Originally Posted by
Eszpresszo
You got my interest! Now, the big question for me is, what is considered "travel"? For example, when I have purchased intercity bus tickets with the Chase Sapphire card in Brazil and did not get the usual double points for travel. Yet, at home I do get the double points on local commuter fare. In Thailand I got only single points on GRAB (ride share) but double points on BOLT, another ride share app, same as I would get on Uber.
My biggest expenses when traveling in South America is AirBnB and Uber. That's about 40% of my daily expense (lodging and transport). I use those two for lodging and transport 90% of the time in South America. In Southeast Asia, lodging was almost exclusively Booking.com and rideshare apps. So, you can imagine how their inclusion would be of paramount importance.
Anybody have experience with this card and can comment on any caveats? Thanks.
It's probably more restrictive than you would like. Courtesy of bankrate.com:
"What counts as travel for U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve?
"Purchases
directly from merchants that classify themselves as travel fall within this category, including airlines, hotels, car rentals, taxicabs, limousines, passenger trains and cruise line companies as travel. If you’re unsure if a purchase is considered travel, call U.S. Bank customer service."
(Emphasis added.)
Note, however, that
all mobile-wallet purchases count. So even if tapping your card for a subway ride in NYC would not get you triple points, paying for the ride with Apple Pay or Google Pay on your phone would.