Today, Orbitz announced the launch of a new travel rewards Visa credit card, called the Orbitz Rewards Visa Card. Building upon the loyalty program it introduced last fall, the new card carries some perks that should appeal to the travel-faring public. Among them: A minimum of 2% rewards on all purchases, and up to 10% rewards on eligible hotel bookings made through Orbitz’s mobile app, along with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees.

Earning Rewards
All purchases made on the Orbitz Rewards Visa Card earn a minimum of 2% back in Orbucks. (In other words, $100 spent on non-bonus spending would earn you $2 in Orbucks.)

Normally, a member of Orbitz’ loyalty program, Orbitz Rewards, booking a hotel room via their computer gets 3% back in Orbucks. If the room is booked instead using the Orbitz mobile app, the member would earn 5% back. One of the benefits of the new credit card is that bookings made using it will earn an additional 5% on top of those rewards, so that members booking hotels can earn either 8% (3%+5%) using their computer or 10% (5%+5%) in Orbucks when using the mobile app.

Similarly, while booking a flight without the credit card would normally earn 1% rewards on your computer and 2% in rewards through the mobile app, Orbitz credit card users would earn 6% and 7%, respectively.

In short, the rewards structure looks like this:

• 10% rewards in Orbucks on eligible hotels booked through the Orbitz mobile app
• 8% rewards in Orbucks on eligible hotels booked on Orbitz through the computer/web
• 7% rewards in Orbucks on flights booked through the Orbitz mobile app
• 6% rewards in Orbucks on flights booked on Orbitz through the computer/web
• 2% rewards in Orbucks on all other purchases

One other important caveat: While there is no maximum number of Orbucks you can earn for hotel bookings, you’re capped at earning $50 in Orbucks in a year from booking airline tickets.

Redeeming Orbucks
Each Orbuck can be redeemed for 1 dollar towards additional hotel room nights booked through Orbitz with no blackout dates. Orbucks earned through the Orbitz Rewards Visa Card do not expire as long as cardholders use the card at least once every 12 months.

Other benefits
Other benefits of the card include:

• Lost luggage reimbursement
• Travel accident insurance
• Auto rental collision damage waiver
• Hotel burglary coverage

In addition, the card is offering a $50 signup bonus for spending $200 within the first 90 days of cardmembership.

The card also offers complimentary Orbitz Rewards Star status, which normally requires stays that total at least four hotel nights in a year. The benefits of Star status include priority access with customer service and potentially, additional perks at so-called “All-Star Hotels.”

Is the Orbitz Rewards Visa Card worth it?
With a paltry $50 signup bonus, this is obviously not a card to be churned. But, with the promise of earning a minimum of 2% on all purchases, this could be an excellent option for many. It’s also one of the relatively few credit cards with both no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees.

It is worthwhile to compare the Orbitz card to other travel credit card options such as the Barclaycard Arrival, which offers a better general cash back rate (effectively 2.2%, which can be earned as a statement credit), more lucrative signup bonus, but with an annual fee of $89 (waived for the first year).

The key question anyone considering the Orbitz card has to ask themselves is whether it’s a burden that you can only redeem your rewards for hotels on Orbitz, as opposed to the flexibility of statement credit offered by competitors such as the Arrival card. If you’re a frequent traveler and would book your hotels on Orbitz anyway, then it probably isn’t an issue. It also, of course, depends on how often you foresee yourself using Orbitz, as the value proposition becomes considerably better if you’re a frequent customer of the site.

For more information about the Orbitz Rewards Visa Card visit www.orbitz.com/visacard.