Taking a family of four to Austria (with side trips to Paris & Germany) next June. We have two tickets taken care of with AA miles. Looking for ideas for getting flights and hotels paid for. Any sites you use that are better than others or cards / airline programs that are especially awesome?

TIA

How much money are you planning to run through a credit card over the next year?
Are we talking $5000/month?

Since you've already booked miles on AA, I would guess you already have either MC with them.

A few years ago, I got a Citi Platinum Select card that was 90K points after $15K or $20K spend.

From that I was able to get 25K points on a $10K Miles ahead savings account for a 3 month deposit

I also get 2X points on most purchases. I funnel most of my expenses through the cards and pay them off each month.

If you're good to go with your spending/cash flow etc., open one in your wife's name perhaps.

It's a little work, but there are deals out there and the miles do add up.

That being said, sometimes it's better to just shop it like crazy and pay up front to avoid the points grab stuff.

If Delta is your deal, they have some good grabs with American Express.

If you want to stick with AA so that you and the family are all on the same flight, then apply for any of the AA cards, theres one with Citi and one with Barclays. The Barclays one has a 60k sign up bonus, which is enough for a roundtrip flight to Europe. The Citi one has a 50k sign up which might be good for your wife to sign up for, you might have enough spending to get 60k miles total on there.

If you are open on airlines then go for the Chase Sapphire Preferred which lets you transfer miles to United and various hotel programs. The Sapphire Preferred had an 80k sign up bonus recently.

Vienna is stunning.

Matsui said:

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Vienna is stunning.

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Also very expensive