The best single credit card for people new to miles and points

I often write about applying for tons of credit cards every few months and playing the intense game of credit card and points churning to unleash tons of miles and points from relatively little actual money spent. But what if you don’t want to spend all that time and thought dealing with credit cards and figuring out what points to get and use? Today I’ll discuss some options for a single credit card to have in your wallet. First, let’s figure out how you classify yourself as a traveler:

1)   International (wo)man of mystery

2)   Short-flight Sam

Which one are you? The reason I ask is because the kind of credit card that’s best for you will depend on what kind of travel you do. Long flights are expensive. Short flights tend to be less so. The more expensive the flight, the more it makes sense to use miles, where their value is greater than their fixed-value counterpart, points. The cheaper the flight, the more it makes sense to use points, since they are fixed-value and fewer of them will be required than if you buy your ticket with miles.

International (wo)man of mystery

If you want to fly somewhere exotic, get a miles card. Here’s why:

DC to Moscow – 6/10-6/20

Fare: $1,124

Points Cost: 112,400

Miles Cost: 60,000

Besides some minor taxes and fees on the miles ticket, you can pretty clearly see the cheaper option is to use miles.

There are many miles cards out there. Pretty much every airline has one. Personally I don’t like airline miles cards. When your miles are stuck with one airline you lack flexibility. I prefer earning points on a card that can transfer to multiple airlines. There are three major options out there:

1)    Chase Sapphire Preferred

2)    American Express Premier Rewards Gold

3)    American Express Starwood

Chase Sapphire Preferred

Pros

·         Immediate transfers to United, Southwest, British Airways, others

·         40,000-point signup bonus

·         Points can also be redeemed for airfare or other travel directly at 1.2 cents each

Cons

·         Never any transfer bonuses to partners

American Express Premier Rewards Gold

Pros

·         Immediate transfers to British Airways, Air Canada, Delta, others

·         25,000-point signup bonus

·         Transfer bonuses happen from time to time

·         Points can be spent on airfare or other travel at 1 cent apiece

Cons

·         Transfer partners aren’t great

·         Hefty annual fee ($175)

American Express Starwood

Pros

·         Transfers to many airlines (very long list)

·         25-000 point signup bonus

·         Transfer 20,000 points to an airline and get an extra 5,000 free

·         Points can be spent directly on air travel at various values

Cons

·         Transfers are not immediate (can take a couple weeks)

Winner: Chase Sapphire Preferred

For me, the immediate transfer is everything. If I want to book travel, I want to book it now. And Chase has better transfer partners than American Express. United is a great option to book pretty much any award flight, and being able to transfer to them from my Sapphire Preferred is key.

Also note that all three of these cards have annual fees starting the second year. Premier Gold had the highest, which is why I noted it above. 

Short-flight Sam

If you’re a city dweller just looking to get away nearby for a weekend, likely a points card is a good option. Here’s why:

DC to Boston – 7/26-7/28

Fare: $184

Points Cost: 18,400

Miles Cost: 25,000

The clear winner here is points, which are set at a fixed value. You can get an even better deal with certain cards, which set the value of your points at higher than 1 cent each. There are two options here which I believe stand out:

1.    Chase Sapphire Preferred

2.    Barclaycard Arrival

I already laid out the benefits to the Sapphire Preferred, so I’ll just discuss the Arrival card.

Barclaycard Arrival

Pros

·         40,000-point signup bonus

·         Earn 2 points per dollar

·         Earn 10% of your points back when you redeem

Cons

·         No airline transfer partners

Basically the choice is flexibility vs. pure earning value. Because the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Barclaycard Arrival have the same signup bonus, but you earn twice as many points with the Arrival card, the Arrival card is a clear winner. But sometimes short flights are expensive, and the ability to transfer points to airline partners on Sapphire Preferred is a great benefit that Arrival doesn’t have.

Winner: Chase Sapphire Preferred

Again I love flexibility here. That’s why I liked Sapphire Preferred for immediate transfers to its partners. That’s why I like it here for the flexibility. The Arrival card has a second-year annual fee like the Sapphire Preferred.

Moral of the story: you can’t go wrong, no matter who you are, with the Chase Sapphire Preferred.