my credit card or the company credit card?

[turboshark]

hello all,

i have a question on the the credit card use for training. should i put my expenses on my credit card or use the company credit card? what is every one else doing? im starting indoc soon. excell training later...

thx

 

[dhc8fo]

not too sure if you are asking anyone in particular, but I use my own credit card for everything and get reimbursed by the company. They are reliable so that is never an issue and I get tons of cash back on my card.

 

[Archie Bunker]

You will get the full briefing on the company credit card during indoc. I personally use the Hilton Honors AMEX card for everything, and for me I will accumulate many more points with it than the company card. With the company card, you can file your expense report online, and be reimbursed almost immediately. With your own card, it takes about a week to get paid back (not a big deal). It's a personal choice.

 

[RNObased]

Make no mistake about it, the company card isn't all sunshine and roses like they will try and tell you in indoc. You get to do a little acccounting for the company by breaking out taxes on hotel charges and so on. But you have to wait to get paided a few more days with your own card. Totally your choice.

 

[Fozzy]

For me it came down to one thing. I did not want my credit card number out there so much. I have the hilton amex. Still use it for food on the road. But company expenses go on the company card. I am loosing the hilton points, but it just was not worth it. I have plenty of HH points from my stays alone. And I do get airline tix's from the company card. And unrestricted airline tix will be nice.

It is also nice to be able hand some cabbie my NJA Mastercard and not have any worries.

 

[batsky2000]

I prefer the company card, for one, I dont have to worry about the bill, the company pays that for me, one less check to write, 2) I can do my expenses on-line, all of the charges show up on-line, then you just check every charge, add your comments and send it away, gets approved within a day or 2 then just send off the receipts, and the other reason is like fozzy said, I also do not need my credit card number out there, especially letting Netjets have my number, and especially when I travel outside the country, many countries have very loose policies when it comes to protecting your credit card number, many countries still show the entire number on the receipt, and ID-Theft is a big thing these days, and I was once a victim, so, if you want to make things simple, use the company card.

 

[FLYLOW22]

I use the HHilton AMEX.

I have never had a problem disputing a charge, whether it be fraudlulent or a mistake. Ever. You call up and report a dispute, the charge is gone. THEY do an investigation and that's it.

Personal choice, but I like to save all of my HHilton points earned and travel... HHilton points are awesome.

 

[AirBear8]

Here's what it comes down to: If you want to max your Hotel points then use the Amex Hilton Card. If you want to max your airline miles then use the company card. The airline tickets NetJets will buy for you every tour are direct billed to NJ unless you use the company card. Last tour I had over $1400 in airline tickets purchased. In 1 tour that's 1400 points toward a restricted 25,000 point ticket on any major airline or 40,000 for an unrestricted ticket. Point accumulation is maxed at 40,000 per year. On the Excel you probably won't airline as much as a Falcon/G200 crew will but still the miles will add up quickly. When I decided to switch to the company card I did the math and it worked out to 1 to 1.5 extra airline tickets per year vs. 3 to 4 extra free nights/yr in a Hilton property.

Expense reports for a computer geek like me are much easier to do online than filling out the paper form like I used to to when I used the Hilton Amex card. The company also gives you postage paid envelopes to mail receipts and the bar-coded expense summary sheet you print out.

AirBear

P.S. Since you won't be airlining much in training consider getting the Hilton card to pay for the numerous hotels rooms you'll buy then switch to the company card when it's time for IOE to start.

 

[jtf]

You are allowed to get the company card and then cancel it and go to your own if you want. I have the company card right now to get the free airline ticket. I am at about $17,000 on the card in 3.5 months of use. I think this may be more than average use, but the company has been very innefficient in scheduling me with many trips having two or more airline flights since I'm on the 18 day schedule and get shuffled between captains quite a bit. Since the airline tickets are either direct billed if you don't have the company card or paid on the company card if you use it, I am getting tons of money on it fast. My plan is to get the first free ticket on it as fast as possible and then to return the card to the company and use my HH Amex that I use for all my personal expenses already. Nice hotel rooms end up costing more than your airline ticket so I'll concentrate on that next. I'm getting an average of about 2400 points per Hilton stay without using the HH card and that will probably add another 500 or so on average per stay. I am considering getting a Priority credit card for all the Crowne and Holiday Inn stays we get to maximize those points on those stays. Does anyone out there do this? I don't know if it is worth it or if I should concentrate everythin onto the HH once I give up the company card. I have been doing about 50 percent in Hilton properties and 30 to 40 percent in Priority locations.

Turbo shark- there are some other threads on this in this fractionals board that got pretty long and might give you some more information to think about on this issue. I think you'll have to look back at least a few months, but it should be a quick search if you use the search function to find them. Congrats on the new job. Just make sure you pick either the company card quickly or one of the other good ones before you pay for you hotel rooms. I was lazy and wasted about $3500 on my old crummy Mastercard.

 

[jrav8tor]

Hey guys,

I start indoc on the 10th. I think after all the research, I am going to go with the HH Amex to max on the Hilton points. Would I need to apply for this card prior to starting indoc? If so, how do we get the Diamond Preferred status? I remember reading on here, that the union helps us automatically get the Diamond Preferred status?

Thanks in advance for the insight!

 

[jtf]

Apply for the card ASAP to make sure you get it before you have to pay the hotel bill. Just so you know, not everyone gets a Hilton property during training. I had the Staybridge Suites (Priority) for Sim, the Embassy (HH) for basin indoc, and the Hyatt for airplane training. The diamond status has nothing to do with the credit card itself. Go to the Hilton Honors website and sign up online. Then call them up and tell them you are with NetJets to get the diamond upgrade. For me they just did it right away. For some they said they didn't do it anymore and those guys needed a little union help to make it happen. You don't really need to worry about getting to diamond until you check out- and make sure they have your HH and airline information (for the double dip) before you are all done checking out. Also make sure to to do all the "my way" stuff on the HH site and also it works best to sign up for the extra points at all the properties. The site says this will remove your free breakfast and waters, but NJ automatically gets free breakfasts and they usually forget and give you all the other stuff anyway, along with the extra points.

 

[jrav8tor]

jtf,

Thanks for the info! I will be signing up ASAP!

 

[yosemite]

Guys,

Go to the Travel Committee page of the NetJets Pilot's Website.

Info on the NetJets Diamond deal is all there.

 

[Ultra Grump]

And when you stay at an Embassy Suites, check in on the kiosk. You're supposed to get an extra 500 points for using the kiosk.

 

[Wankel7]

AOPA Credit card gives you 5% cash rebates for FBO purchases.

 

[RNObased]

AOPA Credit card gives you 5% cash rebates for FBO purchases.

And what are you buying at the FBO's???

 

[mamba20]

The company card of course! Your not working to spend money are you? We work to make money. As far as I see it, its part of the training expense and should be absorbed by the company.

 

[Dassault]

Company card requires you to do the online expense reports that the vast majority (I know I will hear from the loud minority on this) hate. Hilton AmEx gets roughly four times the amount of points allowed on the company program. Eleven years using my own card, no problems.

 

[RNObased]

The company card of course! Your not working to spend money are you? We work to make money. As far as I see it, its part of the training expense and should be absorbed by the company.

Well I'm a little confused by what you are saying. The company absorbes the cost no matter what card you use. How are you spending money?? Money goes out, money comes back in, pay off the card.

As Dassault said, you get more points or miles with your own card and they are easier to use, believe it or not. Make sure you read the fine print on your company card, about how many miles you are entitled to in a year. Use the company card or don't it is all a personal choice.

 

[Ultra Grump]

Hilton AmEx gets roughly four times the amount of points allowed on the company program.

Two problems with this approach. #1, Hilton points are not even worth 1/4 of an airline mile (more like 1/10). #2, The company also buys your airline tickets on the company card, which very often is more than the total for your hotel rooms in a tour. Essentially double-dipping on miles.

Good luck spending $40,000/year on your own card.

You essentially have 3 options, and the best depends on where you live and what result you are trying to achieve:

Option 1 - Company card, you get to keep 40,000 points/year. Again, I doubt you'd reach that, even with the company buying tickets on it. This is the best option if you don't want extra free hotel nights, but rather airline tickets. You still rack up a ton of Hilton points.

Option 2 - Hhonors Amex card. This is best if you don't care about free flights, but prefer the extra free hotel rooms (e.g., you are a retiree and have pass benefits on your former airline). Instead of the 10 points/dollar spent at Hiltons, you get 15.

Option 3 - Any other credit card of your choice, e.g. AAdvantage Visa, etc. This is a good choice if you're at an airport that you will specifically be flying on a given airline most of the time, to get the extra miles on that airline's card. For example, for someone in DAL, the AAdvantage Visa might be a good choice. Again, this is if you prefer to get airline miles over hotel rooms. Because you already will get tons of actual freq flyer miles in this scenario, option 2 might also be appealing, to have a nice balance of airline and hotel points.

Personally, option 1 works best for me. Something else might work best for you. It depends on your situation.