Best card benefits for travel

Anonymous · ‎08-08-2014

My spend on cards is not enough to make rewards significant, however some of the side benefits could be quite valuable for me.

Assumptions:

- One international vacation per year, 2 weeks duration, 1 week in hotels, 1 week with friends/relatives.

- One domestic vacation per year 4 days - 1 week duration. Generally driving. Staying in hotels/b&b. About half of these trips are to remote areas, half to cities.

- Car rental internationally typically between 3 and 7 days.

- Wiling to pay up to about $100 annual fee, but I want value for my money!

Benefits of value to me:

- Car rental insurance - a decent level of coverage would be good

- Travel insurance - something better than the basic level offered by many cards

- Assistance overseas (example if one of us falls sick / is injured)

- Warranty extension is useful, though many cards have this

- Some way to get cash overseas without paying cash advance interest rates from day 1.

- I am sure there are others I have not thought of...

Thank you.

Closingracer99 · ‎08-08-2014

@Anonymous wrote:
My spend on cards is not enough to make rewards significant, however some of the side benefits could be quite valuable for me.

Assumptions:
- One international vacation per year, 2 weeks duration, 1 week in hotels, 1 week with friends/relatives.
- One domestic vacation per year 4 days - 1 week duration. Generally driving. Staying in hotels/b&b. About half of these trips are to remote areas, half to cities.
- Car rental internationally typically between 3 and 7 days.
- Wiling to pay up to about $100 annual fee, but I want value for my money!

Benefits of value to me:
- Car rental insurance - a decent level of coverage would be good
- Travel insurance - something better than the basic level offered by many cards
- Assistance overseas (example if one of us falls sick / is injured)
- Warranty extension is useful, though many cards have this
- Some way to get cash overseas without paying cash advance interest rates from day 1.
- I am sure there are others I have not thought of...

Thank you.

Which Hotels do you generally go to on your vacations international and domestic? Marriott ,IHG, and I believe Hilton cards all offer a Free night annually. Hilton I am not sure about but I thought I remember they offer free nights annually but I can be wrong. Best Western has a card as welll but Not sure of the benefits there. The CSP is also a decent travel card as well.

My Cards: Amex BCE: $9,000, Amex Hilton HHonors: $2,000, Amex ED: $12,000, Barclays NFL extra points: $3,000, Bank of America MLB cash rewards: $17,000, BBVA compass NBA Amex triple double rewards: $17,000, Chase Amazon: $1,000, Chase Freedom: $9,000, Chase Sapphire: $5,000, Chase Slate: $5,000, Chase Disney: $4,000, Citi Double Cash: $5,400, Citi AA plat: $5,500, Citi Simplicity: $3,000, Citi Thank you preferred: $8,800, Capital one GM: $2,000, Capital one PlayStation: $3,000, Gamestop: $1,150, Amazon Store: $5,000, Ebay MasterCard: $5,000, American Eagle Storecard: $750, Macy's: $500
EX: 744, TU:750, EQ: 740

OHWWCB · ‎08-08-2014

Yeah, probably a hotel card. And this brings up a question, can the Marriott card transfer UR points?

mongstradamus · ‎08-08-2014

@OHWWCB wrote:
Yeah, probably a hotel card. And this brings up a question, can the Marriott card transfer UR points?

i think you can only go ur to marriot not the reverse.

EX Fico 804 11/16/16 Fako 800 Credit.com 11/16/16
EQ SW bank enhanced 11/16/16 839 CK fako 822 11/16/16
TU Fico discover 10/19/16 814 Fako 819 Creditkarma 11/16/16

OHWWCB · ‎08-08-2014

OHWWCB wrote:
Yeah, probably a hotel card. And this brings up a question, can the Marriott card transfer UR points?
-----
i think you can only go ur to marriot not the reverse.

Ahh, okay. Thanks!

Closingracer99 · ‎08-08-2014

You have the Freedom, CSP and Marriott so you can transfer all your points to your rewards account which means you can get points faster with them which is pretty awesome

My Cards: Amex BCE: $9,000, Amex Hilton HHonors: $2,000, Amex ED: $12,000, Barclays NFL extra points: $3,000, Bank of America MLB cash rewards: $17,000, BBVA compass NBA Amex triple double rewards: $17,000, Chase Amazon: $1,000, Chase Freedom: $9,000, Chase Sapphire: $5,000, Chase Slate: $5,000, Chase Disney: $4,000, Citi Double Cash: $5,400, Citi AA plat: $5,500, Citi Simplicity: $3,000, Citi Thank you preferred: $8,800, Capital one GM: $2,000, Capital one PlayStation: $3,000, Gamestop: $1,150, Amazon Store: $5,000, Ebay MasterCard: $5,000, American Eagle Storecard: $750, Macy's: $500
EX: 744, TU:750, EQ: 740

Anonymous · ‎08-09-2014

Thank you for the replies. As I see it the hotel cards only offer some low cost nights, plus maybe the occasional points night. So minimal benefit. I also went through all the hotels I have stayed in in the last 10 years (which is a LOT of travel) and I have only stayed 3 nights in hotels across all 3 chains.

waters · ‎08-09-2014

To my understanding barclaycard has 2% on travel readers and you're not limited to buying from a special website or staying at a set hotel..

If I understand it correctly you can shop around and use your points anywhere u want as long as it's for travel or hotel.

Shopping around will also likely get u better deals then the branded hotel / airline cards.

6/2014; EX:621 EQ:627 TU:640
Cards: Capital One WORLD MC (QS): $7500 | Chase Freedom $3500
Sock: Merrick Bank $600 | Barclaycard $1250 | Sportsman's guide visa $2500

physicist82 · ‎08-09-2014

Barclays has a card for Choice hotels (comfort inn, quality inn, econolodge, etc.) There are many chains in the choice brands. The types that you find in pretty much any city in America. There are many globally too.

Says no annual fee and its a signature visa which supposedly gives the extra travel benefit stuff.

You also get 2 points per dollar on all purchases (The points/dollar goes up for actually hotel purchases)

Does have a 3% FTF though. I would handle that by booking my hotel with the credit card online before leaving the states. Then use a no FTF card for non hotel purchases in intl locations.