Question about Frequent Flyer Cards

[Midnyte_Sun]

Ok, I'm in the wrong forum, but whatever, there are some smart cookies here and I'm looking those people!

I'm shopping for a new credit card that will get me some frequent flyer bonus miles. I was researching the topic online and it looks like a giant rip off.

This is what they say:

• 1.25 miles for every dollar spent on purchases
• No limit on the miles you can earn and miles don't expire
• No blackout dates and no seat restrictions
• 0% APR on purchases until May 2010
• No annual fee

But later in the brochure, it says, that I need so and so amount of miles to get a certain ticket. For instance 25,000 miles to get a ticket in the 150-250 dollar range. That means I spend roughly $20,000 before I can redeem that?

What am I getting wrong here? What I've gotten out of it all is that:

Miles DO NOT EQUAL Dollars, even though they are advertised as such.

Can somebody explain how much I have to spend in order to get a good redeemable ticket?

 

[redmarvel]

Well, it all depends which type of Miles your collecting and what method you're using to collect them.

For example: A friend of mine gets AirMiles. To increase the number of AirMiles he gets he not only purchases from vendors that give out AirMiles but uses his American Express card to make the purchases... therfore increasing the number of AirMiles he collects. Finally various vendors will have double / triple AirMiles promotions from time to time. My friend has been able to redeem AirMiles for actual flights. I too collect AirMiles, but I don't use American Express and I have yet to get anywhere close to having enough AirMiles for an actual flight.

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

How much do you have to spend before you can collect enough AirMiles? I mean lets say I was making a short trip in the range of 500 miles total air travel. Theoretically I'd have to spend only $500 right?

 

[redmarvel]

Ummm... no. $20 = 1 air mile (or there abouts). So to get to 500 air miles you'd have to spend $10,000 - unless you do the doubling mentioned above. If you're spending buying stuff anyways then may as well try to get the air miles for them. Just be aware that it will take a LOT of time to get enough air miles to make it worth while.

 

[Ahura Mazda]

Spending money use credit cards collecting miles is not very efficient and only leads to a mild increase in your miles. You really get miles by flying and I have to say I have hardly any use for them . At best I have used them to upgrad my flights.

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

Spending money use credit cards collecting miles is not very efficient and only leads to a mild increase in your miles. You really get miles by flying and I have to say I have hardly any use for them . At best I have used them to upgrad my flights.

What do you mean? If you fly more, you accumulate points faster b/c you fly with a certain carrier or because you use the services of their business partners? How much faster is it than the conventional way?