topic Re: Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards? in Credit Cards

Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 21:53:26 GMT

I'm debating between applying for CSP or BOA Travel Rewards and wanted to hear some personal opinions from you all. I plan on doing some traveling this summer and really want to rack up some benefits.

The CSP has a much better start-up promotion right now with the 50k bonus pts compared to BOA's 20k. CSP's 2x pts on travel & dining is nice, but I'm a Gold preferred BOA customer. Therefore, I would get 1.875x on EVERYTHING. That's pretty intriguing along with the no annual fee compared to CSP's $95/yr. On top of that BOA offeres 0% interest for the first 12 months.

To me it boils down to the rewards and redemptions which is where I really need y'alls opinions. This is the main reason I want a travel card. Apparently with BOAif you book through the website you can get 3 pts per dollar, but I've read that on a forum. Haven't seen it on their website. What is y'our opinion?

Thank you in advance!

Re: Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 22:07:57 GMT

If you are traveling, you are going to spend some $$ anyways. What's special about the CSP is the signup bonus. You can't beat that signup bonus. Why not get both?

Re: Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 22:39:32 GMT

The only downside I see with the BofA card is that you can only redeem those points for travel purchases.

It's not like the kind of point system where you can transfer them to airlines or hotels etc, so that card seems kind of pointless other than having no foreign transaction fee, but there are plenty of those that have more straightforward redemptions.

Re: Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 22:39:40 GMT

I'm not familar with BofA Travel Rewards specifically, but the question when it comes to any travel/hotel/air cards is: what kind of travel and with what hotels/airlines etc.?

CSP is good if you fly united/southwest/british airways or stay at marriott/hyatt/ihg since those are the travel partners you can transfer to. There are larger alliances so there are more airlines you can travel on but that's the jist of it. Does travel mean a european vacation flying first class? Or a road trip across the US staying in Comfort Inns? Or what?

Re: Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 22:42:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I'm not familar with BofA Travel Rewards specifically, but the question when it comes to any travel/hotel/air cards is: what kind of travel and with what hotels/airlines etc.?

CSP is good if you fly united/southwest/british airways or stay at marriott/hyatt/ihg since those are the travel partners you can transfer to. There are larger alliances so there are more airlines you can travel on but that's the jist of it. Does travel mean a european vacation flying first class? Or a road trip across the US staying in Comfort Inns? Or what?

Those are not the only 3 airline partners on CSP...

United, Southwest, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines... Virgin and Korean Air are part of Sky Team so you could book Delta flights through them.

Re: Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 22:44:28 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I'm not familar with BofA Travel Rewards specifically, but the question when it comes to any travel/hotel/air cards is: what kind of travel and with what hotels/airlines etc.?

CSP is good if you fly united/southwest/british airways or stay at marriott/hyatt/ihg since those are the travel partners you can transfer to. There are larger alliances so there are more airlines you can travel on but that's the jist of it. Does travel mean a european vacation flying first class? Or a road trip across the US staying in Comfort Inns? Or what?
Those are not the only 3 airline partners on CSP...

United, Southwest, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines... Virgin and Korean Air are part of Sky Team so you could book Delta flights through them.

bolded

Re: Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 23:03:03 GMT

Thank you all for the input! I'll be doing overseas traveling that will consist of a 3-4 weeks Europe trip along with a few domestic trips in July. After speaking with a BOA banker today, they don't necessarily have travel partners. They have wesbite you can book through that alows you to redeem. Or you can book anywhwere and just go online and apply the redemption credit. That was my understanding.

Re: Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards?

myjourney — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 23:25:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I'm not familar with BofA Travel Rewards specifically, but the question when it comes to any travel/hotel/air cards is: what kind of travel and with what hotels/airlines etc.?

CSP is good if you fly united/southwest/british airways or stay at marriott/hyatt/ihg since those are the travel partners you can transfer to. There are larger alliances so there are more airlines you can travel on but that's the jist of it. Does travel mean a european vacation flying first class? Or a road trip across the US staying in Comfort Inns? Or what?

Good summation Tortoise....Bravo

You'll find CSP to have more options for redemption's at a higher value than BofA

However that's based on how you travel as pointed out

I would place BofA in a category with Venture and Arrival where credit for charges are applied

Re: Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 23:27:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The only downside I see with the BofA card is that you can only redeem those points for travel purchases.

It's not like the kind of point system where you can transfer them to airlines or hotels etc, so that card seems kind of pointless other than having no foreign transaction fee, but there are plenty of those that have more straightforward redemptions.

Additionally, the BOA banker also informed me you could get cash back, but it wouldn't be the full amt. He used the example of recieving $80-$90 credit back for what could of been $100 worth of credit towards travel.

I see your point though, not the best card for cash rewards. I plan on getting a cash rewards card in the near future

Re: Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 23:34:55 GMT

I was going to say, if you are fine with 1.5 somethings per dollar I would suggest a CapitalOne Quicksilver because it is straight 1.5% cash back, no minimum redeptions, and no foreign transaction fees.

Re: Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards?

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 12:57:32 GMT

Yes, I totally agree.

I actually started with BOA rewards card for a year now, (such a newbie) and since then I haven't been spending much so the points are slowly growing. Back then, I regret not doing the bonus points.

I'm actually preparing to apply for the Chase Sapphire because of the bonus points promotion but also the wide variety of transferable partners, especially the airlines~

Re: Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards?

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 13:04:38 GMT

I would have to say the CSP...It just simply has more to offer. I can't say I know enough about BOA...but the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is amazing and being part of the Chase family is not so easy. It is prestigious and all around it's a great card to have...it really does help you get the rewards you deserve. So I would have to say CSP all the way...nothing against BOA; but this is my honest opinion.

MJH