bones718

i'm an infrequent flyer and fly out on vacation maybe 3-4 times a year. I am the type that honestly doesn't really care where i stay unless it's decent and doesn't get horribly trashed on review sites like trip advisor.

My daily spending is thrown on my capital one venture which i get the sense is a "phoney bologna" card around this forum. I do like the fact that i can erase purchases though.

If i am trying to step it up a notch and wanting to get a lil fancier with my hotel stays, what would you reco my next points card for flight/hotel card be? Only criteria would be the annual fee be under $100 and no blackouts.

thanks

dukerau

The CapOne Venture card isn't that bad, though most here would rather have Barclays Arrival for a similar annual fee and 2.2% cashback or Fidelity Amex for no annual fee and 2% cash back. "Erasing purchases" is just a marketing term - I don't care if my cashback comes through purchase "erasing", statement credit, or a check, as long as it's a good rate.

For a new card, it really depends on what you want. If you have none of the big points/miles cards, you can start with the big ones with near universal appeal: Chase Sapphire Preferred (45K points with $3K spend in 3 months, transferable to United, Hyatt, Southwest, a few others), Chase United (55K miles with $2K spend in 3 months), Amex SPG (25K points with $5K spend in 6 months, use on Starwood properties or transfer to many airlines 20K points = 25K miles), Citi AA Executive (100K miles with $10K spend in 3 months).

For hotels, some of the branded cards have significant sign up offers: Hyatt (2 nights any property), Marriott (70K points + free night in cat 1-4 property every renewal year), IHG (80K points + free night anywhere every renewal year), Club Carlson (85K points + 40K every renewal year), and Hilton (several different cards, ranging from 50K points to 2 free weekend nights on sign up).

Personally, I don't consider hotel cards other than SPG to be good everyday spenders. The best everyday spenders (on non-bonus categories) in my opinion are the 2% cards (Venture, Arrival, Fido Amex) and SPG.

Please note, I'm not recommending you sign up for all these cards at once. Note the spending requirement and make sure you can hit them all. You can definitely do multiple cards at once, just pace yourself. Among the ones I've listed, the most time-sensitive offer is probably the AA Executive. The SPG usually has a 30K offer in the Aug-Oct time frame if you want to wait until then. And Amex cards are also worthwhile, but there are currently no great bonuses. If you can get PRG with 50K sign up bonus or Platinum with 75K+, those are worthwhile. They're often targeted offers, but have also been public temporary offers in the past. Or if you really want Amex, you can take what's out there.

bones718

thanks for your input. based on what you shared, seems like i would want to narrow it down to spg or chase saphire . As i mentioned, i don't have any loyalty to any airlines or hotels, and would like to be able to have selection.

when i was shopping for the venture i also looked at the arrival. i went with venture on a whim.

Without any points promotions hypothetically speaking, which would you choose between chase saphire and spg for an all in one flight/hotel card?

bones718

just saw that spg charges 2.7% on foreign transaction fees. i will pass on spg.

any other programs to rival chase sapphire?

dukerau

Yes, all Amex (other than maybe Platinum) have a 2.7% FTF.

Keep in mind when deciding if you should get a new card - you're getting 2% cash back currently. CSP gives 1.07 points per $, so you'd need to extract 1.87 cents per point of value to make CSP better than your current card. If you're going to use your points for premium flights, then you can probably get > 1.87 cents per point (depending on how you value biz/first class), but just using the points for economy flights, you're probably better off with a 2% card.

That said, signing up for cards can be very worthwhile. After getting the large initial sign up bonus, switch back to your 2% card

bones718

Thanks again.