Best credit card for travel

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  • Seroma
    Member
    • Jan 2016
    • 16

    Best credit card for travel

    I would like to know which credit cards for travel do you guys have?

    Capital one venture and Chase sapphire preferred seem to be the better ones but have an annual fee.

    What do you use or think it's best?
  • s2km
    Member
    • Jan 2016
    • 43

    #2
    I have the barclays arrival plus master card.  Equivalent of $400 sign up bonus after spending $3k, no foreign transaction fees.  You redeem the "miles" for statement credit, and you get 5% of the miles back, so it ends up being 2.1% rewards.  Does have annual fee, but waived first year and I spend more than enough on it to make up for it.

    Another one I hear is great for travel is the amex platinum card - few friends have it and they have gotten complimentary upgrades for flying/hotels without asking, lots of travel perks, credit for global entry.  It does have a high annual fee though.

    nerdwallet has a list of their best travel cards updated for 2016.

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    • Jenn
      Member
      • Jan 2016
      • 188

      #3
      I use AMX Delta since Delta is our local airline and the fee plus our spending gets me a free flight or two yearly. Worked fine in India and Europe.

      Comment

      • Sajimone
        Member
        • Jan 2016
        • 103

        #4
        I have Amex platinum card... Best card with the following perks...

        free tsa precheck $80 value

        free access to delta sky lounge priceless but $50 value unlimited drinks and snacks plus nice views each time

        free to centurion lounge and premier lounges

        $200 credit to any airline which can be used for anything from drinks eats or flights

        100,000 points if spending 10k in 3 months which is about four flight tickets

        booked a last minute car rental for about $100 less than the going rate online on Hotwire.. Great travel service

        Annual fee $450

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        • asmallchild
          Member
          • Jan 2016
          • 58

          #5




          I would like to know which credit cards for travel do you guys have?

          Capital one venture and Chase sapphire preferred seem to be the better ones but have an annual fee.

          What do you use or think it’s best?
          Click to expand...


          You can play the game by following any number of travel hacking websites. One I've used before is thepointsguy.com

          In the end, it was just too much work and too much hassle for me. And I didn't end up getting what I was looking for out of the game (easily attainable 1st class travel)

          While not as efficient, I've just simply resorted to using the Amex Fidelity and Citi Double Cash cards to get 2% cashback. (I also have a 5% cash back card thru Amazon as I do a lot of shopping with them)

          In the end, I just found it was easier to work another week in clinic and pay for the 1st class seat myself

          Comment

          • lakelife
            Member
            • Jan 2016
            • 30

            #6
            It all depends on what your goal is. A lot of the previous posters have listed some really good options and you can see each one has somewhat of a different goal. These would be some good questions to ask yourself?

            Are you saving points for a big trip?

            Do you have an airline/hotel you prefer?

            Do you care about status?

            Do you want it to be simple or do you want more value?

            Domestic travel or international travel?

            Do you travel for work or vacation?

            Those questions will help a lot.

            -My wife and I have been planning a Europe trip. Since May I have accumulated 200K Ultimate Rewards points by opening up Chase Freedom(20k sign up), Sapphire Preferred(45K sign up), and Ink Bold(60K sign up). I knew that we would get pretty good value transferring those points to there 1:1 partners for our trip. I will probably drop the Ink here shortly cause I dont want to fees.

            -We also just had my wife get the Southwest Premier(50K) and Southwest Business(50K) in December...first statement just posted with 113k points so we now have companion pass through 12/31/17. If your looking into domestic doing this is incredible assuming you live where southwest flies.

             

             

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            • RJ
              Member
              • Jan 2016
              • 124

              #7
              - SPG AMEX for hotel stays (I know about Marriott merger concerns, but its still the best hotel rewards program to date)

              - Citi American Airlines Executive visa for American Airlines and partner international travel

              - Southwest Chase Visa for domestic travel (now includes Mexico, Caribbean, Jamaica, etc.). Just took a trip to Cabo using points and companion pass. Less then $100 for 3 people. Awesome.

              Comment

              • Zaphod
                Physician
                • Jan 2016
                • 8740

                #8
                I knew I'd been slacking, but man I need to up my game. We have flown several times this year for free using our Chase Sapphire and another card that ultimately has a higher return for categories a bit, but I know since its been a while that we should think about churning. It really isnt that difficult a thing to do, maybe I'll put my wife on it. We have been lazy about linking our airline numbers and I still cant get UR to connect to my Southwest account to transfer.

                This flyer talk, points guy, and nerd wallet the best resources? Never been to flyer talk.

                Comment

                • Seroma
                  Member
                  • Jan 2016
                  • 16

                  #9
                  RJ pls explain me why do you like the citi executive VISA aa when it has an annual fee of 450?

                   

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                  • asmallchild
                    Member
                    • Jan 2016
                    • 58

                    #10




                    RJ pls explain me why do you like the citi executive VISA aa when it has an annual fee of 450?

                     
                    Click to expand...


                    I had this card for a while too. I'm sure RJ has his/her own reasons but here were mine:

                    1) Massive signup bonus = They were offering 75000 miles (and in some cases, 100000 miles) if you signed up for the card and spent 7500 within 3 months. I was in the midst of getting married and had to spend that kind of money anyway. Nice to get those miles to assist with honeymoon traveling. (75000 should be enough to get you anywhere in the world roundtrip on economy or anywhere in the world one way in business/first)

                    2) If you are an avid AA flyer or live in an AA hub (I'm not which is why I eventually canceled the card before the annual fee hit again), there are some perks: free checked bag (although plenty of cheaper cards offer this too)

                    3) 25% savings on in-flight purchases (which is a ripoff since I don't buy anything that expensive on the plane anyway)

                    4) priority check in (which sounds nice and theory but doesnt everyone use the kiosks anyway now?)

                    5) priority boarding (but still behind handicapped individuals, first class, AA executive platinum, AA platinum, and AA gold members)

                    6) 10000 elite qualifying miles if you spend more than 40000 per year on the card (this is to build status with AA if you are targeting becoming a gold/platinum/executive platinum member)

                    7) Admirals Club access (again, nice if you travel a lot and like the clubs. I find I barely have enough time to get through security before arriving to the gate)

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                    • RJ
                      Member
                      • Jan 2016
                      • 124

                      #11
                      Agree with above. There is another American Airlines Citi card that has fewer benefits and smaller annual fee.

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