The ABC’s of Getting to Asia — Part III: Credit Cards
One way to get to Asia is to open a credit card and pretend you have free money, only to find out it wasn’t actually free money. Surprisingly enough, this post isn’t about that method of using credit cards to get to Asia.
Some things to note: not everyone can open these cards. They require a good to excellent credit rating, and one must have had a credit line open for quite some time to get these cards. And the most important rule: please pay off anything you put on a credit card immediately, and in full. Don’t drown yourself in debt.
I’m going to be talking about three cards in particular, and why I chose each one. Two are credit cards, and one is a debit card. Each card has a different purpose: One to get to Asia, one to maximize points and benefits while travelling, and one to reliably withdraw cash. And yes, I know this is going to come off as three ads. I’m not getting paid, though I wish I was popular enough to.
Barclaycard Aadvantage Aviator Red Mastercard
This was the first of the three that I opened. Like many cards, there is a large sum of miles you get as part of the sign up bonus, and I’ve written about this card before so I won’t say too much. The short schpiel: 60k AA miles, free checked bag, $99 annual fee.
But the big deal about this card is that unlike most cards, you don’t have to spend a certain amount of card (usually $2,000–$5,000 in three months). You buy one thing and you get the miles. In my case, I bought chicken tenders and got the miles as a result. (Given, I had spent the miles earlier before the trip, so I didn’t use them for the Asia trip, but I still got a bunch of free flights).
The 60k miles go a a long ways. Its usually only worth using them at MileSAAver and MileSAAver off peak rates, but given that, it gives you 2 Roundtrips anywhere in the US, Alaska, Mexico, or Central America, a roundtrip to Europe or anywhere in South America, or most of the way to a round trip to Asia. That could easily be $1k + in value, depending on the revenue price of the ticket.
Granted, each flight only has X number of award seats, but they usually are easy to find in my experience. Plus, you can book on AA’s partner carriers on OneWorld (which will almost always be better), like JAL to Japan.
Chase Sapphire Reserve
Often touted as the travel card (though those websites get paid by chase for each card they sign up, but product placement is the name of the game in 2019), the CSR has some pretty killer benefits. It’s also a Visa, which has been very important for me as I’ve found that international merchants often only accept Visa (as was the case in Buenos Aires; my Mastercard was near useless)
Benefits/Fee
- $450 annual fee (gross)
- $300 annual travel credit (can be used from flights to hotels to AirBnb’s to Ubers) (not so gross, makes the annual fee effectively $150)
- 3X points on Travel + Dining (which means you get 3 points every dollar you spend on these categories, which at minimum is 3% cash back and oftentimes much more when you redeem for travel)
- 1X points everything else
- Travel insurance (trip delay, checked bags go missing, flights cancelled, etc.)
- Roadside assistance (think AAA but included on the card)
- 50,000 points when you spend $4,000 in the first three months
- Priority Pass
Pretty cool stuff. Priority Pass was the reason I went for the CSR and not another card. PP is a membership that allows you access to over 1,200 airport lounges around the world, many of which come with free food, drinks, working space, and/or showers, good for you and a guest. You can also get meals essentially comped at about a dozen airport restaurants in the US. ($28 discount per person up to two people).
BUT, I was a bozo, and I didn’t get the CSR until a couple days before I left. I then found out you have activate the Priority Pass card, which then ships to you. So silly me was not able to try it out during my layover in Dallas. Thankfully, you can get a digital card (but you still have to enter the physical card’s details). Oh well. I’ll get to try it first at the Korean Air Business Lounge at Osaka, so I’m excited for that.
Charles Schwab High Yield Investor Checking Account Debit Card
What a long, boring name. It’s a pretty neat debit card though, because of one key perk. You get unlimited ATM fees worldwide. What does that mean?
- You don’t have to carry around cash
- You get a better exchange rate than anywhere else (you only pay for the exchange rate of the ATM, which is pretty darn good)
- You can get more cash instantly, in that country’s currency, almost anywhere.
The card has been a salve for my anxiety about getting ripped off changing money at various places with commission fees and different rates. And getting money is *so easy*. What’s more, the account costs nothing to maintain, and there’s no minimum amount you have to leave in the account.
Some quick notes on the card: You also open a brokerage account, tied to the checking account, but you can leave it at a tidy $0.00 like I have. Also, opening the account does a hard pull on your credit, if that matters.
Most importantly, make sure the card works before you leave the US. I didn’t use it until an ATM in Richmond International Airport, and it was denied. 7 Phone calls, one chat session, and 7 days later, it finally works. Their customer service was phenominal, them figuring out their own product was not. In their defense, I can understand why they flagged the debit card when its first use was at an airport.
Those are the three cards I’ll be using for the trip. Isn’t the world of credit cards so much fun?
