Travel Card with no AF

[red259]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Some hotel chains have no AF cards, Hilton has Citi and Amex versions. Wyndham also has a no AF card. Jet Blue, if you fly them, also has a new no AF card. 

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Not sure if it is still active but last month I saw a citil hilton no-AF card with a 75k signup for 2k spend in 3 months. Also, you can look into cards that waive the AF in the first year but have no AF versions that you could downgrade to when AF posts. 

[Open123]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Some hotel chains have no AF cards, Hilton has Citi and Amex versions. Wyndham also has a no AF card. Jet Blue, if you fly them, also has a new no AF card. 

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If a person flies Jetblue (especially from SFO/LAX - JFK), this is probably the most efficient no-fee "true" travel rewards card out there. Each point worth 1.4 cpp with 2X on dining and 6X 3X on Jetblue purchases, it works extremely well for the right person, in my view.  $599 (about 43K points) for a transcon in a closed suite is really one of the best deals in air travel, in my estimation. 

Oh, and the 10K bonus is not bad!  

PS - The value proposition improves when tranferring MRs during a bonus promo or redeem Jetblue for flights when there's a 25% discount on points redemptions.

*Edited* - Corrected - No fee card has 3X for Jetblue purchases and not 6X.

[Closingracer99]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

Neither the BOA Travel or the VentureOne are really "travel" cards -- they earn cash back that must be reemed for travel if you want the full 1.5% / 1.25% value, respectively.

With cash back options on the market with no restrictions from 1.5% to 2%, I don't see how either of the aforementioned are really worth applying for outside of the initial bonuses.

If you want a "real" travel card, you should go for one with transferable points IMO. Arrival, Venture, BOA Travel....not really worth applying for, again, unless you're just looking at bonuses. But otherwise, why go for a restricted version of something you can get elsewhere with no restriction? It's not like the cards give extra value, just forced redemption only for travel. Of course some will disagree with me, but I just fail to see how they are really "travel" cards.

If you don't want to pay an AF, you aren't really going to find much in the way of actual travel cards that aren't just cash back in disguise.

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Well it does have 0% FTF unlike the citi DC and might not be worth the time to PC to the QS.

[Closingracer99]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Some hotel chains have no AF cards, Hilton has Citi and Amex versions. Wyndham also has a no AF card. Jet Blue, if you fly them, also has a new no AF card. 

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The Jet Blue one is the only good travel card if you go international quite a lot since it has no AF and no FTF

[Closingracer99]

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@red259 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Some hotel chains have no AF cards, Hilton has Citi and Amex versions. Wyndham also has a no AF card. Jet Blue, if you fly them, also has a new no AF card. 

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Not sure if it is still active but last month I saw a citil hilton no-AF card with a 75k signup for 2k spend in 3 months. Also, you can look into cards that waive the AF in the first year but have no AF versions that you could downgrade to when AF posts. 

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The Citi Hilton is still 75k spend but honestly I would rather go with the Amex hilton since it is generally a better card. Plus if you want 50k points just go book a room at any hilton and a pop up will show a 50,000 point bonus and $50 statement credit  right before you book it. I'll take 25k less points for the better card imo if you only want one card. I got both but with the 40k bonus with Citi so now i will have 96,000 points or so if you include the spending I spent to make the rewards 

[Anonymous]

My go-to Travel Card is the Capital One Quicksilver card. I love it for these reasons: 

- 1.5% Cashback on all Purchases (No Caps)

- Relatively good service

- Visa is widely accepted all over the world (if you get MC version it's also widely accepted) 

- No FTF 

- Can also be a great everyday card to accumulate cashback for Travel Purchases 

- Comes with a decent sign-up bonus ($100 cash back for $500 spend in first 3 months). 

- No AF

It's an ideal card with straight-forward and hassle-free benefits for Travel & Every-day use. 

[GeorgiaBulldog]

A few folks have mentioned BofA Travel Rewards (and others have shot it down).  It's true that it's essentially a cashback card at 1.5% that you have to redeem on travel to get that full point value.  Someone else mentioned that there's no FTF, which is nice.

Another thing to consider, depending on who you bank with:  you get a higher percentage back if you have a checking account with BofA.  And the extra is even higher if your assets are considerably high.  With just a checking account, though, the bonus goes up to 1.65%.  With the highest tier of BofA/Merrill account total (over $100k avg daily balance across all accounts), it becomes a 2.625% back card.

Also, if you book travel through BofA's portal, you get 3% (not sure how the account bonuses apply to that actually--anyone else know?).

BofA has a cashback deals portal thingy too, though it pales in comparison to Discover's.  Still, there are some pretty good deals from time to time--I've seen 20% back at some auto parts stores, and every now and then 20% from TigerDirect comes up for me as well.  Nice to get the travel points for the full price of the purchase, and then get the cashback in my checking account.

All that being said, since I got the 20k points bonus for 1k spend on my BofA Travel Rewards card, it's played second fiddle to Double Cash and Discover.  But in foreign countries, it will be my main card (with Discover and Barclay Ring playing 2nd fiddle to it).

[Closingracer99]

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@GeorgiaBulldog wrote:

A few folks have mentioned BofA Travel Rewards (and others have shot it down).  It's true that it's essentially a cashback card at 1.5% that you have to redeem on travel to get that full point value.  Someone else mentioned that there's no FTF, which is nice.

Another thing to consider, depending on who you bank with:  you get a higher percentage back if you have a checking account with BofA.  And the extra is even higher if your assets are considerably high.  With just a checking account, though, the bonus goes up to 1.65%.  With the highest tier of BofA/Merrill account total (over $100k avg daily balance across all accounts), it becomes a 2.625% back card.

Also, if you book travel through BofA's portal, you get 3% (not sure how the account bonuses apply to that actually--anyone else know?).

BofA has a cashback deals portal thingy too, though it pales in comparison to Discover's.  Still, there are some pretty good deals from time to time--I've seen 20% back at some auto parts stores, and every now and then 20% from TigerDirect comes up for me as well.  Nice to get the travel points for the full price of the purchase, and then get the cashback in my checking account.

All that being said, since I got the 20k points bonus for 1k spend on my BofA Travel Rewards card, it's played second fiddle to Double Cash and Discover.  But in foreign countries, it will be my main card (with Discover and Barclay Ring playing 2nd fiddle to it).

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Glancing at BoA banking options unless you desire BoA be it because it is closest to you or better banks is not in your State I wouldn't choose BoA as your bank IMHO. There is better banks out there with better options imo along with better cards.

[Anonymous]

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@GeorgiaBulldog wrote:

A few folks have mentioned BofA Travel Rewards (and others have shot it down).  It's true that it's essentially a cashback card at 1.5% that you have to redeem on travel to get that full point value.  Someone else mentioned that there's no FTF, which is nice.

Another thing to consider, depending on who you bank with:  you get a higher percentage back if you have a checking account with BofA.  And the extra is even higher if your assets are considerably high.  With just a checking account, though, the bonus goes up to 1.65%.  With the highest tier of BofA/Merrill account total (over $100k avg daily balance across all accounts), it becomes a 2.625% back card.

Also, if you book travel through BofA's portal, you get 3% (not sure how the account bonuses apply to that actually--anyone else know?).

BofA has a cashback deals portal thingy too, though it pales in comparison to Discover's.  Still, there are some pretty good deals from time to time--I've seen 20% back at some auto parts stores, and every now and then 20% from TigerDirect comes up for me as well.  Nice to get the travel points for the full price of the purchase, and then get the cashback in my checking account.

All that being said, since I got the 20k points bonus for 1k spend on my BofA Travel Rewards card, it's played second fiddle to Double Cash and Discover.  But in foreign countries, it will be my main card (with Discover and Barclay Ring playing 2nd fiddle to it).

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I don't like BOA Travel Rewards because of the restrictive redemption. It's good if you bank with them and invest with them - but I feel the redemption restrictions outweight the benefits. If they combined Cash Rewards + Travel Rewards into one card i'd think it would be a better move for them. 

[kdm31091]

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@GeorgiaBulldog wrote:

A few folks have mentioned BofA Travel Rewards (and others have shot it down).  It's true that it's essentially a cashback card at 1.5% that you have to redeem on travel to get that full point value.  Someone else mentioned that there's no FTF, which is nice.

Another thing to consider, depending on who you bank with:  you get a higher percentage back if you have a checking account with BofA.  And the extra is even higher if your assets are considerably high.  With just a checking account, though, the bonus goes up to 1.65%.  With the highest tier of BofA/Merrill account total (over $100k avg daily balance across all accounts), it becomes a 2.625% back card.

Also, if you book travel through BofA's portal, you get 3% (not sure how the account bonuses apply to that actually--anyone else know?).

BofA has a cashback deals portal thingy too, though it pales in comparison to Discover's.  Still, there are some pretty good deals from time to time--I've seen 20% back at some auto parts stores, and every now and then 20% from TigerDirect comes up for me as well.  Nice to get the travel points for the full price of the purchase, and then get the cashback in my checking account.

All that being said, since I got the 20k points bonus for 1k spend on my BofA Travel Rewards card, it's played second fiddle to Double Cash and Discover.  But in foreign countries, it will be my main card (with Discover and Barclay Ring playing 2nd fiddle to it).

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Even with the 10% banking bonus, you can do better than 1.65% elsewhere with no redemption restrictions (Fidelity Visa, Double Cash).

If you meet the 2.625% level requirements, and you travel enough that redemption isn't an issue, sure, it's a good card. I'd think someone with that much in assets would not really balk at an AF though. OP wants no AF.

Everyone talks about the no FTF on the BOA Travel Rewards, but again, you get the same 1.5% back with no FTF on a Quicksilver, which you can redeem for anything. I just don't see much advantage in the BOA card post-bonus except for a very specific person -- one who has enough assets to make 2.625%, one who travels a ton and FTF is a concern, and one who is ok with the redemption restrictions. So yes, that may describe a few people, but otherwise, don't see much point in the card.  Most of the people who are really supportive of it are indeed the ones who have the money to make it a 2.625% card.