Airlines' miles collecting cards

>>1210340
Those are loyalty programs as they reward exactly that, your loyalty to a Alliance.

There're only 2 programs that are actually worth it
>Star Alliance, probably the best and largest loyalty programs
Once you get the status you get massive benefits, if you fly economy 6x interconti you might get enough miles for a free continental flight but no status upgrade
>One World, also very good
Easy to get your status up even with your 6 economy flights, the rewards are not that great but still a nice bonus.
Get both and collect the rewards as you can but the usual "cheapest ticket" will get you next to no miles/kms so it's probably not worth it.

For both you can't earn bonus points by booking for family members beside getting their associated credit card where you get some bonus points per $ spent.

So your best option is a credit card with something like 3% cash back and no foreign ATM fees as you won't make it into the status levels where your get the comfy multipliers working for you.

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Just get a bunch of credit cards for sign up bonuses. Easiest is AA. Made about 500k miles from sign up bonuses. Can use them on JAL for Asia. Star alliance is probably the best but getting united miles is much harder. Plus the united hub is in Newark and I'm not going there for flights when I'm next to JFK.

>>1210340
OP, personally I wouldn't tie yourself down to a single alliance/airline. Remember, miles have different values for each airline. It will cost me 150k United miles at minimum to fly from USA to Japan round trip for example, ANA (also Star Alliance) will only cost me 75-85k. But, to actually give you advice on which cards to get, I need to know the following:

>Which airport do you/your family typically fly from
>What parts of the world do you/your family typically fly to
>How many credit cards have you opened in the past 24 months
>What is your approximate credit score (creditkarma score is fine)

>>1210547
>>1210408
Shit, I never had a credit card and I don't plan to get one, as I don't have a steady income (I'm a freelancer travelling the world).
And I'm from Eastern Europe.

As I said, I'm travelling around the world so I usually take different airline (My last ones were LAM, Sky Airline, Viva Columbia and KLM (for family)).
Looks like from what you're saying loyalty airlines cards are kind of pointless in my case.

>>1210547
What are you talking about? Japan is 35k one way on econ. 65k on business

>>1210584
I was going to suggest Chase Bank or Amex credit cards depending on where you live (USA) and credit history, but I have no idea what kind of cards are available in Eastern Europe. Check what kind of travel cards are available in your country, and if any are similar to Chase/Amex (transfer to a variety of airline partners across different alliances) go for those. Look primarily for large signup bonus on the card and good mile/reward point earning rate, and look at the award charts of airlines/hotels that the card transfers to. This will tell you how useful the points are.

If you can't find a flexible bank branded travel card, then look in to airline cards. Once again, biggest sign up bonus with high mile earning rate is what you want, within reason. Make sure the annual fee isn't more than what you'd be earning in miles. Also check that airline's award chart, for flights on the airline and for partner flights. Different airlines charge different mile rates for the same flights as I mentioned above.

>What are you talking about? Japan is 35k one way on econ. 65k on business

70k RT then in cattle class (assuming saver availability), when ANA RT is at most 85k in BUSINESS class on its own metal. 130k United miles (once again assuming saver) on United metal RT for business, and until Polaris is standard across their planes their business class is closer to ANA's premium economy with worse food and worse service. The only strength of United miles is how many partners you can use them for, but you'll still pay 50-100% more miles for those redemptions than if you booked through a partner, and those partners can book other star alliance airlines anyways.

You should get the card of the airline which is based at your nearest airport. Because you will probably use them the most often. As mentioned, the two alliances worth a damn are StarAlliance (best) and OneWorld (pretty good).

>>1210349

What's wrong with SkyTeam?

>>1210637
Nothing wrong but it's very limited in its use as the alliance is very small.
Air France, KLM and Delta are the only ones worth mentioning and desirable to fly with.
>I want to fly alitalia , Aeroflot or aero Mexico.
Said nobody ever

So you either live in France/NL or next to a delta hub making it a first choice or there are better options for the other two.

>>1210340
Piggly Wiggly

>>1210641
>forgetting Korean Airlines

>>1210641

Well then, I guess it's worth it if I live in Mexico

>>1210595
I researched it and I guess you're right. ANA also offers open jaw and stopover also when us airlines keep devaluing. Good thing I have 200k mr points if I want to transfer it over.

The strength of US carriers though is how easy it is to get miles. It's really hard to get miles for those Asian carriers without cc bonuses unless you travel for work or something.

U believe Capital One cards are international and their venture card has points you can use for any airline. Chase is another good choice. For Sky Team (Delta,KLM, Korean Air, etc) American Express has a Delta branded card with good sign up. My wife got to 100K miled quickly by getting two cards, one personal, and one business, with 50K sign up bonus each. She has no business.

>>1210723
CapitalOne and Barclay both allow you to redeem points for a certain cent per point value on travel expenses on your statement. This is different from earning miles/points for a specific program, because most non US airlines don't tie their points to a specific value. Venture/Arrival+ are both useful if the point value of the program is lower than the point value of the Venture/Arrival+, or if you're redeeming for things like cruises or really cheap economy flights. They're a bad investment if you want upper class international flights.

Chase is good to hit first because they will auto-deny on most cards if you've opened more than 5 cards in the past 24 months. UR earning cards (Sapphire Preferred/Reserve, and Freedom/Freedom Unlimited if you have a Sapphire brand card as well) can transfer to a decent number of airline and hotel partners, or redeem for a flat 1.25 or 1.5 cent per point value depending on the card you hold.

Amex Delta cards aren't that great unless all you fly is Delta. Better to get the Plat, Rewards Gold, or another MR earning card and transfer to one of Amex's partners. Amex SPG is also good to grab, as it has the widest variety of airline partners and gives you a bonus 5k points for each 20k points you transfer.