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Wells Fargo has been subtly hinting at a new card release for quite some time annnnnnnd we finally have details. Yes, it will include transfer partners; however, upon release of the card they are quite slim on partners. I’d guess this will either expand quite a bit throughout 2024 ( as we saw with both Capital One and Bilt Rewards when they offered partners ), or they’ll add a few more partners and pull a Brex with a reduced transfer partner set compared to their competitors. The area where the new Wells Fargo Autograph Journey excels is with travel bonus categories. Let’s take a look!
Wells Fargo Autograph Journey Details
- Annual Fee: $95
- Earn:
- Unlimited 5x points on hotels,
- 4x points on airlines,
- 3x points on other travel and dining,
- 1x on other purchases
- $50 annual statement credit for airfare purchases
- No foreign transaction fees
- Travel protection benefits, including trip cancellation, which allows you to get reimbursed up to $15,000 for lodging, flights, and activities if the trip is canceled for a covered reason
Wells Fargo Autograph Journey $50 airfare statement credit
Seems to be, at first glance, fairly straight up, and stipulated to include baggage fees and other ancillary costs. Personally, I’d say this marks the actual cost of the card below $50 since I’d certainly make use of this every year.
Wells Fargo Autograph Journey transfer partners
These will become available on April 4th, 2024 and it yet is to be seen as to whether they are 1:1 partners, but my gut is that they are. Why? The current list of partners all have currencies that can be purchased relatively cheaply and therefore I’d guess Wells has secured these points at very low prices internally which is why they are going to be able to offer 5x and 4x as hotel and airline bonuses respectively.
Hotels:
- Choice Privileges®
Airlines
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue
- Avianca Lifemiles
- British Airways Executive Club
- AerClub
- Iberia Plus
Who I’d guess they will add:
- Emirates
- Aeroplan,
- Virgin
- IHG
- Singapore
- Cathay Pacific
Game Changer additions that would substantially increase value
- American
- Hyatt
- United
- Alaska
What does the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey compete with card wise?
The $95 and under market is quite crowded with some very good alternatives. I think the most obvious competitor is within Wells own portfolio and the best credit card for renters: The Bilt Mastercard® – it has no fee, 3x dining, 2x travel, 1x everywhere and no transactions fees on rent. Bilt has an amazing list of transfer partners…so it’s a bit of a disappointment to see the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey list be so sparse upon debut.
3 obvious competitors and they all have more transfer partners.
- Bilt Mastercard®
- $0 annual fee
- 3x dining
- 2x travel
- 1x everywhere
- ( must make 5 transactions per month )
- Chase Sapphire Preferred®
- $95 annual fee
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- 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 Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 1x everywhere else
- Citi Premier
- $95 annual fee
- 3x points on
- Air Travel
- Hotel
- Supermarkets
- Dining
- Gas
- 1x everywhere else
- Capital One Venture Rewards
- $95 annual fee
- 2x miles on every purchase
- up to a $100 credit for Global Entry and TSA Pre
Overall
I’m lukewarm. Will I add this to my wallet? Perhaps. Let’s see how it continues to unfold.
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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