Just as the title says - Ameribros what have you found to be the best travel card to apply for? 100$ yearly fee or less only because i am not really a huge spender in my day to day life. Looking at the Chase Sapphire because of the current 750$ sign up bonus, but I don't know if its worth it. Currently have a bank of america travel card but its kinda shit and i dont feel like I get many benefits from it after 4 years of having it.
>>2738156There is a thread about this in the catalog.The real answer is depends, unless you're going to use that card for literally everything often the fees, lack of good exchange rates, and where/how you can actually redeem points throws off a lot of things. Even though I have a pretty good rewards card, the times I want to use it I am paying 1.5-2x that of just looking 5 minutes on airbnb/booking/agoda for a better deal. Seriously the best things points are for these days is keeping a status or the "oh shit" moment where I didn't buy bags or just need a flight ASAP and want to knock off some fees.Another problem is often the recurring payments and big things that would get you $$$ often charge a mark up for using a CC like rent/utilities/etc.>i am not really a huge spender in my day to day lifePoints are generally good only to keep for status level in certain things not to use for freebees. Points lost an insane amount of value post covid.They are viable if you don't mind putting everything on them or just want to bullshit points to a budget flight, but realistically not worth it if you don't spend a great deal of cash and not willing to use that card for every single purpose paying it off at the end of each month.
That's sort of what I thought, too. At one point I did the math on the fees and was like, I don't spend enough every month to make the 95$ per year worthwhile. The BoA card is ok, I have been able to redeem the points to basically pay for 2 flights since I got the card in Jan 2020, but it doesn't really make me much on points. My own research hasn't really given me any reason to make a switch, but I wanted to ask around here in case someone had an unusual take on the whole thing.
I got an offer for a Chase Sapphire card earlier this year for 90k points, was nice because I was about to drop $6k on siding anyways so I could easily make the spend target. I now have 3 cards, 150k points and it seems like that's maybe enough for one round trip to Japan next year, assuming points don't get devalued. Once I've spent all my points I plan to reevaluate my cards and decide if I want to stay with Chase or look elsewhere. This is my first time having a travel card with a yearly fee, so I've been doing my best to do my homework.
>>2738458Are you trying to fly coach or business?
>>2738464I'd obviously prefer business, but from initial research, flying business seems to take about twice the points I currently have...
>>2738465If there is award space, 150k should be enough. Especially if you can get a transfer bonus. What airport are you trying to fly out of and roughly when?
>>2738466Kansas City International airport, and probably sometimes in fall or winter next year. I haven't really decided on anything exact beyond that. Might try to check out a festival in Okayama, but I haven't done that research yet. I'll do some digging when I get closer, probably next summer or spring, then I'll make a list of events that I'd "kind of like" to visit, then I'll get sweaty with minmaxing points to decide which one will be cheapest to travel around.
>>2738467That far out all the immediate J fares will be taken Your best bet will be to get close in or set alerts on Expert Flyer and hope something opens up. Good chance you'll need to reposition to another airport.
>>2738470That's certainly a possibility. I know that flying in the states isn't too nightmarishly expensive so I am more than willing to start from another airport. I figure I'll start from LA or Chicago. When I traveled to Japan earlier this year I went from KC to SF, then to Osaka, then on the way back I went from Tokyo to Chicago to KC.
>>2738471You can do United non stop from ORD to HND via Aeroplan for 75k + $78CAD if space opens up. Aeroplan constantly runs specials to buy miles and transfer bonuses. Only flag is to make an account now and transfer a few UR over. Sometimes on the first transfer Chase can take a few business days to process.
>>2738474I do need to check out Aeroplan. I had heard of it but literally everyone that ever mentioned it talked about the fees in CAD so I had convinced myself that it was restricted to Canadians because they use monopoly money.
>>2738478I book more flights through Aeroplan than any other program. You just have your fees converted to USD when you charge, which is ~30% less since the Canadian dollar is shit right now.
I hear AmEx is pretty solid when it comes to getting hotel upgrades.
>>2738522Do you mean just having an AMEX or are you referring to Fine Hotels and Resorts/Hotel Collection?
Wow thank you for all the replies everyone. I think I'm a little unclear though, you use your points to buy the tickets and book the hotel rooms? I only ever used my to like pay off the balance from booking. Like i book a $1000 plane ticket and then I just clear it off the balance with the points. >>2738478I also looked into this. Some of the prices are insanely good, but wtf is with the layover times?? It's not worth the savings to arrive 3 days late because you waited at YYZ for 20 hours and then again in Korea for another 6. I feel like flying in general has taken a nosedive since covid. What used to be like 10 hour flight destinations with maybe one 2-4 hour layover now look abysmal in terms of stops and layover times. Am I looking in the wrong places for flights or something?
>>2738558So basically you use the point transfer function to, well, transfer your points. I don't know about other card issuers, but when you transfer points from a Sapphire card, you actually get a 1.25x or 1.5x multiplier, so that's extra points. Sometimes there are no rooms available for points, or it's actually cheaper to get a room or ticket with your card and then use the points to pay it off, but most of the time you are getting a good deal. If you want to get real sweaty, there's a term called "cents per point" where people try to max out the amount of value they're getting. Most points are supposed to be worth 1 cent, since your 1-5% cash back translates to that, and you can generally cash your points for one cent each. But when you start transferring your points and using them for some stuff like business class flights or hotel stays, you can get like 4 cents worth of value out of every point. But of course, if you start spending 700k points on a first class flight to the next airport over because you're getting 8 cents per point out of it or something(I don't know how much a first class flight costs in dollars or points) then I think you're a retard because that's worth a few business class flights to anywhere in the world.
>>2738563This is incorrect. Booking through the Chase portal is not transferring to partners, it's booking through an OTA. That can sometimes work out but you're through an OTA so if you have any issues you are at the bottom of the to be helped list an you have to go through Chase, not the airline or the hotel. The best bet is typically transferring points to a partner and booking directly through them. For Chase that's multiple airline alliances for flights and for hotels the only one worth it is Hyatt.
>>2738632Oh, I wasn't talking about the Chase portal. I've heard that 90% of the time you're overpaying on there.
>>2738160>lack of good exchange ratesWhen do cards get bad exchange rates? I always thought banks and credit cards usually had the best rates since they do the most volume. This is assuming the card doesn't have foreign exchange fees
>>2738831yea idk what hes saying it has good exchange rates since thats done through visa which is basically the best possible exchange rate you can get
>>2738831Depends on the cardI've had the yen at 150 but my card only gets 138, and then if you look at the fees there is a small 1% conversion fee banks do. My bank with wells fargo or chase before was shit, chime is the closes I can get without going back to schwab
>>2738156Hey wagie check the catalog and shut up
