Capital One has this new deal wherein you can get two miles for every dollar you spent on a "rewards" card in 2011 up to maximum of 100,000. So, since I spent over $50,000 on my Delta card last year, I think I earn 100,000 miles as long as I spend $1000 in 90 days.

I have never had a Capital One card before; can I really use the 102,000 miles for $1,020 of travel on any airline for any fare? Or, is there some limitation? This seems too good to be true; the card is free for the first year.

Marc, That is only 1 cent per mile. I usually look for a return of 3 to 4 cents a mile. On some international flights it can be a bit more.

My Virgin Atlantic branded card, which is AMEX but billed and taken care of as a BofA card I get 1.5 mile per dollar and if the spend reaches certain levels there are year end bonus amounts. I have actually charged amounts for less than $10.00 on the card just to get miles.

That card is only good if you are at a VA gateway city which LA is so good for me. There is a web site I discovered that compares card programs. I will look it up and add it as a link at bottom of post with the edit function.

http://travelcreditcards.com/

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/best-current-deals-offers/

http://thepointsguy.com/category/credit-cards/

Added two more. Both from guys that have web sites that are miles experts. One is Gary Leff.

Marc, The C1 2012 Venture promo offer is OK, if you have a significant spend on one of the qualifying credit cards (per C1's offer
Terms and Conditions). The 2011 offer was even better--C1 matched up to 100K miles with C1 miles, verified by u sending in you mileage
statement-- we got 120K C1 Miles out of this promo. Don't like to redeem C1 miles for travel (best redemption was Hyatt stay certs) so another option to consider is taking your C1 miles you earn in cash.(rcvd a $1200 check this week for the 2011 C1 Venture promo). Brian Kelly's (TPG) link, Ralph provided above has a C1 2012 Venture promo post (fourth hot link down) further describing this offer and your options. Gary's post from his View from a Wing blog is:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewf...back-100000-point-signup-matching-bonus/

Another user friendly travel blog writer has a good post describing this offer:

http://millionmilesecrets.com/2012/03/07/double-mile-challenge/


ps: find that reading the bloggers post is helpful but sometimes reading the post's replies/comments is equally helpful

Marc, its worthwhile for you to get the card since as you said it's "free money" just for signing up (and maybe spending $1000 on the card). I agree that 2% back (on this card on the spend) basically is not that good as Ralph said (although he was figuring on 1%). But we're only talking about the signup bonus here. So signup - spend the $1000 on the card get your cash back as pointed out by Colonel Wes (or use them for credit on travel) then throw it in the drawer and cancel it before the annual fee is due.

Credit card companies have been doing pretty crazy promotions for signing up. Two years ago it was the Chase BA card (100,000 miles just for signing up - and BA allows you to "household" or combine your miles). We (Mark, My Mother, and I) all got the card spent the $1,000 each and ended up with 320,000 miles (which got us 2 First Class tickets on Cathay roundtrip from Chicago to Bangkok) plus we still have about 21,000 miles left (which will get 2 roundtrip tickets for a short trip on American). So we spent $1,500 (on stuff that we need to spend on anyways like groceries and gas) and got a ticket that "cost" $16,000 (that's the full price of one roundtrip ticket on Cathay in First - of course I'd never pay that but probably would pay $5,000).

Last year, the first round of Capital One's Match Your Miles signup which gave 100,000 Capital One "miles" for signing up (provided that you had at least 100,000 miles is some airline account in your name). When it was first introduced there was a great Hyatt Gift Certificate redemption (along with Ritz Carlton and Fairmont) which was $900 in gift certificates for IIRC 52,000 "miles". This was pretty quickly pulled since it wasn't budgeted for (they should have gone through the award chart carefully before announcing the promo). Mark and I both got this card, and I got 2 x $900 and Mark got $900 + $500 in Hyatt gift certs just for signing up and doing the minimum spend. We still have $1,500 left of the Hyatt gift certs (probably use them up in the next couple of months since we have about 11 nights in Hyatts coming up). So for 2 credit card signups and spending $2,000 (again on stuff like groceries and gas), we got back $3,300 in Hyatt gift certs/cards.

They've tightened the promo this year though - you'd only get 2x the amount that you spent on an airline affiliated credit card last year (they require a copy of the year end summary which shows your total spend). And redemptions are basically $0.01 per "mile" - or $1,000 for the 100,000 mile maximum. Still not bad just for signing up for a credit card. People who did the Capital One promo last year (like me) are not eligible this round. There are a lot more people around who have at least 100,000 miles in an airline account than those who spend $50,000 a year on one credit card (Mark would otherwise qualify but I wouldn't for example).

I'm still waiting to see what great promo comes by this year (probably in the fall). I just got the Hyatt credit card for the two free nights (in a suite because I'm Diamond) and late last year got the Citi AA Visa (for the 50,000 miles - I'm really chasing AA miles to use for trips to BKK). And Mark (and my mother) got the Continental card just before it went away to get 30,000 miles on United / Continental.

I got the 100,000 points and have found it is really easy to use the points for hotels. So, it looks like I will get free hotel at Hee Haw, free hotel at Le Meridien in Monaco, and use the rest of the miles for other hotel stays. This promotion, combined with 200,000 miles we got from BA last year is sure helping out the travel budget.

As I need to get all my stays in at Hiltons to maintain Diamond (a very valuable benefit), I have been reticent to sign up for hotel promos.

Re: Capital One:

The points are worth $0.01 toward travel etc. Many of their cards give you more than 1 point per dollar spent. So, if that works for you....Great!
Just know that I tried to turn points into cash back. I felt that I could spend the $$ better than they could, as most of you reading this can!

I was offered 1/2 cent per point. IE, 50% of the value on a trade in.

WOW! of course, you can always use the points at Amazon.
See our signature, if you decide to do so.

Doug