As travelers gear up for the holiday season, The Points Guy founder Brian Kelly joins Wealth! to discuss his top tips for a smooth airport experience and his favorite travel credit cards.
Travelers can usually expect packed airports and long lines during the holiday season. Kelly recommends getting TSA PreCheck and Clear to help travelers beat long lines and get to their gates earlier. He notes that some travel credit cards or airline statuses offer discounts on these services, so be sure to check before signing up. In addition, he sees credit card lounges as a great perk for travelers, calling the Chase Sapphire lounges, in particular, “extraordinary.”
He recommends the American Express Gold Card as a great credit card for travelers. While it has a $325 annual fee, users get $100 credit toward dining. He also recommends the Bilt credit card as a good option, which offers points on rent and dining with no annual fee. The Capital One Venture X card is another solid option for travelers, earning two miles per dollar on every purchase.
While there are many different cards out there, Kelly advises getting a card that rewards you based on where you’re spending the most.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!
This post was written by Melanie Riehl
Video Transcript
How can travelers make their airport experience smoother this season?
I mean, there’s only so much booze that you’re gonna have before you hop on a flight.
Uh So how else can you make that experience?
Very, I mean, number one, I hate lines.
I hate waiting in line.
So you’ve got to get ts a precheck uh and clear, clear.
Uh It depends on the airport you fly out of not every terminal has it, but I find it to get me to the front of that ts a precheck line and now clear and precheck have a partnership.
We can get it all in one, some credit cards or some airline elite status will get you that uh cheaper.
And but it’s really about the credit cards, the the lounges, airline lounges are decent but really the credit card lounges Chase Sapphire has a bunch of new lounges that are extraordinary.
Their laguardia lounge is really nice.
You can actually get food delivered to you in the lounge, hot meals.
No up charges like a lot of the airline lounges.
Oh, you want this premium cocktail?
It’s $10 but you know whether it’s Amex Centurion Chase Sapphire or even capital one has new lounges as well.
Those are the best ones, in my opinion because, you know, once you get in everything is free.
So which travel or accommodation partner has the best card from what you found right now.
Um, so everything is, it really depends on what you spend money on where you wanna go.
So we actually at the point Sky, if you go to the points guy.com/match, we’ve got a questionnaire that’ll match you with the best credit card for where you spend the most money on.
And in addition, we link up with the credit card companies where we’ll, we’ll give you uh special offers.
So before you apply for a credit card, make sure see if you’re targeted for a special offer because sometimes the credit card companies will give you double the sign up bonus that they’re giving on their public website.
Uh So always check card match.
Um, but in general, I mean, I love the Amex Gold.
It has an annual fee of $325 but immediately you get $100 if you’re dining at a rei restaurant, if you’re Dunkin Donuts Shake Shack, there’s all these credits that really can make it and that’s four points per dollar on dining and groceries.
And so I would just say to people get a card that rewards you where you’re spending the most.
The built credit card gives you only card that gives you points on rent and three X on dining.
And that has no annual fee.
So I’d say of the no annual fee built really can’t be beat.
Especially if you’re a renter Amex Gold and for everything else, I use capital one venture X because that’s two miles per dollar on everything.
So the goal is to get two or more miles on every single purchase.
So you have that base card and then you spend on the other cards where you’re money.
All right, we just had the bill found their own not too long ago as well.
Here also, just lastly, we only got about 45 seconds left.
How much should travelers get compensated if their flight is oversold the amount, the marker that they should say, I’m not budging for less than this.
You know, it really depends on when the airline can get you out.
If it’s two hours later, look 300 bucks, 500 bucks.
And it just depends too on how many other people.
If there are no other, uh, people, look, it’s a negotiation game.
I always say, be nice, you know, approach the gate agent and say, look, I’m gonna make your life easy.
I’m not gonna, but, you know, hey, give me 800 bucks and if they need you, they’ll do it.
The gate agents don’t care about the voucher to the airline and always ask on that next flight.
Can you put me in first class and if you’re nice, sweet talk a little bit.
They’ll give you the voucher and the, the, the, what is that?
The, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
It never hurts to ask to be re accommodated and often they’ll put you in a revenue class.
You earn a ton of extra miles.
Brian, great to catch up with you.
Great to have you on the program.
Brian Kelly, the points guy founder.
Thanks so much for taking it for having me.