When I began working in a position that had me traveling a lot, one of the first things I wanted to do, was look into a credit card that would give me great travel benefits! I pay for things, get the points, submit an expense report, get my money back. Pretty sweet, right?
During college, I got my first credit card, I ran up expenses, even started my company using cards, until we got investors. By the end it was stressful, I was ready to chop them all up and never have another card. But after paying everything off after school, I realized that I could use a decent card to take care of various expenses, earn the points and pay them off. Paying cash is great, but in a world where your credit matters more and more, building my credit was (and still is) key! Long story short, I was looking for a card with excellent travel benefits, so I could reap the potential from all my new travel. I could earn points that I can use later for myself!
Why I chose this card:
- 3x Points on Air Travel & Hotels — Which are key parts of my traveling
- 2x Points on Dining and Entertainment
- Use points directly on Amazon
- 4th night free at any hotel.. (Yep, even if its $1,000 a night!)
- $250/yr airline credit reimbursement (baggage fees, upgrades, etc)
- TSA Pre Check Reimbursement
- Admirals Club (American Airlines) lounge access
- Priority Pass Lounge Access
- Concierge
- No foreign transaction fees
- 3 complimentary golf rounds each year at over 2,000 courses worldwide
Concierge Report:
I am going to Maui in January and was pricing out hotels… All I do is call the concierge, tell them my budget, star ratings, dates, etc and they go to work. I get an awesome PDF back with all my options and pricing information, and pictures on request. It’s super simple and a lot better than slaving over the internet for weeks stressing out! Also, note that 4th night free!
Amazon Shopping:
Like I said, it’s simple. Just link your card to your Amazon account and there you go!
Airline Credit:
This was really nice too.. Some cards require you to pick a specific airline to get credited for. Others only cover certain incidentals. With this card, any airline fees I had were covered. I got my reimbursement quick, too!
Annual Fee:
Yeah, there is one… $450.. But, you get $250 a year in airline reimbursement, access to the airline clubs, oh, and the 4th night free at any hotel? Yeah, won’t take much to really benefit from this card. The first trip I looked at (see above, Maui) I was set to get $1000 in a free room. Enough said!
There are other cards out there with steep annual fees too (Visa Black Card, Amex Platinum), but I found that this card really paid for itself and gave the best bang for the buck!
Credit:
You will need pretty good credit to apply for this card. I’m not an expert, so I can’t say what that score is, but I know it needs to be good!