Best Travel Card
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Anonymous
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We have 3 cards we pay for
- Delta skymiles Gold (Son) - Got it for the promotional miles. Kid uses Delta Airlines for travel to and from college and free miles paid for almost a year of travel. Free checked bag and free upgrades as well. - Capital One venture (2 parents) - Got it for the promotional points and refund of global entry fees. - Chase Sapphire Preferred (Son) - Got it for the promotional points. We don't travel a lot (maybe a couple of times a year) but would like to not have to pay forex fees (all 3 cards), travel insurance (Chase seems better than C1) or rental car insurance (Chase and Cap One). C1 does not seem to have good airline exchange partners nor deals on transfer points but chase seems to, once in a while (just got the bonus points; no actual experience using it). Looking for thoughts on consolidating to one of the three (open to other recommendations as well). Our priorities are: - Best deals on airline tickets through transfer points - Best Travel Insurance coverage - Best purchase protection - Rental car insurance protection - Lounge access if it would cover 4 people for free (Not a high priority). |
Anonymous
| You're right, Chase has the best transfer partners including United and Southwest. Capital One only has foreign airlines as transfer partners but the Venture X card gives lounge access for you and 2 guests I believe. I would forget the Delta Card unless you are a very frequent Delta flyer. |
Anonymous
Did some more research after I posted the question.. VentureX is not worth it for us. Lounge access is not a high priority and the extra cost is not worth it. They also charge $75 for additional Authorized users, so no.. - DS will downgrade Amex to a free card at the end of this cycle. He'll keep the Chase card and add one of the parents as authorized user to cover purchases, car rentals and travel bookings. - Cap1 cards - will be downgraded to a free card at the end of the current cycle. I've seen issues with folks not getting points transferred to a free card so may need to use up points before that. |
Anonymous
I don't think there is a $75 fee for an auth user on Cap One Venture X... |
Anonymous
Confirmed. There is no fee for additional users. https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/capital-one-venture-x-authorized-user-benefits/ |
Anonymous
| Chase Sapphire preferred |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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If you want just one card, Sapphire Preferred is best option, balances all the things you are looking for the best. You can maximize points by also getting the Freedom Unlimited, which is no annual fee, and earns 1.5x on everything, and you can roll those points into your Sapphire Preferred points pool. Nice combo to maximize spending benefits without too much complication.
For lounge access especially in the DC area, I would go with Venture X. For now the lounges are excellent (will eventually become less usable/good as lines increase and the food is cut back to trim costs). The card pays for itself if you can easily utilize the $300 travel credit every year, plus the 10k annual points. But using the travel credit takes a bit of work (have to book through their portal, which isn't great), so understood if you don't want to add complexity and manage another card. |
Anonymous
$75 fee for authorized users. |
Anonymous
$75 for authorized users |
Anonymous
No you are thinking of the Sapphire Reserve. Authorized users are free on Preferred. |