Paradosso wrote:
bb,
thanks again for your input. I agree with the point of the abroad-issued cards: definitely don't want to use that in the US. I also am focused on building a credit history and earning miles via credit card --not checking account.
I should add that I am getting a checking account at Digital Federal Credit Union (I will take their no-cosigner loan for Wharton), so that may be something to start with.
Two more questions:
1) What exactly is a secured credit card? Can I get one with a SSN (given to me by the school) and the DFCU checking account?
2) Do you think I could get a secured US Airways Visa, or any other method to get miles?
Manu thanks, and any other current student input is appreciated as well.
Sorry for taking a while to get back with you on this - my day job is quite busy today.
I am really into travel and miles (big fan flyertalk.com - online travel community). You have a few things going on:
If you travel international 6-10 times a year - that's pretty considerable and that will net you a status of at least Silver or Gold with one of the carriers as long as you stick with them. Status counts and works towards accumulating more miles. For example if you are Gold with US Airways (50K miles flown annually), you will get a 50% mileage bonus on any flight with US Airways. If you are at 75K or 100K level, that's double the flight miles), so you accumulate miles a lot faster. You will also get upgraded on the local flights (not international), will have access to exit row seats - can be Huge if they are available as they will over significantly more leg room to sit and work in comfort (US Air Gold members can book them in advance but there are only a few of them per plane, so chances are slim if you are not booking way out), can use priority security and checkin counter
Also, once you hit Gold Status with Star Alliance (US Air, United, Lufthansa, Swiss, BMI, Austrian, Singapore, ANA, Asiana, Turkish, etc) - you have access to the Lounge at the airport as long as you are flying international (or there is a loophole - you get access in the domestic lounge if you have a Status with Non-US Star Alliance carrier such as LH, LX, BMI, etc). Not huge but a very nice perk esp if there are flight delays or a long layover - you can spend a few hours in a comfortable environment with snacks, tea, coffee, soft drinks and using internet for free.
So there are definitely reasons to stick to one airline and get the status on THE airline you will fly the most. So, if US Airways is the one, then stick to it and fly its planes (even though you will get credit for flying Swiss or Lufthansa, but you wont' get extra bonus miles). You will still get a special counter and priority boarding across all Star Alliance carriers.
Based on this info just by flights, US Airways is a good option to put your points into. Other two programs you could consider are United and BMI - you can credit miles to those programs. The disadvantages are 1) No emergency row seats - will be a big deal on international flights.
The advantages are more miles - United will give you 100% bonus rather than 50%. However, I don't think United is a good fit for you if you can't get their top status with 100K flight miles per year. Therefore, I would recommend BMI will give you much more liquid miles but with a modest bonus of only 25%, but BMI allows one-way award flights and I am spoiled so I try to fly Business as much as I can and with BMI a business class roundtrip is 37K miles + 250GBP compared to 80-100K miles or US Airways or United - quite a bit of difference. Economy is 25K + 170 GBP vs 60/50K miles on United/US Airways and the fact that I can do one-way flights is also very versatile for me. The only downside I found so far is that I have to call UK to redeem awards, so I call late at night or early in the morning.
One BIG issue to consider is that US Air uses a calendar year for their status calendar, so if you flew 40K miles before december and then another 40 in January, you would not get a Gold status as those miles were flown in different years. This is important if you are starting your flights this year (to school and back home for Christmas). However, BMI uses a rolling year, so you would actually get Gold status in January and it would be valid for 12 months after that. (FYI: If you have a status with any airline, you can do a status match on a different carrier - can be very helpful).
Now, about secured credit cards - it is a special type of a card (only some banks issue them). They way it works - you deposit $1,000 into an account and that's the security deposit and your "credit" line. If you deposit $2K, then your credit line is $2K and so on. It is a credit card to start building your credit history - usually comes with all kinds of fees and nasty tricks but not much you can do.
Therefore, you most likely won't be able to get a US airways card out of the gate, so you will be stuck with a secured card for about 6-9 months - that's the end of first year, so there is no value in US Airways miles per se. About $99 companion tickets - that's within the US only - not international travel. However, if your GF and you want to travel around the US - could be handy, but again, you wont' be able to get a card probably until end of the first school year (summer)
What it comes down to is which of these is important to you:
1. Have one way flights and ability to use Miles+Cash for quicker rewards and ability to have status sooner due to rolling qualification year (BMI)
2. Have an option (not always) to grab exit rows on international flights but get your status only in the Fall next year (US Airways)
I would pick option 1 as I would not be tied to Fly US Air (to get the exit row that I may or may not get) and I could fly a variety of carriers without too much concern. Also hitting Gold status with BMI would give me access to the Lounges on the domestic flights. At least I would start out that way. Then if for some reason it was not working out for you, you can still get a US Air card and switch your pattern to US Air in January since this year is a throw-away due to qualification timeline anyway.
Disclaimer: both BMI and US Airways can vanish and disappear at any time and your miles may be worth nothing. US Airways is struggling financially and BMI just sold 50% stake to Lufthansa, so there is a chance that BMI will be absorbed (in that case your miles will become LH Points, but that's a process of a few months/years rather than days). Just want to make it clear that points in Airline programs are not FDIC insured and get devalued on a regular basis - use them. Don't hoard themP.S. for every day spending (not sign up bonuses), I can recommend SPG Amex - you earn 1 point for every dollar spent and then you can
transfer those points to any Airline program on a 1:1 basis (almost any - not BMI unfortunately). When you transfer 20K pints, you get 5K point bonus - a 25% bonus, so you technically earn 1.25 miles for every dollar you spend on anything. That of course if you don't spend your SPG points to stay in a Sheraton or Westin or W somewhere with your Girlfriend.
_________________