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I wrote a long article a couple of days ago declaring the Travel/Credit Card Points Bubble had popped. The confluence of factors all aligning to deter travel just seem too overwhelming to justify a bullish sentiment towards a V-shaped travel recovery. Looking at a recent survey from IATA, the results seems to support my conviction, and point towards a substantive reticence amongst recent travelers. Here’s what their survey said:
An IATA-commissioned survey of recent travelers found that:
- 60% anticipate a return to travel within one to two months of containment of the COVID-19 pandemic but 40% indicate that they could wait six months or more
- 69% indicated that they could delay a return to travel until their personal financial situation stabilizes
Here are the parameters of their pool:
IATA commissioned research of people who traveled in the last nine months in Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Japan, India, Singapore, UAE, UK, and USA. The research was conducted 6-9 April 2020.
I couldn’t find anything that defined “containment,” but I would think that containment would mean more than just a flattened curve, but rather, one that has curtailed the spread and possibly includes a successful treatment/prevention course. Either way…with an imminent recession on the horizon, and 69% of recent travelers intimating they would postpone travel due to financial concerns it begs the question: will that 40% who could wait 6 months or longer to fly go up or down?
As I mentioned in my bubble article, I think now is the time to
- consolidate expenses onto cards that will offer you the best rate of return on stay at home expenses,
- build points in flexible currencies that can be deployed to the programs offering best value,
- and if you’re facing financial uncertainty/increased debt – create a plan that takes advantage of short term interest free cards and pay them off prior to interest kicking in.
While these fall in line with what I’d normally recommend, I’m not an advocate for testing the banks on applications, and would position yourself to weather the storm and strategically take advantage of what will be some insane deals that are sure to come.
Stay safe.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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