Travel Card Perks?

Anonymous · ‎02-14-2018

Hey everyone, just wanted to get a feel for opinions on the subject.

The wife and I will be taking a vacation across the country in a few months. I've got more than enough total CL to use my cards on this trip, and we are getting all of our cards to zero (save for a few dollars of daily use) before the trip just to be safe, since we want to have the ability to use our cards if we need to suddenly change plans, buy an extra plane ticket, rent an extra room, whatever the case may be without pushing us into an uncomfortable utilization. So we are planning to do all of our spending on our cards, just as we do now (we PIF on our daily drivers, and each have a card or two with long term 0% offers for large purchase).

But my question is - is there a reason that I should be looking into a card with travel rewards?

I know that there are cards that reward you for money spend by giving you miles or whatever the case may be. But this is the first time we are going on vacation in 6 years, so I can't see us using miles. Are there cards out there that reward you with perks if you're using them at hotels or on plane tickets, or anything like that?

I'm curious if this is something I should be taking a look at to have a dedicated card for that type of stuff.

Thanks in advance for your opinions!

Anonymous · ‎02-14-2018

@Anonymouswrote:
Hey everyone, just wanted to get a feel for opinions on the subject.

The wife and I will be taking a vacation across the country in a few months. I've got more than enough total CL to use my cards on this trip, and we are getting all of our cards to zero (save for a few dollars of daily use) before the trip just to be safe, since we want to have the ability to use our cards if we need to suddenly change plans, buy an extra plane ticket, rent an extra room, whatever the case may be without pushing us into an uncomfortable utilization. So we are planning to do all of our spending on our cards, just as we do now (we PIF on our daily drivers, and each have a card or two with long term 0% offers for large purchase).

But my question is - is there a reason that I should be looking into a card with travel rewards?

I know that there are cards that reward you for money spend by giving you miles or whatever the case may be. But this is the first time we are going on vacation in 6 years, so I can't see us using miles. Are there cards out there that reward you with perks if you're using them at hotels or on plane tickets, or anything like that?

I'm curious if this is something I should be taking a look at to have a dedicated card for that type of stuff.

Thanks in advance for your opinions!

There are cards out there where cash back or miles do not expire as long as the card is open. That could be a great reason even if you only travel once every 6 years. That could easily pay for a nice trip.

If you are traveling internationally, many cards offer 0% foreign trans fees. Also, if you do not have a card already with travel ins, luggage ins, car rental ins, etc. then you might want to get yourself protected for free.

Edit: You can also apply for a new card to receive the nice sign up bonuses, cash in the travel reward credits (TSA precheck, accidental airline charges, etc) then product change it down to a NAF card before the first year ends.

Kree · ‎02-14-2018

Right now a Marriot Card can get you 75,000 free points and an automatic "silver" level. That is about 700 monies worth of free rooms. You can stretch that farther.

With RitZ you can get automatic gold status, sharable with marriot. Extra perks like late checkout, free breakfast, premium internet in room.

This is the smallest over overviews/examples. Probably better deals out there. Also depends upon need, hotel vs airline, vs universal points. Decide to share between them or hoard all points in one category. Different hotels and airlines have different point synergies. (I recommend marriot hertz and united, but I am biased.)

Anonymous · ‎02-14-2018

@Kreewrote:
Right now a Marriot Card can get you 75,000 free points and an automatic "silver" level. That is about 700 monies worth of free rooms. You can stretch that farther.

With RitZ you can get automatic gold status, sharable with marriot. Extra perks like late checkout, free breakfast, premium internet in room.

This is the smallest over overviews/examples. Probably better deals out there. Also depends upon need, hotel vs airline, vs universal points. Decide to share between them or hoard all points in one category. Different hotels and airlines have different point synergies. (I recommend marriot hertz and united, but I am biased.)

One small nit regarding the Ritz card and late checkout. That is a ‘when available ‘ perk. Tried to get that as a guarantee last year when staying at the Ritz Marina del Rey the night/day before a 11 PM flight to Australia. The people at the Ritz couldn’t guarantee and even stated that it probably wouldn’t be available due to demand. Ended up using the Amex Platinum which did guarantee the 4 PM checkout and $100 food/beverage benefit. The Ritz was fantastic and I would have preferred to use their card but the late checkout was an absolute necessity. Often these perks like room upgrades are never available so it pays to really review the benefits of any travel card.

Anonymous · ‎02-15-2018

Howdy!! Well, travel cards are benefitial for a number of reasons:

1. If you have been using them all year or for the majority of your large purchases, you could have enough miles to cover the entire cost of airfare or at least add a large discount off of the tickets ($300+), and because you have not gone some where in 6 years, imagine how many miles you would have now.

2. If the travel card is for a specific airline, most of these cover the first checked bag for all on the same reservation and offer priority boarding. If you are going with 2 people, that will save you $25.00 each way on each flight ($100+ off) - Also, this would make a vacation feel like a VACATION.

3. Premium cards (with the higher AF's) come with lounge access. Should you be delayed and need to wait in a lounge, changes are it will be where you're traveling from... or you could want to just feel fancy and get to the airport early just to go to the lounges

4. Some premimum travel cards have travel insurance that will pay you when your flight is delayed. I believe I have seen amounts around $500.00 for certain periods of time.

5. Premium cards (with the higher AF's) have a credit for Global Entry / TSA PreCheck. You can receive a $100.00 credit towards the application every 5 years. That makes going through TSA much better.

These are just some of the benefits from having travel cards. If you plan on doing some light traveling occasionally, look into getting one with no AF. It won't have all of the bells and whistles as the ones with the high AF, but at the very least, it could help offset some of the costs.

Example: Capital One Venture One - This card has no annual fee and gets 1.25 miles per dollar. If you would have saved up miles once you purchse your ticket using the card, you could take the miles (which would convert into a dollar amount) and use that to remove a charge off of the bill... and they have a promo now that is offering 10x miles when you purchase your hotel on hotels.com/venture ... Sounds fun, huh...

Well, good luck. I know you will make the right decision.

longtimelurker · ‎02-15-2018

@Anonymouswrote:

Example: Capital One Venture One - This card has no annual fee and gets 1.25 miles per dollar. If you would have saved up miles once you purchse your ticket using the card, you could take the miles (which would convert into a dollar amount) and use that to remove a charge off of the bill... and they have a promo now that is offering 10x miles when you purchase your hotel on hotels.com/venture ... Sounds fun, huh...

Well, good luck. I know you will make the right decision.

PSA: Unless you are planning to use the card for the hotels.com promo (in which case it can be good value), you don't want this card. The "miles" are simply cashback, and at 1.25% that is very low, there are numerous free 1.5-2.0% cards out there, offering 20-60% more value.

Anonymous · ‎02-15-2018

You’re absolutely correct. I was only giving them an example of how the process works. ☺️