Last Reviewed: 12/06/2010
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The Discover Miles card is the lightweight brethren of the invincible Discover Escape card. As with the Escape card, PlasticIQ classifies the Discover Miles card as a restricted cash-back card, because the miles earned on Discover Miles can be applied against nearly any form of travel (airline, hotel, auto rentals, cruises, travel packages) in the form of a statement credit post-purchase.
Last Reviewed: 12/04/2010
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The Capital One Venture Card is an excellent restricted cashback credit card, currently ranking 2nd in our cashback category and 3rd in our airline category, using the PlasticIQ Ranking Engine with specific spending assumptions. You may be surprised to see the Venture card appearing in the cashback category, given that cardholders earn miles (and not cash back!) with the use of the card.
Last Reviewed: 11/10/2010
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The Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Signature card (for short, let’s call it the Chase Marriott Visa card) is a regular top three finisher in the hotel reward cards category based on the PlasticIQ Ranking Engine. The Amex Starwood Card and the Hilton Honors Amex Card also routinely appear near the top of the list.
Last Reviewed: 8/15/2010
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The American Express Blue Sky credit card is another one of those cards masquerading as a travel credit card, yet behaving more like a cash back card with some redemption restrictions. Thus, on PIQ’s Plastic Ranking Engine you will find the AMEX Blue Sky card in both the travel and cash back categories.
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The Starwood brand encompasses the following 9 brands: Sheraton, Four Points, the W, Aloft, The Luxury Collection, Le Meridien, Westin Hotels, Element, and St. Regis.
Since PlasticIQ is endeavoring to determine the value of the numerous airline frequent flyer programs in existence, it’s critical that we establish standards to enable a fair, apples-to-apples comparison amongst the various programs.
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Flying Club is the name of Virgin Atlantic’s frequent flyer program. And Richard Branson is the name of their founder and CEO. And he is my idol. Hmm, where was I…Oh yes, one of the challenges of valuing miles from this program is that mileage requirements for free flights vary by specific departure location, requiring a more city-to-city analysis. If you just want to learn more about the program, read our post, Summary of the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Program.
US Airways is a member of the Star Alliance (not to be confused with the Rebel Alliance), a network of 21 member airlines that have partnered to offer service to virtually any location on the planet where folks actually fly to. In assessing the value of their frequent flyer program, known as Dividend Miles, we consider both the US Air and Star Alliance redemption schedules.
In September, 2009, JetBlue announced some major changes to its TrueBlue frequent flyer program, requiring PlasticIQ to completely re-evaluate our estimate of the worth of JetBlue’s TrueBlue points. Previously, we had estimated JetBlue points to be worth about $0.0120 per point. With the changes to the program, that estimate has climbed slightly to about $0.0122 per point.
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The Citi Hilton HHonors Visa credit card offers points for everyday purchases, along with additional points for specific category purchases. Points can be redeemed for free nights at Hilton properties worldwide. There is no annual fee for this card. Read the rest of this entry »
