More consumers plan to use credit card rewards points to offset summer-travel costs compared with last year, and hotels are the most-popular option among cardholders redeeming points for travel, suggest new survey data released June 23.
In an online survey Worthington, Ohio-based BigResearch conducted for Capital One Financial Corp. between May 31 and June 8, 40% of the 1,045 responding U.S. adults said they plan to redeem credit card rewards for summer travel this year compared with some 33% who said they did so last year.
Among consumers planning to redeem card-rewards points for summer travel, the top redemption option was hotels (55%), followed by air travel (48%) and gasoline (42%), according to the survey.
Some 48% of respondents said higher-than-average gasoline prices would affect their summer-travel plans, though 62% said they would not remain at home for a “staycation” as an alternative to traveling on their vacations.
The survey results suggest high prices for gasoline and food are among the reasons more consumers are using rewards point to offset travel costs this summer, a Capital One spokesperson told PaymentsSource in an interview.
“We see people taking a deeper look into their pockets and using card rewards more often as a source of funding their travel,” she said.
Less than half, 43%, of respondents said they had redeemed credit card rewards within the past three months, and 24% said they were “completely satisfied” with their primary credit card-rewards program.
The majority, or 61%, of respondents said “free money” was their top motivation for earning and redeeming credit card rewards.
Twenty-six percent of respondents said the top barriers preventing them from redeeming rewards points for travel were blackout dates (26%) and the inability to book trips at the last minute (24%).
Some 19% of consumers said they are not charged a foreign-transaction fee when using their credit card overseas, and 60% were unsure whether their credit card issuer charges a foreign-transaction fee.
