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 21, 2013, 11:45 am
#16
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: RDU
Posts: 20
Getting bonus points for merchant coded as non-travel
I booked a vacation rental home with my Sapphire Preferred and just reviewed my statement -- no travel bonus points for that.
I rented the vacation home directly through the owner, who accepts credit cards, and the charge shows up as:
[HerName] Holdings LLC [HerPhoneNumber]
So I contacted Chase through the secure message center, explained that this is a vacation home, and asked for the travel bonus points.
They responded:
"I have reviewed and found that [OwnerName] Holdings LLC is listed as a Real Estate Agents And Manager Rentals and no not listed as a travel purchase. Due to this reason you have not received the bonus rewards. The rewards adjustment you requested cannot be made because the merchant is not in an eligible category."
Anything else I can try here? This was a huge purchase, and I would have used a different card if I knew I wouldn't get the 2x UR points.
I rented the vacation home directly through the owner, who accepts credit cards, and the charge shows up as:
[HerName] Holdings LLC [HerPhoneNumber]
So I contacted Chase through the secure message center, explained that this is a vacation home, and asked for the travel bonus points.
They responded:
"I have reviewed and found that [OwnerName] Holdings LLC is listed as a Real Estate Agents And Manager Rentals and no not listed as a travel purchase. Due to this reason you have not received the bonus rewards. The rewards adjustment you requested cannot be made because the merchant is not in an eligible category."
Anything else I can try here? This was a huge purchase, and I would have used a different card if I knew I wouldn't get the 2x UR points.
Mar 23, 2013, 3:31 pm
#17
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: BOS
Programs: Chase Ultimate Rewards
Posts: 624
Getting bonus points for merchant coded as non-travel
Give them a call. I've found that the phone reps are more competent and more likely to help out.
Edit: also, you could argue that it should be considered a time-share and earn points under the 2x travel that way.
Edit: also, you could argue that it should be considered a time-share and earn points under the 2x travel that way.
Last edited by augustus21; Mar 23, 2013 at 6:01 pm
Aug 26, 2013, 7:39 pm
#19
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Austin, TX
Programs: National EE, Hyatt Discoverist, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 508
While I don't have a Zipcar account, I do have a Car2Go membership and I can tell you with certainty that the charges do not earn 2x UR points on my CSP.
Dec 8, 2013, 7:54 pm
#21
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: DFW,OVB (Russia)
Programs: AA HH Gold SPG Gold BA
Posts: 1,823
Gas stations for 2X CSP "travel" bonus?
Sorry if this has been answered before but... Do gas stations qualify for chase SP bonus or did I dream that up? Reason I ask is: I fill up at supermarket stations and today noticed that I wasn't getting the 2X bonus.. Called chase and rep said that gas stations never qualify for 2X bonus?? Is there something wrong here or am I just losing my mind????
Dec 8, 2013, 7:57 pm
#22
Join Date: Feb 2013
Programs: Hilton Plastic, Delta Silver Emeritus
Posts: 1,037
Sorry if this has been answered before but... Do gas stations qualify for chase SP bonus or did I dream that up? Reason I ask is: I fill up at supermarket stations and today noticed that I wasn't getting the 2X bonus.. Called chase and rep said that gas stations never qualify for 2X bonus?? Is there something wrong here or am I just losing my mind????
Dec 8, 2013, 8:01 pm
#23
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: DFW,OVB (Russia)
Programs: AA HH Gold SPG Gold BA
Posts: 1,823
Dec 8, 2013, 8:06 pm
#24
Suspended
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: LAX/SNA
Programs: AA, Hilton Gold
Posts: 3,887
Dec 8, 2013, 8:24 pm
#25
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: DFW,OVB (Russia)
Programs: AA HH Gold SPG Gold BA
Posts: 1,823
no offense but I know that!!
My family isn't much into the miles game, therefore I wanted to make it as simple as possible for them... Weird but I was always convinced that gas stations qualified for cap 2x bonus??!! O well
My family isn't much into the miles game, therefore I wanted to make it as simple as possible for them... Weird but I was always convinced that gas stations qualified for cap 2x bonus??!! O well
5x better than 1 or 2x
Dec 13, 2013, 3:23 pm
#29
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 384
Dec 16, 2013, 2:28 pm
#30
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 510
Sorry if this has been answered before but... Do gas stations qualify for chase SP bonus or did I dream that up? Reason I ask is: I fill up at supermarket stations and today noticed that I wasn't getting the 2X bonus.. Called chase and rep said that gas stations never qualify for 2X bonus?? Is there something wrong here or am I just losing my mind????
But CSP does qualify for restaurants, right? Or am I dreaming for that too?