Hi,
I recently got my first travel credit card. After researching a lot of different cards I went with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. It was suggest by a lot of websites as a good card for beginner travelers, which I am. My question is, when booking travel, besides the 5x reward points, what are the pro's and con's of booking through the Chase Travel Portal? I normally would rather book directly with an airline or hotel, but of course the 5x points is enticing.
If things go upside down, especially with airlines, it is best to be booked directly with the company with whom you are doing business. The 5x reward points are great... until your trip gets ruined by irregular operations and its hard to find someone willing to help you, like happened to one of my buddies.
I don't think portals are like 3rd party sites.
The one I use sends me to the offical site of whatever I'm buying.
Hi Mike, first, you might want to edit your title—instead of saying 'First Travel Credit Card', call it 'Question about Chase Sapphire Preferred Card', and that will get you some responses from people that actually have the card and have used it.
I have used it, but I have only booked through the portal once. There are other people out there who are a lot more knowledgeable than I am, so I am going to refrain from answering, but I would suggest you change the title so they will see the specific card you are referring to.
And for what it's worth, I agree with Liz. I booked a flight last year through the portal, and everything went fine. All my dealings were with the airline, not the credit card company.
Pro- you'll trigger the annual $50 hotel statement credit
Con- dealing with an extra layer vs directly with the hotel if you need to change or cancel
Ha! Thank you for that very detailed look into this card. I was already aware of only getting 5x points in the portal but it sounds like I missed out on the heyday of this card. That's ok, I still got the 75k bonus points, I'm sure I can find a use for them. :-)
I have this card and just use it for the travel insurance.
I always book directly with the airline and hotels.
My sister and brother-in-law play the game of credit cards and points and it is such a hassle. But it does save them some money. I value my time more.
@Carrie Yes the travel insurance is a nice option. Hopefully I don't need to use it!
We have had the card for a number of years and yes, they made a bunch of changes but we do use it for the point refunds and travel insurance and it’s been worth it for that. Several years ago I caught Covid on a RS tour and the card paid the difference in the tour interruption that RS did not cover. We do not book thru the card but directly with hotels and airlines. Last year when a Scotland trip had to be cancelled due to medical reasons not anticipated, Chase paid for the BA flights because they were dragging their feet for months and paid for the hotel room deposits because they would not refund. There might be something better out there but so far no one has stated what but I would be truly interested in hearing what…..
Mike, Carrie is correct about the travel insurance and it sounds like you do know about it. It really is a good deal. Just make sure you use your card to pay for any services that might be affected like hotels and car rentals.
I will say they’re very good to deal with when you’ve had a problem. In 2024, I rented a car and use my Chase Sapphire card to pay for it. At some point during the 2 1/2 weeks that I had the car, I got a tiny little ding on one side, and had to pay a £1000 deductible to the car rental agency. After I got home, I contacted Chase and got them all the paperwork. About 4 to 5 weeks later, I received a refund for that deductible. They were very pleasant and easy to work with.
That is a very reassuring example, Mardee !
Thanks for asking this question Mike, I have been thinking about getting this card myself. Thanks to those who have it who have responded with great info.
I got my Chase card for the insurance--rental car, purchase protection and cancellation due to illness.
I make very limited use of the portal. I did use it to use all the points I got for acquiring the card. I booked 5 days of hotel in Melbourne. I also used it to take advantage of the hotel credit. That said, be very careful, I've noticed that prices on the portal are usually more than from the hotel directly or booking.com. For Melbourne, the hotel I chose had some kind of extra discount on the Chase portal. To use the hotel credit, I had to do a lot of searching to use it where it even made sense. I elected to use the credit on a very short stay, one or two days, so I get the credit, and didn't have to pay the inflated price for a longer stay.
Even Delta airline's portal has better hotel prices than Chase, or at least on my searches.
Its a bit of an art of deciding what credit card to use for a transaction. I use Chase for rental cars and items that I want purchase protection. I use Delta AMEX for Delta purchases, restaurants and groceries, and enough just to get me to the lowest level of status. I use Costco at Costco and when I buy gas at nonCostco stations. I use a cash back card for pretty much anything else. I also have an REI Mastercard, that we use for REI and then when we are traveling and we can't get other cards to work. And so on. .
I got the same card last summer, and agree with what’s already been said here. I am using the card to book direct and to pay for my RS tour. Although you aren’t really getting any bargains on flight, hotel, car, there’s plenty else you can get. I am using my Chase points to pay for all my extra excursions, like a Vatican tour.
