Airliner Mergers:What do they mean for your miles? What credit card is best?

Click here for our special report on airline mergers and what they could mean for your miles. In addition, we show you the credit card that lets you earn points in the 'Swiss bank account' of points programs so you don't have to worry about airlines going out of businesses.

Earn a free vacation without flying and with minimal spending

You can earn a roundtrip airline ticket on American Airlines and free nights at premium Starwood (Sheraton, Westin, W, Four Points) hotel properties just with the introductory bonus points from two miles credit cards. That's without any flying to earn points, and with a very small spending requirement.

If your travel companion also applies separately, you can end up with 2 roundtrip tickets and enough hotel points for 2-5 free nights at a Starwood property. That's enough for a nice long weekend vacation for two. Click here to see the details of these offers and how to maximize your benefits.

New cash and miles flexibility with the Delta American Express

American Express recently announced a new redemption option **exclusively** for holders of the Delta Gold SkyMiles American Express and Delta Platinum SkyMiles American Express cards.

You can now use your miles for dollars off flights, with no restriction on the flight you want to choose for the discount. Every 10,000 miles = $100 off the cost of your flight. This is in addition to the usual way of redeeming 25,000 or more miles for a free flight.

While this new cash and miles option isn't always the most efficient use of your points, it's helpful in two ways: 1) you don't need to spend as much to reach a useful award, and 2) you can use 'orphaned' miles quickly and easily with no inventory restrictions.

We like the added flexibility and the Delta Gold SkyMiles American Express continues to be our favorite traditional airline credit card. You can learn more about its other features like special double miles categories here.

Loophole for more miles with the Citi PremierPass Elite MasterCard

The Citi PremierPass Elite MasterCard is unique because it earns you points for every mile you fly when you use the card to purchase airline tickets. For example, when you use the card to buy a ticket from New York to Los Angeles for $300, you will receive 300 points for the cost of the ticket, plus 5,000 points for the roundtrip mileage. In addition, you will receive 5,000 miles in the frequent flyer program of the airline you choose to fly.

Now, here's the story on the little loophole...

Citi uses any transaction associated with an airline ticket number to track whether you should get points for the miles flown on a flight purchase.

That automatically shows up when you first buy the ticket. However, whenever you make other purchases associated with the ticket, the ticket number will tag to those additional transaction.

So for example, I paid $35 using the credit card to upgrade a ticket from San Franicsco to Las Vegas on Virgin America airlines recently. I had already purchased the ticket with the card a few weeks earlier.

When my statement posted, I got points equal to the miles flown **twice** because there were two purchases associated with that ticket number. So, I got miles twice from Citi, and miles from Virgin America -- or triple points on one trip.

Generally, you're only going to have multiple transactions associated with one ticket when you change flights and incur a fee or pay an upgrade or premium seat charge to the airline. But it's nice to know you might get points even faster with this little loophole.

Learn more about the card and where you can apply for it at this link.

Exposing the Capital One No Hassle Miles Rewards Visa: Why 1.25 miles per $ isn't all it seems

Many consumers are enticed by Capital One's offer for 1.25 miles per dollar spent with its No Hassle Miles Rewards Visa. What they miss is that while Capital One appears generous in letting you earn points with this card, it can actually be a relatively poor performer because they have high mileage requirements for many rewards. As an example, a typical $400 domestic plane ticket requires 60,000 points with Capital One. Since year earn 1.25 points per dollar you spend, you'd have to spend $48,000 on the card to earn a reward. That's a return of less than 1% on your purchsaes.

We think a better "no hassle" alternative for any airline, anytime awards is the American Express Blue Sky. You earn 'only' one point per dollar, but 7500 points equals $100 in travel credit. So that $400 plane ticket only needs 30,000 points, or $30,000 in card spending, and a healthier 1.3% return on your purchases.

We wrote an article that goes into more detail the issues with the Capital One card, and offers some alternatives. For those who are more savvy and less interested in air awards, the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express often yields 2-2.5% or better for its no hassle hotel rewards.

Double miles with Delta Airlines SkyMiles Gold American Express credit card

We recently received a promotional mailer from American Express highlighting double miles on every purchase for the month of December with the Delta Airlines SkyMiles Gold American Express credit card. It's an offer for select existing cardholders, and one reason why the SkyMiles Gold credit card is one of the better airline-only mile cards. Remember, this offer is only for *existing* cardholders. However these offers become available from time to time when you hold the card and do a nice job of helping your earning power. You can learn more about the card at this link on MileCards.com.

Why the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express credit card is special

While it's not immediately clear from the advertising copy, the most unique feature of the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express is the ability to transfer the points you earn to over 30 major airlines, most at 1 for 1 or better.

This gives you the ability to redeem your miles in the most efficient way, with the home airline, giving you maximum flexibility.

In addition, it also lets you redeem your points for free nights at Starwood hotels (Sheraton, Westin, W, Four Points, Le Meridien, St. Regis) with no blackouts. The only catch is it has to be a 'standard' room (sorry, suites are extra!), but as long as one is available for sale, you can book it for free with points.

Not many cards offer that kind of flexibility for both air and hotel awards with minimal dilution. To learn more about the card, click here.