Main purpose of asking this question is that I wanna accumulate points for travel. I travel to India once or twice a year and to the Philippines once a year. Main spending is groceries at Market Basket and rarely going out to eat. I end up spending about $1000-1500 a month. I wanna keep the same spending habits and accumulate the points to use it for my international travel. I’ve looked into Chase and Capital One but don’t know the game enough to make the decision. If you guys can help, that would be awesome! Or give me any other recommendations about other card combos.
Edit: I usually use Korean Air or Cathay Pacific for Philippines trip and Virgin Atlantic or Etihad or Emirates for Indian trip. I don’t wanna be tied down to one airline. I don’t care if I don’t use their portals for booking. I don’t care for lounge and other amenities. I don’t use rental cars or hotels on my stay.
Jory said: @Amory
C1 Savor is 3% back for groceries. Isn’t the CSP the same?
3% on dining. 3% on online groceries, so I guess in a way it could be. Just seems like jumping through hoops a little bit to get the 3% back. Much easier on the Savor.
Cortland said: @Amory
Is it only online groceries or in-person groceries too?
Only online grocery
Meh. Chase Trifecta is overrated for someone who is looking for a long-term setup without going through the pain of planning to adapt for revolving categories.
In my opinion, Wells Fargo Active Cash and Autograph or Capital One Duo are solid choices.
@Cortland
Think the value of Chase Trifecta is in Chase’s transfer partners not really in their ability to earn points easily. I also appreciate how flexible they are when it comes to earning for travel categories and redeem the travel statement credit.
Wells Fargo is good at earning points, but its transfer partners are really bad. Capital One is pretty solid but it has a lot limitations on travel-related spends. You have to go through their portal to earn those points or statement credits.
C1 duo would be my vote. I like the 2x catch-all and no effective AF on VX, and you get an actual grocery multiplier with the Savor instead of just online grocery with Chase. Personally, I went for Amex Gold over the Savor, but it’s still a great card. And with my spending, I can’t justify the CSR after the $300 travel credit.
However, make sure you look at each card’s transfer partners. If there’s an airline you typically fly with that one issuer doesn’t have, it might be a dealbreaker.
@JakeFinancePro
How would I find which airline is a transfer partner of the card I’ll use?
I usually use Korean Air or Cathay Pacific for the Philippines trip and Virgin Atlantic or Etihad or Emirates for the Indian trip. I don’t wanna be tied down to one airline. I don’t care if I don’t use their portals for booking. I don’t care for lounges and other things. I don’t use rental cars or hotels on my stay.
@Grier
The Venture X would be a good fit for you. Its real weakness is domestic airlines. We use it for an international flight every year and it works great for every airline we have flown. Lots of websites that will compare the partners.
Out of what you currently fly, C1 has Cathay, Virgin, Emirates, and Etihad.
Out of what you currently fly, Chase has Emirates and Virgin.
However, you can often find award seats through these airlines’ partners. Like, as an example, C1 doesn’t have American Airlines but I can find American award seats through British Airways, which C1 does have.
Also, if you don’t care for lounge access, you could substitute the CSP for the CSR for a lower annual fee.
Both Chase and Capital One partners could be useful for your international flights. Which one is better depends. They both have Aeroplan and Virgin which are helpful. Chase has United which actually has a lot of flights to the Philippines and their economy award flights are very competitive, but Capital One has its own options too with Qantas, Cathay Pacific, and EVA. One clear difference is that Chase has a great hotel partner in Hyatt while Capital One doesn’t. I stayed at the Grand Hyatt in Manila for a few days and it was an incredible deal, but for a long trip you might want to book mostly cheaper independent hotels through Agoda or Priceline.
I would recommend a hybrid setup like VentureX, Savor, CSP, and CFF. This would be a best of both worlds setup.
Capital One Duo seems like a good alignment with your needs.
Capital One Savor (formerly SavorOne) (no AF)
3% grocery (note that Walmart, Target, and club warehouses don’t code as grocery)
3% dining
3% entertainment
3% popular streaming
5% hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
8% Capital One Entertainment
1% otherwise
Mastercard
No FTF
Savor cashback can be converted to miles for Venture X.
Capital One Venture X ($395 AF)
10x hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
5x flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel
2x catch-all
$300 annual Capital One Travel credit
10K anniversary miles
Visa Infinite
No FTF
You can do better than 1 cpp by transferring your miles to transfer partners, but 1 cpp is a good floor for discussion purposes, so the effective AF is -$5 if you’re sure you can use the travel credit each year.
In exchange for your trouble, you get:
Priority Pass for each cardholder (including authorized users)
Capital One lounge access (currently at DCA, DEN, DFW, and IAD)
No cost for authorized user cards
Global Entry credit every 4 years
Primary auto rental coverage
President’s Circle status with Hertz (you can use it to status match with other rental car companies)
Trip delay, cancellation, and interruption coverage
Purchase security, extended warranty, and return protection coverage
Cell phone protection
One quirk is that Capital One’s transfer partners skew international, however, you can often book domestically through them. But the travel eraser is a guaranteed 1 cpp valuation if you want to keep it simple. Capital One Travel is run on Hopper and price matches exact outside offerings.