@Anonymous wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:It will depend on how it's coded by the network that it's processed on and how general "travel" is defined by the card issuer.
booking.com should code as Travel on the Amex network (it does on Visa, for example and is eligible for 2x on CSP and 3x on CSR) and as long as PenFed just says "Travel" and not "Airlines, Hotels, Auto Rentals" or something more specific, you should be fine.
Thanks K! I am still on the phone with PenFed and have been for over an hour...this last person has given me an less than definitive yes, but I'm not confident in her answer since I've gotten so many different responses. I have also tried to simply ask, "How does booking.com code their charges?" or "What is booking.com's merchant code?" and still no solid answers. I have the paper terms from PenFed in front of me that show the purchase codes that they accept for travel points so the booking.com merchant code is essentially all I need. So much easier said than done!
The difference in cost to book directly with the Hyatt vs booking.com is about $80, so I'm not sure if it's worth it or not to chance it. The total charge is $1400 through Hyatt which would earn me 5600 points (4/$). Or $1320 through booking.com which could only earn me only 1980 points (if not counted as travel and only calculated at 1.5/$). So at a difference of 3620 points, I'm not sure if it makes sense or not. I don't know how much the points are worth. I'm not super savvy on reward points, I'm new to all of this rewards stuff, lol.
I don't know if this matters to you, but sometimes booking through a portal will mean you're not eligible for earning points on your stay (hotel points, not credit card points). Similar situations with hotel status and the benefits it conveys - sometimes booking through these portals makes you ineligible to use those benefits. If that's a priority for you, it might be worth it to just pay the $80 difference and not worry about it.
I don't know which portals this is a bigger problem on (I've heard priceline in particular gets hit by this since those are the deep discount rates), so I personally treat all travel portals as a resource to get information and compare things, but I don't actually make any purchases through them.