US Bank Altitude Reserve travel categories

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any experience getting the travel 3x points on non-airline, hotel and rental car transactions on the USB AR? I didn't get 3x for a FlixBus purchase, for a toll purchase and recently used an OTA that coded as a travel agency for which I am not hopeful of getting the points lol. So any input is appreciated.

[Anonymous]

I didn't get 3X for garage parking or street parking, although my friend got 3X for those with his CSR. The travel defined by US Bank is not as broad as by Chase. I also noticed that booking via Expedia doesn't earn 3X either. Fortunately Expedia supports Apple Pay for hotel booking. For air ticket, have to book from airline to earn bonus points.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I didn't get 3X for garage parking or street parking, although my friend got 3X for those with his CSR. The travel defined by US Bank is not as broad as by Chase. I also noticed that booking via Expedia doesn't earn 3X either. Fortunately Expedia supports Apple Pay for hotel booking. For air ticket, have to book from airline to earn bonus points.

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I booked a flight using Expedia and did get 3x on that, oddly. Have you tried Apple Pay for Expedia on the desktop or just your mobile device?

[Anonymous]

As much as I like this card for Samsung Pay (this works for literally 100% of the time for all my physical transactions), this card sucks for not having a broad travel category like the Sapphire Reserve.

Once I booked a flight through a third party tour agency and I didnt get the 3x points.

I waited till my end of year 1 and I was definitely planning on cancelling the card. Called the rep and I told her that I was unsatisfied with the travel category and told her the reason that this card is a POOR CARD compared to Sapphire Reserve when it comes to travel categories. 

They gave me a good retention offer. And I live to fight another year lol. If they dont improve their travel category next year, then I am cancelling next year (if I dont get another retention offer lol)

[Shadowfactor]

Directly from USB terms and conditions

purchases made directly with airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, taxis, limos and cruise lines.

It definitely isn’t as broad as the CSR but RTR is a HUGE benefit over CSR.
I can cash my Altitude points for airline giftcards and not have to worry about using a portal at all.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I didn't get 3X for garage parking or street parking, although my friend got 3X for those with his CSR. The travel defined by US Bank is not as broad as by Chase. I also noticed that booking via Expedia doesn't earn 3X either. Fortunately Expedia supports Apple Pay for hotel booking. For air ticket, have to book from airline to earn bonus points.

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I booked a flight using Expedia and did get 3x on that, oddly. Have you tried Apple Pay for Expedia on the desktop or just your mobile device?

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I guess it depends on airlines. I've heard that if Expedia passes the payment to the airline, you'll get 3x on that. But if Expedia charges it directly, you'll not. For Apple Pay, you can do it either in Safari in your Mac or the Expedia app, but Expedia only allows Apple Pay for Hotels not for Flight.

[Shadowfactor]

Most OTA’s pass through standalone airfare which is why you can’t use Apple Pay for just flights.

[Anonymous]

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@Shadowfactor wrote:
Most OTA’s pass through standalone airfare which is why you can’t use Apple Pay for just flights.

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This makes a lot more sense. I was thinking it's because airfare has lower commission so Expedia doesn't want to support Apple Pay for flight.

I'm visiting NYC soon, and I guess subway, bus, or other local transit and commuting will NOT be coded as Travel for AR either.