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]
Oct 8, 2012, 8:40 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: DFW area
Programs: AA Gold, SWA Chase Business, Sapphire Preferred, Southwest RR
Posts: 28
What counts as travel? [Sapphire, INK, Consolidated]
Can somebody tell me or point me to info on what counts as travel on the Chase Sapphire card? For instance, I'm planning to buy Annual Passes to Disney World and I'm not sure if that will count.
Oct 8, 2012, 9:08 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,533
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
From the UR Terms and Conditions:
"You will earn an additional 1 point for each $1 of Net Purchases made at merchants that classify their merchant location for Visa/Mastercard in any of the following categories: dining establishments ..., airlines, airports, car rental agencies ..., cruise ships, hotels and motels, timeshares, local and commuter transportation ..., travel agencies." (Parenthetical explanations of categories omitted.)
From the UR Terms and Conditions:
"You will earn an additional 1 point for each $1 of Net Purchases made at merchants that classify their merchant location for Visa/Mastercard in any of the following categories: dining establishments ..., airlines, airports, car rental agencies ..., cruise ships, hotels and motels, timeshares, local and commuter transportation ..., travel agencies." (Parenthetical explanations of categories omitted.)
Oct 9, 2012, 4:37 am
#4
Join Date: Jan 2007
Programs: Many
Posts: 335
It is pretty broad, but I doubt that an amusement park is coded as "travel". You might just call Chase and ask specifically about Disney World. One of the very best things about Chase is that when you call a human being is on the line within seconds.
Oct 9, 2012, 11:25 am
#7
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador: World of Hyatt
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: NJ
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Fairmont Lifetime Plat, UA Silver, dirt elsewhere
Posts: 46,919
To be extra safe, since those annual passes are expensive, just charge them to your room.
Oct 9, 2012, 5:48 pm
#9
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: EWR Ionosphere Club, LAX Clipper Club, Still Traveling Global, yearly BIS miles
Programs: EAL Silver Wings, I-Club, Flying Colonels DL, WorldPass PLat from the olde Meatball and PE SMARTbank
Posts: 1,986
i have noticed that lots of foreign transactions that are restaurants and travel do not receive the bonus
what can be done about this?
what can be done about this?
Oct 9, 2012, 6:50 pm
#10
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: LAS
Programs: DL PM, UA PS, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 4,904
If the merchant name is very very obvious (has "Hotel" or "Restaurant" in the name), then I call in to Chase. I've gotten customer service points out of that.
Oct 9, 2012, 6:52 pm
#11
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: EWR Ionosphere Club, LAX Clipper Club, Still Traveling Global, yearly BIS miles
Programs: EAL Silver Wings, I-Club, Flying Colonels DL, WorldPass PLat from the olde Meatball and PE SMARTbank
Posts: 1,986
Oct 9, 2012, 9:04 pm
#12
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Austin, TX
Programs: National EE, Hyatt Discoverist, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 508
Feb 23, 2013, 6:57 am
#13
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Baltimore MD
Posts: 3,457
Is Homeaway/VRBO considered a travel category by Chase
Hey all:
looking to book a vacation rental house via Homeaway/VRBO and I have the option to use their site for payment via CC. Just curious if anyone has had an experience using a Chase Sapphire card via this site and if it triggers the travel bonus. if not then I'll use my SPG card
thanks
FDW
looking to book a vacation rental house via Homeaway/VRBO and I have the option to use their site for payment via CC. Just curious if anyone has had an experience using a Chase Sapphire card via this site and if it triggers the travel bonus. if not then I'll use my SPG card
thanks
FDW