 to boot for two people in April of this year. Worked well for us.

We are VERY lucky living in the NYC area. We do the same thing except with JB and Delta. I originally bought Delta tix for our November trip, but when Delta changed their schedule (by an hour or so), I took the opportunity to cancel and got our flights back on JB with points and a much better return time. We love the 6 pm flight that JB offers on Saturdays from SXM to JFK. Almost a whole day at the beach on departure day. Or a morning at the beach and then lunch at the Lolo with time to spare. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Groovin.gif" alt="" />

I'm not happy with our flights from LAX but had too many miles to burn so I insisted on using them.

I've had good luck with United from EWR. FYI I have AA miles. A few months before my miles expire, I go to the shopping and buy a restaurant.com coupon for maybe $5-10 to go another 18 months or I believe you could even do ITunes (at least that used to be the case)

I used some of my United miles to get a new Samsung 1080p smart tv....no issues with available seats on that one <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" />

Just booked Westchester to Santa Barbara - 85k miles, 2 stops (because I had to go out of Weschester and not JFK/LGA. Coach one way and First on the return. Tickets if I paid cash were over 1k. This is on AA. Being close to NYC does give us many options!!

We've been able to get free flights for many years now out of BDL once we figured out how to play the game. Flights however have been awful since the merger with AA. The cheap flights now involve an overnight or 2 stops. There are NO non stops from here or direct either. Have never found a Jet Blue to SXM from here and Delta and United are very expensive. Will stay with the miles as long as we can.

I stay at Hilton or a Choice hotel when traveling and tose points go toward AA. Used to fly a lot but since retiring not so much anymore. So the hotel option works fine for me.

Disappointed in AMEX not participating in the program.

We had the same issues with AA it was good for many years then the changes , for us capital one adventure card works , we take a service to JFK direct flight Jet Blue arrive before 1pm leave at 2:45 pm for return and home by 8:30 and all for what it would have cost from BDL with out all the delays and not going through Miami . It is a real joy not having to face all the BS at Miami and the late arrival . We are luck it works well for us .

We have done the JFK thing but it is a 3hr ride for us, plus additional expense for a care service. Worked well with a large crowd so we didn't have to worry about connections etc. Not worth it for 2 of us.

We do have a rewards cc now but $ don't add up as quickly as the miles did for AA credit card. After a year and tens of thousands of dollars going through the card we barely have enough $ for one flight. May have to continue shopping cards!

There for a while, Citibank AA card was giving 50,000 free miles with a new card, if you charged something like $3,000 in the first few months. Not sure if they still do that or not.

It was a 40,000 offer this last June. We did the 50,000 promo last year and we applied for it this year and both of us got approved with new accounts. Reading the statement that was printed with the cards they were not going to give use the miles because we already either did that same promo or cancelled a card within the last two years.
I then called to not accept the card and cancel the new accounts. Will just keep using my existing AA citibank cards I already have.

Well, yeah, that makes sense, that you can't just get the card, cancel it and get the same deal again.

AA was offering 40,000 miles on a Citi Bank card (on the flight). Did this for hubby. He gets the miles after $1000 in purchases. We haven't changed cards for awhile which is probably why it worked for us. They just sent NEW cards and it has only been a couple months. Same number/code on the back. Not sure why. We ran into some young couple in SXM who cancel their cards every year to get new cards with new miles. = free flights for them each year. Not sure if it is the same airline or not.

Totally agree but we had nothing to loose giving it a try.

Scubaman, we took out the AA/Citi card in my name, (the last one was for 50,000 with $3000 purchase in three months), then about a year later took out the same card in my wife's name, again for the same points/purchases. We just used my points for RT in November. Next year we'll use her points, and then it will be time for me to take out another card in my name ( it used to be 18 months between cards, I think it is now 24 months). We have done this for several years, both AA and Delta, and now doing Southwest. Like you say, starting out with 50,000 points or whatever they offer (daughter just got an offer from AA for 60,000) gives a good start to getting tickets.

Ya. We did both our names last year and both got the miles. We then used them for our trip this last May.

So apparently the deal on the plane was not as desirable. In April like I said, we were offered 40,000. They told us that the deal could only be done through the flight as in fill it out and turn it in now. Not true. Went home and after reading the paperwork found that I got the same deal online. Sadly they tell you things (while on an international flight) that you get free bags etc. Also not true, domestic only. Such a scam but we love the free flights and 40,000 doesn't hurt. Haven't decided if I will change my card though.

We used to use our Citi AA card for both our personal and business expenses and accrued over a million miles throughout the years. We eventually used up all of the miles, but it was challenging at times (especially in more recent years) to find award flights that worked for us. We often found ourselves using Aanytime points or having to take red eye flights or incur long layovers. And even when we did find flights, we usually could only get a limited number of award tickets on the flight and would have to purchase a couple as well so that our family of five could travel together. There were even times when we had plenty of miles, but ended up purchasing tickets on a different airline because we couldn't get award travel on American or any of it's partners.

Then about four years ago we switched to Capital One where we get two points for every dollar spent. Now, charging $50,000 on our Capital One card (the same amount that we had to charge on our Citicard to get 50,000 AA miles) gets us 100,000 Capital one points. Those 100,000 equates to a $1,000 travel credit which can be used for ANY flight on ANY airline at ANY time - and we can purchase it from whatever source we would like. If we don't have enough points for the entire ticket it doesn't matter - we get a credit for as many points as we have or choose to utilize. In addition, since we are simply purchasing the tickets with our credit card we still get the FF points on the flights (unlike when using FF miles for a ticket). The points on the Capital One card can also be used for hotels or any other travel expenses we incur. Another nice benefit is that our Capital One card doesn't charge foreign transaction fees. And they have been great to deal with whenever there have been any issues such as fraud alerts. I really have found no downside to the Capital One card and I have been able to get tickets (usually first class) for my family through Capital One points for each of our annual trips to the Caribbean. I probably sound like a commercial for Capital One, but I'm really just a happy customer. Everyone has to use the card that's best for them, but I would recommend that anyone looking for a new travel card to take a look at Capital One and run the numbers.

Matt

One more thing about Cap One - when you call them you'll be talking to a real person in less than a minute.

Thank you. I couldn't have said it better myself. Well, I tried to but you still said it better.

As if I wasn't discouraged when I began this post ...now all you folks have really brought me to the basement. I think it is wonderful that you can get all these fantastic cards like Citibank, Capital one etc ..... I cannot as I am your neighbour (notice spelling) to the north! I am the passenger on the plane who cannot sign up for those AA Mastercards with the 50 million miles. It is our curse for living so close to a border American city. By the way do not suggest flying out of Toronto since that is 3 hours away versus Detroit Metro which is 30 minutes away. I just thought that the airmiles were a waste of time to use since they gave such terrible flights. I am not going to stay at airports for over 24 hours just so I can fly for free! I do appreciate that some of you can use your miles and get quite the good times with them. Count your blessings.

Well Surick, I am one of your neighbours (note spelling). When I was working, I belonged to Air Canada's Aeroplan, and had a CIBC Aerogold card. The accumulated points took my wife and me on several trips both far and near, in Economy and Business classes. Since retirement, our travels have been mainly to sunny destinations. I switched to the RBC World Elite MasterCard, and our trips to SXM on Westjet for the last few times have cost us nothing, except for taxes to fund the government. You don't have to wish to live somewhere else or for something you can't get; you just need to evaluate your needs and get creative. Just my tuppence (Cdn, of course!)

I agree with you about miles Surick - they are difficult at best, even for us US citizens and that's why I switched strategies. I did a quick search and there are several credit cards available in Canada that offer travel benefits. RBC, MBNA, Capital one and American Express all came up as potential options. I didn't look at the specifics but it appears there are different programs that they offer. I think the key is to get a card that isn't affiliated with a specific airline, hotel chain, online booking agent, etc... Using something that simply gives you a travel credit will offer the most flexibility.

I'll add that I think one thing we can all agree on is that these are first world problems we are talking about. I sometimes feel a bit guilty even posting about these topics and always have to remember how fortunate I am to even be able to take a vacation, much less get free airline tickets.

Matt

Well put.

I have never thought much about the freebies with credit cards until I read this thread. We are self employed and always pay the company bills with a debit card or write a check. I applied for a Capital One Venture card and got a 30K credit line with 40,000 mile credit, plus 2 for 1 miles on all purchases.
I checked with my landlord and he will take the card for rent, plus 90% of the supplies we need at work I can use the card. Just the monthly expenses at work that I can buy with the Venture card runs about $12K a month that I used to use a debit card to pay. That's almost 25,000 miles a month.
Maybe we will get to the island a little more often.

I knew a builder in Tallahassee 25 years ago that used to buy almost everything to build a house on a Delta Card. When I saw the perks back then I have been a points hound ever since.