Ten Credit Cards, One Strategy: Which Annual Fees Are Worth Paying

Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways

Hosts Sally French and Meghan Coyle discuss recent updates in the travel and credit card industries, including new Chase hotel credits and C

Key takeaways

• Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business is doubling its annual hotel credit to $1,000 via the Chase Edit Collection.
• The Chase Freedom Flex now features no foreign transaction fees, enhancing its utility as a travel card.

Main topics

• Chase Credit Card Updates
• Citi and Japan Airlines Partnership

Notable quotes

The best airline credit card is the one that serves your airport.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a practical guide for travelers looking to optim

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:00) Hey, Smart Travel Listener! How would you like a free $250 Amazon gift card? We're Speaker 3 (0:05) giving away two of them, and all you have to enter to win is take our listener survey. Speaker 4 (0:09) And this year's survey is way shorter than last year, so do fill it out. Ah, sure. Just like me, you'll love to see it. We really want you to fill it out because your answers actually help us shape the show, what we cover, what we cut, and whether or not it takes Liv to see another episode. Oh no, that would be sad if we cut them, but Speaker 3 (0:26) tell us what you want to hear. Now is your chance to make your voice heard. Go to nerdwallet.com slash travel survey and submit your entry by September 30th. You can find the official rules at that same link. Speaker 4 (0:37) That's nerdwallet.com slash travel survey. Thanks and good luck. Speaker 1 (0:40) In January of 1915, Ernest Shackleton's ship, Endurance, became encased in the ice in the Weddell Sea. Through determination, grit, and savvy, Shackleton would lead his men through a brutal winter, then over hundreds of miles of Antarctic ice, followed by 800 miles across some of the roughest waters in the world. It is one of the most extraordinary and inspirational journeys in the history of exploration. Find this story and many others at the Explorers Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts or at explorerspodcast.com. Speaker 3 (1:10) Today, we have a special guest coming into the studio who is actually a Speaker 4 (1:15) NerdWallet listener. And she has a bunch of credit card questions that might be applicable to a lot of other listeners out there. Speaker 4 (1:25) Welcome to a special in-studio edition of Smart Travel from NerdWallet. A deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Megan Coyle. And I am Sally Speaker 3 (1:34) French, and we are coming at you from a real video set. Yes, that means you can see our beautiful faces if you watch us on Spotify, where you can see this video, not just listen to us like you might be doing everywhere else. Speaker 4 (1:45) And we're the travel nerds ready to help you plan your next big trip or pick out your next credit card. And Speaker 3 (1:50) we literally do that as after we get to the news, we are bringing in one of our most dedicated listeners. But Speaker 4 (1:57) first, our disclaimer, and that's that we'll talk about a few credit card companies that are NerdWallet partners in this episode, but that doesn't influence how we discuss them. The benefits, terms, and fees mentioned were accurate at the time of posting, but things can always change, and some offers may have expired by the time you're listening. For the latest details, check out the links in the episode description. Speaker 3 (2:15) How much slower did you say that than I usually do? Oh my gosh, probably half the speed. All right, speaking of speed, let's hop out of the studio real quick. We're going to hit the news, and then we're going to run right back here. Speaker 4 (2:28) Starting with lots of Chase news this week. In 2027, the Sapphire Reserve for Business card is doubling the credit for hotels booked within the Chase Edit Collection. That's this like luxury hotel collection that you can book through Chase Travel. And the credits are going from up to $500 in value annually to $1,000 in value. Of course, that means it is broken out into four Speaker 3 (2:52) different statement credits. It's not that the former $250 credit is now $500. No, no, no. It is four credits that are $250 each. So you would have to book four separate stays. And because the edit has a two-night minimum, that is eight nights spent at edit hotels in order to actually get the full value of this credit. I will throw out there the other benefit of booking through the edit is that they throw on all these add-on perks. Some of them are breakfast for two. do a hotel credit, a room upgrade if available. So there are some real tangible benefits to booking through the edit. And Speaker 4 (3:26) lots of these hotels also cost a lot of money. They're luxury hotels and they're giving you elite status type of perks. I would really expect to spend like... easily $1,000 a night if you're booking some of the most expensive edit properties. Yeah, Speaker 3 (3:41) in some of those maybe lower cost of living countries, you can find a hotel that is really, if you're lucky, $400 or $500 a night. But yeah, Megan, I think you're right. All the hotels I'm seeing are minimum $1,000 a night, which means you are spending $8,000 by that metric to save $1,000. So whether this is really that kind of a deal, I'll leave that to you. Speaker 4 (3:58) And one last thing for cardholders with the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business. Starting November 15th, there's a new cap on the amount of points you can earn on social media and search engine advertising. So you'll earn three points per dollar on the first $1 million in ad spend each anniversary year. And then everything after that would earn only one point per dollar. I Speaker 3 (4:21) imagine this is affecting very few people. I don't know anyone who's spending anywhere near a million dollars on ad spend. I can tell you. Megan and I are not. If you look at our Instagram followings, which are relatively small, it is very clear that we are not spending a million dollars on ads. So we're not going to spend a million dollars on ads. If you could just help us out, give me a follow, save with Sally. I'm Miles with Megan Co. And follow the main account, Smart Travel Pod as well. So we don't have to spend money on ads. Speaker 4 (4:47) Okay, moving on to the Chase Sapphire Reserve, a card that Sally and I do have access to. This is the consumer version of the card. That card is also getting a couple of updates. One of them is that there's an increased DoorDash credit of up to $15 per month. And there's also a lot of other special travel offers and a giveaway. We did discuss this last week, but if you want to read more about it, check out the link in the episode description because these offers are still going. And last thing on the Chase end, Speaker 3 (5:15) the Freedom Flex is getting a refresh. Now, Speaker 4 (5:17) this is their $0 annual fee card. Speaker 3 (5:20) A few of the changes are not that exciting. New card art, new look. But the one thing that I really want to call out for you guys who listen to the show is that there are now no foreign transaction fees on this card. Previously, I had a hard time recommending this as a true travel card because there was a 3 % foreign transaction fee. But now there Speaker 4 (5:37) is none. And just to be clear, we always recommend this card with one of the Chase Travel cards, the Chase Sapphire card, because the great thing about the Chase Freedom Flex is it earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points. And you could actually transfer those points from your Chase Freedom Flex over to a Sapphire card and then use them to book travel maybe for the edit collection properties or... transfer them to an airline, things like that. And the other great thing about this card is it has some different earning rates that might help you maximize how many points you're earning on everyday spending. This card gets a 5 % back. That's like five points per dollar on rotating quarterly categories. You have to activate them and you only get that 5X on up to $1,500 of spending in that quarter. But the new thing that's coming is that you'll actually get to preview the categories a quarter early. So they've already... announce the ones for Q3 and Q4. And that'll help our credit card maximizers plan out the rest of their spending for this quarter and next. Final thing I'll say on Chase is that there is a new welcome bonus. We will Speaker 3 (6:42) put a link to that information and more in the episode description. Speaker 4 (6:46) Okay, more news from another credit card issuer. City Thank You added Japan Airlines as a new transfer partner. It's a one-to-one transfer ratio if you have any of the cards that earn City Thank You points and has an annual fee. If you have one of those City Thank You cards that does not have an annual fee, then the transfer ratio is not as good. It's one to 0.7. And to incentivize us to all jump on Speaker 3 (7:12) this, they are running a 30 % transfer bonus. That offer is valid through October 24th. Now the way that works is that eligible card members with an annual fee card can transfer a thousand thank you points for 1300 JL miles. And then if you have a no annual fee card, that means you can transfer a thousand thank you points for 910 miles. Speaker 4 (7:33) Now, we always say more transfer partners is better. That means more redemption options for credit card holders. But that also could mean that the availability to book with points might be a little bit more limited. Japan Airlines miles used to be really hard to earn. But recently, like maybe since 2025, a lot of different credit card rewards programs have added Japan Airlines as a transfer partner. I'm thinking about Capital One and Built Rewards and tons of people transferred points to Japan Airlines. Japan Airlines. And now I've seen all over social media that it is getting really hard to book some of those premium class redemptions with Japan Airlines miles because the availability just isn't there. Yeah, Speaker 3 (8:13) everybody, I think since 2025 also wants to go to Japan. And then with all these bonus ways to get points to fly to Japan, I just worry that. finding availability is going to be very difficult. We Speaker 4 (8:25) always say you shouldn't transfer points unless you see the exact flight and the exact class of service that you want. I actually did get to fly Japan Airlines business class a couple years ago, and I highly recommend it if you're even a little bit curious about it. It is worth the effort of trying to find award availability. They are really famous for not only their lounges in the airports in Japan, but also the food on the flight is so good. They have like Western menu and like an Asian menu. And I got the Japanese menu and had this entire bento box when I was flying Japan Airlines. And they're also very famous for their Japanese curry that you can get on board. Speaker 3 (9:04) Okay, I love a curry. Now, speaking of lounges, we have to talk about American Express because they just opened a Centurion lounge over in Amsterdam. This opened to the public last week. It is the first one in continental Europe. They do have a lounge over in London, which I highly recommend because they have a tea cart, which you got to check out when in London. Speaker 4 (9:22) Here's the catch, though. You can only be on a flight that is leaving the Shenzhen area. And the Shenzhen area is this group of European countries. It's mostly countries in the EU, plus a couple of other ones that allow you to travel between them without the typical border crossing checks of your passport. So this lounge is only accessible to people who are flying and leaving the Shenzhen area. So if you're like on a layover in Amsterdam and you're just going to, let's say, Paris or Italy. then you won't be able to use this lounge. Okay, that Speaker 3 (9:55) is a good note because I am one of those people who's totally fine to run to a different terminal, different gates. I don't mind how far away the lounge is, but sounds like you straight up cannot do that depending on your flight. Speaker 4 (10:04) Right. And I think this is honestly kind of necessary, too, because the lounge isn't that big. It's only 6,000 square feet. So it's definitely on the smaller side. But it does have some really fun features, including a coffee bar, which everyone hated my take that I just want coffee bars instead of alcohol bars at lounges. They really did rent you. Speaker 2 (10:23) I did Speaker 4 (10:23) buy this. Speaker 4 (10:26) So this Amex Centurion Lounge in Amsterdam has a coffee bar. It also has a full alcohol bar for people who like that and also lots of local Dutch food. Now Speaker 3 (10:34) we have to talk about Las Vegas because they have a major sale going on now through Saturday, September Speaker 4 (10:39) 26th. So Vegas is fighting that image of being an ultra expensive place to travel. And so there are tons of really good hotel deals and also deals on entertainment. This is kind of their new once a year sale. They did this last Speaker 3 (10:52) year and this year they say they have more deals than ever. You can find the full list of deals at visitlasvegas.com. But I want to talk about a few standouts here. The first one that I'm thinking about is 25 % off at Aria, Bellagio, Cosmopolitan and Dara on top. of that, you also get $100 a day food and beverage credit. Why I think this is standout is because you get both of those things together. Typically, the deals I see are one or the other. And to be frank, you don't even typically see those hotels, which are some of the fancier ones, discounted at a rate this amount. Speaker 4 (11:23) I was also looking at the 30 % discount off of the Nobu Hotel at Caesars Palace. This is kind of like a boutique hotel concept within Caesars Palace, and I love the design of it. They also have a really cool library. bar slash restaurant that you'll have to check out. Oh, have you stayed in one? I really want to. I haven't stayed there, but I have been to that library bar restaurant and it is perfect for a date night. It feels like old Vegas. You know what I mean? I do like Vegas because I often just hop into all the restaurants and don't actually stay at the fancy hotels, but I feel Speaker 3 (11:52) fancy because I just spend all the time in them. Speaker 4 (11:55) That's the great thing about Vegas. There's a lot of resort hopping you can do. Okay, last item going the flight. deals, notification service. They used to have a newsletter and now they have an app, all sorts of things. It also used to be known as Scott's Cheap Flights. They've launched a new feature called Price Drop. This is pretty cool. Speaker 3 (12:12) So you can add a flight. You can actually add up to five flights, they say. And if they see that the fare drops by at least 10 % below what you paid, going will tell you with the dollar amount and instructions on how you can claim that money back. So if you booked main cabin or above, it's usually quite simple to just cancel. that flight with the airline. Then you get a travel credit, then you rebook it, and then you have that cheaper flight, and then you have that fair difference as a travel credit. Presumably you will use it on a future flight. Speaker 4 (12:41) I do this all the time. Sometimes I'll do it just to save $10, but Going says that there are members who've used it and found savings of $150. Even better. Yeah, Speaker 3 (12:50) and that's Speaker 4 (12:50) basically, Speaker 3 (12:51) depending Speaker 4 (12:51) on where you're going, another whole Speaker 3 (12:52) free flight right out of that. Speaker 4 (12:53) Yeah, especially when flights are priced so high this year and holiday flights coming up, I think there's a lot of nervousness around getting the right price. I would say definitely take advantage of features like these that are looking for price drops. Speaker 3 (13:05) So Going runs a freemium model where there is the free version and totally check it out. However, I will point out that This option is only available if you have one of their paid tiers, which is premium or elite. Premium does cost $49 annually, so it gets you this. It gets you a bunch of other fair deals and custom destination alerts. Speaker 4 (13:23) Ooh, okay. Well, we'll link to more of our coverage of Going. Sally, you did a fantastic interview with the founder last year, so we can put that in the episode description. Stay with us. We're about to do a credit card console with a friend of the show. We call her Tiny Tiff. Speaker 4 (13:45) Today's episode is sponsored by Vinted. Speaker 3 (13:47) Megan, I have to confess something. I have clothes that I just don't wear because maybe they don't fit right or because wearing sundresses in San Francisco is just not something you can ever do when it's foggy 90 % of the time. Well, maybe it's time to let go of those sundresses. I love any sort of deal or opportunity to earn and save money, and I will let go of almost anything if I know I'm getting paid for it. Speaker 4 (14:06) You should try Vinted. It's a secondhand marketplace that makes it easy for everyday sellers, people like me and you, to sell pre-loved fashion and actually earn some money doing it. Speaker 3 (14:14) And listing something takes minutes. You snap a photo, write a quick description, set your price, and it's live. And there are no selling fees on Vinted, so whatever you sell Speaker 4 (14:22) something for, you keep. The app is free to download, too. Speaker 3 (14:25) If I'm keeping everything I make, it's actually worth the time to list something instead of just letting it sit in my closet. Speaker 4 (14:30) So if you've got a drawer of clothes you're never going to wear, like Sally, like I do, it might be time to open Vinted, take a few photos, and see what it's worth to somebody else. Speaker 3 (14:38) Download Vinted for free and start selling today. Speaker 4 (14:43) All right. Welcome back, everyone. We've got a special guest today, a listener who's here to do a credit card consult with us. Thanks for being here, Tiff. Of course. Thank you for having me. So Tiffany Lung is an avid weekly listener of our show. She is a competitive powerlifter and weightlifter, as well as