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]
Sep 10, 2018, 1:09 pm
#301
Join Date: Jul 2009
Programs: Mileage Plus, AAdvantage
Posts: 424
Haven't bought the disneyland tickets yet, but just booked a couple of random cheap cancellable activities from both these sites and they posted as travel with 3x points.
Oct 14, 2018, 5:39 pm
#305
Join Date: Jul 2013
Programs: DYKWIA, But I'm a "Diamond Guest" UA 1K/2MM
Posts: 2,257
United Pass Plus
I'm thinking about using the Sapphire Reserve to pay for United Pass Plus, a prepaid airfare and other United expenses account.
https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...s/default.aspx
Any guesses as to whether it's coded as travel?
https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...s/default.aspx
Any guesses as to whether it's coded as travel?
Oct 19, 2018, 11:11 am
#306
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: flyover country
Posts: 2,435
Does anyone know if the ferry to Dry Tortugas National Park counts as travel? I tried to search using the Merchant Category Code Lookup, but it didn't return anything...at all. Perhaps the site was down?
Oct 20, 2018, 2:37 pm
#307
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 39
Most of the retailers (restaurants) in Narita code as 1%.
Oct 20, 2018, 7:26 pm
#308
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: flyover country
Posts: 2,435
I tried to search using the Merchant Category Code Lookup, but it didn't return anything...at all.
Nov 24, 2018, 5:22 am
#309
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,760
These DPs are on CIP
Airtrain between BNE and City is classified as UTILITY. No 3x.
Initial loading an Opal Card at the SYD airport station counted as Travel.
But Top Up done at Transport Customer Service Center at Central Station inside Sydney is classified as Miscellaneous, No 3x. There are only 2 Transport Customer Service Centers in Sydney - one at Wharf 5 Circular Quay and one at Grand Concourse Central Station. They only take cards. 2 years ago the top up done at Circular Quay location counted as Travel.
Machines are at every station (both card and cash). Haven't tried those. Also one can top up at Service NSW Centers that are scattering around - incl one at Bondi Junction and one at Haymarket (near Darling Harbour / China Town) - both seen lots of visitors. They also take both cards and cash. No idea how they are coded.
Airtrain between BNE and City is classified as UTILITY. No 3x.
Initial loading an Opal Card at the SYD airport station counted as Travel.
But Top Up done at Transport Customer Service Center at Central Station inside Sydney is classified as Miscellaneous, No 3x. There are only 2 Transport Customer Service Centers in Sydney - one at Wharf 5 Circular Quay and one at Grand Concourse Central Station. They only take cards. 2 years ago the top up done at Circular Quay location counted as Travel.
Machines are at every station (both card and cash). Haven't tried those. Also one can top up at Service NSW Centers that are scattering around - incl one at Bondi Junction and one at Haymarket (near Darling Harbour / China Town) - both seen lots of visitors. They also take both cards and cash. No idea how they are coded.
Jan 5, 2019, 9:31 am
#314
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: TPA, MUC
Programs: M&M SEN, Skywards
Posts: 148
AFAIK has to be travel category. Shows up as "MPX*Uber" on the statement and transportation category. But then again in the Also Known As section it says United Airlines Inc.
Jan 5, 2019, 10:39 am
#315
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: San Diego, CA
Programs: GE, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 15,507
I was looking at my Chase online banking and apparently the parking garages at UC San Diego classify as travel. ^ Too bad the parking meters in San Diego proper don't (though Apple/Google Pay is supported on those now so this past December's mobile payment bonus potentially could have applied).
EDIT: the latter shows up as "transportation" just like the former. I'm wondering if that changed recently; I should try again next time I end up going downtown.
EDIT: the latter shows up as "transportation" just like the former. I'm wondering if that changed recently; I should try again next time I end up going downtown.