Travel Rewards Credit Cards

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® card 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 Chase Sapphire Preferred or 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 cards. Plus, 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 travel purchased through Chase, 2 points per $1 on all other travel purchases, 3 points per $1 on dining and online grocery purchases, 3 points per $1 on select streaming services, and 1 point per $1 on all other purchases. The Chase Sapphire Preferred card also has an initial bonus of 60,000 bonus 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. Plus, with a $0 foreign transaction fee, you won’t be charged extra on purchases made abroad. The annual fee is $95.

Some of the 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 each (regardless of the redemption option), 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

The best Capital One travel card is the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card because it offers 75,000 miles for spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. This card also gives 5 miles per $1 spent on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, and 2 miles per $1 on all other purchases. However, there are several good Capital One credit cards for travel to choose from.

Best Capital One Travel Cards

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 to weigh your options.

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. Some 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.” Some American Express cardholders 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. also a good idea to keep your contact information updated and 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 and hotels, as well as vacation packages and airline fees, among other things.

Some purchases don’t qualify for the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit, including in-flight goods and services (e.g. Wi-Fi, food), tourist attractions, and merchants within airports. But the $300 yearly travel credit helps offset some of the card’s $550 annual fee.

Key Things to Know About the Chase Sapphire Reserve Travel Credit

1. How to use the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit:

To use the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit, you just make eligible travel purchases with this card. You don’t have to activate the benefit, use any codes, or book through special websites. The statement credit is automatically 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.

2. Purchases that qualify for the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit:

• Airlines
• Hotels and motels
• Car rental agencies
• Travel agencies
• Timeshares
• Cruise lines
• Discount travel sites
• Parking lots and garages
• Campgrounds
• Operators of passenger trains, buses, taxis, limousines, ferries, toll bridges and highways

As you can see, the categories for purchases that qualify for Chase Sapphire Reserve’s travel credit are very broad compared to other travel credit cards. However, not all travel-related purchases qualify for the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit.

3. Purchases that don’t qualify for the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit:

• Sightseeing activities
• Tourist attractions
• Educational merchants arranging travel
• In-flight goods and services
• Onboard cruise line goods and services
• Real estate agents
• Purchases from gift card merchants
• Excursions
• RV and boat rentals
• Merchants within hotels and airports
• Public campgrounds
• Merchants that rent vehicles for the purpose of hauling
• Merchants that sell points or miles

Chase determines whether a purchase is eligible for the travel credit based on a 4-digit code that businesses use to categorize transactions. Anything that is not coded as “travel” doesn’t qualify.

4. When the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit resets:

Remember that the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit is available from the first day you open your account and lasts for 12 billing cycles, before resetting. Unused credit does not roll over from year to year. The travel credit will continue to reset every 12 billing cycles, 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 you see on the back of your card. Simply enter your card number and follow the prompts to connect to a live representative.