Originally Posted by
SpaethCo
$200 in Travel Bank credit is not the same as $200 in cash for use with UA. It’s pretty liberal, but there are still more restrictions with how Travel Bank funds can be used compared to straight cash paid to UA.
Just to complete this thought exercise: If you dropped the Platinum card, would you still put $200 in the UA travel bank every year?
It comes with restrictions, but for many frequent UA flyers they are are not a huge concern. The biggest one for me might be that if I buy a ticket with TravelBank cash, I don’t get credit card travel insurance protection. I have the same “problem” when I buy AS companion pass tickets (requires use of AS wallet credit or AS credit card).
So how much value should I subtract from the $200 to accurately account for it? Frankly it’s not worth the time to think about it (I have never used credit card travel insurance).
And no, I would generally (*) not funnel money through the travel bank to buy $200 of airfare if I didn’t have the Plat credit. It would be an unnecessary step. But I would still spend $200 on airfare.
(*) One exception might be if I was working on a SUB and needed to create some spend by prepaying for future services.