Air Miles & Credit Cards

[Bushiman]

Didn't want to take the Japanese credit cards thread off course so thought I'd just start a new thread...

Can anyone with a Japanese credit card linked to ANA, JAL or any of the other carriers that fly to the UK help me out?
I've had a local bank Mastercard and I've been using my Rakuten VISA for over 10yrs so I doubt I'd have trouble applying anywhere...
I don't mind paying a nominal yearly fee of a few thousand yen...

*Which cards do you guys use, would a straight up ANA card work?
I live in the countryside in Nagano Prefecture, so big banks aren't easily accessible to me...

*I only rack up bills of ¥30,000 ~ ¥60,000 on my current CC -how long would this roughly take to accrue enough points for UK return flights (in your opinion)?

Any information or experiences using credit cards to get air miles would be appreciated...
As always RJ, thanks!

[RetireJapan]

This is a bit dated now, but it's cheap

https://www.amazon.co.jp/Miles-Points-2 ... 209&sr=8-1

The author is a really cool guy.

[Bushiman]

The author is a really cool guy.

Cool! Thanks for the link Ben...
I gave the opening page a read, and it stated what I was kind of suspecting... That maybe air miles are not for me...
I'm not a frequent flyer; maybe once every 3~4yrs... I very rarely stay in hotels... I always search for the cheapest flights if I do have to head back to the motherland... The cheapest direct flights are usually ANA so I was wondering if just racking up air miles on an ANA card with monthly purchases for 3yrs between flights would be enough, but likely not...

Thanks anyway!

[RetireJapan]

Cool! Thanks for the link Ben...
I gave the opening page a read, and it stated what I was kind of suspecting... That maybe air miles are not for me...
I'm not a frequent flyer; maybe once every 3~4yrs... I very rarely stay in hotels... I always search for the cheapest flights if I do have to head back to the motherland... The cheapest direct flights are usually ANA so I was wondering if just racking up air miles on an ANA card with monthly purchases for 3yrs between flights would be enough, but likely not...

Thanks anyway!

The problem with the Japanese carriers is that their miles expire after a couple of years. If you are an infrequent flyer or don't have crazy credit card spend I would recommend getting a United card and racking up miles on that (their miles don't expire as long as you have some activity on the account). You can then use those miles for any Star Alliance carrier (including ANA). You can also fly ANA and credit the miles to United.

[eyeswideshut]

Honestly, in your case, I don't think the JAL Card or ANA Card will be worthwhile. I say this for a couple reasons. Firstly, the miles expire so only frequent users should collect them. Secondly, flights to Europe are 70-80 thousand miles non-peak + you have to pay all of the taxes and other surcharges so the savings are not as good as you might think. On top of that, it can be very difficult to get reservations during peak times using miles. Finally, one of the benefits of these cards is the travel insurance but you are not a frequent traveller so, again, probably not worth it to you.

So the benefits really are not significant - you are better off just choosing the cheapest fares. I actually think ANA and JAL miles are better for domestic flights. Better off collecting Rakuten points. I have been increasingly moving my credit card expenditures over to Rakuten as their point system offers more value.

[tokyojoe]

Dear eyeswideshut,
Not sure if this will be relevant, but just to let you know what I have been doing.
I have an MUFG based mastercard for Cathay Pacific, which flies to the UK . The card costs
5000 yen per year, and accrues 1 mile per 100 yen spending, with one mile being worth maybe around 1.3 yen
if you are able to redeem it against a flight. It is a gold card so it has some travel insurance included, and you also
have access to domestic lounges, although I rarely fly domestically.
Whether it is worth it depends on how much you spend; to justify the 5000 yen fee over other free gold cards
my own approximate calculation (which pessimistically values an air mile at 1 yen, bearing in mind they are more difficult
to use than yen etc.) suggests spending 100 man yen or more per year will ensure the card is definitely worthwhile.
Since I have to pay for things for work quite often on my credit card, then adding in family spending I exceed this figure.

Using the air miles can be quite a challenge, although it is probably a bit easier if it is a single traveller.
After many hours on the phone I was able to secure a 12 man yen reduction in the family travel cost this summer,
so overall it felt like it was worth it.


One thing to add is that often these cards waive the fee for the first year and give you a fair few bonus miles, so it could be worth
just getting the card for 11 months ....

[kizuki]

The author is a really cool guy.

Cool! Thanks for the link Ben...
I gave the opening page a read, and it stated what I was kind of suspecting... That maybe air miles are not for me...
I'm not a frequent flyer; maybe once every 3~4yrs... I very rarely stay in hotels... I always search for the cheapest flights if I do have to head back to the motherland... The cheapest direct flights are usually ANA so I was wondering if just racking up air miles on an ANA card with monthly purchases for 3yrs between flights would be enough, but likely not...

Thanks anyway!

I think it depends on your spending patterns, alternatives and the kind of card that you use to accumulate miles or points. One of the advantages with air miles can be that there are few campaigns through the year where you can get tickets quite cheap. For example, ANA currently have a campaign for Bangkok at 50% of the miles generally needed. Similarly they had one running for New Zealand at reduced mileage two months back.

The issue of airline miles expiring can be worked around by using specific cards which prevent this from happening. The ANA Amex Gold points do not expire but card cost is ~34K and mileage rate is around 1%.

I personally use the SPG American Express card where points do not expire as long as you use the card and accumulate points at least once a year. I convert it to miles only when I need miles to fly and hence avoid the mile expiry issue. Also, this card is not tied to any airline and I can convert the points to miles of any airlines out of listed 40+ airlines (both ANA and JAL are available). The mileage rate from card works out at 1.25% which is one of the best in Japan (only ANA Platinum VISA has higher at 1.5% which costs 75K or JCB United Gold has at 1.5% which costs 15K but United miles dont have the same value as ANA for me). The mileage rate further increases when they have campaigns running and you can convert points to miles for a higher rate than 1.25%. The net cost of card is zero or negative for me since they provide a free night stay every year at any Marriott or associated brand (up to category 6) during any season (including peak) for 2 people. Since Mrs. and I like to travel, we generally use the Karuizawa Marriott which otherwise would have costed us 60,000-80,000 yen during the time we travel. The card costs ~34K and I view it as an annual vacation expense where I get to experience luxury.

I think that the real risks are - 1. Waiting too long to use miles or points. Airlines keep depreciating the value of miles (like United did recently) and it is always better to keep using in a rolling period of 3-5 years and not wait for longer. 2. Getting too consumed in the points/miles game that it starts impacting your regular work or other areas where one should be focusing. I was going through such a phase, churning cards and playing the game. But have moved out of that phase now and settled on the above card such that points/miles accumulation happens on its own and I dont have to think about churning (I think Ben also alluded to this in one of his posts long back).

For UK, you need an average of 50K miles in ANA for an economy ticket. At 1.25% mile earning rate, you will need to spend ~4 million yen which as per your monthly spend of ~60K will take ~5 years. Generally you can get a sign-on bonus of around 39K points / ~16K miles with a referral (let me know if you need one) and so the first ticket can be had in ~3 years but beyond that it will take ~5 years based on current spending. The same 4 million would have given you 40,000 points (yen) on a card such as Rakuten that you can use instantaneously as you accumulate (hence the reason that I like to use miles instead of cash back cards since the bang for the buck is much higher).

By the way another hack that you can use to get points (miles) and tickets faster is to outright buy them. They keep coming up with discount offers to buy points (miles) at 2-2.5 yen per mile at certain times of the year. So compared to mileage needed, if your ticket costs more than 2.5yen /mile, this could be a much cheaper option to travel. e.g. Quick check shows HND-LHR flights at ~270K during Dec for economy. Excluding taxes etc. this still seems to be ~4 yen for each of the 50K miles which is needed, hence purchasing the miles at ~2.5 yen will work out cheaper. The downside is that availability might be limited for seats using miles.

[coffeespoon]

I use United's Mileage Plus (Saison Card). Their points don't expire as long as you keep using the credit card.

I haven't redeemed the points yet, but United is with Star Alliance and you can fly with any of their member airlines.

[RetireJapan]

I use United's Mileage Plus (Saison Card). Their points don't expire as long as you keep using the credit card.

I haven't redeemed the points yet, but United is with Star Alliance and you can fly with any of their member airlines.

That's my recommendation for most people. You can also straight up buy United miles cheaply when they are on a sale a couple of times a year. I use them to fly ANA, Lufthansa, and Singapore. I wouldn't fly United unless I really really had to

[Bushiman]

***Lots of useful info***

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to write all that!
Some great points; I shall look into them...