Credit Card Thread - Now with a Beginner's Guide to free travel/FAQ

What business income?

 

I have a Hyatt and southwest chase card.

I want to have som diversity on points as soemtimes southwest and Hyatt aren’t the best in locations.

what do yall suggest? Chase sapphire?

 

I don't think you can go wrong with a Sapphire. Pretty diverse portfolio of transfer partners.

 

I second Chase Sapphire. It would depend on how much and how you plan to us it whether to go with the Preferred ($95 annual fee) or the Reserve ($550 annual fee)
Earn 60,000 bonus points with either Chase Sapphire card. I can be rewarded if you apply here and are approved for the card.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19l/NFBTN8P58E

 

Thanks. My only issue is I don’t travel much so not sure I’ll rack up all the extra miles. Most my stuff is spend in groceries and bills

 

Same here. That's why I've always had the Preferred for my everyday spend.

 

Nm, I should’ve google first.

 

So do I need a business to do the chase ink card?

 

Assuming the chase Safire reserve is only worth it if you travel a bunch to get the pre check and stuff

 

What if I posted one YouTube fishing video

 

I don’t travel that much and easily spend the $300 travel credit (can be used on several different things). Priority pass at PDX also saves me between $30-60 per trip.

Add on $120 Instacart membership, $120 Instacart credit, $120 door dash membership, $60 door dash credit, and the other fringe benefits and it is an easy keep for me.

 

I’d say the Reserve is only good for travelers. The preferred is $450 cheaper with the same sign up bonus. Simply without all the travel benefits.

If you want some travel perks and would travel one time a year, look at the capital one venture x. I’ve had it for a couple years and you can easily get your money back if you travel once a year. Plus it has a higher sign up bonus than either sapphire cards.

 

id say this is accurate if you don't travel literally at all, but if you k ow you're good for even one 2-3 day trip a year, you're gonna get the $300 travel credit and then they're close to the same price and the CSR has the higher earnings rate

 

Is the earnings rate that much higher? Off the top of my head CSR is 50% higher (3x to 2x) for dining and travel. However, venture x is 2x on every purchase. I think the rest is the same?

 

The only thing keeping me loyal to the Sapphire is Hyatt. If Venture X added Hyatt as a partner, I would probably jump ship.

 

Venture X
Chase Hyatt
Chase preferred
Chase freedom

Those are most of my cards. Allows me to get travel benefits with venture x and still earn enough for Hyatt. Made it into the Denver capital one lounge today. Think I like it more than the DFW locale. Bar was definitely better.

 

Random question but if I have virtually all the cards and all the ecosystems and I'd rather have rewards points vs hotel specific points, what's the best method for booking a Marriott hotel? UR travel portal and CSR? Amex travel and Platinum?

 

Just my experience of course, but depends on the property. The higher up you go in class of hotel the better overall value becomes on Amex if it’s part of fine hotels and resorts, etc. But points value better on UR almost every time.

 

That makes sense. This one is a KC Marriott so not a fancy place

 

connecting through DFW this Friday - was it packed when you went? That's the one thing I'm concerned about since I land at DFW around 6:00 pm

 

I was there from about 12PM-3PM on Tuesday. Pretty full when I got there and apparently reached capacity while I was inside.

Denver had plenty of seating at 1030AM on Sunday.

I would imagine 6PM on Friday would be pretty open in DFW. I think midday tends to be packed in these large hubs as many people are connecting at that time.

 

For my fellow renters, has anyone ever looked into something like this?

https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/paying-rent-credit-card/

I hate that rent is such a large % of my monthly expenses and is the only thing I can’t get rewards on.

 

Have a friend that I turned on to points who does this. It's legit. The one issue she had to address is that it that even though she had it set to automatically send on the 1st of the month, the landlord said he wouldn't get it until mid-month. So she just made the payment day earlier.

They don't do sign-on bonuses, but they have some cool transfer bonuses and have multipliers on the 1st of the month.

If you're interested I'll see if she has a referral link.

 

Canceled my rapid rewards cards a few days ago, targeting around a week after to apply for the double dip (personal/business) to get the companion pass churn. Anyone think I should wait to apply a bit longer?

 

Anyone have a Venture X referral?

 

I need to buy some plane tickets to Colombia soon, was hoping someone had suggestions on airline transfers. My bff has Chase points and I'm more in the Amex ecosystem now, just a Gold though. Which is the best value presently?

 

https://capital.one/3LZmSyl

 

https://i.capitalone.com/Jfd3C4XXG

 

Here's her referral link if you decide to get it. I don't think there is any elevated sign up bonus.

https://bilt.page/r/WCJ8-4J0J

 

Thanks, I’ll use it if I sign up. My complex accepts cards so I just have to be sure Bilt refunds the processing fee.

 

I got the IHG bonus when it was 175k. Today I booked 4 nights at the Intercontinental Bucharest and 4 nights at the Intercontinental Budapest using that bonus. $1,550 cash value. Feels like good value considering they’re IHG points.

 

Thanks

 

That’s a nice Eastern Europe trip.

 

currently have an Amex Gold (restaurants/groceries) and a VenutreX (travel/everything else). Is there any reason not to get a Chase card with a welcome bonus to get into their point ecosystem? I use all the benefits of my two cards, so I'm essentially paying $0 for them.

 

Venture X seems like a no brainer card. $300 travel credit/$395 fee. 75k points? And it looks like the redemption is 1c a pt?

Does that 75k ever get higher?

 

Yeah and 10k bonus points per year, so it pays for itself. I use it for every non food purchase.

never seen it get over 75k, though. https://i.capitalone.com/JuZMTwESf

 

It's my main card. It opened up at 100k, but haven't seen that come back.

 

Companion passes are the best redemption/AF value out there. I wish I flew more domestically w/ 2 ppl and made sense to get the Reserve

 

also they're ramping up the capital one venturex lounges, just had the chance to hang at the dfw one and it was awesome. They just opened one up in Denver in Q4 2023

 

It was at 90,000 a few months ago. The 100,000 when it was first released is the biggest SUB.

 

Maybe this is old news, but the Delta Amex cards just got an overhaul. Quick summary for the Delta Platinum:

- Annual fee increasing from $250 to $350 on May 1
-Companion ticket redemption options expanded to include Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico, Caribbean, and Central America
- $2,500 MQD boost annually (plus 1 MQD per $20 spend)
- $10/month rideshare credit
-$10/month Resy credit
-$150/year Delta Stays Credit
-Hertz Five Star Status
-Cardholders added to upgrade list (lowest tier)

Will be interested to see how easy it is to get those new companion ticket routes. That alone more than covers the annual fee increase if it isn't impossible to get those fare classes.

 

My wife and I have each always had this card solely for domestic companion certs, so the raise in price sucks, but still cheaper than a ticket so we'll keep both im sure

 

yeah i was thinking about dropping (or at least angling for a retention credit), but the expanded companion tickets may be a game changer.