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]
Jan 26, 2014, 12:34 am
#46
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Earth
Programs: UA MM Platinum; HH Diamond; Marriott Gold; Starwood Gold; Hyatt Discoverist; Avis Preferred Plus
Posts: 1,527
Jan 26, 2014, 4:52 am
#47
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Chicagoland, IL, USA
Programs: WN CP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 14,176
BTW Disney Vacation Club (timeshare) annual dues count 2x. Also tolls.
If you are staying at a Universal or Disney hotel, charge the tickets to the room and pay with CSP.
I think you should follow the Ink/office supply 5x route or find a grocery that has up-to-$500 variable Disney GCs and use a 5-6% cashback card.
If you are staying at a Universal or Disney hotel, charge the tickets to the room and pay with CSP.
I think you should follow the Ink/office supply 5x route or find a grocery that has up-to-$500 variable Disney GCs and use a 5-6% cashback card.
Jan 28, 2014, 12:00 pm
#49
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 187
Jan 28, 2014, 5:40 pm
#51
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Chicagoland, IL, USA
Programs: WN CP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 14,176
My main problem is that often I cannot find anything larger than $50.
Jan 30, 2014, 10:24 am
#52
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: JAX/St Augustine, FL
Programs: Delta Plat, Southwest RR, HHonors Diamond, Hertz PC, National EE
Posts: 529
I think tolls are hit or miss. All depends on what Visa knows the company as.. For example, SunPass in Florida is listed as miscellaneous merchant. There was a link in a recent thread I believe.
Also, was at Seaworld - Orlando (for the two roller coasters! Manta was pretty awesome. Rode in the last row.
) and got 2x points on both parking and food.
Also, was at Seaworld - Orlando (for the two roller coasters! Manta was pretty awesome. Rode in the last row.
) and got 2x points on both parking and food.
Jan 31, 2014, 6:32 am
#53
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
If you charge your tickets to your room, then it counts as travel. If not, it's not considered travel, but entertainment.
Jan 31, 2014, 1:57 pm
#54
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Programs: UR, SPG, HHonors Gold
Posts: 65
I just confirmed with Starwood. Not sure if this is how it works with other non-Disney hotels as well, but it's a good bet that it does.
Disney operates their own ticket booths inside the Sheratons near Disneyland and in the Disney Swan and Dolphin at Disney World. You can't buy gift cards or tickets directly from the hotels themselves; Disney will process any ticket or gift card transaction. Which means that they won't count as "spending in Starwood properties" for the SPG Amex.
That's only for the Starwood hotels near the parks. I don't know if other Starwood hotels in the area sell Disney gift cards on their own.
Disney operates their own ticket booths inside the Sheratons near Disneyland and in the Disney Swan and Dolphin at Disney World. You can't buy gift cards or tickets directly from the hotels themselves; Disney will process any ticket or gift card transaction. Which means that they won't count as "spending in Starwood properties" for the SPG Amex.
That's only for the Starwood hotels near the parks. I don't know if other Starwood hotels in the area sell Disney gift cards on their own.
Jan 31, 2014, 3:29 pm
#55
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
As noted above, it also won't count as travel spending if you're not charging it to your Disney owned & operated hotel room.
Those two hotels are in a unique situation. They get some benefits of being on-site, such as extra magic hours, but not all of them, such as being able to charge things purchased in the parks to your room.
Those two hotels are in a unique situation. They get some benefits of being on-site, such as extra magic hours, but not all of them, such as being able to charge things purchased in the parks to your room.
Mar 26, 2014, 10:26 pm
#56
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: HNL
Programs: HHonors, Hyatt, Alaska, American, United
Posts: 128
Parking 2x Points is Definitely YMMV
This is an old thread, but I am adding to it because of a couple of instances where Chase did not give me the points. One was for the parking structure that serves Disneyland (a $16 charge) and parking in Laguna Beach. Chase refused to issue customer service adjustments for the missing points.
Oddly enough, I received double points for a parking charge in Huntington Beach.
I also did not receive double points for parking at the garage across from the Seattle Opera.
Parking is so hit and miss that I have decided just to use my Amex Starwood for those charges from now on. One Starwood point is probably worth more than 2 Sapphire points.
Oddly enough, I received double points for a parking charge in Huntington Beach.
I also did not receive double points for parking at the garage across from the Seattle Opera.
Parking is so hit and miss that I have decided just to use my Amex Starwood for those charges from now on. One Starwood point is probably worth more than 2 Sapphire points.
Mar 27, 2014, 9:24 am
#57
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 187
This is an old thread, but I am adding to it because of a couple of instances where Chase did not give me the points. One was for the parking structure that serves Disneyland (a $16 charge) and parking in Laguna Beach. Chase refused to issue customer service adjustments for the missing points.
Oddly enough, I received double points for a parking charge in Huntington Beach.
I also did not receive double points for parking at the garage across from the Seattle Opera.
Parking is so hit and miss that I have decided just to use my Amex Starwood for those charges from now on. One Starwood point is probably worth more than 2 Sapphire points.
Oddly enough, I received double points for a parking charge in Huntington Beach.
I also did not receive double points for parking at the garage across from the Seattle Opera.
Parking is so hit and miss that I have decided just to use my Amex Starwood for those charges from now on. One Starwood point is probably worth more than 2 Sapphire points.
Mar 27, 2014, 9:33 am
#58
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
Unless you're a guest at a Disney hotel and charge the car to your room, parking charges (as well as admissions) at the theme park come under "entertainment." Charges to your room are travel.
I've had no issues with double points for parking in garages as well as at meters and private lots. They all code as parking.
I've had no issues with double points for parking in garages as well as at meters and private lots. They all code as parking.
Mar 27, 2014, 1:04 pm
#59
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: HNL
Programs: HHonors, Hyatt, Alaska, American, United
Posts: 128
The Disneyland parking garage was categorized under a fast food category (believe it or not), but I still didn't get the 2X points. As for Laguna Beach, it was categorized into some kind of municipal category and not specifically parking.
Mar 30, 2014, 12:03 pm
#60
Moderator
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Moderator action
Half dozen threads discussing the margins of the Sapphire Preferred travel (2X) category have been combined. Now, we seem a kind soul to summarize the conclusions in a Wkipost.