looking for a new Visa Rewards card

[dingbat]

I've been a United Mileage Plus customer for years. I used to do 75-100K miles a year of international travel plus another $40 -$50K of personal expenses. Don't do nearly that much international travel anymore and United has pretty much doubled the number of points required for a free flight. Who has the best rewards program?

 

[ezmobee]

Re: looking for a new Visa Rewards card

I've heard a lot of people use this site http://www.bankrate.com/credit-cards.aspx to rate the different offerings

 

[PiratePast40]

Re: looking for a new Visa Rewards card

I wouldn't say that United has doubled the points - Super Saver has allways had restrictions. What you're seeing is the reduction of flights - that means fewer comp seats available.

What really sucks is not being able to hit Premier since company travel has been reduced.

Just to give you an example of booking with points when your status level has dropped, I made reservations Jan 28th - before Premier status expired, but the flights are for March 3rd and 9th. Was able to reserve good seats at the time of booking. Went to check on seat assignments the other day and found out that not only were we bumped from Economy Plus but had no assigned seats whatsoever. Going to be really unhappy campers if we can't make it to Hawaii on time for our wedding!

As far as cards go, I'm hearing really good things about the Costco corporate AmEx. CitiBank is buying up all sorts of debt and rasing rates. The ones that I know of are Sears and Exxon credit cards but I'm sure there are more. Rates jumped from 7% to 21% on both Sears and Exxon - regardless of your credit record. Might want to keep an eye on the fine print before you sign up for any of them.

 

[dingbat]

Re: looking for a new Visa Rewards card

I wouldn't say that United has doubled the points - Super Saver has allways had restrictions. What you're seeing is the reduction of flights - that means fewer comp seats available.

They have more than doubled unrestricted. Unrestricted International has gone from 45K miles to 100K. Domestic from 25k miles - 50K. Had to burn 200K to take the wife and kids out to California with me on my next business trip. Still have a few over 1/2M miles left and when they're done I'm gone as well.

What really sucks is not being able to hit Premier since company travel has been reduced.

Just to give you an example of booking with points when your status level has dropped, I made reservations Jan 28th - before Premier status expired, but the flights are for March 3rd and 9th. Was able to reserve good seats at the time of booking. Went to check on seat assignments the other day and found out that not only were we bumped from Economy Plus but had no assigned seats whatsoever. Going to be really unhappy campers if we can't make it to Hawaii on time for our wedding!

As far as cards go, I'm hearing really good things about the Costco corporate AmEx. CitiBank is buying up all sorts of debt and rasing rates. The ones that I know of are Sears and Exxon credit cards but I'm sure there are more. Rates jumped from 7% to 21% on both Sears and Exxon - regardless of your credit record. Might want to keep an eye on the fine print before you sign up for any of them.

The interest rates really affect me. I've not carried over a monthly balance in over 20 years.