Best card/points for budget travel.

[Anonymous]

Looking into a travel card or cards. I travel once a year at least rarely twice. Mostly domestic flights. Never check a bag. What card/points system is geared towards non-luxury accommodations.

[Anonymous]

I'm the same way.  Cash back cards are best and use the cash towards travel.

Most travel cards become valuable when booking premium cabins on international flights.  Most hotel cards are valuable for top tier hotels that you stay at often.

For budget travelers, there are no good travel cards.

Get the 3%/2.5% Alliant card for overall spend and maximize cash back with the 5%/6%/10% cashback categories cards.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Looking into a travel card or cards. I travel once a year at least rarely twice. Mostly domestic flights. Never check a bag. What card/points system is geared towards non-luxury accommodations.

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Southwest card give you 60k points which would be good for lots of domestic flights.  You could get the Arrival+ which has a sign up bonus that would give your 550 reimbursement for any type of travel you put on the card.  There is the IHG card which has a sign up bonus that can be used on their hotels which tend to be cheaper.  

[Anonymous]

Do either of the Southwest or Arrival+ card make sense for an infrequent traveler based on annual fees, etc?

I assume 60,000 points on SW for $2000 spend is worth $200, a sign up bonus that is close to many other rewards cards but once you meet that bonus if you don't fly a lot you'll get an annual fee?  Something to consider.

I've looked at the Arrival+ card myself but the rewards don't seem to add up well other than the sign-up bonus -- You need to charge $3000 to get the SUB, and after that it's just a 2X card for $89 annual fee.

Those annual fees make it difficult for an infrequent budget traveler to earn enough to overcome it, even with SUB.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Do either of the Southwest or Arrival+ card make sense for an infrequent traveler based on annual fees, etc?

I assume 60,000 points on SW for $2000 spend is worth $200, a sign up bonus that is close to many other rewards cards but once you meet that bonus if you don't fly a lot you'll get an annual fee?  Something to consider.

I've looked at the Arrival+ card myself but the rewards don't seem to add up well other than the sign-up bonus -- You need to charge $3000 to get the SUB, and after that it's just a 2X card for $89 annual fee.

Those annual fees make it difficult for an infrequent budget traveler to earn enough to overcome it, even with SUB.

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The 60000 Southwest points are worth around 1000 dollars.  The annual fee is 69 dollars and they give you 3k points on your anniversary.  Which would make your real annual fee around 25 dollars. If you don't fly much cancel the card after a year you will still keep your points if you accumulate Southwest points within a year from then. You can do that by their shopping portal or their restaurant rewards or by taking surveys.  Nice thing about Southwest points you can use it on any flight for any seat.  I would probably keep the Southwest card open even if I flyed once a year domestically.  

Also with the Arrival + you can earn points posting on their travel site. I earned 100 dollars doing that.  And the Barclay cards is 2.05 percent as you get 5 percent of your points back when you redeem.  As they don't charge you a fee the first year you can always cancel it and never pay a fee.  

[UpperNwGuy]

If you don't travel often, don't get an airline card unless (a) your home airport is dominated by a single airline, and (b) that airline flies to your favorite destinations.  You won't reap the benefits unless you are loyal to that airline.

Similarly, don't get a hotel card unless (a) that hotel brand has properties near the places you want to go and (b) you can take advantage of each of the card's benefits.  You won't reap the benefits unless you are loyal to that hotel brand.

If you travel infrequently, the points cards issued by Amex, Chase, and Citi don't make much sense for you.

The "earn cash for travel" cards (Capital One Venture, BOA Travel Rewards, and Barclay Arrival+) are also sub-optimal because you can earn cash faster (without it being restricted to travel redemptions) on a no-fee flat-rate 2% card like Citi Double Cash, Fidelity, PayPal, Blispay, or PenFed Power Cash.

The amount of the signup bonus can change this whole analysis, but I get the impression from your question that you are looking for a long-term card and are not interested in churning cards to harvest their signup bonuses.

[Anonymous]

From my understanding, Chase United Travelbank and Amex Delta blue cards are meant to be entry level travel cards for people who don't want an AF or all the luxuries of higher end travel cards..

[MoneyBurns]

How about IHG from Chase? I don't travel much either, and the free annual night certificate more than pays for the annual fee of $49. It comes with a nice 80k sign up bonus with modest spend of $1000 for SUB. You won't have to maintain the card other than a small charge every few months.

[Anonymous]

IHG looks like a solid card.

[Shooting-For-800]

I like Venture.  2% back on everything and simple to use and get rewarded.