American Airlines Credit Card

If you want to use the award miles, they have impossible flights and you have to fly multiple segments. I had it for 20 years (from 1990 to 2010) and finally gave up. We use to fly out of Waco and Dallas/Ft Worth, but it wasn't worth the effort.

Now, I fly on Southwest Airlines out of Dallas Love Field and the flight times are easier, the credit card miles are fair and the flight segments are easy. Just my two cents and I am sure others may disagree.

Also, I was on pace to be lifetime American Platinum and when I got 1,700,000 miles, they can cancelled the program and said you could only qualify for 2,000,000 miles with air travel and not spending on credit cards. I am lifetime American Gold, which is worthless.

I spent almost 20 years on American Airlines Credit card and got burned. I only fly AA overseas, but Southwest is going to fly to Europe within the next 5 years, so I am prepared.

I am Southwest A List Preferrred and my wife has not paid for a flight (unilimited companion faire) in over 5 years since I left AA. It is worth it for short hauls. Just my two cents worth.

If you are going to travel for work and will be chasing status and will get legitimate use out of things like free checked bags, then they will do you just fine

But if you are more interested in the "points" of it all, then id be hesitant to jump into any airline/hotel specific card outside of already having explicit plans for them. Like I will have 180k AA points in a week when my statement closes but I also already have the points earmarked for Etihads first class. If thats your case then again, not the worst idea and id recommend looking at the Platinum Select since it has an elevated bonus right now

If that isn't true, and you just want to start accumulating points and dont have already planned out explicit use of those points, then id focus less on an airline specific co branded card and would look more at an Amex, Chase, Cap One, Citi card that earns flexible, transferable points

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Should also just preface this all by making sure you actually understand what getting into the points game means vs something like cashback It isn't as easy as the influencers make it out to be. If you think you will be able to just sit on a stash for 5 years amd then have your pick of business class seats when you eventually want to make your dream summer trip to Italy for you and your future wife and kid, then I would really temper your expectations

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OP, I came to post basically say the same. Additionally, If you're playing the points game its imperative that you pay it off every month! One month of interest will likely blow any perceived travel savings. In my opinion to get real value playing the points game you need to have significant work expenses that you can run through your card each month.

As a "young guy" you may want to consider the Chase Preferred card since it has a relatively cheap annual fee ($100) and the points can be transferred to airlines at a 1:1 ratio for miles. Recently they had a 100,000 mile sign up bonus. It may be worth checking to see if its still available.

I would also recommend reading the points guy website. He breaks down all of the cards based on value of the points. Typically points are worth $0.01 to $0.02 each. To get that $500 plane tix for free you will need to spend $25,000-$50,000 on $1 per point basis. (Obviously, this range changes when take into consideration point multipliers). How much do you plan on spending monthly on your credit card? As I said before make sure you pay it off every month!

I am Plat Pro with AA on the credit card

The wife and I kind of have it down to a science accumulating status and miles. We don't go out of our way to do it or spend more, but we do try to favor it when booking hotels, going dining, etc if all things are equal

We have been able to fly out of the country multiple times on miles for free on business class or first, and have been upgraded a number of times

The recently changed things to make it more difficult to upgraded however

I'd rather see you go with the Citi Strava card instead of tying yourself to AA

I use an AA card but not sure which one. I’ve had it for a long time. I put so much on that card that it builds points and status pretty fast. I only use brand specific credit cards right now, but like I said I put business expenses on there to rack up points and status.