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If you’re looking for a local credit card, American Savings announced a new card with 2% cash back on everything, all the time. It’s free the first year, then $39 per year after that. If you charge $1000 a month on food, gas, clothes, insurance, restaurants, etc, the credit card pays you $240 a year. That’s a pretty good offer, especially since you don’t have to play games by signing up for categories, or figure out if the grocery store you’re shopping at is a “grocery” or “specialty market” with different discounts.
https://www.asbhawaii.com/unlimited
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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Thanks for posting this. I haven't decided whether or not to sign up but after reading the card agreement it reminded me of what a horrible deal the Hawaiian Airlines Mileage card is and nudged me that I should probably cancel it.
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What's wrong with the Hawaiian mileage card? I don't have it so know little about it but am curious. I have other travel-related cards, so am interested in your opinion and can compare. Thanks.
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Bank of America Preferred Rewards card is 3% plus a 50% bonus for being in the Preferred category. Sign up and spend $1000 in 3 months and get an extra $200 bonus.
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TomK, the initial sign-up bonus is great (for the offer you get *on the plane*). But ongoing, you get more dollars in cash back with these other cards, and those dollars can be spent on any airline or anything.
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quote:
Originally posted by TomK
What's wrong with the Hawaiian mileage card? I don't have it so know little about it but am curious. I have other travel-related cards, so am interested in your opinion and can compare. Thanks.
In HOTPEs example you would have $240 which is enough to buy a RT fare from ITO to HNL and have $82 leftover. If you took miles instead, you would have 12000 miles which is 3000-28,000 fewer than needed to fly for free on a mileage ticket. The cash back card is a better value. The interest rate on the miles card is REALLY high as is the $99 annual fee. The miles card does give one a free checked bag which is a $25 each way value, but in 7 years I have only checked a bag twice.
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If you took miles instead, you would have 12000 miles
It would depend on the specific purchase mix under the new 3x-2x-1x system.
interest rate on the miles card is REALLY high
That it is. If you carry a balance. Which I don't.
Waiting to see what Southwest has to offer...
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The Hawaiian airlines miles program is one of the worst in the industry, so their credit card is always going to be at a disadvantage regardless of the interest rate or annual fee. For example it cost us 25,000 miles to bring our daughter home for a visit on the short flight from Oahu. I used to travel from Alaska to NYC and back for 25,000 miles on the Alaska mileage program.
And the Hawaiian Card is issued through a sleazy foreign investment services company. (I'm not implying American investment banks are any less sleazy, in fact Barclays acquired Lehman during the financial crisis).
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Thanks for the replies to my question, everyone. I'm probably in a bit of a different situation to many and travel a lot but often long-haul, and was curious if the Hawaiian card might help, but I don't think it will. I have a couple of American Airlines Citi cards which help with air miles (I pay a $75 fee on one of them) but also use a Hilton Ascend card for hotels, which I really like. There is an annual fee (I forget how much, $50?) but any money spent on a Hilton product gives you 12 times the points plus additional rewards for groceries, restaurants and gas. Don't think I'm going to give them up just yet. Pam and I have managed to do some pretty spectacular trips using the rewards from those cards, certainly not the kind of trips I could afford if I had to pay for them.
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I recently learned that Alaska Airline miles can also be used for hotel stays. I punched in Portland as a random test to see how many miles it takes for one night. 14,000 plus $0 for 1 night, or 8,300 miles plus $33, or 5600 miles plus $50, etc. Not as good "per dollar" value as using the miles for air travel, but at least it's a nice option.
