General platinum credit card vs Airlines-like

Rocksolid

Hello,

what's the difference between a platinum credit card and another one that offers bonus point for flights?

Assuming that both are free, so no annual fee, and that I'm aware that the platinum may easily have a bigger balance on long term (actually not so true in practice, as someone told me).

People fly almost for free with these cards, with a general platinum I don't see many cool rewards...

(also the fly-like credit cards have the platinum version, but it has an annual fee)

[Deleted User]

Platinum has no defined meaning.  It's just branding.

Check the features of the specific card you're interested in.

Gerry1

Make sure that your 'free' flight doesn't require you to pay fees and taxes.  Air Miles flights were genuinely free when it started decades ago but after a few years you had to pay.  However, the fees and taxes were only nominal so it was largely still a free flight.  Sadly the extra costs kept increasing because of government action so the novelty wore off a bit.

However, Air Miles became genuinely free again which was great (I went to Sydney, again) but sadly it turned out to be its swansong because Air Miles ended about a year later.

The new Avios scheme is mostly a waste of time: the extras on a long haul flight are so massive that it's often cheaper to buy a budget flight with real money.  The only Avios flights that seem worthwhile are short European ones at short notice where you play a flat £35 in addition to the miles.

So read the Ts & Cs very carefully on any 'free' flights offered by credit cards or frequent flyer schemes, otherwise you could end up being seriously disappointed.  Given that the airline has to pay real money rather than just fill an empty seat, I doubt whether anyone still offers genuinely free flights (unless the credit card has a massive annual fee).

Rocksolid

Gerry1 said:

Make sure that your 'free' flight doesn't require you to pay fees and taxes.  Air Miles flights were genuinely free when it started decades ago but after a few years you had to pay.  However, the fees and taxes were only nominal so it was largely still a free flight.  Sadly the extra costs kept increasing because of government action so the novelty wore off a bit.

However, Air Miles became genuinely free again which was great (I went to Sydney, again) but sadly it turned out to be its swansong because Air Miles ended about a year later.

The new Avios scheme is mostly a waste of time: the extras on a long haul flight are so massive that it's often cheaper to buy a budget flight with real money.  The only Avios flights that seem worthwhile are short European ones at short notice where you play a flat £35 in addition to the miles.

So read the Ts & Cs very carefully on any 'free' flights offered by credit cards or frequent flyer schemes, otherwise you could end up being seriously disappointed.  Given that the airline has to pay real money rather than just fill an empty seat, I doubt whether anyone still offers genuinely free flights (unless the credit card has a massive annual fee).

Very good, thanks a lot, goodbye Airlines cards , too messy to follow up.

Deleted_User said:

Platinum has no defined meaning.  It's just branding.

Check the features of the specific card you're interested in.

I knew that, but with all the details in the terms and conditions, it may happen to skip something, thank you!

D3xt3r5L4b

What “platinum” card are you looking at?

Rocksolid

I believe it doesn't matter, anyway they are all similar, if not equal when it comes to take a balance transfer card.

The only difference for me is if I was pre-approved, which means very good on the credit score point of view, I would have added a new credit limit without an hard credit check! At least, that's for my knowledge now.

D3xt3r5L4b

Rocksolid said:

I believe it doesn't matter, anyway they are all similar, if not equal when it comes to take a balance transfer card.

The only difference for me is if I was pre-approved, which means very good on the credit score point of view, I would have added a new credit limit without an hard credit check! At least, that's for my knowledge now.

As per your other threads, your "credit score" plays no part in lending decisions.

Rocksolid

Yes, this is what I've heard many times, but the lenders suggest to have an high credit score, so even if is not the metric used by them, still it underlines that someone with a bad credit score won't most likely get a mortgage, am I wrong?

D3xt3r5L4b

Rocksolid said:

Yes, this is what I've heard many times, but the lenders suggest to have an high credit score, so even if is not the metric used by them, still it underlines that someone with a bad credit score won't most likely get a mortgage, am I wrong?

Wrong indeed.
They are referring to their own internal scoring system.
People with "top scores" get denied credit cards but people with "low scores" get mortgages every day.
Go figure...