Card issuer travel portals offer an array of booking options. By redeeming points or miles for airfare, hotels, or rental cars they provide more value when redeeming them for redemption purposes.
But which option is the best one? Price protection and exclusive hotel benefits may also be offered when booking through third parties, making them potentially more suitable than booking directly with hotels. But which is best?
Capital One Travel
Capital One Travel provides card holders the ability to use miles or rewards earned with their card for booking flights, hotels and rental cars. Their intuitive customer interface offers features such as predictive pricing and price-match protection on flight bookings.
This portal stands out from other credit card travel portals in that it incorporates tools that assist in finding the lowest prices into its search engine, such as color-coded calendars for each date of your search showing when prices are at their lowest point and price-drop protection on flights and the ability to freeze hotel reservations.
However, booking hotels via this portal may not allow for all the perks typically available when staying with certain brands; therefore we do not advise using it if you hold elite status within any hotel programs; though it could still provide good travel deals!
American Express Travel
If you own an American Express card that earns Membership Rewards points, such as The Platinum Card from American Express (Terms Apply), AmEx Travel allows you to book flights, hotels, cruises and rental cars using points or cash payment – with added perks such as dining credits and room upgrades offered through AmEx Travel!
Credit card travel portals can offer many attractive redemption opportunities, but may not always be the right solution for everyone. When considering whether a travel portal is worth your while, consider factors like purchase cost, travel dates and award availability before making your decision.
Capital One, Chase and Citi all offer travel portals for their cardholders. Each one varies in terms of benefits offered; to help determine which card issuer offers the ideal portals, we have conducted comparisons between Amex Travel portal and those from Capital One, Chase and Citi to see which offers are most advantageous when booking travel.
Chase Travel
Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal makes booking flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises and activities easier than ever – using both cash or points as payment. Certain premium Chase credit cards even let you redeem points at higher values!
Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cardholders can earn 5 points for every dollar spent through Chase Travel Portal when booking hotels and car rentals, in addition to accessing high-end independent hotels that may suit travelers with flexible travel dates or who don’t wish to book through major loyalty program partners.
As important as it may be to use the Chase travel portal in all situations, its benefits don’t always make the cut. Increased pricing and limited availability can make rewards redemption frustratingly slow if you rely on it as a money saver. When faced with these circumstances, redemption directly through airline and hotel transfer partners may often prove more advantageous; especially for premium cabin seats which tend to have limited availability through the portal.
Citi Travel
Citi Travel portal allows cardholders to book paid travel using Citi ThankYou points or Citi credit cards. In addition, this portal features tours and activities such as guided hikes at Grand Canyon National Park or entrance tickets for Chicago’s Field Museum.
Searching flights through Citi Travel portal is similar to booking them with any OTA, with options such as selecting departure/arrival cities, number of passengers and cabin class available for selection. Furthermore, Citi’s portal features unique search filters like “Move Dates” to see what changing your dates does for the price.
Citi Premier and Prestige cardholders can utilize Citi’s ThankYou Points portal to redeem ThankYou Points for airfare, hotels or rental cars and earn 10x on paid travel expenses – an attractive feature when combined with Citi’s Hotel Collection or Luxury Collection benefits; additionally they can take advantage of $100 off $500 hotel booking benefits as well as fourth night free offers each year.
