If you’ve been in the miles and points space for long enough, then let me ask you a question. When was a last time you decided that you wanted to go somewhere and then figured out how to get there using miles and points? Or, you, like I do sometimes, fall prey to the tail wagging the dog? Are your travel decisions often dependent on which credit cards you’re actively carrying and how you want to use their benefits? Moreover, are travel credit cards becoming the invisible hand guiding us on the path to our next destination?
Do Your Political Views Influence Where You Travel (or don’t)?
Travel Credit Cards Influencing Decisions
Card perks aren’t just benefits, they are travel planning cues. They come loaded with:
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$200 airline fee credits
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$300 travel credits
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Fine Hotels & Resorts credits/Edit Credits
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Dining credits
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Monthly Uber credits
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Statement credits tied to specific brands
Now let’s have a look at a few examples from some of my own credit cards:
Examples:
- The Hilton Aspire card made me look for hotels where I could use the resort credit
- The Amex Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card makes me look for properties charging 85k points to 100k points
- The Amex Platinum card makes me look for properties in the FHR ecosystem
This is just the tip of the iceberg. If you have a lot of different credit cards, then you’re not only staring at these credits that expire during different time frames and are valid at different merchants, but you may also be staring down the barrel at expiring lounge passes or annual companion passes.
After a while, it becomes a game where you’re simply chasing to ‘use’ the credit or a benefit.
Sunk Cost Fallacy – I’ve Paid Money, so Now I Must Maximize
Here’s where it gets psychologically very interesting. Annual fees on premium cards these days run all the way up to almost $900. Once you’ve paid, the clock starts ticking. You didn’t just get a card. You bought a to-do list of credits to burn before the year ends.
This is classic sunk cost thinking, dressed up in aspirational travel clothing. The fee is paid regardless of what you do. However, a lot people don’t process it that way. They process it as: I’ve paid, now I must maximize. And “maximizing” increasingly means letting the card dictate your itinerary.
The Ideal Framework – Does it Even Exist?
I can easily start this section in the following manner.
Start with the destination. Where do you actually want to go? Not where does your credits work, not where your free night certificates max out but where you want to be.
However, in real life, it doesn’t quite work out that way. Obviously,I do have a list of destinations I want to travel to. However, I often see myself looking at Fine Hotels & Resorts properties or searching for luxury properties in the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio to use my 85k free night certificate thanks fo the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card.
Let’s play a mental game. Let’s say that your card has just one benefit, which is a generic travel credit. If that were the case, then how would your travel planning be different? In my case, I’d say that it would surely be different but not by a huge margin.
To an extent, I do agree that the number and types of credit cards I carry do have an impact on where I travel to and how. However, on the other hand, these credit cards give me the opportunity to experience luxury at a steep discount. How? By maximizing credits, free night certificates, miles and what not.
So an ideal decision making framework could look like this:
- Firstly, start with the destination in mind
- Secondly, calculate the cost of ‘free’. If you find yourself deviating from where you really want to travel to, just because of the credit cards you’re carrying, then calculate how far that gulf is. If that gap is huge, then clearly, your credit cards are dictating your travel decisions.
The Pundit’s Mantra
For me, travel credit cards serve as a vehicle to experience luxury at steep discounts, be it luxury hotels or premium cabin flights. However, I can understand that not everyone looks at it from that perspective. Plenty of people in this space love stretching the value from their miles and points and are perfectly fine flying Economy or staying at budget hotels. To each their own.
However, if you’ve been in this space for a long time, how have you seen your travel credit card portfolio dictate where you travel and how? If yes, how do you make a conscious effort to start with the destination first and then look at card benefits?
Tell us in the comments section.
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