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 13, 2016, 9:55 am
#80
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 23
Thanks guys.
I've just booked with Expedia last week and got 2x points.
Another question is do you guys get reward points for miles and hotels?
I've read that you do get airline miles but not always for hotels if you book through one of these travel agencies.
Any info on that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
I've just booked with Expedia last week and got 2x points.
Another question is do you guys get reward points for miles and hotels?
I've read that you do get airline miles but not always for hotels if you book through one of these travel agencies.
Any info on that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
May 13, 2016, 10:23 am
#81
Join Date: May 2016
Location: AUS
Posts: 134
Thanks guys.
I've just booked with Expedia last week and got 2x points.
Another question is do you guys get reward points for miles and hotels?
I've read that you do get airline miles but not always for hotels if you book through one of these travel agencies.
Any info on that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
I've just booked with Expedia last week and got 2x points.
Another question is do you guys get reward points for miles and hotels?
I've read that you do get airline miles but not always for hotels if you book through one of these travel agencies.
Any info on that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
Jun 10, 2016, 11:35 am
#83
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Bay Area
Programs: DL SM, UA MP.
Posts: 12,729
Chase not awarding travel bonus for some CSP charges?
They didn't award the travel bonus for about $1100 in charges.
One big one was an apartment in Melbourne booked through booking.com, about $800.
I guess booking.com sent my credit card number to the apartment management company and they sent the charge through and they weren't coded as a travel company?
Anyone successfully dispute transactions where they didn't get the travel bonus?
One big one was an apartment in Melbourne booked through booking.com, about $800.
I guess booking.com sent my credit card number to the apartment management company and they sent the charge through and they weren't coded as a travel company?
Anyone successfully dispute transactions where they didn't get the travel bonus?
Jun 10, 2016, 3:58 pm
#86
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: LAX
Posts: 51
I've disputed a lack of bonus points before, but my scenario was a little different. I ordered something through the Shop through Chase mall which is supposed to award bonus points. Well, I never saw them. I send an SM to Chase and they updated with the points in about a day. It's definitely worth a try to get them.
Jun 11, 2016, 9:28 am
#87
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,933
They didn't award the travel bonus for about $1100 in charges.
One big one was an apartment in Melbourne booked through booking.com, about $800.
I guess booking.com sent my credit card number to the apartment management company and they sent the charge through and they weren't coded as a travel company?
Anyone successfully dispute transactions where they didn't get the travel bonus?
One big one was an apartment in Melbourne booked through booking.com, about $800.
I guess booking.com sent my credit card number to the apartment management company and they sent the charge through and they weren't coded as a travel company?
Anyone successfully dispute transactions where they didn't get the travel bonus?
Yes, booking.com states online that it's usually the "hotel" itself that will post any final charges. Why else would they specify which cards are accepted by that specific hotel (some hotels accepting Amex as well as Visa/MC, others accepting Visa/MC, and some not accepting credit cards at all).
So don't expect anything booked at booking.com to be attributed to booking.com.
Now, if you book an actual hotel at booking.com, it should bill as a hotel hopefully, and then count as travel (for a card that counts hotels as travel). But an apartment rented by an individual, that's another story.
Jun 12, 2016, 9:25 am
#88
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: CMH, West Coast
Programs: AA Executive Platinum, oneworld emerald
Posts: 2,741
+1 to all of the above. Not sure why you're so adamant that this should count as travel. I wish gas counted, because it propels my car to travel places, but it doesn't, nor should an apartment rental.
Jun 14, 2016, 2:16 pm
#89
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Florida
Programs: Delta SkyMiles; Hilton HHonors; NEXUS; National Emerald Club Executive
Posts: 365
I've been billing gas purchases to Discover rather than CSP for this reason. Starting later this month, I'll be billing them to my new Costco Citibank Visa (4% cashback for gas purchases, including at Costco itself.)
Jul 21, 2016, 10:47 am
#90
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: SFO/SMF
Posts: 90
Groupon Getaway and points question
Se we're thinking about booking a trip through groupon getaways. Question is through the Shop through Chase portal we get 4 bonus points per dollar on Groupon, and I've heard travel through groupon still gets the 2x points on CSP. There for will we get 6 points per $ spent on there? Or am I wrong/missing something?