Travel Rewards Credit Cards

Yes, American Express has five types of travel insurance available on most Amex credit cards; travel accident insurance, baggage insurance, rental car insurance, trip delay insurance and trip cancellation/interruption insurance. To be eligible for coverage, cardholders must either pay their entire travel fare with an Amex credit card or pay at least part of it with Amex rewards.

• Travel accident insurance reimburses you when a travel provider causes a death or serious injury. All currently available Amex cards have it. The coverage amounts vary by card. But they can be as high as $500,000.
• Baggage insurance pays you back for baggage that a travel provider damages or loses. You can get it on most Amex card offers. The coverage can be as high as $3,000 per person per trip.
• Rental car insurance pays for damage to and theft of rental cars. Most Amex cards have it. And the coverage can reach $75,000 per vehicle.
• Trip delay insurance covers round-trip flights; if your trip is delayed by more than six hours due to a covered reason. Several Amex cards have it and this benefit will reimburse unexpected expenses — such as meals and personal use items — up to $500 per trip.
• Trip cancellation/interruption insurance reimburses you for non-refundable travel expenses, you’re your flight is canceled for a “covered reason” (including inclement weather, sudden illness or injury). Several Amex credit cards have it. It gives you up to $10,000 per trip, with a maximum of up to $20,000 per year.

You can book travel with Chase travel rewards by visiting the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal through your online account. There, you can search for flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises, vacation rentals, and more. Plus, you can book your travel with your points, with cash, or a mixture of the two.

How to book travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal

1. Navigate to the Chase Ultimate Rewards section of your Chase online account.
2. Choose “Travel” or “Redeem for Travel” from the menu at the top.
3. Find a flight, hotel, car rental, vacation rental, cruise, or event to book.
4. Enter your details on the next few pages. This may include your name/names of passengers, flight and luggage options, dates of events you’re booking, among other things.
5. Decide how to pay. You’ll be taken to a page that tells you how many points or dollars your travel choices will cost, and you can choose how many points you want to spend. The rest will be charged to your Chase credit card.

What your Chase points are worth in travel

Your Chase Ultimate Rewards points will redeem at different values depending on which Chase card you have. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® and the J.P. Morgan Reserve Credit Card get 1.5 cents per point when redeemed for travel through the Ultimate Rewards travel portal. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card points get 1.25 cents per point on travel redemptions. All other Chase cards’ points are worth 1 cent per point on Ultimate Rewards travel.

If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you can also transfer points to Chase’s hotel and airline partners at a 1:1 ratio. You may be able to find better deals that way, in some cases.

Chase’s travel rewards credit cards are some of the best on the market, particularly the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Chase Sapphire Reserve. And the Chase Ultimate Rewards program generally promotes travel. However, you can always spend your points on cash back or gift cards too if you’d like.

How to earn Chase travel rewards

You can earn Chase travel rewards by charging purchases to any Chase rewards credit card. All Chase Ultimate Rewards points are redeemable for travel. Plus, you can earn even more points via the Shop through Chase section of the Ultimate Rewards portal – up to 25% more points for your dollar, actually.

Some Chase travel rewards can take time to show up in your account. For example, it can take 6-8 weeks for points from an initial bonus to be delivered. Rewards earned through purchases should show up shortly after your statement closes.

The best Chase travel credit card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card because it offers 5 points per $1 spent on qualifying Lyft rides through March 2022, and 1 point / $1 to 5 points / $1 spent on all other purchases. The Chase Sapphire Preferred card also has an initial bonus of 100,000 points for spending $4,000 in the first 3 months.

In addition, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers key travel-related benefits such as trip delay reimbursement, trip cancellation / interruption insurance, and baggage delay insurance. And with a $0 foreign transaction fee, you won’t be charged extra on purchases made abroad. The annual fee is $95.

Best Chase Travel Cards

To see how Chase travel cards compare to the top offers on the market, visit our Best Travel Credit Cards page.

The best Discover travel card is the Discover it® Miles because it offers unlimited 1.5 miles per $1 spent on all purchases. Discover also matches all miles earned during the first year. Discover miles are worth 1 cent in travel each, and cardholders can use their miles to pay for any travel purchase made with the card. Cardholders can also book travel accommodations on Discover’s travel portal using miles, with no blackout dates or restrictions. Plus, Discover it Miles has a $0 annual fee and a 0% foreign transaction fee.

Discover it® chrome is another good Discover travel card, especially for road-trippers. It offers 2% cash back on $1,000 spent at gas stations and restaurants each quarter, plus 1% back on all other purchases and a first-year rewards match. Discover it chrome also has a $0 annual fee and a 0% foreign fee. 

All Discover cards can be useful for travel. That’s because Discover is one of the few issuers to not charge foreign transaction fees on any credit cards. 

• Discover it® Miles – Best for travel overall
• Discover it® chrome – Best for gas and dining

One of the best Capital One travel cards is the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card because it offers 60,000 miles for spending $3,000 in the first 3 months. This card also gives 2 miles per $1 on all purchases.

But in a sense, every Capital One credit card is a good travel card. Capital One is one of just a few credit card companies that have $0 foreign transaction fees on all their cards. Plus, Capital One’s travel cards are special in the sense that cardholders can redeem rewards for statement credits to pay for any travel purchase charged to the account. This adds flexibility in travel booking without sacrificing any value.

Ultimately, you can check out our editors' latest picks for the best travel credit cards in the market.

Chase Sapphire Reserve travel insurance includes $1 million in travel accident insurance and up to $20,000 in coverage for cancelled or interrupted trips. There’s also up to $3,000 per passenger for lost luggage, plus coverage for trip delays, emergency medical and dental expenses, and delayed luggage. The Sapphire Reserve card has the most travel insurance of any credit card on the market as a result.

Chase Sapphire Reserve travel insurance is free. It covers you and immediate family members on the same reservation from the time you leave on a trip until you return. You must pay for at least part of your travel with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card or Chase rewards points to be eligible.

Types of Chase Sapphire Reserve Travel Insurance:

• Travel accident insurance: This benefit pays up to $1 million for death or serious injuries during transit. There’s also up to $100,000 in coverage for the duration of your trip, not just during transit.
• Trip cancellation/interruption insurance: You can get up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for unforeseen cancellations. This benefit only refunds prepaid, non-refundable travel expenses.
• Trip delay reimbursement: This covers you for up to $500 per ticket. You’re reimbursed for necessary expenses if travel is delayed for more than six hours.
• Lost luggage reimbursement: If your luggage is lost or stolen, you can get up to $3,000 per person per trip.
• Baggage delay insurance: If your bags arrive more than 6 hours late, you’re covered up to $100 per day for up to 5 days. The reimbursement is for any essentials you’re forced to purchase, such as toiletries and clothing.
• Emergency medical and dental benefit: Chase Sapphire Reserve will also pay up to $2,500 in emergency medical or dental work per trip. A $50 deductible applies. You must be at least 100 miles away from your home.
• Emergency evacuation and transportation: If you or a family member become sick or injured during a trip and need to be evacuated, you can receive up to $100,000 in reimbursement for medical services and transportation costs.

If a covered event occurs, you’ll need to submit a claim. The first step is calling the Benefit Administrator at (888) 675-1461 to ask for a claim form. You’ll need to do this anywhere from immediately after the covered incident occurs to within 90 days. The timeframe depends on the benefit.

The Discover card rental car insurance benefit was discontinued for all Discover credit card accounts on February 28, 2018. The last day to file a claim was May 29, 2018 for incidents that happened on or before February 28. Prior to that date, Discover card rental car insurance provided up to $25,000 in coverage for rental cars that were damaged or stolen. Cardholders had to pay for the rental with a Discover card or Discover card rewards to be covered. They also had to decline the rental agency’s insurance offer to be eligible.

In addition to rental car insurance, Discover has cut several credit card benefits since February 2018. Discover dropped travel accident insurance, purchase protection, extended warranties and return protection.

The other three major credit card networks still offer rental car insurance. But credit card issuers are the ones that set the specific coverage terms. Discover, like American Express, happens to be both an issuer and a network.

You don't have to set an American Express travel notification under any circumstances. Amex is one of the few credit card companies that doesn’t allow it. Most issuers want you to tell them ahead of time when you plan on traveling, so they won’t flag your purchases as fraud if they see you spending money in another country or state. Amex, on the other hand, is confident in their ability to recognize fraud without travel notifications.

This is what American Express has to say about travel notifications on their website: “We use industry-leading fraud detection capabilities that help us recognize when our Card Members are traveling, so you don't need to notify us before you travel.” While the exact nature of how they do this is an Amex secret, some Amex customers have been able to provide insight into the process. For example, some report that Amex sent them an email saying their recent purchases indicated they’d be traveling in the near future. So if you buy plane tickets, for example, Amex will reasonably assume you’ll be going somewhere.

So in the end, you don’t need to set an American Express travel notification, and there’s no way to do it even if you wanted to. You should just expect Amex to figure out when you’re traveling. But if your card ever is flagged for fraud, a call to the number on the back of your card should quickly sort things out. It’s also a good idea to make sure Amex has the right phone number on file for you, so they can let you know if there’s an issue.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit automatically reimburses cardholders for up to $300 in travel-related expenses each year. The credit applies to flights, hotels, trains, cruises, taxis, parking, Uber and Lyft. It can also help pay for vacation packages and airline fees. Gas station and grocery store purchases will also count toward earning your travel credit, through December 31, 2021.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit does not apply to in-flight goods and services (e.g. Wi-Fi, food), tourist attractions, or merchants within airports. But the $300 annual credit does cover much of the card’s $550 annual fee.

Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credits are applied to the account the same day qualifying purchases post. This happens until you hit $300 total for the year. For example, if you make a $100 travel purchase, Chase will apply a $100 credit as soon as the purchase processes. And you will have $200 remaining for other purchases during the year. On your monthly statement, your transactions will include both the original purchase and an extra item that says, “Travel Credit.” The credit subtracts the purchase amount from your balance. Chase determines whether a purchase is eligible for the travel credit based on a 4-digit code that businesses use to categorize transactions. Anything coded as “travel” qualifies.

Remember that the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit resets every 12 months on the first statement date after your account anniversary. If you’re unsure when your credit will reset, you can call customer service at (800) 432-3117 or the number on the back of your card. Simply enter your account number and ask a representative.

Unused credit does not roll over from year to year, so make sure to keep track of how much of the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit you’ve used. That way, you’ll be able to make sure you take advantage of the whole thing.

The Capital One Purchase Eraser is a rewards-redemption option on some Capital One credit cards that lets cardholders choose recent travel-related purchases to “erase” with their earned miles. You can “erase” airfare, hotel, and transportation charges made in the last 90 days on the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card, Capital One® Spark® Miles Select for Business, and Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business.

To use the Capital One Purchase Eraser, log in to your Capital One account online or through the mobile app. Click on your rewards miles, and then select the “Cover a Purchase” option. Your eligible travel purchases will show up, along with the number of miles required to pay for each in full. You can also erase a portion of a purchase, if you don’t have enough miles to cover the entire amount. Once you’ve selected the purchase(s) you want to erase, the miles will be immediately subtracted from your rewards balance. Your account will then be credited with the redemption within 7 days.

When redeemed with Purchase Eraser, 1 Capital One mile is worth 1 cent. However, if you redeem your miles for a non-travel statement credit (not using the Purchase Eraser), they’re only worth half a cent each. So, it’s worth using Capital One miles rewards credit cards for travel expenses – you’ll have more eligible purchases to erase, and you’ll be able to get more value out of each redeemed mile.

Most travel rewards credit cards are much more restrictive when it comes to redeeming miles. But Bank of America is one credit card company that allows cardholders to erase travel purchases like Capital One.