veg_all@yahoo.com wrote:
> I keep mail from united and american airlines wanting me to sign up
> for their credit cards and then get 20K miles. Can I sign up for them
> and cancel within a year to avoid the annual fee? Do I still get to
> keep the 20k free miles? Can I keep doing this every year? Are there
> any other offers by other credit card companies?
You keep the miles even if you cancel, on both the United and American
offers (at least on all the ones I get, and I get them about every two
weeks, as do my minor children that could presumably not get cards).
Whether you can keep doing it or not is the question. I expect that you
can. The issuing bank is paying for the miles and crediting them to your
mileage account. The airline probably doesn't care. If the bank is dumb
enough to keep approving applications, that's their problem.
I've been tempted to do that, but I'd worry about forgetting to cancel,
though the miles are worth one year of annual fee--barely.
I have a credit card that gives me a $500 ticket on any airline, with no
blackout dates, for every $25,000 I charge. The issuer doesn't offer
this card anymore, but so far they haven't eliminated this program for
existing card holders. For me this is a better deal than the airline
cards, as most of my cross-country flights are just about $500 when I
fly at peak season, and if it's a bit more then I can pay the
difference. With the airline programs, you usually have to use 40,000
miles, as there are so few tickets at the 25,000 mile level. There is an
annual fee of $50, but this can be paid with $5000 worth of points,
though I prefer to pay it, because $5000 worth of points are worth $100
to me when I redeem them. This is a much better program than the Capital
One program which would require $50,000 worth of charges for a $500 ticket. |