Fred Business News - Open up your wallet and look through your credit cards. Now take out a pair of scissors and cut up the ones with the name of an airline on it.
Yes, that's right. Forget all you think you know about getting free travel rewards and listen up: Airline frequent flyer credit cards are a bad deal. And that's not only because of high interest rates and annual fees.
It's because they give you little bang for your buck and limit your options. Airlines are flying fewer planes with cheaper fares while a record number of people are accumulating countless frequent flyer miles. That translates to fewer available reward tickets that are worth less and less. Plus by earning miles on one airline, you're severely limiting your options for your next vacation.
But while hotel rates are setting record highs, they're also relatively easy to find free. At Starwood, the parent company for such brands as Westin, W, Sheraton, St. Regis and Le Meridian, you can use Starwood Preferred Guest points for any available room. (It's also pretty easy with the other big chains like Marriott, Hyatt or Hilton, but many have minor restrictions.)
"For some reason people seem to forget they spend more on an average hotel stay than they do on their airline fare to get there," says Randy Peterson, editor of Inside Flyer Magazine. "It just makes more sense to be invested in a hotel rewards program."
That's because not only will accumulated Starpoints work for any of the more than 800 Starwood hotels, they can also be transferred to 30 different airlines. And best of all, for every 20,000 points transferred to an airline's frequent flyer account, you get a 5,000-mile bonus. "It's as close to the Swiss Army Knife of rewards cards as it gets," says Tim Winship who publishes FrequentFlier.com. "It all comes down to simple math."
For example: Four nights at the Westin Maui Resort and Spa costs for $415 per night for a standard room in May. Four nights would cost you $1,660 before tax. Using your Starpoints, it would cost 12,000 points a night or 48,000 miles total. That means you're getting 3.5 cents per point -- a premium considering if you were to use airline points for to get there from
Source: Cnn.com
About Fred: Fred is president of The I Team Organization. With a back ground in agriculture Fred has lead many successful business ventures.
