Where To Buy Airline Tickets

1-  Cheapoair.com is a great website that has some amazing prices.
2-  Chase Sapphire Preffered offers 3X the miles if using their traveling tool.
3-  Bigcrumbs gives you $3.20 cash back for airline tickets. In my opinion
     this is not a great value, but certainly better than nothing.

I have searched tons of travel websites to find out where I can buy my airline tickets for the best prices. I first check out kayak.com, just to see what the prices are and what's out there. Then I go to the cheapoair.com website and see what kind of deals they have. Sometimes they have better deals than Travelocity, expedia and kayak. They have a lot more options than lots of travel websites. I’ve gotten $200-$300 off a ticket that I couldn’t find anywhere else! So it definitely is worth checking with them first. With the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card you can use Chases traveling tool which is a good option since they offer 3 miles per dollar; the only catch is, is that you have to use one of their credit cards.  Then you can transfer your miles to British Airways, Continental, Hyatt, Marriort, Priority Club or Amtrak. I usually pay for the ticket using my Penfed Amex Credit Card since I get 5 miles per dollar spent on travel with this card. They are running a special from October 1, 2011 until December 1, 2011 where you receive an additional 25% bonus miles on all purchases including travel.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card Review

Chase came out with a great card for the frequent flyer and restaurant goer this year; it's called the Chase Sapphire Preffered Credit Card (don't confuse this with the Chase Sapphire Card which always has no annual fee). This card gives you a whopping 50,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 within the first 3 months. This card comes with a $95 annual fee which is waved the first year. Pay no foreign transaction fees when you use your card on purchases made outside of the United States. You get one point for every dollar spent and two points for travel and dining. When you use their online booking tool you get 3 points for every dollar spent on travel and hotels anduse 20% fewer points. For 50,000 points you get $625 towards airline tickets. You also get 7% back towards points earned, even those you have already used, including the bonus points. So, in actuality you are getting 50,000 + 3,000 (spend requirement) + 3500 + 210= Total $57,710 points.

Redemption
This is a great card because of its flexibility in redeeming miles. However, using the 50,000 bonus points on travel rewards through Ultimate Rewards may be fine if you just want to fly within the US in Economy class. But if you want to fly internationally or use these points for hotels, you will get a better value by transfering the points to select partners (1:1 ratio).
You could transfer 50,000 miles to:

• British Airways
• Continental Airlines
• Hyatt
• Mariott
• Priority Club
• Amtrak

      
Redemption Option                  Redeption Value
Cash/Gift Certificates                       $500
Ultimate Rewards                            $625 (always get 25% more for your points)
Transfer to Select Partners               $800-$2,000