What's the credit card with the best travel rewards? I fly a lot for work so Im looking at pic rel Chase Sapphire Reserve
What's the credit card with the best travel rewards?
What's the credit card with the best travel rewards? I fly a lot for work so Im looking at pic rel Chase Sapphire Reserve
Are you able to book directly with the airline or through an OTA like Concur?
Book directly
What's the TSA feature? The Pre check?
CSR and Amex Platinum are the top tier. Venture X is slightly worse and is losing Hertz status soon. Airline specific cards almost never make sense unless you're getting a top tier one that allows lounge access. You are almost always better off with transferrable currency. What airline do you primarily fly and what is your hub?
>What airline do you primarily fly
I would spend a lot of time with Delta but this year Im doing more United. Depends where I'm going really.
>what is your hub?
I don't live near one but atlanta is usually the most convenient
Amex Platinum gets you Delta lounge access anytime you fly on Delta. They're pretty crowded these days so sometimes you have to wait but if you're primarily flying that I'd consider it. Just make suer you find the biggest initial sign on bonus offer.
I have the capital one venture x.. its pretty swell. Though their portal can be annoying to use with a lot of failed bookings etc. but it provides decent lounge access and essentially refunds the fee every year. If you don't use the TSA feature then maybe not as good.
I also have venture X, not sure if it's different for other cards but it's not possible to use this card overseas reliably if you don't use your (for me, US) sim card. When purchasing something online, there's a good chance it'll ask for a text verification that I cannot give, and you don't have the option of verifying via app's push notification or email.
So, unless you never use overseas sims, always carry another card that you know for sure works.
Also, a related tip that would've saved me hours if I'd have known it: you need a 4 digit pin to get money out of a debit card in europe, ATMs simply will not accept your card
>best travel cards?
Chase Sapphire Reserve with the Freedom Unlimited and Freedom Flex for non-travel points earning, or you do the Amex Plat, Amex Gold and Amex blue/green (depending on business or not) and go from there. If you primarily fly Delta, AMEX is the way, if you go United or American for domestic then Chase is the winner. You'll also want to see destinations abroad and which partners with the credit card companies you can transfer to. Chase for example is really good if you want to fly to Spain often since they partner with Iberia directly.
Iberia is also a transfer partner with AMEX
I just got pic related last week. No foreign fees and 3x points on everything done through Apple Pay. You also get 5x on all travel as long as you book direct with the provider (so not Expedia). I causally churn credit cards and have paid for many hotels and flights - it’s worth doing. Just don’t be a gay about it like a redditor. I wouldn’t obsess over the details, any of the high end cards will get you a solid entry bonus. When the first year ends, evaluate if it’s worth sticking around and if not jump on a new card.
Just rotate through them to get the best bonuses. I got the AA with like 70k bonus and used it for regular spending. I've milked a free international and a free domestic flight in the past few months without changing my spending habits. But I'll migrate to something else with a welcome bonus soon.
Sapphire reserve used to be better. They charge about 30% more to book a flight than booking directly. They also raised annual fees a couple hundred bucks. It’s only worth it if you’re redeeming $1000+ of points a year and using the priority pass shit
I had a similiar issue with Capital one not wanting to show me the flights I could find on Google but I found it came down to individual airlines sometimes just being shitty or sometimes the way cheaper flight being buried under hundreds of other flights.
Never redeem through travel portals. Always transfer to a partner for far far more value.
What do you mean by that. Can you elaborate? I end up flying Saudi a lot out of Dulles to reach Southeast Asia because their flights are nearly half what other airlines would charge.
To get the best value out of points you will generally want to transfer them to an airline partner and book directly through them. Most airlines are part of a group i.e. OneWorld, SkyTeam, Star Alliance that allows you to book multiple partner airlines. For instance, I recently transferred points to Flying Blue, which is Air France and KLM, but they also let me book Virgin and Delta. I need 200k miles to book round trip business class from IAD to FRA for my wife and I. There was a 20% transfer bonus so I moved 165k Chase points to get 200k Flying Blue. Flights would have cost ~$6k cash each.
Hmm. You got me interested anon so I am signing up now. I already used my miles through Venture X already but I build up miles pretty fast since I end up paying for a lot of big ticket items with my card for family and then they pay me with cash etc.
I’ve found hotels and rental cars are priced fairly on the Chase portal. Flights are a joke tho
Depends on your airline. I'm thinking of getting an AMEX card for ANA because I have yellow fever. But IDK if my income(120k) and credit score is good enough. It's good enough to buy a home but I heard AMEX is very strict, you need to be close to or at 850.
You don't have to flex, Tom
AMEX will give out cards to almost anyone fyi. If you want to fly ANA your best bet is booking them through Avianca, Virgin, or Aeroplan.
lol no i have a 720 credit score and get the 150k MR AMEX platinum offer. I just don't think the annual fee is worth it. I currently have the Chase Sapphire Preferred as my travel card but might get the Capital One venture X to get some lounge access
How is it possible to get a 820 score? I have immaculate credit, never paid interest, always pay it off, 15 year old accounts with 2 cards, etc and I've never been over 801
Variety of debt (auto/mortgage/cards), no late payments, high total credit limit and low utilization, low to no hard inquiries, longer credit history.
That’s not his fico score. It’s some lower grade heuristic.
Fico is out of 900 tho
It's out of 850.
Probably Amex Platinum just for earnings on flights and their 'higher end' hotel choices. I have a Venture X that is great for everyday points and the travel credit makes it very worthwhile. The key is to hold onto the points and transfer them to partner AIRLINES (never hotel points) for baller deals on business class seat, or even super cheap redemptions in Premium Economy and You People
>baller deals on business class seat
can you give an example like are we talking about half price?
sometimes less
example, if you grab a reward seat on Air France round-trip from DC to Paris. 50k pts each way plus a few hundred bucks in smaller surcharges would equal $1000 with the standard valuation of 1 point = 1 cent. If paying cash, that same business class seat is likely to run between 4500 and 6000 dollars. So you can save, in this instance, as much as 80 percent
Just booked flights last week on Air France. 163k miles with a 25% transfer bonus plus about $450 in taxes each for two round trip business class tickets in the new one with the throne seats. Love me some Flying Blue.
It's a goal. I want to try AF and KLM (get me a house, love them lil homies) most.
KLM has nice service but if you get an older plane you're in a 2-2-2 configuration which is ass.
Yeah. Whenever I look for flights I make sure to inspect the seating and see if it's an older bird or not
Just have to hope you don't get fricked by an equipment swap.
I have Amex gold because I think it's better for ANA, and since I simply do not fly that many times in a year. I'm not a business traveler but I do eat out often. I also have the Venture X for Amazon and basically anything that isn't gas/groceries/restaurants.
I have the chase card. It's great for booking hotels and flights online, but somehow the card never works when I use it physically. I've had it replaced several times, but it only ever works online and not physically. I bought my Thai elite visa entirely on my chase card almost 2 years ago, which allowed me to spend $16.5k and get 5x points on it kek. I have an insane amount of points on that card now.