Reader Credit Card Preferences

February 4, 2013 - Rick

Just for grins, I did a survey of the credit cards that FTG readers were approved for over a two week time period. I wanted to see if promoting and posting on my blog and others actually influenced readers in their card choices. I found the results to offer a mixed results.

I’m not allowed by contract to talk about how many cards were approved of each type, but I think I can rank them in from most popular to least popular without violating any terms and conditions with the card issuers. Heck they might actually want to know how their cards are doing in comparison to other cards on the market. Here we go for a recent time period of 15 days the end of December 2012:

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is the #1 card of FTG readers
Combined INK Bold and Plus cards
SPG Business and Personal cards combined
Citi Hilton Honors Signature card
Combined Delta Personal and Business cards

Here was I learned from the data … Our readers are a smart group of travelers choosing a good solid day in and day out card as the top choice. In my opinion only choice number 2 was a direct influence of the 5X on office spend coupled with a nice sign-up bonus.

Again at #3 FTG readers took long term value and a solid day to day card over other cards. SPG has been one of my favorites for years and it still is popular, but looks like Chase has stepped up their game and Amex may need a big offer to compete in the future with the Ultimate Rewards cards. I carry the SPG card in my wallet day in and day out along with an Ultimate Rewards card.

The Citi Hilton Honors card at 4th most popular surprised me, but then again didn’t. With a smaller minimum spend and a very large hotel chain behind it, it may have been a solid choice for newbies to the game.

Fifth on the list really surprised me as we do not actively promote this card. There are quite often better Delta card offers from non-FTG links. Again it could be newbies just getting a starter card for their own personal airline of choice, and for many that makes sense.

Remember these are only cards that we receive affiliate commissions on as we can’t track the AA two browser trick (now dying or dead) or the Barclay US Airways Chairmans card on Rick’s Top Ten Travel Deals.

So were you surprised by the results or did it confirm your choices as popular cards in the space?

Deal of the Day

For today’s Deal of the Day American Airlines AAdvantage® has provided 2500 AAdvantage® miles for the best deals, fares, promotions, anything related to American Airlines, their oneworld partners or AAdvantage ® partners. Add it to the comments section of this post or this afternoon’s Deal of the Day post by 11:59PM ET (with your first name, last initial, and home airport) to be eligible to win.

Lantean

Delta?!?!

http://twitter.com/Mileage_Update Mileage Update

Maybe they are combing that card w the other methods that earn Delta miles super cheap. Skypesos are the best value out there.

Charles Clarke

Delta had some higher initial spend bonuses at the end of December, though I don’t know that they would have been captured in your affiliate numbers…

I would have expected AMEX Hilton over Citi Hilton, though maybe your readers all had the AMEX already and were adding the Citi.

Interesting…
James L JFK

AA is offering a 50% bonus when buying miles through 2/28. The max is 30,000 bonus miles for purchasing 60,000 miles for a total of 90,000 miles at $1,808.75, or roughly 2 cents a mile.
Sol_Invictus

I’m not clear how this is useful to your readership. So, it’s not a sample of the FF community just those that clicked your links? That’s gonna have some serious sampling error.
Scott

AA partner: Air Tahiti Nui will be revamping the interior of all their planes with new and a greater number of business seats (and removing first which was unbookable with AA miles anyway). Great news for LAX based folks who want a direct flight to Paris or Tahiti.
Kathryn Ivey

Now that we are in February new car rental deals are published on http://www.aa.com. Hertz has the 4x per mile, Avis has triple miles and Dollar has 200 miles per day. Both Hertz and Avis have up to 35% off as well. But the best one is still Avis 1500 bonus miles and 25% off using codes MUAA070 and K817156. Check the website for more information.

Also don’t forget the 30 miles per dollar at FTD and 1800Flowers. Here is a neat thing I found. If you call 1800Flowers and place your order you get a double bonus because it not only posts as a 30 miles per dollar but it counts as an e shopping portal purchase and you get the e shopping portal bonus as well. So you get a double whammy of points by calling and shopping. Miles for the phone credit and miles from the eshopping portal. So the AA miles are even sweeter. This has happened twice to me and I am loyal to them because of that. My tip is to always call and place the order when ordering flowers from 1800flowers. Great customer service, miles post quickly and you get a double hit of miles. At least it has with me twice. Worth a shot to test the theory. Worse case you get 30 miles per dollar. Best case right now with 16 miles per dollar on the e shopping portal you can actually net 46 miles per dollar. That is even better.
Kathryn I – OKC
tehseen

UA (and some other airlines too) have really sweet deals for flying to Dubai this spring. For example IAH-DXB is $694 RT including taxes. I tried many samples dates of April and May and they have good availability. These are also premium qualifying miles and the round trip gives you around 17,000 miles (around 4 CPM if my math is right).

Tehseen B (DFW)
Kathryn Ivey

View from the Wing is reporting 15% discount on the points required to book Las Vegas to London Gatwick using BA Avios points. Check out his website for more information. Apparently the surcharges are high but this is for all classes of travel so it might worth it to check it out?
Kathryn I -OKC.
http://jasmined.tumblr.com jasmined

I believe FTG already tweeted about this, but I think it’s worth repeating that FTD is offering 30 miles for every $1 spent by American Airlines AAdvantage members, just in time for Valentine’s Day next week.

Jasmine D., ORD
hansmast

IME, Delta has done the best marketing of their cards historically. Every single one of my friends that I’ve started to mentor in the mileage game has a Delta Amex from 1-4 years ago.
Kevin Schader

If you want the best meal selection, remember AA uses FEBO for serving meals – they start at the Front of the plane for Even numbered flights and the Back for Odd numbered flights.
Elaine

Some great flower choices and other Valentines Day gifts through the AA shopping portal!
Elaine F
PDX
Kathryn Ivey

Hub.aa.com/en/aa500ktw is American’s Let Us Thank You for reaching 500,000 followers and now respond to our customers on social media 24/7. To celebrate they will select 24 winners each day for the next 7 days to receive 500 AA miles.

Just Another Points Traveler posted this earlier today. Good luck!

Kathryn I – OKC.
Barbara

Southwest Double Rapid Rewards points nationwide!

http://www.southwest.com/rapidrewards/promotion?f=25mhzhzq
Today through May 15. Need to register for promotion on their website
http://www.facebook.com/kevin.pollack74 Kevin Pollack

Kevin P EWR

Earn double AA miles when you fly on Malaysia Airline between February 15 and April 15 using the code MHDBL. http://www.aa.com/viewPromotionDetails.do?fN=AAd_MHDBL.xml&_locale=en_US
https://twitter.com/ProfCharlotte Charlotte (TYR)

Got the Virgin Atlantic AE from Bank of America last summer. Did the spend for the points plus some extra to put me over 80K points with VA. Transfer 2 to 1 to Hilton in blocks of 5K. Spent twenty minutes on hold with VA before speaking to rep, but rep was quick and efficient although it does take 4 weeks to transfer to Hilton. Showed up a week later to my surprise. 160K more Hilton points! Ya! That is a lot of hotel nights, even at the higher end hotels. Now what to do with the lone 43 Virgin Atlantic points?
Joel A. (NYC)

Can place award-travel seats on hold for up to five days.
Kathryn Ivey

Hawaiian Airlines is having a great sale to Hawaii. I looked at flights from JFK to HNL leaving Monday 3/4 or Tuesday 3/5 and returning Monday 3/11 – 3/14 with the price being $396.60.

Kathryn I – OKC
http://twitter.com/3sarkar M Sarkar

If you have worries about your AAdvantage (or other FF) miles expiring from lack of activity, remember that you can have activity by simply spending a few hundred miles on a magazine subscription through magsformiles.com
Felipe R

Nonstop Flights Between Dallas/Fort Worth and Puebla, Mexico
American Eagle offers daily nonstop service between Dallas/Fort Worth and Puebla, Mexico. AAdvantage members can earn double AAdvantage miles every time they fly through February 15, 2013.

Felipe R. DFW
Pingback: Deal Of The Day – TopCashback – February 5, 2013 | Frugal Travel Guy

Reader Credit Card Preferences

Related Posts