Credit card issuers are increasingly playing travel agent, offering their own branded portals where you can book flights, hotels and car rentals using points or rewards dollars accumulated with their cards – one example being Capital One Travel which recently debuted.
Hopper uses technology from Hopper to predict flight prices with 95% accuracy, offering price drop protection and booking alerts as additional services.
The Capital One Travel portal
Capital One Travel Portal allows cardholders to redeem credit card rewards (and cash) for flights, hotels and car rentals using price prediction technology and price alerts, with price match guarantees provided by Hopper for easy browsing of booking options.
Cardholders can earn elevated rewards when booking through the portal and can transfer miles to specific Capital One airline partners. While its many great features make the portal appealing, there may also be some drawbacks.
Capital One Travel may not offer all flight options available to you and may not qualify you for loyalty program benefits like elite night credits and elite status. Furthermore, booking through Capital One Travel often prices hotels higher than other booking sites; therefore it may be more beneficial to redeem Capital One points directly for hotel stays rather than through this portal. Finally, Capital One Travel may not feature all available hotels in your destination city.
The Amex Travel portal
The Amex Travel portal is an all-in-one shop for booking flights, hotels, rental cars and cruises. Available to cardholders of American Express cards that earn Membership Rewards points such as Gold Card from Amex, Platinum Card from Amex or Business Platinum Card from Amex, it allows cardholders to book flights, hotels, rental cars or cruises quickly and conveniently.
Amex Travel Portal stands out from other credit card travel portals by accepting Membership Rewards points as currency when booking flights through it – this can be particularly helpful when award availability on specific airlines is limited on certain dates.
Amex Travel portal may make sense for certain travelers, but it might not always provide the best value. When searching for flights online travel agencies can often offer better pricing. Furthermore, transfer of Amex MR points to airline partners often provides better redemption rates while premium Amex cards such as The Platinum Card from Amex and Centurion provide unique hotel benefits not offered through other travel portals.
The Chase Travel portal
The Chase Travel Portal works much like an online travel agency and is easy to use even for novice travelers. Simply input your destination and dates, and a list will appear with prices listed both in dollars (including taxes and fees) and points ( including taxes and fees) next to each item. Click “Show Details and Pricing” for additional information or book using either cash, points or combinations thereof; payments can be made with either one card attached to your account or both simultaneously.
Apart from flights, hotels, rental cars and cruises, the portal also allows users to book activities and tours like snorkeling excursions, museum and historic site tours and airport transfers. Unfortunately booking through this channel does not earn loyalty program points or hotel elite status credits like direct booking with properties do; this may prove frustrating for those trying to maximize the value of their points.
The Citi ThankYou Travel portal
Citi has unveiled a newly upgraded travel portal offering up to 10 points per dollar spent when booking hotels, rental cars and eligible attractions with either the Citi Prestige (no longer accepting new applicants) or Citi Premier credit card. Following in the footsteps of Amex Fine Hotels and Capital One Premier Collection by expanding their own Hotel and Luxury collections gradually.
Eligible cards will also receive elevated rewards on airline and rental car bookings through the portal; flights are currently excluded from these rates; once these special earnings rates expire, Citi will reveal its standard earnings rates for bookings made via this channel.
Citi ThankYou points can be redeemed through the Citi Travel Portal at fixed value, which may not offer as much of a return than transfer partners (usually more than 1 cent in value based on TPG valuations here), however for those without time or desire to research award availability this might be worthwhile option.
