Credit Cards With Mileage Programs

Miles Translated

• When you earn miles on a card, you're not actually racking up the number of miles to a specific destination. If it is 620 miles to your destination, you will not only need 1,240 miles for a round trip ticket. Each card and airline has its own designation but miles translate more generally into 10,000 miles will get you $100 worth of travel. So if a round trip ticket to your destination will cost $250, you will need 20,500 points to take that trip.
  
  

Best Miles for Dollars Cards

• Mileage cards have different ways of compensating you for spending. Capital One Venture Rewards card gives two miles for every dollar you spend. With the airline cards, many of them offer two flight miles per every dollar spent with their airline or their airline's partner hotels, rental car companies and restaurants, and one mile for every dollar spent elsewhere. Chase Sapphire Preferred offers two points for every dollar spent through the Ultimate Rewards Shopping Mall, plus, when you book airfare through the shopping mall, your points are worth 25 percent more. Most other cards only pay one point or mile for dollars spent outside their shopping parameters.
  
  

Bonus Points

• Chase Sapphire Preferred and several of the major airline cards, such as Continental, American Airlines Citi Gold, Platinum Delta and Southwest, offer enough bonus miles in the introductory period to pay for one free flight, as of March 2011. Chase Sapphire offers 25,000 miles after you spend $3,000 in the first three months; American Airlines offers 30,000 bonus miles after you spend $750 in the first four months and Continental offers 25,000 miles plus 5,000 extra for adding an authorized user to your card.
  
  

Point Limits

• Some cards have caps or limits on how many points you can earn. They also might have expiration on points. According to the website Top Ten Reviews credit card reviews, Gold Delta SkyMiles has a limit of 100,000 miles a year and CitiDiamond has a point cap of 75,000 per year. Most cards' points never expire, but CitiDiamond's and Bank America Power Rewards Visa Signature points expire after five years, so if you're saving points for a big trip in the distant future, these might not be the best cards.