The Chase Freedom credit card has a new special promotion offering 10% cash back on up to $2,500 in combined hotel and car rental purchases made through Chase Ultimate Rewards in July. Details:
- The purchases must be made July 1–31, 2016.
- Your actual travel dates can be any time.
- Applies only to hotels and car rentals booked through ChaseUltimateRewards.com.
In general, ChaseUltimateRewards.com offers prices that are comparable to Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, etc. Hotel prices do vary more than airfare, so I would still comparison shop side-by-side. Note that their hotel room quotes include taxes, which some other sites (like Expedia) add in very late in the checkout process. Also, I found how they listed rooms by TripAdvisor rating to be interesting.
This is addition to the quarterly 5% cash back category, which currently includes Restaurants and Wholesale Clubs (Costco, Sam’s Club, BJ’s).
It also pays to compare with any travel, automobile, or AARP discounts at the hotel’s website. Most often when you book through a travel aggregator or agency, you do NOT get hotel loyalty points. And, for comparison shopping, there’s a lot to look; Chase UR, Amex Travel, Bank of America travel, other credit cards’ travel, Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Kayak, Trivago, hipmunk, hotels dotcom, Priceline, Agoda, Hotwire, BJs, Samsclub, Costco, and directly through the hotels websites with membership to their rewards club, as well as others.