Cash back or points?

[audreyh1]

I prefer cash or statement credit back.

 

[6miths]

Show me the money!

 

[audreyh1]

We travel overseas several times a year and have found the best use of credit card points is to upgrade from economy to business class. Each of the major cards ( chase and Amex ) have various airline partners. To do this, you sign up as frequent flier on airline , hold the flight you want, make sure upgrade is available then transfer points from credit card to airline. The savings has amounted to 4-10 cents per point and saved us thousands.

Isn't there a lot of competition for using points to upgrade, and doesn't it also depend on frequent flier status if you are wait listed? Seems like upgrade availability is often quite low - hard to get.

 

[RobbieB]

Show me the money!

 

[Huston55]

We travel overseas several times a year and have found the best use of credit card points is to upgrade from economy to business class. Each of the major cards ( chase and Amex ) have various airline partners. To do this, you sign up as frequent flier on airline , hold the flight you want, make sure upgrade is available then transfer points from credit card to airline. The savings has amounted to 4-10 cents per point and saved us thousands.

Hmmm, interesting. Can you give some examples?

 

[Sunset]

I find I just don't spend enough to get the points needed to get the big deals on things like business class, etc. The signup bonus is a help, but after that it is hard to build miles up, at least for me. If I was a big spender or had a business with lots of expenses or worked for a company that allowed me to charge to my personal card and earn points that would be different. ........

Same here, but I do find I can get the bonus, earn some, then cancel the card. Keep the points alive for 2 years, and then get another signup bonus on a new card.

Doesn't work for SPG, so may end up dropping that card due to the fee.

 

[Koolau]

My rule with points is to spend them when I can. I don't hoard them. Devaluations can happen at any time. Bonuses are get bigger, churning is common and devaluing a reserve of points is any easy win for airlines and lenders

The point (pun intended) is that if I'm going to earn points, I don't save them for a rainy day. If you're too much of a saver, or if you don't do much international travel, just earn cash. The value of cash is easy to track

I think the capricious nature of "points" is the best reason to stick to cash rewards. We had points devalued once too often and cut up cards soon after. Now, it's cash only cards.

I suppose if you can earn travel points from a business card, it might make sense to do so. You can spend those points on personal travel with no hassle (points is points). But we are long past business travel. Show me the money, er, cash!

 

[Scuba]

I think the capricious nature of "points" is the best reason to stick to cash rewards. We had points devalued once too often and cut up cards soon after. Now, it's cash only cards.



I suppose if you can earn travel points from a business card, it might make sense to do so. You can spend those points on personal travel with no hassle (points is points). But we are long past business travel. Show me the money, er, cash!

We tend to like the cash - simple, card has no fee, and the places we like to stay when traveling (small luxury hotels or privately owned homes or condos) don't take points. We have loads of unused air miles because we never seem to be able to get flights we want with our points. Hopefully that will change with our more flexible schedules when we RE.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[dixonge]

Everything I have read about points/mileage rewards indicates that it's a bit of a shell game. The ability to use mileage rewards for airline perks is highly restricted and difficult to use. Add to that the fact that we tend to use non-major airlines (Volaris, InterJet, etc.) in and out of Mexico and points just don't work for us. Most of the points I have ever earned have expired unused.

For our AmEx card we get cash back. No annual fee, so they are basically paying us just for running our purchases through them vs. another card or debit. I'll take free money all day long...

 

[jabbahop]

We do amazon card for 5% credit on amazon purchases and then rest is chase sapphire for points

 

[Surewhitey]

Cash for us...

 

[BeachOrCity]

If you don't travel a lot definitely cash

If you travel but prefer to fly coach only still do cash

If you and would enjoy international business class without having to pay for it nothing beats th value you can get from points.

For the latter sample I just Booked rt to Thailand in united global first using chase points. No way I would ever pay that fare in cash but by using points it sure is quite a nice perk. Had I done the charges on a cash back card instead of all the point bonus cards and I doubt I would have gotten more than 2k in cash vs these two international tickets (note I got 200k points from sign up bonuses)

 

[mickeyd]

Which is better cash or points? The eternal question. Meh!

I have always used my monthly cashback credits to reduce my next statement. Since that's my way, it's the best way.

 

[tennisplyr]

Cash back for me. We have some Chase and Amex cards and its good to see the money

 

[braumeister]

I'm another one for mixing it up.

The PenFed Visa I use only for gas gives 5% cash back.

I use a Hilton Visa for stays at their hotels,
a Marriott Visa for those,
and a Delta Amex for air travel.
I find the points from those cards work well to keep me in their elite categories.

Nearly everything else goes on a FIDO Visa 2% cash back card.

 

[highlow65]

I have to echo an earlier poster, if you can use points for business grade upgrades it is way better than the cash back feature. Can often get at least 3 % or more per point and occasionally more. Plus it takes the bite out of the highly priced seats which i am normally too cheap to pay for. Luckily me and DW are both smallish people who fit pretty easily in coach, but nice to splurge without the crazy prices occasionally as we both enjoy traveling internationally.