How to best build your free upgrade portfolio, even when a vendor doesn’t accept Amex cards.
Long-time FCF members know that one of my 10 Commandments is “Carry Multi-Airline Credit Cards (MACs).” The two major MACs are any American Express Card that includes the Membership Rewards program and the Starwood Preferred Guest Amex card.
Their great advantage is that these cards offer points-to-miles transfer options with numerous airline mileage programs. That increases—significantly—your odds of finding available seats and allows you to go after the airline that offers the best routing and/or most comfortable seats for the trip at hand. Starwood has the most airline transfer partners at 41; Amex Rewards has 18.
Plus, each has its own big side-benefit:
Amex Membership Rewards Cards: Buy up to 500,000 miles annually at 2.5¢, which can get you in the mileage game overnight. The card also offers significant transfer bonuses throughout the year with several partners.
Amex Starwood Preferred Guest: It offers an “everyday” and “every airline” transfer bonus of 25%. That means transferring 20,000 points nets 25,000 miles, anytime. This often amounts to a free upgrade by itself, as I often point out (see April issue for more on ).
“Sorry, we don’t accept American Express.”
I hear this it seems every day especially when I’m on the road.
So, for those that desire to build their portfolio of free upgrade options, the question becomes, “What’s the next best card to use when Amex isn’t an option?”
The Back-Up Options
For the premium air traveler looking to create as many upgrade options as possible, the two best options seem to be cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards Points and cards that earn Citi ThankYou Rewards Points. Both banks are affiliates of Visa and MasterCard.
Citi ThankYou Rewards seems to be a much better option than the ever-popular Chase cards. But you have to understand the drawbacks to both cards to understand why I believe Citi ThankYou cards are superior.
Both cards have far fewer airline partners than Amex Rewards and Starwood. Chase Ultimate Rewards has six: British Airways, Korean, Southwest, Singapore, United, and Virgin Atlantic.
Citi ThankYou Rewards has 10: Air France Flying Blue, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Etihad Airways Guest, EVA Air Infinity MilageLands, Garuda Indonesia GarudaMiles, KLM Flying Blue, Malaysia Airlines Enrich, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, and Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
The Citi ThankYou Program
In less than two months, Citi has partnered with ten airlines—40% more than Chase has partnered with in over five years. I wouldn’t be surprised if the card doesn’t rival Amex Membership Rewards one day.
Citi ThankYou Rewards also allow you to buy up to 100,000 miles at 2.5 cents per mile. That means you can get into a variety of upgrade games overnight—whereas Chase Rewards eliminated the points buying option last year and seems to be contracting a bit, no doubt the result of taking hits from the countless individuals that sign up for its cards for the bonuses and don’t reciprocate value.
Citi ThankYou Points transfer into all three alliances: Air France/KLM gives you access to SkyTeam carriers (which, in many respects, is a much better program than Delta SkyMiles); Cathay Pacific (not a bad currency, if you’re like most, who rate this carrier very high) offers a bit more free award space to its own mileage members than it does to partners such as AA or Alaska; Malaysia and Qatar are both oneworld partners and offer a First Class cabin; Singapore (a partner with all four MAC programs mentioned), EVA, and Thai gives you access to Star Alliance carriers; Singapore flies two A380’s from the U.S.
The Chase Ultimate Rewards Program
True, Chase has solid partners. But BA, Singapore, and Virgin Atlantic are also partners of the two best MACs, so the only major advantage for Chase is if you’re locked into United.
As for United, with Amex cards you can get lower mileage award rates with United partners, such as All Nippon. A good example is a 68,000-mile round trip Washington, DC-London, which cost 115,000 miles using Chase Rewards.
Another reason I have a hard time with Chase is this: Die-hard United loyalists will likely find one or more of United’s four Mileage Plus cards more alluring given perks that Chase Rewards can’t offer, like better award availability, bonus EQMs, bonus award miles, lounge membership, and other nice-to-haves, depending on the card.
Also, keep in mind that some deals, such as Lufthansa’s discount 55,000-mile Business Class tickets on some routes can’t be had through United, even though it is a Lufthansa partner. But it can be had through Starwood. There are plenty of other examples where you’ll pay more with United than with other currencies.
And as far as establishing a Star Alliance war chest of miles, Avianca’s LifeMiles is the cheapest option.
All I can say to recommend Chase Rewards is that it has ongoing bonus-mile deals at places like gas stations and office supply stores, and a host of other now-and-then offers. But you give up a lot for these bonus points. True, the Chase sign-up bonuses are tempting, but the ones offered by Starwood and Amex Rewards, though generally smaller, offer more buying power in the end. This article is not meant for the person who gets a credit card only for the sign-up bonus.
Just like all the fanfare for elite status programs, I continue to scratch my head at all the chatter over Chase cards. If there’s something I’m missing, I’d love to hear about it from you.
Multi-Airline Credit Cards (MACs) Cheat Sheet
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