Questions and Answers

I am going to be making a $3K-$5K purchase in about the next month and was wondering what is the best card to use to maximize my points. I currently have the United Explorer card and with that purchase I would hit the $25K spending limit for the 10K bonus miles, but was wondering if there is a better card to use with a signup bonus? I am currently trying to get enough miles/points to get a round trip to FRA on LH in F.

Are you planning to use UA miles to get your LH ticket? LH doesn’t release F tickets to partners until about 14 days before the flight date.

If that’s ok, you could get either a Chase Sapphire Preferred or an Amex Starwood Preferred Guest card. Both of those currencies can be transferred to UA.

Lucky currently has links for both cards – see the tab at the top of the page.
Current sign-up bonus for the CSP is 40K after $4000 spend (on the Flexible Points & Cash Back tab). For the SPG it’s 25K after $3000 spend (on the Hotel cards tab).

The CSP has bonus categories, the SPG card does not (except for Starwood hotels). But when transferring SPG points to an airline, you get 5K bonus points for every 20K you transfer. So it depends on your spending patterns. If your spend is in one of the CSP bonus categories, I’d definitely choose that one.

Barclay’s does have a Lufthansa Miles & More card with a 20K bonus after first purchase. Keep in mind that LH miles do expire and there are fuel surcharges involved when you use LH M&M as your currency.

I was planning on using UA miles but I would be willing to use another currency to buy it if I get a better sign up bonus. I know LH does not typically release award space until 14 days prior, which I am fine as if worse comes to worse I can always get a Business Ticket for the same number of miles. I briefly thought about the BA signup bonus, but don’t like signing up in Q3 for cards that have calendar year spending threshholds. I was thinking about the UA Business Card, but not exactly sure what qualifies as a business for that.

I don’t think you can go wrong with the CSP. Ultimate Rewards transfer 1:1 to UA, instantly. (SPG transfers can take a few days).

On the BA card you’ve got a full 12 months to meet the full spend unless I missed something. I know when I got the card 3 years ago it took me into the next calendar year to meet the spend. While the BA F cabin is nice, I think once you left London for FRA you’d be in a regular European business class seat – which is economy with the middle seat blocked. And of course fuel surcharges. I’d stick with LH/UA, personally.