Which Travel Rewards Credit Card is Best for *ME* ?

Trying a new idea here with this post - Which Travel Rewards Credit Card is Best for *ME* ?

The Situation

Today's "ME" is a friend of mine based in the Midwest who asked for help in picking a new credit card.

• Frequent traveler (20-30 trips per year) based in a small airport where American Airlines is the dominant player.
• Travel involves flights and hotel stays of 2-3 nights.
• Hotel stays are approximately 50-60% Marriott, 20-30% Hilton, and 10-20% other chains/independent hotels.
• Traveler has the option to pay for his own hotel rooms and other expenses (but not most of their flights) using own credit card.
• This person has very few credit cards and is looking for the best all-around card for maximizing hotel points/airline miles/flexible travel points based on travel-related and other general everyday spending.
• Traveler currently holds top or near-top airline status as well as mid or top status with both Hilton and Marriott
• Willing to accept an annual fee up to $200 on a new credit card
• New card will be used primarily for travel-related spending.  The family plans to use a Costco Visa card for everyday spending -- groceries, gas, etc.  The Costco Visa pays 4% cash rebate on gas (max $7k/yr then 1%), 3% on restaurants and eligible travel (airfare, hotels, rental cars, Costco Travel, cruise lines, travel agencies), 2% at Costco and Costco.com, 1% everywhere else (including restaurants inside warehouse clubs, bakeries, B&Bs, train travel).

Projected Spend

• 25 three-night air travel trips per year
• Approx $20k/yr total spend
• Marriott Hotels 45 nights = $8,000
• Hilton Hotels 15 nights = $3,000
• Other Travel - rental car 75 days = $5,000.  Airport parking = $1,000.  Rental car fuel $500.  
• Restaurants $1,500

Key Considerations

• Is this a long-term card or may be replaced by or supplemented with another card(s) in a year or so?
• How much value or emphasis should be placed on the signup bonus vs. the potential annual earnings from spend in a normal year?
• Miles or nights?  Or flexibility?  What types of points/miles do you value most and what do you want to do with the travel currency earned from card spend?  Are airline miles, or transferable bank travel points that can be used to book flights, more important / valuable than hotel points?  Or are hotel points more important because they can be used more easily without including air travel?  Or are flexible points more valuable because they can be used for a variety of different travel items including rental cars, flights, hotels, etc?

Breaking it Down for "Me"

Cards evaluated include the following:

• Marriott co-branded credit cards
• Hilton co-branded credit cards
• Amex cards that earn Membership Rewards points
• Chase cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points
• Citi cards that earn ThankYou points
• Capital One and other cards such as Barclay Arrival that earn cash back or credits that can be used to offset travel expenses charged to the card

Recommendations

• If you can spend $15k in first 3 months:  Chase Ink Business Preferred.  Best signup bonus of any card in this blog post
• If you are willing to apply for a business card but can't swing $15k spend in 3 mos:  Marriott Bonvoy Business Card
• Best first-year value, personal card:  Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Honorable mention - solid hotel points card with decent earnings rate and very good signup bonus:  Hilton Surpass Amex
• Honorable mention:  good signup bonus of flexible bank points and good long-term earnings rate:  Amex Green Card

Marriott Cards

The best Marriott card for this scenario:  Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Chase Visa.  Temporarily increased signup bonus is the same as the Bonvoy Business Amex, with lower annual fee.  The family will use its Costco card for restaurant and gas purchases, so the higher 4x earning rate on the Bonvoy Business Amex would not be useful for them.

All 4 of these Marriott credit cards provide 15 elite nights per year toward Marriott status.  These are NOT free nights for stays; they are only for meeting elite status requirements.  Each Marriott Bonvoy member can earn maximum 30 elite nights per year via credit card membership:  15 elite nights with one of the three personal cards + 15 elite nights with a business card (the Bonvoy Business Amex card).

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Amex

• $450 annual fee.  $300 Marriott travel credit reduces this card's effective annual fee to $150.
• Signup bonus:  125,000 bonus points after $5,000 spend in first 3 months
• Many other travel-related benefits such as Priority Pass select membership
• Earn 6 points per dollar on Marriott stays
• Earn 3x on U.S. restaurants and flights booked directly with airlines
• Earn 2x on all other spend (including Hilton hotels, gasoline, groceries, etc)

Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex

• $125 annual fee
• Signup bonus:  100,000 bonus points after $5,000 spend in first 3 months
• Signup bonus is $700-800 worth of Marriott points
• $150 statement credit on qualifying purchases (seems that any spend qualifies toward $150 statement credit)
• 6x at Marriott hotels
• 4x at U.S. restaurants, U.S. gas stations, on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers and on U.S. purchases for shipping
• 2x on all other spend

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Chase Visa

• $95 annual fee
• Signup bonus:  75,000 100,000 bonus points (recently increased) after $3,000 spend in first 3 months
• 6x at Marriott hotels
• 2x on all other spend

Marriot Bonvoy Bold Chase Visa

• No annual fee
• Signup bonus:  30,000 points after $1,000 spend in 3 months
• 3x at Marriott hotels
• 2x on other travel purchases (from airfare to taxis and trains)
• 1x on all other spend

Marriott Bonvoy Program

• Points are more valuable than Hilton points - most travel blogs peg a Marriott point at 0.7-0.8 cents value vs. 0.5 cents for a Hilton point
• Points prices for properties in the Marriott family (Fairfield, Marriott, Sheraton, etc) may be tougher to find at good rates than Hilton reward points hotel prices 

Chase Ink Business Preferred

• Best card if can do $15k spend in 3 months to earn the 100k signup bonus
• (we have this card).
• 3x points per $ on travel (and on shipping, advertising, internet/cable/phone) on the first $150k spend then 1x.
• Travel includes basically any travel category imaginable: tolls, parking garages, car rental, hotels, airlines, travel agencies, campgrounds, cruise lines, timeshares, limos, buses, taxis.
• 1x on all other spend.  
• $95 annual fee.  
• Business card.  
• Signup bonus is amazing 100,000 points (usable for $1,250 of paid travel) but requires $15k spend in first 3 months.  
• Chase points can be redeemed for paid travel thru the Chase travel portal, or transferred to one of 10 airline miles programs or transferred to Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott (IHG and Marriott are terrible transfer values though)

Chase Sapphire Preferred

• Most valuable signup bonus of any card with annual fee < $200.  Not a great long-term travel card @ 2x.  Many other cards earn 3x Chase or Amex points on travel
• 80,000 point signup bonus after $4k spend in first 3 months
• (we have this card)
• $50 grocery store statement credit in 1st year (available only via referral)
• 2x on dining and travel
• 1x on all other spend
• $95 annual fee
• Amex Cards

Amex Blue Business Plus

• (we have this card).
• 2x points per $ on all spend for first $50k spend, then 1x.
• No annual fee.
• Business card.
• This is a great option to use for everyday spend, no annual fee, no muss no fuss.  Earning 2 Amex points per $ on a no annual fee card is incredible.  
• Amex points are similar to Chase points -- can be used for paid travel booked via Amex travel portal or transferred to Amex's airline and hotel partners for using on free flights and nights.

Amex Green Card

• Very good signup bonus and a good long-term card @ 3x on travel
• Signup bonus 45,000 50,000 (via referral link) Membership Rewards points after $2k spend in first 6 months
• 3x on travel and restaurants, 1x on everything else
• Annual fee $150
• Breakeven spend point to recover the $150 annual fee with this card @ 3x vs. Blue Business Plus @ 2x = $7,500.  (Amex Membership Rewards points worth approx 2 cents each x $7,500 = $150)
• Use my referral link 

American Express Gold Card

• Signup bonus 60,000 75,000 (via referral link) after $4,000 spend in 1st 6 months
• Annual fee $250
• $200 statement credit on purchases from approved home furnishings stores (includes Home Depot and Lowe's) in 1st 3 months (exclusive benefit available only via referral)
• 4x at restaurants
• 4x at supermarkets (on max $25k spend per year)
• 3x on flights booked directly with airlines or with amextravel.com
• 1x on all other spend
• Good first-year card if you can leverage the $200 home furnishing statement credit but not a great long-term card for travel spend

Hilton Surpass Amex

• Signup bonus 130,000 150,000 (via referral link) after $3,000 spend in 1st 3 months
• Signup bonus is $750 worth of Hilton points
• $95 annual fee
• 12x on Hilton spend
• 6x on dining and supermarkets
• 3x on all other spend

Citi Premier Card

• Signup bonus 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in 1st 3 months
• $95 annual fee
• 3x at restaurants, supermarkets, hotels, air travel, gas stations
• 1x on all other spend
• Citi transfer partners are not as good as Chase's and Amex's transfer partners.  Citi does not have any hotel transfer partners

http://refer.amex.us/JASONWtFGB?xl=cp19

http://refer.amex.us/JASONWdtDi?XLINK=MYCP

Chase Sapphire Preferred referral link https://www.referyourchasecard.com/6a/392ZM1OI7W