Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great Father’s Day Weekend. I enjoyed celebrating my first Father’s Day with Madison and Laura.
Last week, I needed to book a hotel stay for an upcoming trip. While planning the reservation, I remembered that I hadn’t yet used the $325 annual travel credit on my US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card, so I decided to put it toward this booking.
This was my first time using the travel credit through the US Bank Travel Center. In previous years, the credit was automatically applied to eligible travel purchases made directly with the credit card. Under the current system, however, the credit must be used through the US Bank Travel Center, so I booked the hotel reservation there instead.
On Sunday, June 14, I booked a 2 night hotel stay for $448 through the US Bank Travel Center and received the confirmation email shown below.
4 days later, on Thursday, June 18, I received an email from US Bank notifying me that I received a $325 credit.
After signing into my US Bank online account and reviewing the activity on my Altitude Reserve, I could see both the $448 hotel charge from the US Bank Travel Center and the $325 travel credit posted to my account.
One interesting detail I noticed was how rewards are earned on prepaid hotel bookings made through the US Bank Travel Center. On the Rewards tab, prepaid hotels earn 10 points per dollar on the pre-tax portion of the hotel reservation, and those points posted to my account almost immediately. I also noticed that the full hotel charge appeared as a pending reward transaction at the standard rate of 1 point per dollar, so I’ll be curious to see how that is ultimately reflected once everything fully posts.
I don’t expect to book any additional prepaid hotels through the US Bank Travel Center until I receive next year’s $325 travel credit. This 2 night stay was actually part of a larger 6 night trip. I used the $300 annual travel credit from my Capital One Venture X Credit Card for another 2 night stay and the $300 hotel benefit from Laura’s Citi Strata Elite Credit Card for the remaining 2 nights. It was an interesting exercise trying to identify the most cost-effective hotel night combinations to maximize each travel credit. Based on this experience, the $325 travel credit posted automatically within a few days of booking, which was faster than I expected.
If you have any questions about booking hotels through the US Bank Travel Center or using the $325 travel credit, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!