An anonymous commenter said,
“Dan the Man!!!
I have the best credit card offer ever!
This is a citi card thank you point, which has very minor disadvantages like you have written about a few times, but check this out (if you are not biased to starwood you will agree-anyways you can have both cards for each’s advantages)
Card: Citi card premier card
Annual fee: $75 (you can get it free but with less benefits)
Advantages:
1 point per $1 spent
1 point per mile flown that you or anyone flies on any airline (fly LAX to NY get 6000 points!!!)
2 points per dollar in supermakets gas, and traveling
Unlimited Companion tickets, free in U.S. whenever any round trip ticket you buy is more than $299.99!!!!!!
The max of points you can get a year is 200,000, with 100,000 being travel points.
So if you have even a 1 person family and fly in the US 5 times a year, you will make easily $500 and up a year!!!
The card is mastercard, but they have it together with American Express also!”
Sorry Anon, I have to disagree with you and it has nothing to do with being biased.
The citi card you refer to, the premier pass elite card,(with TY points rewards) is not the best, or even a good credit card.
1. The $75 annual fee is pretty hefty. (Starwood is $30, and free for the 1st year.)
2. You only get points for miles flown AFTER you spend the same amount in cash. so LAX-JFK will net you 5,000(not sure where you got 6,000) TY points for only if you have already spent $5,000 on the card!
3. The TY points themselves dont come close to the value of a mile, let alone a starpoint.
As I’ve covered previously a mile or starpoint can be worth .15 each, citi makes sure that TY points wont come close to that.
4. The companion ticket program isnt for regular priced tickets-they’re only for jacked up ticket prices (similar to the scam AA companion certs that citi gives with the AA card-looks great on paper but not when you go to use it)
5. The card offers none of the fringe benefits of great credit cards like return privileges and elite status, etc, as the starwood card does.
6. Besides for the rate of TY points needed for tickets not being competitively priced with a good mileage program, you must use the points a few weeks in advance and stay over a saturday night to use them, so they also offer none of the flexibility of miles.
In Conclusion:
As I’ve said numerous times, there is no credit card points program that exists that can compete with the potential value of airline miles.
The all claim to compete, but they have too much fine print to do so.
The ONLY exception is the Starwood Starpoints program, because besides for having great usage possibilities for hotel stays, you can transfer Starpoints into over 30 kinds of airline miles at an even ratio-and get a 25% bonus when you transfer 20,000 starpoints at a time.
For a business card, what do you think of the
“American Express SimplyCashSM Business Card”
Dan the Man!
First of all the money difference that you point out is dumb!
From the points you get, it easily makes up that difference. Second of all: True you only get the points after purchasing the same amount, but as soon as you do the spend the money they give it to you (basically you have credit by them for the points and every dollar you spend afterwards you will be getting 2 points). Second of all starwood doesnt give double points for supermarkets, gas etc. (which is a large amount of the average familiy’s spending). So in the time that the average family that does some flying would get 20,000 starwood points, he will get 40,000 from citi. (and most families-are not bochurim, they are not running to hotels or to europe) basically he will get 400.00 worth out of the same purchases that you would with the starwood.
Add 15,000 points to start, and citi is great!
Go Citi!!!
dan,
i opened a united platinum chase credit card, (my third one in the past 12 months,)but this time, i got the 5,000 eqm’s, but not the 20,000 bonus miles. i called them, and a week later i received a letter from chase stating that the bonus is for first time card members, and since i have already taken advantage of the offer, they will not give me the miles. i tried to cancel the card and to get back (or at least to prorate) my $140.00, but they said, that they don’t refund the annual fee. what a waste of $140!
you canget the citi business premiem pass card , for free for a year ,and get 15000 ty points, and get one ty point/ mile flown. And the companion tickets are still less than paying for two tickets.And you get discounts on prescriptions with any citi business card.
can I buy a bunch of amex gift cards for myself on my starwood if I need the points right away?
So Dan, is Premier Pass really that bad a card??
Wow!
I must say, this is truly extraordinary! I was reading through a magazine the other day, and I happened to read something very similar. It was an amazing deal very similar to this one, and I must say, whoever wrote this post did an awesome job @ it. I was truly looking into this credit card, b/c of all its great features and advantages, and this post confirmed my thoughts. Whoever wrote this post, I must say thank you and I am sure others agree.
But most of all, its DAN THE MAN, who we have to say thank you too for all his amazing work and his continuous achievements to help us all. Thanks Dan!!
dan you are like a credit card guru
Does this credit card have primary insurance coverage for rentals?