Mar 13, 2017, 3:34 pm
Last edit by: beltway
The official Chase description:
What counts as Travel?
Also, see THIS thread for additional locations.
Merchants in this category include airlines, hotels, motels, timeshares, car rental agencies, cruise lines, travel agencies, discount travel sites, campgrounds and operators of passenger trains, buses, taxis, limousines, ferries, toll bridges and highways, and parking lots and garages.
Some merchants that provide transportation and travel-related services are not included in this category; for example, real estate agents, educational merchants arranging travel, in-flight goods and services, on-board cruise line goods and services, sightseeing activities, excursions, tourist attractions, RV and boat rentals, merchants within hotels and airports, public campgrounds and merchants that rent vehicles for the purpose of hauling. Purchases from gift card merchants or merchants that sell points or miles will not qualify in the travel category.
Some merchants that provide transportation and travel-related services are not included in this category; for example, real estate agents, educational merchants arranging travel, in-flight goods and services, on-board cruise line goods and services, sightseeing activities, excursions, tourist attractions, RV and boat rentals, merchants within hotels and airports, public campgrounds and merchants that rent vehicles for the purpose of hauling. Purchases from gift card merchants or merchants that sell points or miles will not qualify in the travel category.
- Airline purchases, fees & gift cards
- AA e-gift certificate
- Delta eGift Cards
- UA in-flight bev
Hotels: - Marriott GC and hotel charges
- Airbnb & their GC
- hotels.com (NOT hotels.com e-gift cert!)
- Hotel restaurants not charged to room (verified at Renaissance LV)
- Priceline "opaque" hotel purchases
- Kruger National Park lodging reservation (booked on sanparks.org official site)
Transit, including parking, trains, ferries, toll roads, etc: - Taxi fares: Uber, Lyft, Gett, Way2Ride, London taxi, Fasten (Austin)
- Transit fees: BART, MTA, FastTrak, Clipper Card (Bay Area), MetroCard, DC Metro (WMATA) SmarTrip farecard and commemorative cards, NJ Transit, Oyster card, Ventra (Chicago), Las Vegas Monorail, Brussels (STIB/MIVB), Incheon Airport Bus tickets, Orca King county(Seattle area), Suica/PASMO (Tokyo IC transit card - Apple pay top up)
- Parking meters: Atlanta; Chicago; Portland, OR; San Francisco; Atlantic City; Seattle, (Los Angeles but NOT Santa Monica)
- Public parking garages: San Francisco; Montgomery Co. MD
- Toll passes: E-Z Pass (MA, MD, NH, NJ, NY, PA), Sunpass prepaid tolls, Washington State GoodToGo tolls, RiverLink tolls, TxTag, IPass (Illinois)
- Train tickets: trainline (UK train tickets), Eurostar.com, Bahn.com (when using Paypal), Amtrak, italirail.com, Train and bus travel in Scotland at ticket counter.
- Amtrak dining car purchases (YMMV, recent reports are below):
- Pacific Surfliner, November 2016 (tmiw): yes, counted as travel with CSR.
Pacific Surfliner, December 2018 (tmiw): did NOT count as travel (no travel credit), but did count as dining for 3x. - San Joaquin, December 2015 (serpens): counted as 3x on CSR, unknown if counted as travel.
- unknown train/date (StanJazz): counted as dining on Freedom and CSP.
- Pacific Surfliner, November 2016 (tmiw): yes, counted as travel with CSR.
- Ferries: Cape May, NJ to Lewes, DE and NYWaterway (Belford-Pier 11)
- Shuttles: Jackson Hole WY Airport official shuttle to town
- Unlimted JR Pass for Japan purchased from japan-rail-pass.com
Misc: - MileagePlusX Uber GC [NB MPX eBay did NOT count, so it appears to be only actual travel related items on MPX]
- Royal Caribbean drink package
- Cruise bookings
- Cruise Excursions Booked Prior to Cruise (and fully refundable)
- MIR Travel Agency
- undercovertourist.com
- Rental cars (verified Avis on page 7 of this thread, Hertz)
- Car Share (Car2Go) (ReachNow)
- Lahaina Cruise Co. (Hawaii Ocean Project whale watch cruise)
- Interval International Exchange Fee + Upgrade Fee
- Aircraft title transfer registration fees with ICAO's International Registry of Mobile Assets (Cape Town Convention and Aircraft Protocol)
- Viator/TripAdvisor
- Recreation.gov fees for reserving federal park campsites do not count as "travel"
- Point.me award search site starter pass
Also, see THIS thread for additional locations.
What counts as travel? [Sapphire, INK, Consolidated]
Mar 31, 2014, 9:47 pm
#62
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: NYC
Programs: AS MVP Gold, BA Silver, AA Gold, Marriott Titanium, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 1,619
I called CSP CS last week to ask about travel insurance (and specifically asked about that offered by Travel Guard). The agent insisted that there was no way to know in advance of the purchase whether the purchase would qualify for double points. She opened an "inquiry", but Chase CSP has not yet called back.
Another thread had links to a Visa lookup function to help determine how the vendor was categorized. Those links appear to now be invalid.
Does anyone have any suggestions of how one could determine the likelihood of a travel insurance vendor qualifying for the travel bonus? TIA!
Another thread had links to a Visa lookup function to help determine how the vendor was categorized. Those links appear to now be invalid.
Does anyone have any suggestions of how one could determine the likelihood of a travel insurance vendor qualifying for the travel bonus? TIA!
Sep 20, 2015, 8:08 pm
#63
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Seattle
Posts: 75
Oct 15, 2015, 4:45 pm
#68
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AA EXP, IHG Diamond, IC Amb
Posts: 5,510
Does paying through Paypal get travel bonuses?
Tried booking a $3,200 airline ticket through ba.com. I tried three different CCs and it wasn't taking any of them (NO reason why they shouldn't have).
Frustrated, I finally just used my CSP, but through Paypal on their site.
Will I get the 2x travel bonus or will it just show up as Paypal and I would only get the regular points?
On my Chase account it shows the pending charge as "B A Internet Sales".
Frustrated, I finally just used my CSP, but through Paypal on their site.
Will I get the 2x travel bonus or will it just show up as Paypal and I would only get the regular points?
On my Chase account it shows the pending charge as "B A Internet Sales".
Last edited by 355F1; Oct 15, 2015 at 5:17 pm
Oct 16, 2015, 4:06 pm
#69
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: SMF
Posts: 1,251
Tried booking a $3,200 airline ticket through ba.com. I tried three different CCs and it wasn't taking any of them (NO reason why they shouldn't have).
Frustrated, I finally just used my CSP, but through Paypal on their site.
Will I get the 2x travel bonus or will it just show up as Paypal and I would only get the regular points?
On my Chase account it shows the pending charge as "B A Internet Sales".
Frustrated, I finally just used my CSP, but through Paypal on their site.
Will I get the 2x travel bonus or will it just show up as Paypal and I would only get the regular points?
On my Chase account it shows the pending charge as "B A Internet Sales".
Oct 19, 2015, 1:37 pm
#70
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 283
I have no experience with respect to ba.com, but when I paid my wedding caterer through Paypal, Chase read the payment as "restaurant-related" and gave me a bonus. Assuming the merchant has set up the right category (and we can guess ba.com is pretty on top of this), it should pass through correctly.
Apr 6, 2016, 12:49 pm
#72
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 2
Groupon Getaways Code as Travel
I recently purchased a Groupon hotel stay. It was booked directly through Groupon for specific dates, but was not a market rate hotel. I put it on CSP with low expectations, but it coded as travel and 2x points. Together with UR portal I got a total of 6x, not bad for a steeply discounted booking. YMMV, but Chase seems to see Getaways as travel.
Figured I'd post this here, as I searched high and low and basically found nothing.
Figured I'd post this here, as I searched high and low and basically found nothing.
May 10, 2016, 5:09 am
#75
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 23
Which travel booking sites qualify for 2x points on CSP?
Hi all,
A bit late to the churning/points game, but I'm determined to make up for all the lost time.
I'm planning for couple of trips this year, and I always use ebates/fatwallet + cash back card for all my purchase thus far.
I'm guessing the best way to book travel for maximum points CURRENTLY is using ebates/fatwallet/etc site to book flight/hotel/car rental of your choice (if applicable) with CSP card + accruing loyalty program points (if applicable).
The question I have is which popular travel agency sites like expedia, priceline, orbitz, hotwire, hotels, etc. is currently coded for VISA as travel category for CSP to earn 2x points instead of 1x?
I've searched around and I believe priceline is coded as 1x. Expedia and Hotwire supposedly give 2x, but the posted information is a bit outdated (2015).
I'd appreciate any inputs and info.
Cheers.
A bit late to the churning/points game, but I'm determined to make up for all the lost time.
I'm planning for couple of trips this year, and I always use ebates/fatwallet + cash back card for all my purchase thus far.
I'm guessing the best way to book travel for maximum points CURRENTLY is using ebates/fatwallet/etc site to book flight/hotel/car rental of your choice (if applicable) with CSP card + accruing loyalty program points (if applicable).
The question I have is which popular travel agency sites like expedia, priceline, orbitz, hotwire, hotels, etc. is currently coded for VISA as travel category for CSP to earn 2x points instead of 1x?
I've searched around and I believe priceline is coded as 1x. Expedia and Hotwire supposedly give 2x, but the posted information is a bit outdated (2015).
I'd appreciate any inputs and info.
Cheers.