I'm planning a family vacation for next year so I am financially planning now. Since we will need to fly, I plan to apply for a travel card next year to help offset the airline cost. In doing my research, I find it hard to determine which card will yield the best airline reward, assuming I am approved. This is where you guys come in. Please help me decided which card would best suit my needs. Other than annual family vacations, my travel is pretty minimal, maybe 2 or 3 small trips here and there. My current Fico 8 scores are all in the mid 600s but I am working to improve this greatly by June of next year, which is when I hope to apply.
Please tell me your experience and exactly how the redemption for each card works. TIA
***Gardening 3/29/2018 until 9/25/2018***
So with the CSP you will be accumulating Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) points. With your card, you will get 2 UR points/$ spent on travel and dining, and 1 UR point on all other purchases. Through the CSP travel portal online, you have the choice of redeeming your points for cash at a rate of 1 cent per point (cpp), paying for flights directly using your points at a rate of 1.25cpp, or transferring to the airline's frequent flyer program directly at a rate of 1:1.
So, for example, let's say you go to Google Flights and find that the flight you want to take costs $400 and is on United. Let's assume you've hit your CSP bonus and have at least 50k UR points at your disposal as well. There are 3 ways to redeem points for this:
- You redeem 40k points as cash for $400 and use that to book your ticket. You redeemed at a rate of 1cpp and have 10k points left over
- You redeem 32k points when paying for the same flight on the Chase travel portal website. You redeemed at a rate of 1.25cpp and have 18k points left over
- You go to the United website and search for the same flight using "award travel" and find that it requires 18k United miles. You transfer 18k UR points over to your United account and then pay for the flight that way. You are left with 32k UR points and redeemed at a rate of 2.22cpp.
So you can see that there are various ways to redeem Chase points, and in the above example the smartest is to transfer to the airline directly. While this is often the case, you should do the math yourself to see what is best.
The C1 Venture on the other hand earns you to 2 "miles" / dollar spent on every purchase you make. While this sounds like a better rate than the CSP, there is no travel portal which allows you to redeem at a higher rate, nor does it allow you to transfer to airline programs directly. Meaning you can use your miles accumulated to pay off your travel but it will have to be at 1cpp.
Since you say you're not much of a traveler, maybe the hassle of finding the optimum redemption through the CSP isn't worth it for you and you're better off going the simpler route. Let's see what others have to say though. Good luck!
@mkhan1093 wrote:So with the CSP you will be accumulating Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) points. With your card, you will get 2 UR points/$ spent on travel and dining, and 1 UR point on all other purchases. Through the CSP travel portal online, you have the choice of redeeming your points for cash at a rate of 1 cent per point (cpp), paying for flights directly using your points at a rate of 1.25cpp, or transferring to the airline's frequent flyer program directly at a rate of 1:1.
So, for example, let's say you go to Google Flights and find that the flight you want to take costs $400 and is on United. Let's assume you've hit your CSP bonus and have at least 50k UR points at your disposal as well. There are 3 ways to redeem points for this:
- You redeem 40k points as cash for $400 and use that to book your ticket. You redeemed at a rate of 1cpp and have 10k points left over
- You redeem 32k points when paying for the same flight on the Chase travel portal website. You redeemed at a rate of 1.25cpp and have 18k points left over
- You go to the United website and search for the same flight using "award travel" and find that it requires 18k United miles. You transfer 18k UR points over to your United account and then pay for the flight that way. You are left with 32k UR points and redeemed at a rate of 2.22cpp.
So you can see that there are various ways to redeem Chase points, and in the above example the smartest is to transfer to the airline directly. While this is often the case, you should do the math yourself to see what is best.
The C1 Venture on the other hand earns you to 2 "miles" / dollar spent on every purchase you make. While this sounds like a better rate than the CSP, there is no travel portal which allows you to redeem at a higher rate, nor does it allow you to transfer to airline programs directly. Meaning you can use your miles accumulated to pay off your travel but it will have to be at 1cpp.
Since you say you're not much of a traveler, maybe the hassle of finding the optimum redemption through the CSP isn't worth it for you and you're better off going the simpler route. Let's see what others have to say though. Good luck!
Wow! Thanks for the breaksdown. When I initially started reading your post my head started swimming with all those numbers but your breakdown brought it on home. The thing is, I would like to travel more than I do now in the future so armed with your information, I think the CSP will actually be best for me, since it can help me do that with a little less out of pocket expense. Now I just need to read up on their approval requirements.
@Anonymous wrote:
@A1Credit wrote:I'm planning a family vacation for next year so I am financially planning now. Since we will need to fly, I plan to apply for a travel card next year to help offset the airline cost. In doing my research, I find it hard to determine which card will yield the best airline reward, assuming I am approved. This is where you guys come in. Please help me decided which card would best suit my needs. Other than annual family vacations, my travel is pretty minimal, maybe 2 or 3 small trips here and there. My current Fico 8 scores are all in the mid 600s but I am working to improve this greatly by June of next year, which is when I hope to apply.
Please tell me your experience and exactly how the redemption for each card works. TIA
I’ll let others go into the details about redemptions but the two are not really comparable. Outside of the initial sign up bonus the Venture is not a true travel card and is just a cash back card with limited redemption options. After using the signup bonus for the Venture (useful for a single trip as it’s worth $400), there are better options for cash back than the Venture. The CSP is a travel card and offers the potential for a lot more value out of your points than the Venture’s ‘miles’. CapitalOne has done a great marketing job portraying the Venture as a travel credit card when it’s not.
That's good information to know, Irish. Outside of the sign-up bonus it won't be very useful and I don't want to keep getting cards that essentially do the same as cards I already have. I want a good all around card and special designated cards. For instance, I have the Cap One QS for the 1.5% cash back, the NFCU Plat for the 6.99% APR in case of an emergency, and I got the AMEX Delta just to get in with AMEX. I wish I had held off for the 60K bonus instead of the measely 35K I got. I still haven't used them as I am trying to stack those miles for future use. My last flight, I just paid out of pocket but put it on the card to accumulate points and take advantage of the Delta statement credit. I would like to add a certified travel card and maybe a card that will yield higher points on groceries, gas, and resturants.
@simplynoir wrote:One thing to keep in mind is the some people don't have the patience to wade through the rewards system to try and find the best deals. It's why despite some people's disdain/perplexion on people liking the Venture those people simply like the simplicity that comes with it (which I agree has been a great marketing coup for Capital One). The eraser tool makes it simple to just use the "miles" accumulated and get their credit back at 2% as long as it's travel. Of course those same people will argue why not get a no AF 2% cashback card like the Citi DC or Blispay but that's another story.
I just think if you're truly gonna be spending money on travel between the two the CSP is superior because you can transfer your UR to other partners and the other benefits such as travel insurance making it ideal for the regular traveler.
I agree! It might take a little more work to determine the best route to go for point maximization but it seems like the CSP is the way to go.
CSP is the way to go. Another option is the BC Arr+ however they just lowered the bonus from 50k to 40k. The Venture is the easiest of the 3 to get
@morgacj2004 wrote:
CSP is the way to go. Another option is the BC Arr+ however they just lowered the bonus from 50k to 40k. The Venture is the easiest of the 3 to get
Is the BC Arr+ a Barclay's card?
The Barclaycard Arrival+ is pretty much identical to the Cap1 Venture as far it being cash back with limited redemptions rather than a true travel card.
The minor differences include the signup bonus (sometimes) and the annual fee. Barclay also gives back 5% on redemptions so really you're getting 2.1% in rewards value on spend but in return they impose a $100 minimum redemption amount which makes it really only useful toward large purchases like flights and hotel stays.
The minor differences include the signup bonus (sometimes) and the annual fee. Barclay also gives back 5% on redemptions so really you're getting 2.1% in rewards value on spend but in return they impose a $100 minimum redemption amount which makes it really only useful toward large purchases like flights and hotel stays.
