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]
May 1, 2022, 8:21 am
#391
Join Date: May 2022
Posts: 10
Coded as Entertainment, didn't get x2.
May 1, 2022, 2:40 pm
#393
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,958
Toll passes: E-Z Pass (MA, MD, NH, NJ, NY, PA), Sunpass prepaid tolls, Washington State GoodToGo tolls, RiverLink tolls, TxTag, IPass (Illinois)
May 22, 2022, 3:39 pm
#394
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: SF Bay Area
Programs: UA MileagePlus (Premier Gold); Hilton HHonors (Gold); Chase Ultimate Rewards; Amex Plat
Posts: 6,680
So...I just checked my statement, and it turns out that Chargepoint (for EV charging) is no longer coding as travel! It now shows up as automotive, and earns jack squat for bonus points. Did a search in my Chase account and the switchover seems to have happened some time between 8/2020 and 9/2021. When exactly, I'm not sure. Maybe someone else can try to look at their account history and narrow down exactly when this change happened?
I have updated the wiki and removed Chargepoint. Now switching my Chargepoint card to my Freedom Unlimited so I can at least get 1.5 points per dollar instead of just 1.
I have updated the wiki and removed Chargepoint. Now switching my Chargepoint card to my Freedom Unlimited so I can at least get 1.5 points per dollar instead of just 1.
Oct 29, 2022, 1:45 pm
#397
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 72
AA e gc coded as american air (random numbers) counts and takes about 2 days after charge
Airbnb e gc coded as airbnb giftcard does not work - posted for 4 days now
Delta e gc coded as delta cstar gftcd does not work - posted for 9 days now
I assume reimbursement is automated so aa is the only that works
Airbnb e gc coded as airbnb giftcard does not work - posted for 4 days now
Delta e gc coded as delta cstar gftcd does not work - posted for 9 days now
I assume reimbursement is automated so aa is the only that works
Oct 29, 2022, 6:47 pm
#398
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,958
Nov 10, 2022, 11:05 pm
#401
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Earth
Programs: whatever it takes
Posts: 683
https://hotels.cashstar.com/store/amount?locale=en-us
Jan 30, 2023, 5:36 am
#402
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 72
AA e gc coded as american air (random numbers) counts and takes about 2 days after charge
Airbnb e gc coded as airbnb giftcard does not work - posted for 4 days now
Delta e gc coded as delta cstar gftcd does not work - posted for 9 days now
I assume reimbursement is automated so aa is the only that works
Airbnb e gc coded as airbnb giftcard does not work - posted for 4 days now
Delta e gc coded as delta cstar gftcd does not work - posted for 9 days now
I assume reimbursement is automated so aa is the only that works
Aug 7, 2023, 7:45 am
#403
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: ATL, BHM, DUB, County Wexford
Programs: DL DM, AA ExPlt, Diamond HH, HY, BW, & Titanium Elite Marriott
Posts: 4,864
I found the difference. When purchasing a hotel stay, the Reserve nets 5.1¢ per dollar, whereas the Preferred nets 1.7¢ per dollar.
There are several higher earning categories for Reserve versus Preferred. If those categories matter to you, then it is better to have a reserve. If not, well, then maybe the preferred is the better option.
There are several higher earning categories for Reserve versus Preferred. If those categories matter to you, then it is better to have a reserve. If not, well, then maybe the preferred is the better option.
Last edited by mia; Aug 7, 2023 at 9:05 am
Aug 7, 2023, 9:07 am
#404
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,958
Aug 7, 2023, 10:25 am
#405
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: ATL, BHM, DUB, County Wexford
Programs: DL DM, AA ExPlt, Diamond HH, HY, BW, & Titanium Elite Marriott
Posts: 4,864