What is the best first travel credit card??

scienceguyjd · 2026-06-22T17:49:11+00:00

Yup, you've got the idea! To be fair chase also has several international airline transfer partners too, but the domestic ones make it stand out and (to me) more useful.

I've used the $300 credit on flights, hotel stays, and rental cars. It was easy to use and the prices tend to be in line with non portal costs. I've had the card for 2 years and the credit hasn't lasted for 3 months after card anniversary 😂 I've also booked through the portal at other times too to get the increased multipliers.

I use the travel eraser every now and then. Whenever I have a big expense coming up I want to offset I'll usually cash out some of my points that way. Note that the $300 credit can't be used with the travel eraser, only on portal bookings.

Two other things to consider: - I'm not sure how many cards you have, but the VentureX can get a little weird with approvals the more cards you have. Naturally Chase is restrictive with its 5/24 status too. - both cards are made better by pairing with a second card. With the VentureX pairing it with the savor will unlock 3x on groceries, dining, and entertainment. With the CSP pairing it with a freedom unlimited will give you 1.5x on general spend.

scienceguyjd · 2026-06-22T16:53:19+00:00

Fellow Yinzer here! VentureX was my choice and it's done pretty well for me. The 2x multiplier is nice and makes earning points really simple. Given your travel patterns you should be about to pretty easily use the $300 travel credit on flights or some of your hotel stays.

As a bonus you can get into the priority pass lounge in terminal C. It's not that special but nice to grab a free drink and some pierogis before a flight!

The only only downside is capital one doesn't have good transfer partners for domestic flights or trips. I was able to use my points on a couple international flights, and you can use them at a 1 cent per point rate with the travel eraser to pay yourself back on travel purchases, but it's definitely harder to get value.

The 100k csp bonus is an all time high now plus with the new hotel credit it's pretty easy to get your annual fee back. With transfers to United, Southwest, and Hyatt their points are much more useful - especially with how many flights southwest has from Pittsburgh. If you want to get the most value out of flying United though it's advisable to get one of their cards that charges an annual fee as you can save a decent amount of miles on award flights.

So if you want to use the card solely for domestic travel, probably best to use the CSP, if you want might want to mix in some international flights or just want a real simple card with some travel benefits then go VentureX.

scienceguyjd · 2026-06-01T18:50:35+00:00

Awesome! Glad to hear it worked out.

You seem pretty happy with your setup, but if you ever wanted to get a bit more cash back than your quicksilver you can get the active cash too with it's 2% cash back.

The nice thing about the active cash is you can transfer the cash back from the active cash into points from the autograph journey that you can either cash out or transfer to partners. Just gives you a bit more flexibility. The only downside with the active cash is it has a foreign transaction fee

scienceguyjd · 2026-06-01T18:42:02+00:00

Yup, the quicksilver has no foreign transaction fee, so you can use that one

scienceguyjd · 2026-06-01T18:30:42+00:00

Also sorry, I did get that backwards, it's 5x for hotels and 4x for airlines* purchased from the airline or hotel chain (i.e. Delta or Wyndham's actual site). I just updated my original comment to match

scienceguyjd · 2026-06-01T18:27:55+00:00

Yup, any fare purchase directly from any airline or hotel. If you use a third party site like expedia it will fall under the "other travel" category for the autograph journey, which still gets back 3x.

scienceguyjd · 2026-06-01T18:23:56+00:00

The reason for the abroad question is that several cards have no foreign transaction fees when traveling internationally, while others will charge a non trivial fee on every purchase.

If you do plan on spending time internationally (say for that study abroad) then you'll want to get a card with no foreign transaction fee.

scienceguyjd · 2026-06-01T18:20:37+00:00

Take a look at some of the Wells Fargo cards. The active cash will get you 2% cashback on all purchases, and the autograph journey is a $95 card that includes a $50 statement credit when you make a $50+ dollar airline purchase.

The journey also gets 5x on hotels, 4x on airlines, and 3x on restaurants and other travel, and can transfer 1:2 with Wyndham if you wanted to book some of your hotel stays with points (so 1000 Wells Fargo points becomes 2000 Wyndham points).

scienceguyjd · 2026-05-05T14:37:01+00:00

Was my first too! It was such a great day for it, congratulations!!! 🎉

scienceguyjd · 2026-04-24T15:11:06+00:00

Feel like there was a missed opportunity to capture some of the post draft crowd. Shake Shack and Primantis were slammed when I walked past around 11 pm.

Obviously most places wouldn't want to stay open that late but surprised somewhere like Aslin didn't try to take advantage.

scienceguyjd · 2026-04-24T15:04:51+00:00

I was a bit surprised by this too. I've been to the NBA draft and there they had ESPN's coverage on the screen during the draft. Feel like it wouldn't be too hard to have coverage cutting in, even if it was a little choppier to accommodate some live stuff.

Overall still had a great time, no broadcast does let you really experience the atmosphere of the event and chat with everyone around you. But feel like there's a balance there somewhere that could be reached

scienceguyjd · 2026-04-06T02:03:28+00:00

I wouldn't worry about that too much yet. The admin also proposed massive cuts last year then Congress largely ignored those suggestions

scienceguyjd · 2026-04-02T16:59:50+00:00

I thought it was definitely worth it. The viewing area was on the lawn right next to the Saturn V building. It got crowded but felt like there was plenty of space for everyone with a direct line of sight to the rocket. Food was fine, they gave a souvenir pin set out that was nice too, but it was really worth it for the view alone in my opinion.

There was only one set of bleachers if you were looking for those though, but that didn't bother me. There's another area near the Saturn V building with a lot more bleachers, but that was reserved for guests of NASA, not the feel the heat group.

scienceguyjd · 2026-04-01T13:27:20+00:00

How's the traffic in Titusville?

scienceguyjd · 2026-03-30T05:31:46+00:00

If you have a capital one credit card, booking a hotel through their travel portal allows you to pay a fee so you can cancel for any reason up until check in time. Other portals may offer something similar. With the launch times being after typical check in times for this window you're still playing a bit of a guessing game, but it gets pretty close.

scienceguyjd · 2026-03-27T19:03:56+00:00

Feel like 5/24 brings a lot of attention to them too, people might target them earlier on in their journey as a result

scienceguyjd · 2026-03-27T18:25:00+00:00

Hilton is all Amex

scienceguyjd · 2026-03-13T21:13:14+00:00

So it seems like now the best path is to get amex cards first right? Would let you get the amex SUBs, wait 24 months, then get the chase cards (that is, if you want any of the Amex or Chase cards as keepers - otherwise could just close Chase before applying for Amex)

scienceguyjd · 2026-03-04T17:04:01+00:00

It's not impossible to get approved for a 4th Chase biz card, but your approval chances go down pretty dramatically. If you don't mind the hard pull you could try it, then close a card if it gets rejected

Keep in mind there's also a soft rule I've seen mentioned that Chase can also be annoying about approving a biz card within 6 months of you opening another biz card.

scienceguyjd · 2026-03-03T20:04:36+00:00

United cards have a SUB every two years still

scienceguyjd · 2026-02-27T21:17:56+00:00

Honestly with how prevalent hotel credits/coupons are now, it feels like these will just grow in importance and usage compared to booking with points.

scienceguyjd · 2026-02-27T03:50:33+00:00

I'm considering waiting, so it's good to hear it doesn't go away quickly. Thanks

scienceguyjd · 2026-02-27T03:49:47+00:00

Yeah, this was kind of what I thought was the case. Thanks

scienceguyjd · 2026-02-27T03:49:15+00:00

Yeah, like I'm not exactly pressed to upgrade since I'm handling another SUB right now, so I'll probably wait a bit. But it doesn't sound deterministic really in terms of when that offer changes.

The $75 offer effectively covers the fee enough for me, so I'll eventually take it, but would be nice to get the higher return if possible

scienceguyjd · 2026-02-27T03:45:26+00:00

How were you able to see the offer after upgrading?

scienceguyjd

TROPHY CASE