travel credit card

[504196]

I've been told by many to get a travel credit card for residency interview season. Just wondering what one you all typically get. I'm leaving for an away rotation next month so might get my travel credit card a little early.

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[intubesteak]

I've been told by many to get a travel credit card for residency interview season. Just wondering what one you all typically get. I'm leaving for an away rotation next month so might get my travel credit card a little early.

Check out the list on physicianonFIRE blog, there is a good list and also some good blog posts about using them. Most of them require you to spend 3000 within the first 3 months, so you may want to wait until you can use it to pay for ERAS unless you think you can spend that much.

Also the in-flight offers are usually pretty solid and usually cannot get them elsewhere (that I could find). I got an AA advantage card and used it for 2 round trip flights using the intro miles.

 

[raiderette]

I put every purchase on a travel card, then pay it off monthly. The only thing I don't pay by card is my rent. I earn some points, but I don't spend a lot of money. Hopefully I will get a free flight or two for interviews.

 

[Scrubs101]

American Airlines/Citi Bank something something elite card has like a 60,000 miles sign up which will get you a few round trip flights right there. Card will get u 2x miles on gas and american airlines purchases. 99/yr first year free.

Chase sapphire preferred has like a 50,000 sign up bonus which equivalent to like 650$. Card will get you 2x points on travel and restaurants (pretty lenient on those definitions too). 95/yr first year free.

Delta gold/american express you get a 30kmiles sign up bonus which is good for one round tripish. The card will get u 2x miles on delta purchases. 95$/yr first year free.

First two of those require you to spend 3-4k in first 3-4months. Delta requires much less like 1k for 3months, may offer a 100$ rebate too. Travel cards come with free checked bag, and some other loyalty perks. All have pretty extensive travel insurance things that are pretty cool.

Theres also the delta blue card that offers lower sign up (10kmiles), no annual fee, no loyalty perks besides like cheaper on flight purchases i think, but has 2x miles for restaurants as well.

Depending on how long you have to build up points the 2x on whatever can factor into your decision, but since its relatively soon for you id go for either the American airlines one for the quick miles or whatever airline you fly most for free baggage.

(Recently was looking into one myself and still havent decided lol)

 

[atomi]

Sign up for Chase Sapphire Preferred (not reserve)
You earn 2% on all travel and dining and you get a 50,000 point bonus after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. You need to time signing up for it with your anticipated spending and travel so you get the bonus and can use the bonus for your interview travel.
The 50,000 points are worth $500, and you can take this as cash back, but it's better to transfer the points from Chase to your Southwest RapidRewards account. 50,000 chase points come out to be about 4 free round trip domestic flights on southwest, so that's more like an $800 value that they are just giving you for signing up for the card.
There is a $95 annual fee for the first year, but it is waived.

 

[AMEHigh]

Most people/info out there say that Chase Sapphire or Amex Platinum are the best for rewards out there.

I have the Amex platinum and I love it. There are a lot of perks and it's easy to transfer points in order to book flights and other travel related expenses. People who have the Chase also say good things about it.

 

[trobinsonmd]

Chase Sapphire Preferred is what I have had for years now, but actually, the Sapphire Reserve is better if you are going to be traveling a lot and can get approved for it... at first, you see it has a $450 fee, but if you look into specifics, there is a $300 travel credit, and they also comp you for tsa precheck and global entry, so you save tons of time at busier airports... also you get 3x points on travel and dining so it is worth it if you are going to be flying around everywhere... also has great transfer partners and you can book a flight to pretty much anywhere in the world

 

[atomi]

Chase Sapphire Preferred is what I have had for years now, but actually, the Sapphire Reserve is better if you are going to be traveling a lot and can get approved for it... at first, you see it has a $450 fee, but if you look into specifics, there is a $300 travel credit, and they also comp you for tsa precheck and global entry, so you save tons of time at busier airports... also you get 3x points on travel and dining so it is worth it if you are going to be flying around everywhere... also has great transfer partners and you can book a flight to pretty much anywhere in the world

There are online calculators that can determine if the reserve is financially worth it for you.
You'd have to be pretty ballar in your spending as a med student to make a $450 annual fee worth it.

 

[Frogger27]

I just opened up a Marriot Premier... 5,000 in the first 3 months and you get 100,000 points ($1,000). Booking some vacations after STEP with this

 

[trobinsonmd]

There are online calculators that can determine if the reserve is financially worth it for you.
You'd have to be pretty ballar in your spending as a med student to make a $450 annual fee worth it.

If you know you’re going to be flying a lot, it’s effectively a $150 fee once you account for the travel credit. Only $55 more than the preferred, and it comes with global entry credit... I think it’s worth it for someone who’s on the interview trail since you get 3X on travel

 

[atomi]

If you know you’re going to be flying a lot, it’s effectively a $150 fee once you account for the travel credit. Only $55 more than the preferred, and it comes with global entry credit... I think it’s worth it for someone who’s on the interview trail since you get 3X on travel

If it had the 100,000 point bonus, maybe. As far as I know that's gone and it's back to 50,000.
The point is to get the sign-up bonus so you can use those points and not have to pay for interview travel at all. Both cards have the same sign up bonus. Now, if you are planning to fly for 15 different interviews, then you'll have to pay for most of those, in which case you're right the reserve might be a better deal. But it's a lot of hassle trying to make sure you're on the green side of the point curve, and then after interview season, you're not going to keep that card because there's no way the $450 fee is going to be worth it as an intern and resident due to an exponential fall off in your travel. Whereas the preferred is worth keeping forever for most people who travel a few times a year and eat out often.

 

[Scrubs101]

If you know you’re going to be flying a lot, it’s effectively a $150 fee once you account for the travel credit. Only $55 more than the preferred, and it comes with global entry credit... I think it’s worth it for someone who’s on the interview trail since you get 3X on travel

If it had the 100,000 point bonus, maybe. As far as I know that's gone and it's back to 50,000.
The point is to get the sign-up bonus so you can use those points and not have to pay for interview travel at all. Both cards have the same sign up bonus. Now, if you are planning to fly for 15 different interviews, then you'll have to pay for most of those, in which case you're right the reserve might be a better deal. But it's a lot of hassle trying to make sure you're on the green side of the point curve, and then after interview season, you're not going to keep that card because there's no way the $450 fee is going to be worth it as an intern and resident due to an exponential fall off in your travel. Whereas the preferred is worth keeping forever for most people who travel a few times a year and eat out often.

Curious, do you two think the chase sapphire card is preferable over an airline card if I only plan on using points for travel purposes?

From what ive seen chase unlimited pts can be worth up to 1.25cents each, while miles can range from .8-3.2 depending on season/flight. The sapphire gives essentially 625$ in pts for sign up, but a quick search through american airlines shows 60kmiles can just about cover a 1200$ plane ticket for next month to hawaii/europe. While the airline cards also include free checked bags, which can add up.

The fact that chase pts can be transferred to any hotel/airline pt system is pretty cool though, and the wide spread options for point usage seems to be giving the sapphire card the advantage from what i can see.

 

[atomi]

Curious, do you two think the chase sapphire card is preferable over an airline card if I only plan on using points for travel purposes?

From what ive seen chase unlimited pts can be worth up to 1.25cents each, while miles can range from .8-3.2 depending on season/flight. The sapphire gives essentially 625$ in pts for sign up, but a quick search through american airlines shows 60kmiles can just about cover a 1200$ plane ticket for next month to hawaii/europe. While the airline cards also include free checked bags, which can add up.

The fact that chase pts can be transferred to any hotel/airline pt system is pretty cool though, and the wide spread options for point usage seems to be giving the sapphire card the advantage from what i can see.

The general consensus is that it is better to transfer the chase ultimate rewards points directly to the airline rather than book through chase travel. Even though they are worth 25% more through chase travel, the point transfer to the airline is typically worth more. For example, a roundtrip southwest trip might cost 17,000 points on southwest's website. On chase's travel rewards portal, that same trip might sell for $325. With the 25% discount, that comes out to $260, or 26,000 points. The better deal is to transfer to southwest. Doesn't always work out this way, but it usually does. There are few exceptions where it's better to book directly on chase's website. The other exception is if you have the chase reserve card, which gives you a 50% discount instead of 25%.

You are wrong that chase points can be transferred to any hotel/airline. They only have a few travel partners you can transfer them to. However, due to codeshares, it's usually possible to book on most airlines. For example, you can't transfer points to American Airlines, but you could transfer them to British Airways and book the trip on an American Airlines codeshare flight through British Airways' point system.

 

[21Rush12]

Question for the group: how do you handle the income portion of this? I got denied for a JetBlue card because they wouldn’t consider my loans as income and said I have no income. My credit is 740+ and I have another credit card that I seldom use. I don’t know how everyone is getting these cards when I can’t get approved for anything at all.

 

[Scrubs101]

The general consensus is that it is better to transfer the chase ultimate rewards points directly to the airline rather than book through chase travel. Even though they are worth 25% more through chase travel, the point transfer to the airline is typically worth more. For example, a roundtrip southwest trip might cost 17,000 points on southwest's website. On chase's travel rewards portal, that same trip might sell for $325. With the 25% discount, that comes out to $260, or 26,000 points. The better deal is to transfer to southwest. Doesn't always work out this way, but it usually does. There are few exceptions where it's better to book directly on chase's website. The other exception is if you have the chase reserve card, which gives you a 50% discount instead of 25%.

You are wrong that chase points can be transferred to any hotel/airline. They only have a few travel partners you can transfer them to. However, due to codeshares, it's usually possible to book on most airlines. For example, you can't transfer points to American Airlines, but you could transfer them to British Airways and book the trip on an American Airlines codeshare flight through British Airways' point system.

Sorry didnt mean “all airlines”, just their partners which i didnt look into. But awesome, thank you!

 

[trobinsonmd]

If it had the 100,000 point bonus, maybe. As far as I know that's gone and it's back to 50,000.
The point is to get the sign-up bonus so you can use those points and not have to pay for interview travel at all. Both cards have the same sign up bonus. Now, if you are planning to fly for 15 different interviews, then you'll have to pay for most of those, in which case you're right the reserve might be a better deal. But it's a lot of hassle trying to make sure you're on the green side of the point curve, and then after interview season, you're not going to keep that card because there's no way the $450 fee is going to be worth it as an intern and resident due to an exponential fall off in your travel. Whereas the preferred is worth keeping forever for most people who travel a few times a year and eat out often.

I think a lot of it depends on how much you travel and eat out... I'm in NYC, and all of family is in SoCal, so I fly back and forth a lot, and I eat out a ton... so the Reserve makes better sense for me, I've done math on both of them and I the rate at which I earn award travel is greater than effective $55 cost difference between the cards, also the reserve comes with lounge access and it is valuable in getting work done... I think it depends on how much you travel... if you fly <$2,500-5,000 worth a year, then probably don't go for the reserve

 

[AMEHigh]

If it had the 100,000 point bonus, maybe. As far as I know that's gone and it's back to 50,000.
The point is to get the sign-up bonus so you can use those points and not have to pay for interview travel at all. Both cards have the same sign up bonus. Now, if you are planning to fly for 15 different interviews, then you'll have to pay for most of those, in which case you're right the reserve might be a better deal. But it's a lot of hassle trying to make sure you're on the green side of the point curve, and then after interview season, you're not going to keep that card because there's no way the $450 fee is going to be worth it as an intern and resident due to an exponential fall off in your travel. Whereas the preferred is worth keeping forever for most people who travel a few times a year and eat out often.

Most residency programs give 4 weeks of vacation after intern year. I've traveled more internationally during residency than med school. Plus, going to conferences during residency. Having global entry and tsa precheck has totally been worth it. Plus the access to airport lounges is really beneficial, with free food & alcohol it saves you money at the airport. If travel is a priority for someone I don't think it falls off during residency as I definitely have more time (and money) to travel now. This year points/credit card benefits have helped me go to Guadeloupe and Cuba. In the fall I'll be heading to Chile/Argentina and LA. Every resident I know uses up every last bit of their vacation days!

 

[jaguar33]

Uber Visa. 3x for travel (airlines, hotel, airbnb), 4x restaurants & bars, 2x online purchases and 1x everything else. No yearly fee and you can redeem for cash, gift cards, uber credits or pay down credit balance.

 

[atomi]

Most residency programs give 4 weeks of vacation after intern year. I've traveled more internationally during residency than med school. Plus, going to conferences during residency. Having global entry and tsa precheck has totally been worth it. Plus the access to airport lounges is really beneficial, with free food & alcohol it saves you money at the airport. If travel is a priority for someone I don't think it falls off during residency as I definitely have more time (and money) to travel now. This year points/credit card benefits have helped me go to Guadeloupe and Cuba. In the fall I'll be heading to Chile/Argentina and LA. Every resident I know uses up every last bit of their vacation days!

I suppose it's program and specialty dependent. I am in a very lifestyle friendly residency, but we only get 3 weeks, and can only take 5 days at a time. I haven't travelled internationally in over 5 years. I travel a lot domestically for weekend trips, but not enough not warrant that card.

I standby my original statement that the sapphire reserve card is pretty ballar for a med student and even a resident. I spend probably $15-20k a year on restaurants, airline tickets, and hotels, and it's still not worth it for me.

 

[Guillemot]

chase sapphire reserve is better than preferred for someone with a real (paying) job. if you consider the 100/q4 year global entry reimbursement, 300yr travel credit. it makes the efffective annual fee 125/year (not waived the first year). (vs the sapphire of 95/yr which is waved the first year). That relatively small additional cost is made up for with the additional benefits of the card. Preferred might be better for someone that plans on putting less on the card, doesnt care about the benefits (the benefits are great btw).

 

[NickNaylor]

I got a branded credit card with an airline that had their major hub in the city I was living in at that time. I also got an extra miles multiplier for purchases made through/on this airline. Through that I was able to get a couple of free flights over the course of the year.

Just be aware that many of those types of cards have annual fees, usually around $100/year. I think Southwest offers a card that doesn't have an annual fee, but depending on where you are Southwest may not be the most convenient option.

I do think it's worthwhile to get some kind of credit card with a rewards system to get something out of the expenses you'll be paying for. Amazon has a credit card through Chase that basically gives you a percentage of your purchases back to you as Amazon credit. There's no fee with that card, and you can rack up a pretty respectable amount of Amazon credit over the course of the year.

 

[premed1234567891011]

I put every purchase on a travel card, then pay it off monthly. The only thing I don't pay by card is my rent. I earn some points, but I don't spend a lot of money. Hopefully I will get a free flight or two for interviews.

why don't you pay rent with your card?

 

[Low Flow]

Can confirm: got a Chase Sapphire card 3 months ago and have been putting my regular expenses on it (paying it off monthly with loan money). Just got my 50,000 bonus points for charging $4,000 in first 3 months. Have about $700 worth of travel credits at this point which I'll use for residency interviews in October/November. Totally worth it.

 

[AORiverContra]

Can confirm: got a Chase Sapphire card 3 months ago and have been putting my regular expenses on it (paying it off monthly with loan money). Just got my 50,000 bonus points for charging $4,000 in first 3 months. Have about $700 worth of travel credits at this point which I'll use for residency interviews in October/November. Totally worth it.

Are there restrictions on which airlines/flights you can buy with the travel credits?

 

[Low Flow]

Are there restrictions on which airlines/flights you can buy with the travel credits?

Looks like you can transfer your points 1:1 to certain airline/hotel partners (Southwest included, but not Delta, Alaska, United), or you can just book directly through the Chase website with any flights available. Did a quick search of Seattle --> LA flights for a random date and the prices on Google Flights appear to be the same as booking directly through Chase.

 

[evilbooyaa]

Yeah not sure why you'd get a Chase and then transfer the points. Prices are the same on Chase as they are on Kayak (which is the same as the airline company's sites themselves vast majority of the time). N = 2/4, I've noticed alaska airlines is CHEAPER (even in cash cost) than the Alaska website, which with the 50% points bonus is pretty solid.

Only airline that doesn't do this is Southwest, for which you have to go on their own website. (Un)fortunately where I fly to, Southwest is always one of the more expensive options, unless I need to check in 2 bags.

 

[popopopop]

Can confirm: got a Chase Sapphire card 3 months ago and have been putting my regular expenses on it (paying it off monthly with loan money). Just got my 50,000 bonus points for charging $4,000 in first 3 months. Have about $700 worth of travel credits at this point which I'll use for residency interviews in October/November. Totally worth it.

This is probably on google somewhere, but do your points expire? I might get this mid 2nd year, but want to build it up for later.

 

[Low Flow]

This is probably on google somewhere, but do your points expire? I might get this mid 2nd year, but want to build it up for later.

I don’t think they do, but I’d double check. I thought I remembered seeing when I signed up that they didn’t but I’m not 100% sure.

 

[queenkitty93]

Any opinions on a credit card that has really good mile rewards?? Considering opening a new card to collect some good miles while booking interview travels.

 

[Crayola227]

Did this and it worked out well. Have to be careful to read the fine print though.

 

[kelminak]

This had some good info:

Credit Cards for People Who Love Travel and Money - Physician on FIRE

 

[DoctwoB]

Better idea is to open cards that give you a huge bonus number of miles to fund your travel. I opened 2 southwest cards, got 100000 points, which covered most of my interview travel. Southwest is also key for interviews due to no change or cancellation fees. You may get an interview, book a flight, and then got a conflicting offer at a place you like better. Added bonus is I got a companion pass for the next year.

The only downsides are first you usually you have to spend a certain amount (1-3k) to unlock the bonus, so you have to plan in advance. Secondly, after the first year the cards have annual fees, and opening up and closing a bunch of credit cards isn’t great for credit score. Just a couple cards won’t have much of an impact though, especially if you already have credit cards so you’re “closing” a smaller portion of your available credit.

 

[trobinsonmd]

I've had pretty much every card out there over the years... I can definitively say that if you travel a lot, the Chase Sapphire Reserve is the best card. It technically has a $450 annual fee, but it is effectively $150 because it comes with a $300 travel credit. It also comes with credit for TSA pre check and global entry (super worth it if you travel outside the country a lot)... main advantage of the sapphire reserve over the preferred is that you get 3x instead of 2x on dining and travel, and you also get lounge access at most airports, so you can be productive while you are waiting for your flight... also points can be transferred to many airline and hotel partners -- can basically travel to anywhere in the world with your points

 

[evilbooyaa]

Did you really not see the exact other thread about this on page 1? Merging new thread with one that was recently created and currently active.

 

[frosted2]

AMEX Delta Skymiles Reserve (and platinum) card gives you a free companion ticket for anyone who wants to take a friend/SO with them for vacation/interviews.

 

[AthleteDoc7]

@atomi So i’m definitely thinking to get Chase Sapphire Preferred for interview season opening in September. When would you recommend applying for the card so that I can be sure to spend the $4k in the first three months to get the points? Any tips?

 

[Fission Chips]

Question for the group: how do you handle the income portion of this? I got denied for a JetBlue card because they wouldn’t consider my loans as income and said I have no income. My credit is 740+ and I have another credit card that I seldom use. I don’t know how everyone is getting these cards when I can’t get approved for anything at all.

Anyone have an answer for this? I'm in a similar boat... I get paid for research but it's only 4k/year.

 

[intubesteak]

Chase doesn't get into those details on the application. Just answer the question correctly on what your "income" is and will be fine.

 

[intubesteak]

@atomi So i’m definitely thinking to get Chase Sapphire Preferred for interview season opening in September. When would you recommend applying for the card so that I can be sure to spend the $4k in the first three months to get the points? Any tips?

I just spent the 4k, but I used it to pay for step2 ck/cs and then normal life stuff. I like chase a lot and will have my wife get the same card prob when submitting ERAS, then should be able to pay for flight and hotels with it.

 

[abolt18]

I did southwest premier AND plus cards with 50K bonus each (and subsequently got the companion pass for my wife to fly with me free for 1 year). Also did the Marriott with 80K point bonus. Worked out great. Paid for only one flight. Paid for zero hotels.