Best travel card for military member

[PNut08]

I just commissioned and have been stationed on the opposite coast from both my and my spouse's families. The only rewards cards that we have currently are the Discover It, CapOne QS and I have a Chase amazon card. We're looking to add the best travel card possible for our situation. I'll be stationed in San Diego and we will be flying mostly to North Carolina. I know SouthWest has a lot of flights out of San Diego so we have looked at the Chase Southwest card a bit. However, the barclay arrival card has a promotion right now for 40,000 bonus points if you spend $3k in the first 3 months. Since we'll be executing a cross country move (PCS), we should easily be able to run $3k through the card in that time period. Other than those two, I have looked at American express cards and I know that for servicemembers they waive the annual fees.

I'm just looking for opinions from people on what travel cards they like the best while bearing in mind that annual fees will most likely be waived under the SCRA. Normally, I would go straight for AmEx, but the Arrival card bonus offer right now seems really good.

Other info: we'll be purchasing 2 tickets almost immediately from the east coast to SD on the card and 2 more plane tickets from NC to RI where I will be training first. I can certainly apply for more than one card, but I would prefer to run all the purchases through one. Thoughts?

[credit-hunter]

JOIN NAVY FED CU....you won't be dissappointed

[B335is]

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@credit-hunter wrote:

JOIN NAVY FED CU....you won't be dissappointed

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+1000

NFCU hands down. 

[Ammer]

Have you thought about the Amex Platinum ?

They $450 annual fee is waived for active military members.

You get $200 on top in aitline incidentials, all the insurances, Global Entry, Loung access, .....

[takeshi74]

"Travel" is really too vague to offer meaningful recommendations without additional details.  Are you looking to earn awards on travel spend?  Travel benefits?  Redeem awards for travel?  Both?  If redeeming do you intend to only redeem with Southwest?  If so, you might want to reconsider AmEx since MR isn't partnered with Southwest.  Take a look at any rewards program you're considering and ensure that the travel partners meet your needs.  The Arrival is a bit different since rewards are redeemed for travel statement credits and it wouldn't tie you down to one specific airline or only partnered airlines.

For me, 99%% of my air travel is on United since I live in a United hub city.  My "travel" card is the CSP but, depending on spend category I tend to accumulate UR points on my CSP, Freedom or Ink versus using my MileagePlus Explorer card (except for ticket purchases directly with United) since they have better points earn rates on various spend categories.  Southwest is also partnered with UR.

[indiolatino61]

Thank you for your service, Soldier! I wish you a swift and safe deployment.