My wife recently crossed the $30,000 eligible spending threshold on her Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card and earned 15,000 bonus Medallion Qualification Miles (MQM). Now that she’s Platinum through January 2025, we put away our respective Reserve cards until sometime next year — at the earliest. (Though we’ll continue to use them for the occasional purchase onboard Delta flights.)
Please note that Delta Air Lines SkyMiles no longer awards Medallion Qualification Miles (MQM) or Medallion Qualification Segments (MQS). Some of the offers in this post may be expired. This post remains published for reference and historical purposes. (Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.)
Our daughter starts the new school year in two weeks. That means expenses: school supplies, school clothes, after-school care, and all that sort of stuff. Plus, Mrs. Carley was due for a new card.
Time to hunt for good travel rewards credit cards with decent welcome offers!
The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes wiped out my entertainment-related photo editing work for several months. That means we must stay relatively conservative in terms of annual fees that get billed right away (if any) and minimum spending requirements. The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card usually would be very appealing to me. But there’s no way my company is dropping $8,000 during the next three months. (If we do, that’s probably a bad thing!) I’m fine sticking with my Ink Business Cash® Credit Card and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express for my business expenses right now.
Unless there’s an insanely great welcome offer or we’re chasing some goal (i.e., bonus MQM) on a co-branded card, we generally prefer using products with transferrable points: American Express® Membership Rewards® and Chase Ultimate Rewards® are a couple of examples. As I’ve written in other posts, Capital One is really upping its game.
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is my go-to card for non-bonused spending. It earns 2X Capital One Miles (points) on each eligible purchase. It also earns 10X hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. And 5X on flights booked through Capital One Travel. The card carries a $395 annual fee — but that’s easy to earn back. In fact, you come out at least $5 ahead each year.
Plus, the welcome offer is fairly reasonable for our budget: earn 75,000 bonus miles after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three (3) months of being approved for card membership.. So, that’s the one she applied for (and was instantly approved).
We can purchase travel with those points through Capital One Travel at a value of a penny per point. Or we can transfer them at a 1:1 rate to Cap One travel partners:
- ALL – Accor Live Limitless (2:1)
- Aeromexico Club Premier
- Air Canada – Aeroplan
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue
- Avianca LifeMiles
- British Airways Executive Club
- Cathay Pacific – Asia Miles
- Choice Privileges
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Guest
- EVA Air – Infinity MileageLands (2:1.5)
- Finnair Plus
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- TAP Miles&Go
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- Virgin Red
- Wyndham Rewards
Something else we like but don’t necessarily need: the card comes with Priority Pass Select membership (enrollment required) and Plaza Premium lounge access. Plus, it allows admission for the cardholder and up to two guests to Capital One’s network of lounges (which I think is just one right now). It’s also one of the zillion cards with Global Entry or TSA Pre√ application fee statement credit benefits.
Capital One allows primary cardholders to add up to four additional cardholders for free — and even they get the lounge benefits.
Final Approach
We reached our Delta Amex MQM spending goals for the year and want to stock up on transferrable points. I really like my Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and know I end up coming out ahead even though it carries a $395 annual fee. My wife and I figured another Venture X made sense for us right now. We like that it earns 2X points on each purchase. Plus, we can transfer points to a number of great international airlines.
For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, please visit this link.
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Sloppy with Poor links, e.g., I really like my card_name
Since the links for cards generate income for you. either you don’t need the money or you don’t bother to work for it
@ffi – Not sloppy it is your ad blocker causing issue or slow internet speed. See this post: https://eyeoftheflyer.com/2023/04/29/no-our-blog-isnt-using-ai-the-way-some-people-think-it-is/
It’s ironic that your comment alleging sloppiness is filled with incorrect punctuation and capitalizations.
My husband and I do exactly the same. The only difference is that I need to reach $250K on both my personal and business Delta Reserve ($125K per card). After that, we use our Capital One X. Thanks, MG