Happier Abroad Forum Community

I'm trying to figure out if this card is worth it. At first, it was quite a deal. I got this gold card, and had to pay about $90 or so a year for it, and my wife could get another one off my card, I think, maybe for the same money. We got 50,000 miles I think, for applying. We could get a ticket we were interested in for about 75,000 miles. I think the deal was first bag free with the card, then the subsequent bags were $30 or $35. Without the card, the bags were crazy expensive to send, over $100. So moving 14 or so boxes across the Pacific wasn't so bad with the card, and it was a deal.

Now, I think they did away with the subsequent bag deal. They advertise one free bag with the card---didn't they always give that for free? I think that's domestic and you get a couple of bags on an international flight anyway.

I looked it up and a Delta Skymile is worth about 1.3 cents. I've got another card that gives me 1% that has virtual account numbers that I use to shop online. I've got Chase card that pays 1.5%. But after reading dozens of pages to get the card, they threw another long end user agreement at me. I never read it and never signed up and just don't use the card. I'd put another balance on it when I was between jobs and used it for the interest free deal. I should cancel.

I also have a card that pays about 2% on most things and 4% on 'eligible' gas purchases, and another one that runs deals like that that I can use to buy stuff from China which won't take virtual account numbers. I pretty much use that card on Ali Express or if it has a deal.

It's kind of useful to have some credit cards if you need to purchase a bunch of stuff quick and you don't have the cash, but will, or if your money is tied up into something not liquid and you need the purchase now and it takes a while to get the cash out to pay it.

I'm thinking about getting rid of the Delta card, though. It's an American Express. These cards are frustrating because they give you double credit if you purchase a Delta ticket with it. So that would be about 2.3 cents of sky miles per dollar on those purchases, which is okay. But I haven't been able to use the card in Indonesia. I don't know if anyone takes it outside of North America... not where I have tried. So you want to use the deal to pay for bags and rack up some points, but they don't take the card.

I'll have to consider whether paying for a bag on domestic flights over the year is worth $90. It hasn't been for a lot of years. Does anyone know anything else about these kinds of cards? Are there any benefits, tricks, angles I'm missing?

Are there any cards that are valuable? I had a domestic HSBC card in Indonesia once that gave me access to airport lounges when I was doing a lot of domestic travel for work. There was a nice place to sit and actual food and drinks in there. It was nice.

What credit cards are good for international travelers to get?

You're going to have to read all the fine print in "terms and conditions", and even that would probably be a waste of time since I'm sure it has a clause that states such "terms and conditions" are "subject to change without notice".

I used to have the Delta Amex Gold card through work - basically my company foot the $90/year bill. Because we travelled frequently (pre-COVID) and often had to check bigger bags with stuff we'd take to trade shows and conferences, the card paid for itself pretty quickly and I picked up some nice bonus miles.

Nowadays, I don't have any airline cards. In general, I think it's a financially better decision to go with whatever airline is cheapest + use a decent all-purpose cash-back card. My main credit card is through Fidelity which is a flat 2%, and goes to my kids' college funds each month. I don't need to mess around with a bunch of different credit cards and it keeps life simple. Plus airlines can and do change term frequently. If an airline is stuck with too many outstanding points, they can arbitrarily raise the redemption amounts.