I use my Chase card or my Costco card (no foreign txn fee) but hoping to see if there is anything better. We don't travel a whole lot just max twice a year.

Continue with Costco

What airline do you typically go with?

The chase SW cards can be great. I got 120K points and a companion pass for 22 months last march

infinity ag said:

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I use my Chase card or my Costco card (no foreign txn fee) but hoping to see if there is anything better. We don't travel a whole lot just max twice a year.

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Then I wouldn't worry about it. CCs are configured to your spending lifestyle, so if you don't travel much then focus on a card that rewards you for how you spend.

Go to thepointsguy.com. They review every card out there and will align you to best card that matches your spend.

SW Chase and United Explorer are two good intro cards if you use those airlines. We got 120,000 and 60,000 bonus miles. We then got the no annual fee 30,000 miles United card, and then got the United Quest card for the 70,000 miles and the $125 flight credit. Comes out to an annual $125 but we will likely close the card before 12 months before it hits again.

We've churned like 400,000 miles from paying our rent w a CC over the last 10 months. Which is like $4,500 in value at .014c for SW and .01 for United.

It works great for us because we then have the option to fly SW from Denver or United from ASE/EGE. It also lets us compare the miles between airlines. We booked next day flights on United to Cancun for 19,800 miles on United. It would've been 31,000 miles each on SW. The purchase price was something like $553 so even after excluding tax, those miles were earning almost .03c each which is 3x their "value"

We're flying to Kauai in March and that flight was 42,000 miles RT on United, but we found it for 22,000 miles on SW during their last sale. That tickets usually about $650 so after tax it we cashed in at .03c which is 2x the value of SW miles.

So, having the ability to pick between airlines can be beneficial when you have enough miles. We typically don't use miles unless we're getting 2-3x leverage on them.

Chase Freedom Flex gives you 1% back on every luchase and an extra 4% off gas for the first 12 months and then 4% off a rotating category (1% normal + 4% rotating category). Right now the rotating category is gas. So, that's 9% off gas through September. You also get $200 credit (20,000 miles) after spending $500. We use that card for gas and it also gives 3% back for dining credits which is better than the 2x bonus on SW or United.

I think that there are a couple of good threads from the travel forum that go through this is you search.

One practical aspect would be to have a card that waives foreign transaction fees if you are ever leaving the country for travel, even if you don't use it much the rest of the year. These cards usually will also cover TSA precheck fees (for one person) as they come due.

I have several travel cards (that's another story) but a great example of this is my BOA Premium Awards card. $100 annual fee but it comes with TSA, no foreign fees, a $100 annual airline credit that can be used to cover airfare (through gift cards) and a nice cash back rate (I get 3.5% for travel and dining, 2.6% for everything else but that is because I hold a lot of funds w BOA/ML, for others it will be less).

Always recommend Amex blue cash preferred.

6% back on groceries (up to $6,000 in purchases) and streaming (FuboTV, Spotify, etc.)

3% on gas and transit

Annual fee, $95 I think but we hit the max on groceries ($360 cash back) In half the year alone

Here's a referral link that gets you $200 sign up bonus on your first $3K spent!

https://americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/STEVEHBid2?XL=MNDCP

I don't think any single card offers more value to most people than the Capital One Venture X.

$395 annual fee, but if you get $300 travel credit for hotels and flights booked through their portal plus 10k points every year you can use to pay yourself back for other travel purchases. So if you spend at least $400 a year on travel, the card pays for itself.

It earns 2x points for everything, and 10x points on hotels and 5x on flights booked through the travel portal, which is usually the same price or cheaper than other online booking sites like hotels.com or expedia.

It also gives you priority pass for lounge access which you can share with people since the card allows free authorized users and each authorized user also gets priority pass. You also get access to Capital One Lounges but I think there is only one open right now (DFW)

$100 TSA pre check credit, Hertz Presidential club status (which Avis and National will status match) and since it is a visa infinite, it gives you primary car insurance for your rental plus other benefits like trip delay insurance.

I agree with permabull if you want a travel card. Potentially also look at the Chase Sapphire / Reserve. If you do get a travel card, get a card that will guaranteed pay the fee back via statement credits. If you're only traveling twice a year I wouldn't keep a card in my wallet just for travel perks. You're not traveling enough to deal with another card or to prioritize that over a good cash back card (Fidelity Visa, Discover Double Cash, etc.).

It really depends what airline/airport you travel the most. If you're in Houston then the United card is probably
your best bet since IAH is a United hub, and United has the most direct flights out of IAH. The same with DFW and American Airlines.

IMO, can't go wrong with the chase sapphire preferred since you can transfer Chase Ultimate reward points to a number of airlines and hotel programs.

+1

SWA out of HOU has some of the best mileage rates in the country, too.

United out of IAH or SWA out of HOU get amazing rates.

Not sure what airlines have hubs at DFW. I know SWA flies hella outta Love.

Wow, lots of good replies, thanks all!
I will go over them all today.

Echoing the above comment about ThePointsGuy website. The "best credit cards of August 2023" section will probably be most helpful. A "travel card" may not be the best choice if you're only traveling 2x a year. That said, we don't travel a ton, but keep an American Airlines card since we're in DFW and slowly accumulate miles. Downside...miles (and hotel points) seem to get devalued all the time, so it's not great for trying to plan some dream trip far in the future. But, if you get a nice 50k or 100k point sign-up bonus, that can have a lot of value.

A good cash-back card could also be nice. Fidelity and some others do unlimited 2% cash back with no annual fee. Some of the ones mentioned above are very good, if the bonus spending categories match your typical spending.

If you do decide to do a travel card, or anything with a sign-up bonus, I'd check ThePointsGuy or other sites to see what the sign-up bonuses have been in the past or if they have any referral codes. There are promos all the time so sometimes its better to wait for a better sign up bonus offer.

I love my Chase Sapphire Preferred. It paid off big time when we got into an accident with a rental car and the card's insurance paid it off for me.

https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/best/

Ags2013 said:

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I love my Chase Sapphire Preferred. It paid off big time when we got into an accident with a rental car and the card's insurance paid it off for me.

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Chase Sapphire cards are primary rental car insurance. So they pay off before your normal auto insurance. Luckily, I've never used that "feature".

Need a little help just making sure I am not misunderstanding something with this Marriott Bonvoy Card offer.
https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/marriottbonvoydual/aep/LTO?CELL=670L&SPID=HCYL&alt_cust_id=&cookie_id=71584129095591538651685756486926169842&mcd=CCOFFER-US-CH-FOCBOT-0513-ACQ_FNA_5-670L-HCYL&rpcCode=0513

Planning a trip to Chicago later this summer, and seems pretty straightforward to save some money by getting the 5 free nights for the $95 fee. Seems like the cap is at 50,000 points per night, which Chicago has several.

Am I missing any gotcha's with this offer? Been a while since I played the travel credit card game.

I would check the hotels on the dates you are interested in. Marriott has dynamic pricing so a hotel could be 50,000 points in the dead of winter when demand is low and be 54,000 in summer meaning you couldn't book it because it was above 50K.

Thanks, will do!

Ags2013 said:

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I love my Chase Sapphire Preferred. It paid off big time when we got into an accident with a rental car and the card's insurance paid it off for me.

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I have the Reserve but travel A lot for work and personally around 6 to 8 weeks a year. The annual fee is negligible when you factor in the benefits. The 50% bump on points is a big plus. Basically paid for my trip to Samui in May for 3 weeks and most my Palawan trip in October. Customer service has been top notch.

Agreed on above, don't get a travel card if you only take one or two trips a year. See where you spend most your money and focus on that.

Captain Winky said:

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I would check the hotels on the dates you are interested in. Marriott has dynamic pricing so a hotel could be 50,000 points in the dead of winter when demand is low and be 54,000 in summer meaning you couldn't book it because it was above 50K.

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Just to add to this point, If you're booking a room that is points-wise more expensive than the FNA amount, you can elect to pay the difference.

In 2 weeks we're going out to an event in California and used one of my 35k point FNAs as part of the reservation booking a 39k point room, the system pulled the extra 4000 points from my balance.

The boundless is one of my 2 go-to cards; the 1elite night per $5k spend is one of the best perks for maintaining my status without having to log like 70 nights in hotels.