Hi, the Capital One duo is looking like a much better deal than with the Chase trifecta, especially if you’re a CSR holder. With Chase reducing their benefits and trimming their bonus categories every year, I don’t see a point in keeping the Chase trifecta as your main source of points anymore. The Capital One duo + Bilt (if you rent), at least on paper, look amazing for travel points.
Wanted to know your opinion. Cheers!
Thanks for your comment. Sorry, but what is “SUB”?
I plan to travel once every year, mostly to farther destinations like Europe or Asia. I would like to be able to have enough points to purchase business class for most of my travels (since they will be long); I do not like the pricing of a lot of the bigger hotel chains like Hyatt and Marriott (especially because I don’t really do much in hotels anyway, although maybe having free meals would make it easier to consider). I would mostly be looking at AirBnbs/short-term rentals (if something like 2 weeks could be arranged), amongst others. Would you have a suggestion for a card that might fit my needs?
I started my life with Chase and have the Freedom Flex. The plan was to move up to unlimited and CSR, but the fees put me off and I’m considering aiming for the CSP as the easier option. Capital One is hard to get since they are so picky, and I’d have to change things around at work (deposit some cash at one bank, deposit the rest at the other to save transfer fees). I do not want to go the Amex route, especially for international travel.
Thanks, and apologies for the monologue!
SUB = sign up bonus.
Realistically, for international business class travel, unless you’re spending high-five-figures each year through a card (at minimum) you’ll likely need to supplement everyday earnings with one or two large sign-up bonuses each year. I haven’t dug into international business class redemptions personally as they’re often quite expensive and/or require a lot of flexibility and positioning (at least from my home airport, MSP) and so hopefully either someone else can provide more insight on that aspect as to which cards have the best transfer partners on that front.
That said, I don’t think you can go wrong by starting with a CSP + CFF setup, probably adding in the Unlimited for the 1.5x base earnings on unbonused spend. Cap1’s transfer partners are a bit more lucrative, but from my reading they also are more difficult to book/use (e.g. Turkish has cheap rates but for partner rewards may require calling in or emailing a bunch of ticketing offices - I’ve never done this but I’ve read about it on Flyertalk.) Chase has many decent ones, and most are relatively easy to use.
Thank you!
Could you mention the relevant feeds on Flyertalk that I should take note of? I’m new to the game, so to speak, only really found out about Flyertalk from the pastebin from the mods at r/Creditcards.
Thanks!