Went on my first trip in October of 2011 to Zim. Trying to plan the next trip in 2013 or 2014. I have had an AA card for years, and rarely travel other than first/business because of the miles I am able to rack up using the card for my business and personal expenses. When I found out over a year ago that AA didn't do me any good to get to Africa I got an AE Delta card and am using it as much as possible. Reading between the lines on this forum it seems like it is becoming extremely difficult if not impossible to even use the Delta miles to purchase or even upgrade. What do the frequent travelers on the forum recommend? United? Someone else?

My preference for many years now has been the AmEx Platinum. You accrue miles that can be used on a number of different airlines, rather than only one, and sometimes you can have miles transferred to a participating airline and then used via their code share agreements.

You should also be concerned about foreign exchange fees charged by cc when used outside the USA. Some charge as much as 3% while others charge 0%; it can make a difference.

Using ff miles to get to africa has become much more difficult than it was 20 years ago - also requires many more miles today. Best to plan to book as soon as the appropriate flight is released for ff ticketing.

I'll second AMEX as the best card for accruing points for international travel. You can transfer points into a number of different airlines' frequent flyer programs including Delta, Air France, British Air, Virgin to name a few. I've generally found that if you're flying on a foreign airline you are better off joining their frequent flyer program in order to get free tickets or upgrades as opposed to trying to do it through their US partner.

There is a newsletter called First Class Flyer that is pretty good as far as various strategies to get either free or upgraded tickets.

I primarily use my Amex for accruing points for travel. I would recommend the Amex rewards card over the Delta card primarily because you have flexibility with regards to airlines as the others have mentioned. The reason I like the rewards card over the other is that you get 2x points with grocery and gas purchases and 3x points with airline ticket purchases. However, I do have a business platinum card for which I got 50,000 bonus points and a host of other travel benefits. Which ever card you get, do your homework and you should be able to get anywhere from 25,000 and 70,000 bonus points for signing up.

I use a Capital One visa. 2:1 miles and it worked very well in RSA. Their customer service is excellent as well.

I did have to go to the bank for money transfers and it was quick with no problems.

I use a Chase United card. Airline miles for every dollar you spend. And I have been able to use them every year. Sometimes you have to be a little creative to fly business or First class but at least they have seats available.

There were a number of times in South Africa where my American Express card was refused. Both Mastercard and Visa should be OK.

folding green

I've been using the Alaska Air Visa card for many years and overall have had a very positive experience using their partners for travel to Afica. British Air is one of their partners and by far my preferred carrier. Mileage seats have been easy to get if you jumped through the hoops until this year. I hope the problem is the Olympics in London and all goes back to normal next year.

Grumulkin has a good point that Visa is accepted basically everywhere but some others are not so that might be a consideration when acquiring a CC.

Mark

I greatly appreciate all the responses. Mark, as far as BA is concerned-when I went on my first trip last fall I tried to use AA miles (which I have a boatload of) and was told that I could travel through London to Zim but not with firearms, due to an embargo on guns from all EU countries to Zim. Do you not travel with firearms when you fly BA? Thanks.

drj,

All of the EU does have an arms embargo against Zimbabwe but there are easy ways to deal with that. I have flown BA to Africa about a dozen times and this year will be my fourth time to Zim. I always have taken my own guns with the exception of one trip to Tanzania in '03 where I rented guns.
PM me if you'd like to know more about this option.

Mark

I use AE Delta card. In 2010 I flew over there using miles. Just checked about using miles for next year, they said possibly 140,000 miles. Better get it booked as sone as the flight opens.

Platinum Amex....

I have used Platinum Amex since 1997. Word of warning though some airline tickets that are purchased with mileage cannot be cancelled or upgraded. Something you might look into before purchasing.

quote:

Originally posted by Randy W Martin:
I use AE Delta card. In 2010 I flew over there using miles. Just checked about using miles for next year, they said possibly 140,000 miles. Better get it booked as sone as the flight opens.

I have a Delta American Express card and once the renewal date comes around I'm going to cancel it. I've used it for various trips but the hassle in getting to where you want to go, when you want to go is such a bother, I don't intend to do it any longer.

There is a VISA no hassle rewards card I'm using now the points of which you can use with any airline and there is no annual fee.

From whom did you get the VISA? Any chance of the travel experts (Gracy, Travel With Guns) opining on this?