Best Overall Hotel and Airline Cards?

[andre181]

So I might be getting a new job (keep your fingers crossed for me!) that will require frequent overnight travel. The way the travel works is I pay for it and my employer will reimburse me. This is for gas, hotel, airline and meals. 

I've got the meals covered with my Citi Forward (5x points) and I'm going to apply for the PenFed Cash Rewards for gas (5% on gas). But I'm thinking the cards I have are inadaquate for maximizing rewards on hotel and airline expenses. 

Can anybody tell me what the best cards are for airfair and hotels? Preferably they would not be exclusive to one airline or hotel chain because the short notice that I'll get for travel won't be conducive to being brand loyal. And they can be seperate cards.

Thanks for any advice!

[MazdaSpeed]

I believe there are some good amex travel cards but I'm not too familiar with them

Chase sapphire Preferred is an excellent travel card.

[armbenderc]

I like CSP and Amex SPG/PRG

[enharu]

Chase sapphire preferred

Citi Prestige (high AF though).

Citi Thank You Premier.

Barclays Arrival

Capital One Venture card (I think.......)

[bs6054]

---

@enharu wrote:

Chase sapphire preferred

Citi Prestige (high AF though).

Citi Thank You Premier.

Barclays Arrival

Capital One Venture card (I think.......)

---

The cards are somewhat different.   The CSP and some of the AMEX cards gain their popularity in that the points earned (MR/UR) can be transferred to partner airline/hotel programs, and this can greatly increase the value of the points over redeeming them for cash.

Arrival and Venture are really cash back cards, the points they earn can be "redeemed" against travel purchases, 2-2.2% depending on the card.

Premier/Prestige don't allow transfers (except Hilton), but have an overly complex reward structure!   The points, as with other cards, can be redeemed for merchandise/gift cards etc, or can be used at 1 point = 1.33 cents for travel through Citi's portal.   (CSP does the same at 1.2 cents a point through the UR portal).

But they also give a 15% discount on the non-tax/fee part of the ticket when booked for cash through another portal(!), and allow one companion ticket per year (domestic for Premier, international for prestige).  And (this adds to the overly complex bit), the tickets bought with this card also earn "air miles" depending on the distance flown.  These convert into TYP on a one-to-one basis once a TYP point is earned via purchases).  Yes, someone came up with this structure and others must have approved!

Both CSP and the Citi cards can combine with points from other cards in the same family (Freedom and Ink for CSP, Thank You/Forward/Thank You Preferred for the Citi Cards).   Both CSP and Citi also have anniversary bonuses, CSP being greater than Premier, and Prestige having the largest with certain amounts of spend.

[enharu]

wow very informative post. i now know a lot more about the citi cards. thanks!
i should app for the prestige at the end of the year then. is there any restrictions on the free companion international tix?

[scenery_guy]

If you can't show brand loyalty then you don't want airline or hotel cards, you want a general card that earns points or cash back. You need to answer that part first, cash back or points? Would you ever have use for points (personal travel in the future is a great use for points). Cash back or statement credits are strong as well. If you want points then you need to decide if you like MR or UR better. Both are strong programs, both offer good cards. Which are you more likely to have the need to redeem? 

I think an AMEX charge card is a great fit. No ULT impact and the way many business travelers operate as long as company reimburses you quick enough to pay bill in full monthly. 

RIght now the Mercedes Benz Platinum has a great offer of 50,000 points for $1,000 spend in 3 months (remember you are not spending your money). Yes it has a $475 AF but if you get on mid cycle (mid year) you will get two opportunities to assign an airline for $200 yearly credit for checked bags and other incidental fees. That's a lot of drinks and food on planes. Also has good lounge access if that interests you. You get gold status at SPG properties and some level of elite status with car rental companies. 

Of course the Premier Rewards Gold AMEX has better x2 gas and x3 airfare categories so you can rack up points faster. There are offers out there for 25,000 points for $2,000 spend in 3 months plus 15,000 points after $30,000 spend in one year. No perks however and $175 AF after first year. 

Whatever you do pick one card and put every dollar of work spend on that card to maximize points or cash back. 

[codimom]

My travel cards are brand specific.  I have a citi hilton honors siggy visa and a frontier rewards mastercard.  those are the 2 vendors i tend to use most. 
For general travel?  I think the CSP might be a better rewards structure.  (my corporate travel is on my corp amex... no other option)

[Cdnewmanpac]

You have to purchase through spirit travel to get the companion fare. We've only used the domestic, but often the price for the full fare ticket exceeds the price of two tickets through a discounter. We get our best use flying to ski areas during peak weeks, when there are no discount fares available. YMMV internationally, but I know when we looked at flights to tel aviv, using an international companion would have saved us $70 total (one full fare ticket was $70 less than two discounted tix we found on dan's deals).

[andre181]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. 

Looking over all these responses, I'll research CSP and CapOne Venture. Those two seem like they'll meet my needs the best.