Hi everyone!
I am looking to expand my portfolio with some travel/entertainment cards. To give you an idea on my spending habits I will spend anywhere from $15,000-$20,000 next year on vacations. In addition as far as entertainment/dining out I spend about $5000 a year. I do around 3 cruises a year with Royal Caribbean and are thinking about adding Celebrity to the mix. If any of you know of a good cruise rewards card please let me know! I actually have 4 cruises schedule as of now. I would say about half of our travel is international so I would prefer a card with no foreign transaction fee. Of course the fee can be ignored if the perks are worth it!
I will go ahead and note that I am eligable for some Chase cards but I am not interested in any of them. They have a Marriott card but I like the Amex Bonvoy more. I bank with Chase and everytime I get offered one of their cards I research and find others I would prefer instead. I am finally at the point where I am working towards good cards that benefit my spending the most so I want to make this count.
I am not tied down to any specific brand but I do have a lot of Delta skymiles already. If I have a preference though it is American Airlines. I have been eyeballing the Barclay AAdvantage Aviator Red Card but does anyone have any advice on what you need to obtain this card? I know Delta is much easier to get yet I still like to know all of my options.
As far as hotels I love Marriott, although my husband and I stay in boutique hotels a lot when we travel. I don't know if I necessarily need a card specific to a hotel chain but at least one where I am earning good travel rewards.
As far as dining out I am looking for a card that would be great for resturants and carry out. We ate out a lot before Covid and will again when everything gets back to normal. As far as I can tell WF Propel is a wonderful card and is high on my list of wants.
I will end this with saying I don't mind an AF if the perks are worth it. I do love upgrades and we normally schedule our connecting flights for a 2 hr minimum layover (just to be safe incase of flight delays) so airport lounges are always nice. All of my traveling and eating out is with my husband. That being said, any cards that offer companion benefits would be highly considered as well.
This board has been a lifesaver and I appreciate all thoughts and opinions from everyone!
Most people will recommend the Chase Sapphire Preferred card(https://creditcards.chase.com/rewards-credit-cards/sapphire/preferred) as a catch-all well rounded travel card. I myself don't have it, but plan to in the future when doing heavy traveling as it does have an annual fee of $95 so better use it when there is a need.
I assume people get it because of the:
"25% more in travel redemption
Get 25% more value when you redeem for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Ultimate Rewards. For example, 60,000 points are worth $750 toward travel.*"
and
"60,000 bonus points
after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.*Same page link to Offer Details That's $750 toward travel when redeemed through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
It also comes with good travel benefits and services plus of course no foreign transaction fees. Also I believe they are more on the side of the customer when handling disputes which I feel you should be considering putting as a heavy factor now a days if things do get canncelled again the credit card you used will matter when trying to issue a dispute.
@RadioRob wrote:
The RCCL credit card is nothing to write home about. In fact, none of the cruise cards are really appealing. I would pass on those.
There are a couple of ways I might recommend you look:
* Chase... as MisterWives mentioned, the CSP is a great card. I personally use CSR because of higher earning AND redemption rates on the categories I use. Pair the CSP/CSR with the Freedom (or Freedom Unlimited) for non-category spend to earn higher rate. Chase lets you combine points from any category.
I also fly American... I personally went for the Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite. It's AF is high, but less than what you would spend on an Admiral's Club Lounge membership. It gives you free lounge access for you and up to 10 AUs. (They don't have to be traveling with you either.) It also includes the checked bag free, early boarding, and the bonus miles. The only reason to do the Citi card though would be for the lounge though really. Otherwise look at the Barclay card.
For Marriott, I have the Amex Bonvoy business card. It gives me 6 Marriott points for every dollar spent at a Marriott. Literally that's the only thing I put on that card!
Ah yes I remember why I got my other Chase card with the 5% rotating categories now since they allow combining points from other cards then if you do book with them you get the extra 25% on top of that too. Haven't been liking their categories they had recently though to be using it much as all.
I would agree that cruise cards are usually pretty useless since they often don't give enough of a reward that it is worth just using the one card and limiting yourself to their pricing when redeeming. Plus it would get out of hand having all those cruise cards say 4 cards and trying to utilize them in your day-to-day transactions to get a decent reward amount from them each better to have a catch-all card with very good rewards.
Also I believe the Amex Marriott cards both personal and business offer a free night with their cards so even though they have an annual fee the free night should make it well worth it since it probably is a couple hundred dollar value for a hotel night.
Amex Hilton is also a good card I have it right now gives 5x points for restaurants, supermarket, and gas which pretty much covers most highly utilized places you would spend your money. Then 7x at the hotel itself this is all for the one without an annual fee with the one that has an AF the rewards are higher say 6x or 7x or 14x
With current scores, presence of derogs, and relatively low existing revolving limits, if you have a pre-approval for Chase Sapphire Reserve I would take it in a heartbeat. If not, and you do have an offer for a CSP I would take that instead and plan to upgrade to CSR after a year if your credit line is $10k or higher. CSR would be among the highest earning cards for cruise travel (cruise line specific cards are usually a bad value), and worst case scenario you could use their portal for booking cruises at 1.5 cents per point.
Thank you everyone!
I will dig deeper into Chase to see if CSR would benefit me the most for travel. Combining points wouldn't be of interest because I have no desire for multiple Chase cards.
I did look at some Citi cards but I can't pre-qual because the site isn't allowing it. I had a debt with them 7 years ago (now removed from credit report) for $650 from an account they took over from Cap1 (Bestbuy Rewards). I don't know if Citi is forgiving at a certain point but that makes me a little more hesitant to apply.
I do agree with all of you that cruise cards are garbage. It's sad because I would get my use out of it if they had one worth getting!
Marriott Bonvoy is pretty much a definite for me. After researching more last night I think that would be a great hotel card. I love that it includes Starwoods Hotels as well so that really ups the game for me.
As far as a good airline card I will have to weigh my options between Chase and Barclay if I am aiming for a card specific to American Airlines.
I am going to sit on this for 1 or 2 months and do a little more research. In the end I just need to figure out if a card with open rewards like CSR would be better for me than a dedicated brand card (A.A or Marriott). I will update on here once I decide the best route to go for my spending.
With that much travel the chase sapphire reserve would make sense. The review of it on "thepointsguy.com" gives a good overview of how it's worth more than it looks. I'm sure others will chime in as well.
Thanks for the heads up on the article! I will check it out