My Favorite Travel credit cards

[KProuty]

Sorry, but BoA, at least locally, is the most consumer un-friendly bank I know of...
They demand an ID to deposit small cash amounts due to a history in money laundering,
it has removed tellers from drive thrus (ATM's only), and our nearest branch is actually
closed on Wednesdays (their golf day?), not to mention fees for everything.
<soapbox/off>


.

Oh my goodness, I use a local bank! I'm talking about credit cards.

Chase has been trying to get me to sign up for a million things. When I finally try to sign up for one, no dice. I took my name off all their marketing lists.

 

[mdurette]

SLightly off topic, but the Chase freedom line is offering 5% on gas stations for February promo. Need to sign up, check https://www.chase.com/mybonus

 

[isisdave]

SLightly off topic, but the Chase freedom line is offering 5% on gas stations for February promo. Need to sign up, check https://www.chase.com/mybonus

How did you hear about that one? I have a new Freedom Flex and didn't get a notice, unless maybe it's in my spam folder. But it accepted my activation.

Do they happen monthly?

I'll probably buy $30 worth of gas in February ... so $1.50 back. Whoopee!

 

[DesireMore]

Gave up on credit cards years ago. I keep a small one open just to maintain a credit score and only charge gas to it here and there. I end up spending less just using a separate debit card for travel than I ever did charging everything to a rewards credit card. This card isn't linked to my main bank account in case it gets lost or compromised. Even that being said, plenty of good discounts with AAA and through TripBeat on timeshare rentals.

 

[Synergy]

We keep a card for all our major spend categories - Chase Sapphire Reserve for 3x (~4.5%) on dining, hotels, and entertainment; Amex Plat for 5x (~7.5%) on flights and 10x (~15%) on gas and groceries until May; Venture for 2x (~2%) on everything else... Not sure what we'll get after the Amex Plat promo ends... Maybe the Amex Gold with 4x (~6%) on restaurants and supermarkets, plus the Wyndham Business with 8x (~8%) on gas? I wonder if RCI codes as Wyndham purchases on that card??

We each normally take on one or two signup bonuses each year, and we mostly divert our Venture spend there. We normally alternate applying for the Southwest cards, but they extended our companion pass so we have an extra slot available this year.

Sure will be nice to actually get to use all these points!!

 

[Msturg29]

Hi All,

Wanted to share my experiences as I currenty have 23 credit cards and always looking for the best travel/cashback cards.
Really I have found that the best cards are those with the best sign-up bonus. 1. Chase, 2.Amex, 3.US Bank.

The best keeper cards for travel have been Chase Sapphire Reserve (Insurance, 1.5x multiplier, great portal, Priority Pass), Amex Platinum (Signup bonus, Centurion Lounge/Priority Pass, 10x Groceries/Gas, PayPal Credit) and US Bank Altitude (Signup bonus, annual credit, real time redemption, lower annual fee).

As for hotel/airline, because I live in MN Delta has been great with the Amex Delta Platinum (signup bonus, free bag, companion certificate).
I am thinking the Hilton Ascend will be the next large annual fee card.

 

[Mongoose]

AMEX Gold for Food and Groceries 4x per dollar. IHG Premier for hotels - 10x per dollar. I also get 10x points on my HICV MF's and a free night each year.

 

[jwalk03]

I stick with my SWA Card because it helps me earn a Companion Pass every year! I also use my Marriott Boundless Card for Marriott Stuff, and my Costco Visa for the 4% on gas & 2% at Costco.

 

[Mongoose]

I stick with my SWA Card because it helps me earn a Companion Pass every year! I also use my Marriott Boundless Card for Marriott Stuff, and my Costco Visa for the 4% on gas & 2% at Costco.

LOL, I used to love my SWA card. Once I moved and SWA no longer served an airport near me, they canceled my card for non-use.

 

[Mongoose]

Hi All,

Wanted to share my experiences as I currenty have 23 credit cards and always looking for the best travel/cashback cards.
Really I have found that the best cards are those with the best sign-up bonus. 1. Chase, 2.Amex, 3.US Bank.

The best keeper cards for travel have been Chase Sapphire Reserve (Insurance, 1.5x multiplier, great portal, Priority Pass), Amex Platinum (Signup bonus, Centurion Lounge/Priority Pass, 10x Groceries/Gas, PayPal Credit) and US Bank Altitude (Signup bonus, annual credit, real time redemption, lower annual fee).

As for hotel/airline, because I live in MN Delta has been great with the Amex Delta Platinum (signup bonus, free bag, companion certificate).
I am thinking the Hilton Ascend will be the next large annual fee card.

The Platinum Amex card only offers 10x points for groceries/gas for new members and only for 6 months. After that it returns to 1x for groceries.

 

[VacationForever]

I'm certainly not professional like a lot of you. I tend to get a card and stick.

I was going to sign up for the Marriott Bonvoy from Chase with their 3 free nights offer that supposedly expired January 31... BUT......

• I tried to sign up January 30th and it said it was no longer offered
• I called Chase and asked what the problem was
• Person on the phone said I was only offered 75,000 bonus points and no free nights
• I'm looking at the mailing piece that they sent me that contradicts this

SOOOO... I went and took myself off of all Chase marketing lists and I am going back to Amex or Bank of America.

With our BOA relationship, we get back 3.5 cents per $1 spent on dining and travel and 2.6 cents per $1 spent on all other spendings. The sign-up bonus was $500 reward with $95 per year card membership feel. I just signed up 4 months ago and yesterday I cashed out $2,300 from the rewards. My husband asked me several times and almost fell off the chair when I told him that we got back $2,300. We have put some significant spending on the card because of our move which involves paying for pool and new firepit work, movers, new furniture etc.

 

[KProuty]

With our BOA relationship, we get back 3.5 cents per $1 spent on dining and travel and 2.6 cents per $1 spent on all other spendings. The sign-up bonus was $500 reward with $95 per year card membership feel. I just signed up 4 months ago and yesterday I cashed out $2,300 from the rewards. My husband asked me several times and almost fell of the chair when I told him that we got back $2,300. We have put some significant spending on the card because of our move which involves paying for pool and new firepit work, movers, new furniture etc.

Which BOA card was this?

 

[VacationForever]

Which BOA card was this?

BOA Premium Rewards card. We get a bump because of our relationship with them.

 

[Synergy]

The Platinum Amex card only offers 10x points for groceries/gas for new members and only for 6 months. After that it returns to 1x for groceries.

We've been trying to decide what cards to get to replace it - it's looking like Amex Gold and Wyndham Business will get us 4x MR in supermarkets/restaurants and 8x WR on gas/utilities. Since Southwest extended our companion pass, we have an extra couple free slots for apps.

Edit: also, 2.6c cash back on non-bonused spend is really attractive. I use the Venture, which is 2x points on random spend, but it's not exactly easy to find great value with their transfer partners. I call it 2.5% rebate and I think I'm averaging more like 3% by doing a lot of research, but 2.6% cash back with no hassles sounds really nice.

 

[ccwu]

We love our HH Amex aspire card. $450 annual fee. We got a free Hilton night for each card annually and $200 from Hilton purchase, 250 from Hilton resort spending $20 a month from dining, $200 from airline expenses, free priority lounge select unlimited access. And many more. We love it so much so my husband got one too so we have double benefits. We used two free night at Key West Waldorf Astoria (with last years free nights and 2 nights in Maldive Waldorf Astoria over the water bungalow (worth $3,000 a night). Each dollar gets 16 x of HHonor points.

Otherwise we use Costco card (we got $800 back from Costco), airline cards for airline. (We have AA, JetBlue, Delta, United...) figure one round trip free luggage check in would get out annual fee back. We are flying to Maldive with American Airline mileage first class round trip to Maldive (75,000 miles each one way total 300,000 miles the ticket otherwise would be $3500 each person one way, a 18 hours flight).


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