topic Re: Best Travel Credit Card in Credit Cards

Best Travel Credit Card

docholliday — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 19:27:40 GMT

I'm sure this has been discussed many times. But which is the best travel rewards credit card. Although with cards like the Barclaycard Arrival Mastercard and the Chase Saphire Preferred Card, and the Ventures Capital One you earn 2x miles on purchases. The amount of miles that you need to redeem awards is much high than the some of the airlines for example the Citi AAdvantage platinum select credit card.

For example lets look at if you wanted to redeem miles for a flight from Dallas, TX to Los Angeles, CA. The cheapest ticket price would be $447 for a round trip. This translates into 44,700 miles needed for Chase saphire preferred, Barclaycard Arrival, and Capital one Ventures. Which means that even at the 2x miles $22,350 would have to be spent to redeem the flight.

Now lets look at if you used the Citi AAdvantage credit card that only give 1x on most purchases but 2x on american airlines purchases. You only need 12,500 miles to redeem for any round trip flight in the continental U.S. So even if you only spent the card on non american airlines purchases, you would only have to spend $12,500 to get the free flight from Dallas, TX to Los Angeles, CA. Of course if you only used the card for american airlines purchases, you would only have to spend $6,250 in comparison to $22,350 using barclaycard, chase, capital one.

Am I missing something or calculating something incorrectly. Why would anyone go for any of the others? As far as hotels go it looks like Starwood preferred also has lower minimum point standards to redeem hotels. It seems going with starwood preferred american express and an airline credit card like Citi AAdvantage would be the best way go to.

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 19:33:24 GMT

*edit* according to AA its: As low as 12,500 miles each way. If your plans are flexible, MileSAAver Award is right for you.

So its 25k miles round trip

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

docholliday — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 19:40:48 GMT

Ahah. So they all basically suck. So you would have to spend either $25,000 with citi AAdvantage for a free flight or $12,500 only on american airlines flights in compairson to the others of $22,350. Thanks john398. Now I see the advantages.

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

docholliday — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 19:49:14 GMT

I get way more miles from just being a frequent flyer.

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 20:07:08 GMT

@docholliday wrote:
Ahah. So they all basically suck. So you would have to spend either $25,000 with citi AAdvantage for a free flight or $12,500 only on american airlines flights in compairson to the others of $22,350. Thanks john398. Now I see the advantages.

nbut don't forget the bonus 50k signup miles you can find

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

IWOL — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 22:24:04 GMT

Just wanted to give you my experience with an airline card vs. the arrival.

I have the United Explorer which gets me 1 point per $1 spend and the Arrival which get me 2 points per $1.

United Explorer had 35k bonus and Barclays 40K bonus.

For United you need 50K points for an LA to NY round trip ticket, so that would take $25K in normal spending regardless of what the ticket price may be.

It seems that the purchase price of that ticket is usually around $500 so your getting close to $.01 per mile.

If I spent 25K on Barclays I would get 50K points. Lets say I used the 50K points to purchase the same United ticket with the Arrival. The $550 charge would earn me 1100 points for the actual charge plus when redeeming the 50K points I would get back 5000 points, so the net effective cost for the ticket would be 44,000 ponts for a $500 ticket so .0113 per point, so just slightly better than United. But.....the big differnce is, I could use the points on any airline and with no blackout dates at all.

I think the airline branded cards make the most sense when used for international business and first class travel.

I booked a flight a few weeks ago from LA to Shanghai on Delta, First class round trip. That cost me 185,000 points but the purchase price of that ticket was $15,000. In that case the point value jumps to $0.08 per point.

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 22:33:20 GMT

@IWOL wrote:

I think the airline branded cards make the most sense when used for international business and first class travel.

I booked a flight a few weeks ago from LA to Shanghai on Delta, First class round trip. That cost me 185,000 points but the purchase price of that ticket was $15,000. In that case the point value jumps to $0.08 per point.

Right. This, premium international flights, is the classic advantage of frequent flier programs (whether direct like Citi or transfers like UR/MR/SPG). Another sweet spot can be short haul flights on AA using BA Avios. If neither of these are for you, programs like Arrival, or real cashback cards like Fidelity Amex might be better. (But airline cards also have things like free baggage in some cases, priority boarding etc, which may or may not have much value to you.)

The other question that arises: yes, that ticket values at 8c per point, but if you didn't have those points, would you have paid $15K for the ticket. If not, some people feel that the valuation isn't right, it's worth whatever you would have been willing to pay. On the other hand, you really DID get a flight that would have cost $15K. Still in two minds about this analysis!

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

IWOL — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 23:37:37 GMT

I totaly agree with the airlines overpricing those tickets at $15k. Im guessing very very few people actually purchase those tickets.

Our business has revenues in the 10s of millions and we could never justify spending $15k on a ticket. Maybe fortune 500 companies might spend $15k on a ticket for an executive.

My guess is that less than 5% of First Class International tickets are purchased outright and 95% paid for with straight miles or upgrades from economy purchase. Even very wealthy people who wouldnt bat an eye at $15K would in most cases have millions of miles to use anyways....so whos buying tickets for $15K.

In that case the real value of these tickest is not really $15k.

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

nachoslibres — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 04:00:57 GMT

The one thing you are missing about the Chase Sapphire Preferred is that you can transfer the miles to various hotel and airline programs. So you earn 2.14 miles/$ for travel purchases (since the CSP offers a 7% yearly dividend) and you can then transfer those miles at a 1:1 ratio to a program like United. Unfortunately, AA is not a partner so if you have to fly AA then yes an AA branded card is probably best. But the CSP gives you the flexibility to transfer to a variety of airline and hotel partners which you don't have with a specific branded card.

For someone like myself who doesn't usually fly and instead would like to use their rewards to offset the cost of cruises and the occasional hotel stay the Arrival just seems to work better. I haven't found any card that gives a better return for redeeming against Disney cruises than the Arrival. I also do occasional hotel stays but I'm not tied to any brand and find good deals online which I can use the Arrival for.

If I was doing more flying and hotel stays I would definitely go with the CSP - it gives a you a lot of flexibility and if you combine it with the Freedom and a Chase Checking account you can earn 1.1 miles/$ for non-categorized purchases, 2.14 miles/$ for travel and restaurants, and 5.5 miles/$ for the quarterly cateogrized spending (up to $1500).

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 07:04:40 GMT

Where would you guys place the AMEX PRG in comparison to the Explorer, CSP, and the AAdvantage?

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

j_casteel — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 07:39:15 GMT

CSP also offers 20% off when redeemed through UR

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

takeshi74 — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 13:08:15 GMT

@docholliday wrote:
I'm sure this has been discussed many times. But which is the best travel rewards credit card.

Of course it has and will continue to be discussed in the future. Best is always highly subjective on any topic. You have to define the criteria that would determine what's specifically best for you. If one travel card was universally best then all of us that wanted a travel card would have the same card. The reality is that there are a number of factors that lead different people to different best solutions.

@docholliday wrote:
Am I missing something

Points transfer, higher points earn rates on spend. Value per point/mile is generally used to make comparison easier. And the subjective nature of the topic.

@docholliday wrote:
Why would anyone go for any of the others?

Spend varies. The redemption partners that one can/would use varies.

@nachoslibres wrote:
The one thing you are missing about the Chase Sapphire Preferred is that you can transfer the miles to various hotel and airline programs. So you earn 2.14 miles/$ for travel purchases (since the CSP offers a 7% yearly dividend) and you can then transfer those miles at a 1:1 ratio to a program like United.

Plus 5x earn on other UR cards (Freedom, Ink) that can be combined and transferred.

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

fungoman — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 14:22:39 GMT

@docholliday wrote:
I'm sure this has been discussed many times. But which is the best travel rewards credit card. Although with cards like the Barclaycard Arrival Mastercard and the Chase Saphire Preferred Card, and the Ventures Capital One you earn 2x miles on purchases. The amount of miles that you need to redeem awards is much high than the some of the airlines for example the Citi AAdvantage platinum select credit card.

For example lets look at if you wanted to redeem miles for a flight from Dallas, TX to Los Angeles, CA. The cheapest ticket price would be $447 for a round trip. This translates into 44,700 miles needed for Chase saphire preferred, Barclaycard Arrival, and Capital one Ventures. Which means that even at the 2x miles $22,350 would have to be spent to redeem the flight.

Now lets look at if you used the Citi AAdvantage credit card that only give 1x on most purchases but 2x on american airlines purchases. You only need 12,500 miles to redeem for any round trip flight in the continental U.S. So even if you only spent the card on non american airlines purchases, you would only have to spend $12,500 to get the free flight from Dallas, TX to Los Angeles, CA. Of course if you only used the card for american airlines purchases, you would only have to spend $6,250 in comparison to $22,350 using barclaycard, chase, capital one.

Am I missing something or calculating something incorrectly. Why would anyone go for any of the others? As far as hotels go it looks like Starwood preferred also has lower minimum point standards to redeem hotels. It seems going with starwood preferred american express and an airline credit card like Citi AAdvantage would be the best way go to.

Transfer the points to southwest from a CSP and fly for as low as 13804 points roundtrip, which is as low as $6,902 worth of spending (if off of meals and other 2X categories). Thats $249 worth of cash value on $6,902 worth of spending, or 3.6% back. Not a bad deal if you are using 2X categories

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

docholliday — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 17:14:36 GMT

Thanks guys. It looks like the transfer option is the main benefit.

Re: Best Travel Credit Card

Anonymous — Thu, 01 May 2014 01:12:23 GMT

flexible rewards points (chase CSP with UR, amex PRG with MR, amex SPG with Starwood points) -- tons of redemption options with the ability to transfer points. arguably this is where youll get best value. great if your spend is on the bonus categories (usually travel; CSP has dining, and many CSP holders have freedom since you can transfer the 5x categories to UR points). finding the best deals will take some research and may take some hacking. if you're lazy to do some extra legwork to find the best deal, this isn't the best option for you.

dedicated airline cards -- better perks and potentially better treatment with your particular airline. lucrative if a ton of your spend is for flights with that particular airline. if you're not loyal to one airline or don't travel that often to accumulate / maximize frequent flier loyalty with one airline, this isn't the option for you. if you're thinking about developing a relationship with one airline, consider what airlines have hubs at your local airport.

static % back cards (arrival) - ultimate flexibility with little hassle on research. great if your spend is balanced evenly around all categories. you can go on kayak and expedia, see which flight is the cheapest, book it and know you can use the points you got at 2.2 points per dollar to pay for it. savings of 2.2% guaranteed, having spent only 20 minutes of time.

my recent example of CSP being superior (for me): most of my spend is in restaurants and going out to bars / clubs (many of which are categorized as restaurants = 2x). Also use Freedom for 5x points (Oct 2013-Dec 2013 = Amazon, Jan-Mar 2014 = gas, Apr-June 2014 = restaurants), so it's safe to say I'm accumulating well over 2x points per dollar. Recently did research for a last minute trip to atlanta from norcal for president's day weekend in february. a few hours of research, but ended up transferring my UR points to Southwest (1:1 ratio) which would redeem at 1.7 cents per point**, then transferred those points to Airtran points where I essentially got a $450 round trip flight for 19,000 worth of points. 19k points = $190 if redeemed at 1:1, so 2.37points per dollar value in terms of the flight. if you keep in mind that I earned many of these points at over 2x per dollar, i essentially ended up getting over 5cents per dollar when all was said and done. this is absolutely great value and I honestly wouldn't expect you to get this great value for your points each time.

**Southwest recently raised the amount of points needed for flights, so that you're getting only an estimated 1.4 cents per point. Still, if you earn 2.14points per dollar for CSP category benefits, you're ultimately getting 2.14 * 1.4 = 2.996 ~~ almost 3 cents back from each dollar at the end of things.