Credit Card Rewards Programs

There's a lot of choices out there but I use an Alaska Airlines Visa myself. I also have a Capital One but I don't really use it much. I do collect miles on Alaska Air. Sometimes I redeem them to fly my daughter home from DC to visit. I can get those flights for 12,500 miles each way if I plan way in advance. For a last minute one way purchase, I have to shell out 20,000 miles usually.

Sometimes I redeem them for European travel. For that, I have to really work the dates to limit mileage outlay. I did fly from Seattle to Paris and then Rome back to Seattle this year for 20,000 miles each way, which I thought was a phenomenal deal. I had to plan my trip around the few dates that had miles at that 20K rate. Flights were on American.

I can't comment on other cards but I'm sure you'll get lots of others to weigh in. For me, using Alaska Air so often since I'm Seattle-based and I fly to DC and LA a lot and can use miles for those flights, it's the right card for me.

If you're planning to switch, see which cards offer big sign-up bonuses that you could reasonably earn and use -- see thepointsguy.com for a list of current offers and suggestions on how to earn them. Chase Sapphire is 50,000 points for spending $4,000 in 3 months, transferable into miles with several airline programs -- you can get most of the way to Europe by putting your property tax payment on a card (and paying the additional convenience fee)

Edited to add -- the points transfer over 1 for 1 into miles. We will be getting United miles, for which 60,000 miles can get a round trip to Europe in economy class.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/budget-tips/churn-churn-churn

I think you get more value from an airline card that you would use for more expensive air travel (like to Europe).

So if you spend $25,000 on the BA card, you get 37,500 points. If that translates to $375.00 ($1:1000 points), that buys you a domestic RT ticket. Do this two years in a row, and you had $750 towards a plane ticket.

If I spend $25,000 on a United Explorer card, I earn 25,000 miles, (plus 10,000 miles for spending $25K in one year) or 35,000 miles.
That's more than half the miles needed for a one way to Europe in saver economy. If I do this two years in a row, I have 70,000 miles- enough for a round trip to Europe (valued at $1200-1600) and 10,000 miles left over for the next trip. We accumulate enough miles to fly business class to Europe every couple of years(way more valuable than a card like Capital One Venture point program)

The whole key on airline credit cards, use the one associated with the alliance you would most like use out of your home city airport and would be most likely to fly on for other domestic trips. Since you are in Spokane, Alaska makes sense.

I used my Alaska miles for a roundtrip to Mazatlan in 1st class last February.

It cost me 60,000 miles and $105.28.

The cash price of these flights is $1292
If I had used Bank of America Travel Rewards or Capital One Venture, I'd need 129,200 miles.

With the Alaska card I only get 1 mile/dollar, but the awards can cost fewer miles.
You also get a checked bag credit for each flight if you fly economy on Alaska and have one of the Alaska cards. They also just removed the foreign transaction fee.

If you fly cash on British Airways, IcelandAir or Delta to Europe, you earn Alaska miles that way as well.

I agree with the last two comments: For flying internationally. a card that gives you airline miles is usually better than one that gives you points worth--typically--one penny toward the fare for each 100 points. This assumes, of course, that you are successful in cashing in the miles for decent flights to places you want to go at times when you want to travel. Also that you will use the miles reasonably quickly, because airlines have a habit of increasing the number of miles required for a free flight.

Airline miles are especially valuable for folks living in areas that usually have high fares to international destinations. If you can score a saver ticket (which I know must be more challenging from smaller cities), it won't cost any more from Omaha, Tucson or Spokane than it would from NYC, Atlanta or Chicago. It will probably be a different story if you pay for the ticket with points rather than miles.

United's saver awards to Europe cost only 30,000 miles one-way.

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I especially appreciate the specific examples and that you took my home location (Spokane WA) into account. I think I will stay with my Alaska card! I am not looking to "play the card shuffle" but instead choose one card to stick with for the long haul. Buon Viaggio!

Your "Bank of America Travel Rewards Credit Card" is better than my BofA Signature Visa that also pays 1.5% of purchases in terms of foreign travel. My Signature Visa T&Cs read:

TRANSACTION FEES

We will assess the following Transaction Fees to your account in the
same category to which the transaction is posted:

If you make a Foreign Transaction, we will assess a transaction fee
equal to 3.00% of the U.S. dollar amount of each such Foreign
Transaction. This is in addition to any other applicable transaction
fees. Foreign Transaction means any transaction made in a foreign
currency, and any transaction made in U.S. dollars if the transaction
is made or processed outside of the United States. Foreign
Transactions include for example, online purchases from foreign
merchants.

I use my Capital One Visa that converts at essentially Interbank rate.

I don't churn cards. I belong to three mileage programs and Alaska airlines is way the best. We flew to Australia on Qantas in First Class for $4.90 each with our Alaska miles. Only time we have flown First Class and it was great.

Of the three, I have the Alaska Airlines VISA card. Actually securing award tickets with Alaska Airlines at reasonable award levels is an advantage of the card, while other airlines, not so much. The companion fare is a highly valuable feature (think Mexico and Hawaii for example). Alaska Airlines flies to many places in the US and a few in Canada, not counting Costa Rica and tentatively approved flights to Cuba. The card now features no foreign transaction fees. While being a schill above, I am focusing much less on accumulating miles with other airlines (value has declined, difficult to actually use, some programs feature expiration dates on unused points) and more on cash back. What is the value of each dollar spent using a credit card? Shop, shop, shop.

I also have the Alaska Airlines Visa, which I really like, although I have never used the mileage program to book international travel directly. Indirectly, I saved on an international trip by using the companion fare discount to book tickets to the east coast (Boston) and then booked a super cheap flight to Europe on Norwegian Air. All together, my airfare ended up being less than $800/person RT, compared to $1200+ it would have cost to fly "directly" from Seattle to Europe. Plus, I got at least 2x the miles per dollar spent on the Alaska leg of the trip, which is great for future trips around the country.

For a straight cashback deal, we use the Fidelity (used to be Amex, now Visa) card. 2% cashback across the board.