TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Best way to pay

Two years ago virtually no one taking Am Ex in O.B. Returning this July, any suggestions <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" />

U.S. dollars best way.

We prefer our Capital One Venture Card (Visa). No foreign transaction fee and 2 for 1 rewards. Never had any problems using it on SXM. Have used it for lodging, car rental, grocery store, restaurants, shopping...usually larger purchases. Bring some US dollars for tips, small purchases, taxis, gasoline for car rental, etc.

We use CC for car and hotel. Cash everywhere else we go. Never an issue

What you prefer and what merchants prefer are two drastically different things. Cash is always preferred.

American Express is almost always the least preferred or accepted card out there when on SXM.

Visa and Master Card are probably the most popular followed by Discover and then American Express.

I recently used a Discover Card without issue at a couple of places. I also know many places refuse to accept any credit card and some specifically American Express.

To be safe, take a fair amount of cash and two different credit cards if possible.

We also use our Cap One Venture card for virtually everything. The only time we use cash is for gas, tips, and places that don't take credit cards. We always have enough cash with us to pay for that day's expenditures, just in case the credit card system is down, which does happen.

us too, 2 for 1 miles, no foreign transactions, and great fraud support, it's all about the mileage <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

The AA Mastercard now charges no foreign transaction fees. Not 2 for 1 miles , but starting out with 50,000 miles is hard to beat.

That's a one way first class ticket to SXM. Right on.

We use Venture Rewards unless cash nets a better deal. It's not just the restaurants that do one for one exchange rate for cash. For instance, the Simply market in Hope Estate does 1/1.

Super U does 1 to 1 also for cash.

Have to laugh because when we first signed up with our US Air card we only got 25,000 miles....not enough for a trip to SXM as promised on the plane when they handed out the applications. Took us a few years to figure out the scam. Got it down now so our trips are free. We usually do cash now but if no foreign fees might use card and bring less $

So many places do one to one with cash. We used it almost exclusively this visit.

We stopped using AA as FF flights are so hard to find. You can never get direct or non stop flights. Yes, the mileage is less then Capital One, however I book my own flights and can control my layover time, not with AA

I have a non stop from SEA to CLT then a short layover direct to SXM. All on AA miles with a noon Saturday arival. Can't beat that.

It really depends on where you are coming from. From Colorado, there is no way you would have any non stop flight on ANY airline, right? We have had decent experiences with getting FF non stop from Miami.

true, no non stop to anywhere from my little commuter air town. If you know how AA FF mileage works, you request flights and the best and most direct do not usually show up. The best we can hope for is the most direct route.

We have been fairly successful for flights from Miami, although the US Air merger has made it more difficult. For now, AA still allows changes to FF tickets for free, so we book a flight, even if it's not our preference, then hope to get a better flight later on. That has worked several times for us.

The thing about the Venture Card is that your miles are actually cash, so you book your own flights and then reimburse yourself with the cash you've earned. Any travel purchase (hotels, flights, even our timeshare maintenance fees qualify as travel purchases) earn two "miles" per dollar. I just go online and get balance credits every so often. It really is a great deal. We use the card for everything we buy anywhere, pay the balance in full each month, and reap the benefits.

We used both US Air and AA, alternating between cards and between Katherine and I. Now just AA. As you said, once you figure it out, it works. Haven't paid for an SXM ticket in last 8 trips. Last October we traveled RT for 25,000 each. Now the best we could do for week after next is 35,000 each RT. There are no direct flights from San Antonio, always go thru MIA. But, no overnights. We leave at 6:30 AM and land 2:20 PM.. Return at 3:15 PM and to SA at about 10:00 PM. Not a bad trip.
As long as the credit card companies keep their games going I'll continue to play.

I follow a lot of mileage blogs and they are all noticing that your major airline Visa/MC cards are all adopting the "no foreign transaction fee" trend which is nice.

I have an AA Exec Plat card for some transactions for my business travel but for anything else, I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa where you get points that can be transferred to multiple hotel/air programs and you earn 2 points for every $ spent for travel and dining. Even tolls, parking meters and Uber counts as travel.

Oh, and the foreign transaction fees are waived too. It's a good in-between card if you'd like something more than the Capital One card as mileage redemptions can be a little more interesting than just dollars, depending on the deal.

All my cards except the Alaska Airline Visa card has no foreign transaction fees.

actually any/all purchases earn 2 miles per dollar with the Cap One Venture card, not just travel related purchases...but it used to be that you got more bang for your buck when you used your earned "miles" for credit towards travel related expenses, although that may not be the case anymore

You are correct, I should have been clearer. However, only travel purchases are reimbursed at 1 mile per cent. Others take more miles.

What I like about AA miles is at the end of the year you get back 10% of the miles you used for flights for that year.

Huhm, we've NEVER gotten that. Are you some platinum member or something?

Nope. It just shows up on our miles account as bonus miles. When we bought two one way first class tickets with miles it cost us 100,000 miles for this coming May. Bought them last June and 10,000 bonus miles showed up on our miles account.

I could be wrong, but I thought that was a special promotion. Something to do with the USAir acquisition, maybe?

I cashed in a bunch of miles at the end of the year for HI tix and I don't recall getting any miles back although the year before we did. Is it possible you had to purchase the higher mileage tickets to qualify for the bonus?

Too lazy to check now but will tomorrow if I think about it. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Nope, got to be something else going on, as we have been AA frequent flyer since the 80's and never got any bonus back from booking tickets with FF miles.

It's the citi bank "Platinum Select" card. Here is the link.
https://secure.fly.aa.com/citi/ccpage-plat

Carol,

Okay, so this discussion aroused my curiosity and in checking back in my AA FF mileage account I discovered we did get a ten percent bonus on the Hawaii tickets after all. We each had miles used and both accounts received the ten percent mileage bonus back as Scubaman said.

Yep. My 50,000 First Class tickets cost 45,000 each after the bonus rebate. The maximum you'll get back any calendar year is 10,000 per AA account.

OK, first class tickets then?? As we have never received any rebates on ff tickets booked. ...and we have never booked ff first class tickets..

I don't know the criteria for the ten percent, but the bonus I initially spoke of having been aware of from way back a year or two ago was for FF upgrades from coach to business at 150000 miles each and we did each receive a 1500 mileage rebate.

We have the Platinum Select and I don't remember getting any bonus
Points, but like Pat I'm going to check.

Ha! Just checked and we did get the 10% bonus on our trip next week.

First class as nothing to do with it. Did you read the link I posted? It's for any ticket bought with FF miles during a calendar year up to 10,000 bonus miles. It's all there spelled out. Just scroll down.

OK, for that particular credit card, which is not the one we have.

both the Citi and Barclay's AA cards give back a 10% "rebate" of the miles redeemed in a year...but there is a cap of 10,000 miles given back per year...we always get our 10% back <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />