Chase Sapphire or BOA Travel Rewards?

[Anonymous]

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!

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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? 

[Anonymous]

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@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? 

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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.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@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? 

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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.

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bolded

[Anonymous]

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.

[myjourney]

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@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? 

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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

[Anonymous]

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@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.

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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

[Anonymous]

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.