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We talk a lot about credit cards and the benefits that they offer. Among all the elevated earnings categories and statement credits, many credit cards have perks that tend to fall by the wayside. Often, these can yield hundreds — or even thousands — of dollars in value, but they may not be as flashy as other perks like seat upgrades or lounge access.
Rather than allowing them to remain in the shadows, we asked our AwardWallet team what their favorite lesser-known credit card perks are. Here's what they said.
Page Contents
- Earning and Redeeming Chase Points for Theme Park Tickets — Carissa Rawson
- Saving 10% on IHG Redemptions — JT Genter
- Stacking Marriott's Elite Night Credits — Ryan Smith
- Enjoying Eurostar Lounge Entry — Sam Helmy
- Accessing Museums for Free or Half-Off — Senitra Horbook
- Snagging a 10% Rebate on Citi Redemptions — Ryan Smith
- The Bottom Line
Earning and Redeeming Chase Points for Theme Park Tickets — Carissa Rawson
I'm a huge fan of theme parks, which is why you'll often find me on one coast or another aboard a roller coaster. However, it can be difficult to score deals on visits to theme parks — especially when it comes to purchasing admission tickets. Sure, an annual pass is good if you can visit a few times a year, but otherwise? They can be costly and difficult to obtain.
Enter the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Fondly known as the Chase Sapphire Reserve®‘s younger sibling, this card offers pretty decent earnings on travel and dining purchases. However, it also provides the ability to earn 5x Ultimate Rewards on purchases within the Chase Travel℠ portal.
Know what you'll find there? Theme park tickets. Even Disney tickets.
Universal Studios tickets are also available on Chase's site:
Chase Ultimate Rewards are some of the most valuable points you can earn. In fact, recent AwardWallet user redemptions peg the average value of a Chase point at 1.95¢ each. This means those with a Sapphire Preferred Card can get up to 10.05% back on their tickets, which is the best savings you'll ever see on these tickets.
Eagle-eyed readers will also spot that you can redeem your Chase points for tickets too. You'll be able to do so at a rate of 1.25 cents each if you hold the Sapphire Preferred or 1.5 cents each if you have the Sapphire Reserve.
Saving 10% on IHG Redemptions — JT Genter
Editor-in-Chief JT Genter has been a digital nomad for years. He and his wife Katie have spent ungodly amounts of time at every hotel chain you can imagine. Among their favorites? IHG One Rewards. The IHG® Rewards Select Credit Card (no longer open to new applicants) is one you'll have to pry out of his hands, thanks to the 10% rebate you receive on all award redemptions.
Unlike the currently available IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card, you don't need to book stays in four-night increments to receive this benefit. It applies to all stays and all redemptions, no matter how long. To date, JT has tracked a savings of 292,273 IHG points with this perk. Talk about valuable.
Stacking Marriott's Elite Night Credits — Ryan Smith
Earning elite status with a hotel chain can be highly rewarding, especially once you get to its higher tiers. However, most hotel chains aren't willing to simply gift you high-end status (with the exception of the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, which gives you Diamond status automatically). Instead, loyalty programs offer those with the hotel's credit cards lower status and elite night credits each year. However, this does reduce the number of nights you'll need to stay with the hotel, and it's an effective option for getting people to book hotels with the brand.
Marriott has a few different credit cards offering elite night credits (and a very confusing chart on who qualifies for which Marriott cards). For the most part, however, those who hold multiple Marriott co-branded cards don't get to stack those elite night credits. The only exception to this is those who hold both a personal Marriott card, such as the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card, and the small business-oriented Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card.
Each of these cards grants holders 15 elite night credits each year, and they stack. That means those who have both cards start each year with 30 elite night credits towards status. That's enough for Marriott Gold Elite status (which you get anyway as a cardholder). It's also more than half of the way to Marriott Platinum elite status, which comes with benefits such as free breakfast, executive lounge access, and annual choice benefits after 50 qualifying nights in a year.
It's because of this, as well as the fact that spending on the business version of the card doesn't show up on your credit report, that Ryan Smith will always keep the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card in his wallet.
Related: Start the Year With up to 40 Marriott Elite Night Credits
Enjoying Eurostar Lounge Entry — Sam Helmy
You probably already know that The Platinum Card® from American Express offers some of the best lounge access around, but if you hold an eligible card from the U.K., Belgium, France, or an ICC card, your access extends beyond the airport.
So says Sam Helmy, who loves that his version of the Amex Platinum offers complimentary access to Eurostar lounges. These high-speed trains whisk travelers across borders in several European countries, and those traveling through London St. Pancras International, Paris Gare du Nord, Brussels Midi, and Ebbsfleet International can enter the Business Premier lounges for free.
Enrollment is required for select Amex benefits.
Accessing Museums for Free or Half-Off — Senitra Horbook
“One activity I frequently add to my travel itinerary is visiting museums, and it’s even better when I get free entry using my credit cards perks,” writes Senitra Horbrook. The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card includes a discount offer for The Cultivist. The membership includes reduced price access to more than 50 museums worldwide for the cardholder and a guest. When you sign up with your card, you can save 50% off the first year of membership. You'll pay $220 for the first year, $220 when you renew for the first time, and $440 when you renew for the second time.
Another great way to get free or reduced-price entry to more than 200 museums in the United States is by being a Bank of America cardholder. Thanks to the Museums on Us program, anyone with a Bank of America Travel Card, cash back card, or debit card receives free entry to museums on the list during the first weekend of each month just by showing the card at the entrance. This applies to all cards, even those with no annual fee. Free entry is only valid for the cardholder, but if you have added authorized users, they can also use their card for free entry to the participating museums.
Snagging a 10% Rebate on Citi Redemptions — Ryan Smith
Another favorite from Ryan Smith is the 10% rebate offered to those who hold the Citi Rewards+® Card. Although the card doesn't charge an annual fee, it features two strong perks: rounding up purchases to the nearest 10 points and a 10% rebate on all redemptions made with your Citi Rewards+ card, whether you've earned them using this card or another card that earns Citi ThankYou points.
In practice, this means that if you earn 3x points on a travel purchase with your Citi Strata Premier℠ Card, then transfer them out to a hotel or airline partner, you'll still receive 10% back on the points you've redeemed — so long as you've linked your accounts together online. The only limit to this is that this perk applies to the first 100,000 points redeemed each year.
The Bottom Line
You may have heard of these perks before, whether that's because you've seen an article singing their praises (like this one!) or you've taken advantage of them yourself. Just remember: For all the less-famous credit card perks we've talked about here, there are a dozen more waiting for the right cardholders to utilize.
If you've got a favorite unheralded credit card perk, let us know what it is in the comments below.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
