Americans are ready to pack their suitcases and start traveling again. Namely, according to a survey, only 12% of respondents are planning to stay home, while 50% plan to take at least two trips as you are reading this.
The majority of people plan to use points or miles from their credit cards to pay for their trip. In other words, 25% of Americans will use their credit card rewards to pay for one trip, 36% will pay for two trips, and 12% will pay for three or more trips.
At the same time, approximately one-in-five respondents, or 18%, want to utilize points but aren’t sure how many trips that translates to.
So how can cardholders afford to take so many trips? Their existing unspent rewards balances might provide an answer. Namely, almost three-quarters of respondents report having a stockpile of miles and points.
I.e., while 15% have a minimum of 20,000 points, 45% have even more reward points due to Covid-19 traveling restrictions.
When asked about their credit card’s point worth, 12% of respondents believed they were worth 1-2 cents each, 18% thought they were worth three cents, whereas 42% believed their points were worth 20+ cents.
Interestingly, although frequent travelers could benefit from these cards, not all are prepared to pay an annual fee for those benefits. In fact, 14% don’t want to pay annual fees for their travel cards at all.
Most respondents were prepared to pay a modest charge ($51–$100 per year) for a card with good travel benefits.
