Best Airline mile credit card

[Ronin]

I'm looking for a good airline miles card to meet my family's needs. We'd use it as our every day purchase card and pay it off every month. We go to Japan once or twice a year from California (2 adults, 1 baby) and we buy our tickets from a local travel agent.

I was looking at the "Capital One® No Hassle MilesSM Visa Signature®" and it looks good since you earn 2 miles per $1, there are no foreign transaction fees, and I can apply the miles to any way I want to purchase a ticket... not just directly through the airline. However, I don't care for the $39 annual fee.

Anyone use this card or any other good cards? We usually take ANA or JAL, which don't have specific credit cards that I could use to earn miles with. Plus the airline cards usually suck anyway.

Tickets are usually go from $800 to $1200 for adults and $300 for the baby :O

[jeffrey]

Here are a list of cards that you can look at:

Airline Credit Cards

Annual fees can often be waived (although there is no guarantee) by simply asking and threatening to close the card if it isn't. I've never paid an annual fee on my airline card in the last 7 years even though it has one.

[Ronin]

To waive the annual fee, is it best to ask when I apply or get the card and then ask before the fee is charged? I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try both.