Best Card Used for Personal Travel

Kevinception · ‎01-15-2017

My girlfriend is considering applying for a travel card. She was immediately considering the Chase Sapphire Preferred, without much of a thought for the others. She has good to great credit scores, but her only card is Chase Freedom. I'm trying to push her towards the Discover It Miles or an AMEX. I told her that Chase is very stingy with their limits, their customer service is not good, and it wouldn't be a good idea to keep 'all of her eggs in one basket' in terms of credit cards.

What are some of the best travel cards you'd recommend? She only travels at the most twice in a year for personal vacation. The AF is not a deal breaker, but it shouldn't be more than $100/yr.

iced · ‎01-15-2017

Chase is certainly not stingy with limits (they are far and away my highest limit cards) and the service is fine IME.

For <$100, I would say either the CSP or a cobranded airline/hotel card if there is a desire to rack up points with one airline/hotel. I have found miles to be worth more per point than hotel and so I lean toward airline for CC rewards. Also keeps the option open to go B&B or boutique hotels on vacations. However, this really comes down to travel preferences and spend pattern as to which is best suited.

elim · ‎01-15-2017

Perfect card to bump up her freedom points (transfer to CSP and book through Chase portal at 1.2x). Great card... I had it for a couple years.

BronzeTrader · ‎01-15-2017

@iced wrote:
Chase is certainly not stingy with limits (they are far and away my highest limit cards) and the service is fine IME.

For <$100, I would say either the CSP or a cobranded airline/hotel card if there is a desire to rack up points with one airline/hotel. I have found miles to be worth more per point than hotel and so I lean toward airline for CC rewards. Also keeps the option open to go B&B or boutique hotels on vacations. However, this really comes down to travel preferences and spend pattern as to which is best suited.

One of the sleeper is the Bank of America Travel Rewards. Granted, it is a 1.5% flat rate card. But with BA Preferred Rewards tiers, you get 25%, 50% or 75% more bonus. So you can get up to 2.63% flat rate at the top tier. It has no AF and no FTF.

longtimelurker · ‎01-15-2017

@elim wrote:
Perfect card to bump up her freedom points (transfer to CSP and book through Chase portal at 1.2x). Great card... I had it for a couple years.

If you can get it at a Chase branch, I would still go for the CSR, at least for a year. One or two trips (+ other things like tolls etc) would give the $300 travel credit, greatly reducing the effective AF, and then for $150 more over first year CSP, you get 50K UR more *worth at least $500) + a boost to your freedom points, 1.5 vs 1.25 (+ global entry credit, lounge access, and extra multiplier on travel and dining). Then, if she doesn't want to continue, she can downgrade to the CSP.

elim · ‎01-15-2017

to add: My 3 years with Chase... their Limits and customer service has been great (even better after a track record with one of their products).

vanillabean · ‎01-15-2017

Discover It Miles is not a travel card.

The Long, Twisted History of Your Credit Score

longtimelurker · ‎01-15-2017

@Anonymous-own-fico wrote:
Discover It Miles is not a travel card.

True (with the exception of the $30 a year credit for airplane wifi or meals etc, which doesn't make it much of a travel card)

wasCB14 · ‎01-15-2017

@BronzeTrader wrote:
@iced wrote:
Chase is certainly not stingy with limits (they are far and away my highest limit cards) and the service is fine IME.

For <$100, I would say either the CSP or a cobranded airline/hotel card if there is a desire to rack up points with one airline/hotel. I have found miles to be worth more per point than hotel and so I lean toward airline for CC rewards. Also keeps the option open to go B&B or boutique hotels on vacations. However, this really comes down to travel preferences and spend pattern as to which is best suited.
One of the sleeper is the Bank of America Travel Rewards. Granted, it is a 1.5% flat rate card. But with BA Preferred Rewards tiers, you get 25%, 50% or 75% more bonus. So you can get up to 2.63% flat rate at the top tier. It has no AF and no FTF.

With a spare $100k in assets (for the 75% bonus), there are brokerage promotions to chase that can be lucrative. It takes a fair amount of travel spend to out-earn a lump sum of 50k Delta/AA/United miles (what Fidelity currently offers for a $100k transfer for one year).

And it's churnable...

And if the $100k is cash, there are better interest rates on savings accounts.

Personal spend: Amex Gold, Amex Schwab Plat., BofA PR+CCR(x2), Costco
Business use: Amex Bus. Plat., BBP, Lowes Amex AU, CFU AU
Perks: Delta Plat., United Explorer, IHG49, Hyatt, "Old SPG"
Mostly SD: Freedom Flex, Freedom, Arrival
Upgrade/Downgrade games: ED, BCE
SUB chasing: AA Platinum Select

BronzeTrader · ‎01-15-2017

@wasCB14 wrote:
With a spare $100k in assets (for the 75% bonus), there are brokerage promotions to chase that can be lucrative. It takes a fair amount of travel spend to out-earn a lump sum of 50k Delta/AA/United miles (what Fidelity currently offers for a $100k transfer for one year).

And it's churnable...

And if the $100k is cash, there are better interest rates on savings accounts.

You got it wrong. The BA Preferred Rewards is on the total assets, any, IRA, investment or/and cash. You need to park that money somewhere. The credit card % is just extra benefit.

OP only asked about travel card, not about bonus. Churning is another story. It gets harder now, with something like 5/24.