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 11, 2017, 10:16 am
#181
Join Date: Nov 2016
Programs: Amtrak,United, Hilton
Posts: 15
On an Amtrak Dining Car on a long distance train purchases earned 2X for dining on the CSP card and earned 5X on the Freedom card in the dining 5X quarter. I have not been on a Amtrak train since I got the CSR card.
Mar 12, 2017, 12:13 am
#182
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: GE, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 15,507
Mar 13, 2017, 1:33 pm
#183
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,956
Mar 13, 2017, 3:35 pm
#184
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: GE, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 15,507
Mar 22, 2017, 6:41 pm
#186
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: San Jose, CA
Programs: WOH Explorist, MGM Gold, IHG PlatElite
Posts: 37
Does anybody know if Costco Travel codes as travel for the CSP or CSR? Specifically booking a cruise through Costco? Been looking around but haven't found a definite answer.
Apr 9, 2017, 2:42 pm
#188
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: UA Platinum, Starwood Platinum
Posts: 89
I'm curious as to how this played out... I'm looking at buying out my lease and am hoping I can get my dealer to let me put it on a card. Whether or not this would get coded as "Travel" will dictate if I put it on my Sapphire Reserve (for 3x points) or on my Freedom (for 1.5x points). Does anyone have any insight as to whether charges at car dealerships count as "travel"?
Apr 9, 2017, 2:45 pm
#189
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Traveling some where hopefully
Programs: AS, AA Gold, and Hilton
Posts: 1,954
I'm curious as to how this played out... I'm looking at buying out my lease and am hoping I can get my dealer to let me put it on a card. Whether or not this would get coded as "Travel" will dictate if I put it on my Sapphire Reserve (for 3x points) or on my Freedom (for 1.5x points). Does anyone have any insight as to whether charges at car dealerships count as "travel"?
Apr 10, 2017, 10:41 am
#190
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: UA Platinum, Starwood Platinum
Posts: 89
Clearly not a "travel agent" - I was thinking it would be more along the lines of something like Jiffy Lube... which now that I've gone and checked how my last oil change (that I did put on my Sapphire card) was classified , it only earned 1x points.... and there is the answer. Sometimes it requires thinking out loud!
Apr 10, 2017, 7:03 pm
#191
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: SAN
Programs: AA Platinum, Bonvoy Gold, DL Gold
Posts: 1,200
I made a few edits. Parking meters in Los Angeles count but not Santa Monica (SM codes as Gov't Services). Car2Go (car share) counts as travel. LAX Airport parking (short-term adjacent to terminals) counts.
Apr 11, 2017, 6:46 pm
#193
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: DC Suburbs
Programs: DL Gold, Hilton Gold, Carnival VIFP Gold, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 459
I'm curious as to how this played out... I'm looking at buying out my lease and am hoping I can get my dealer to let me put it on a card. Whether or not this would get coded as "Travel" will dictate if I put it on my Sapphire Reserve (for 3x points) or on my Freedom (for 1.5x points). Does anyone have any insight as to whether charges at car dealerships count as "travel"?
Apr 13, 2017, 8:09 am
#195
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
I know that Disney tickets code as entertainment. I don't know about other amusement parks, but I suspect they would code the same.
If you're thinking about disney tickets, the best way to buy them is at a disney hotel charging it to your room. Everything charged to your room counts as travel.
If you're thinking about disney tickets, the best way to buy them is at a disney hotel charging it to your room. Everything charged to your room counts as travel.