If you’re a frequent traveler, it’s important to have the right travel credit card in your wallet, so you don’t miss out on rewards that help you score free flights, hotel stays and more. With a variety of terrific travel cards on the market, you’ll need to do your research to find the one that suits you and your travel goals best. In this guide, we cover our favorite travel credit cards.
See our list of the best credit card bonuses here.
New to travel rewards? Read our guide on the 8 travel rewards card sins you should avoid or see our list of guides for best credit cards by spending category.
| Chase Sapphire Reserve® | Best overall travel credit card Best for travel credits |
| Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card | Best travel credit card for beginners Best welcome bonus |
| Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card | Best for simple redemptions |
| Capital One® VentureOne® Rewards Credit Card | Best no-annual-fee card |
| The Platinum Card® from American Express | Best for luxury travel perks |
| Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card | Best for international travel |
| Capital One Spark Miles for Business | Best for business travel |
| Bank of America Premium Rewards | Best for Global Entry/TSA Precheck |
| Wells Fargo Propel American Express Card | Best for commuters |
MARRIOTT BONVOY BOUNDLESS® CREDIT CARD
The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card from Chase has an offer for 3 Free Nights after spending $3,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening.
New to the card, you will earn 3x Bonvoy points on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each year on grocery stores, gas stations, and dining. The card is also offering an Elite Night Credit towards Elite Status for every $5,000 spent.
The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card earns 17 points for every $1 spent at over 7,000+ participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels. You’ll receive 2 points per $1 spent on all other purchases.
You’ll get a Free Night Award (valued up to 35,000 points) every account anniversary year and automatic Silver Elite Status. Additionally, you’ll receive 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year.
This card has no foreign transaction fees and the annual fee is $95.
Types Of Travel Credit Cards
Cards that earn transferable points can be redeemed by moving them to a transfer partner, like an airline or hotel loyalty program. This is the most valuable type of rewards you can earn because of its flexibility. So naturally, most of the travel cards that made it on our “best of” list earn transferable points.
Airline co-branded cards usually earn miles and come with airline-specific benefits, like free checked bags, elite-qualifying miles, priority boarding, inflight discounts and more.
Similar to airline cards, hotel co-branded cards earn points and come with hotel-specific benefits, like free award nights, complimentary elite status and more.
Click here for our list of the best hotel credit cards.
Fixed-rate cards earn rewards that are redeemed for the same value. For example, Bank of America Premium Rewards points are always worth $0.01 each. These types of travel cards work great for people who don’t have a knack for maximizing transferable points, or for the casual traveler who prefers simple redemptions.
What We Considered
To come up with our best travel credit cards list, we considered the following:
- Welcome bonus
- Earning potential
- Annual fee
- Point value
- Travel credits
- Travel benefits
- Travel protections
- Rewards simplicity
- Additional benefits
The Best Travel Credit Cards
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® is the best overall travel credit card and the best card for travel credits. Although it comes with a hefty annual fee, Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers a ton of credits and valuable perks that offset the card’s cost.
CHASE SAPPHIRE RESERVE®
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® card is offering 80,000 bonus points (worth up to $1,600 in travel per our valuations). You’ll need to spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening to qualify for the bonus. These 80k points are redeemable for $1,200 toward travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
This is a premium travel card with a premium annual fee of $550. But, you’ll receive premium benefits such as 5X points on air travel, 10x points spent on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards® immediately after earning your $300 annual travel credit, 3X points on all other travel and dining, and 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases.
The card also features an application fee credit (up to $100) for Global Entry or TSA Pre✓®, access to 1,300+ airport lounges with Priority Pass Select, and 50% more in travel redemption through Chase Ultimate Rewards. With Pay Yourself BackSM, your points are worth 50% more for existing purchases in select, rotating categories.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the best travel credit card for beginners and has the best welcome bonus. Chase Ultimate Rewards points are some of the easiest travel rewards to use. Redeem them for travel directly through Chase and get $0.0125 per point. If you want to maximize your rewards, transfer your points to a partner program.
CHASE SAPPHIRE PREFERRED® CARD
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card currently has an offer for 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Redeeming the 60,000 bonus points through the Chase Ultimate Rewards program, which is praised by users, will get you $750 in value towards travel. The 60K bonus points are worth $750 because you get 25% more value whenever you redeem for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Even better, strategize with Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer partners to potentially get even more value. Each point can be worth up to 2 cents apiece (60k points = ~$1,200). Read more on this here.
The Capital One Venture Rewards Card is the best travel credit card with simple redemptions. You can use your Venture miles to “erase” your travel purchases at a fixed rate of $0.01 per mile, with no blackout dates.
CAPITAL ONE® VENTURE® REWARDS CREDIT CARD
The Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card currently earns 100,000 bonus miles when you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 12 months from account opening. Or if are unable to meet the $20k spending requirement, you can still earn 50,000 bonus miles for spending $3,000 in the first 3 months. These bonus miles are equal to $1000 or $500, respectively, in travel and are easy to redeem as a statement credit towards the cost of your travel purchases. Take advantage of Capital One’s travel partners and these up to 100k miles can be worth around $1400 in value.
This card will earn an ongoing 2 miles for every dollar you spend on all purchases. 100 miles is equal to $1 in travel rewards. If you don’t redeem towards travel purchases, your miles will have less value.
The annual fee is $95.
The Capital One VentureOne Rewards Card is the best no-annual-fee travel credit card. Like the Capital One Venture Card, you can use your miles to “erase” your travel purchases at a fixed rate of $0.01 per mile, with no blackout dates.
CAPITAL ONE® VENTUREONE® REWARDS CREDIT CARD
The Capital One® VentureOne® Rewards Credit Card has an offer for 20,000 bonus miles after you spend $500 on purchases within 3 months. We value these 20k bonus miles at around $280.
This card has no annual fee. The annual fee version of this card is the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card, with better features.
The VentureOne Rewards card offers unlimited 1.25X miles on all purchases. You can redeem for statement credits for travel and gift cards. Another option is to transfer miles to airline partners. Read more on this here.
The Platinum Card® from American Express is the best travel credit card with luxury perks.
THE PLATINUM CARD® FROM AMERICAN EXPRESS
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
The Platinum Card® from American Express has a special offer for 100,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $6,000 in purchases within your first 6 months.
Membership Rewards® points are some of the most valuable in the market. Redeeming these points by booking travel through American Express or by redeeming for gift cards will give you a standard 1 cent per point value. The 100k bonus points are worth $1,000 going this route.
You can potentially get more value by transferring your points to Membership Rewards travel partners. Using this strategy can get you up to an average value of 2 cents per point. Get around $2,000 in value with 100,000 points this way. Read more on this here.
With this card, earn 5X Membership Rewards® Points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year.
The biggest drawback to this card is the $695 annual fee (see Rates & Fees, Terms Apply), which puts it in the premium class of credit cards. The card has a market because it offers premium travel benefits, such as 5X points for flights (up to $500,000 on these purchases) and eligible hotels, access to 40+ Centurion Loung and Studio locations worldwide, up to $200 airline fee credit annually, and an annual Walmart+ membership. These benefits are given as statement credits.
For frequent travelers, the added benefits make sense in terms of value and added luxury.
The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card is the best card for international travel. After the Starwood merger, Marriott became the second largest hotel chain in the world. The brand’s wide reach means Boundless can help fund your trip no matter where you travel.
MARRIOTT BONVOY BOUNDLESS® CREDIT CARD
The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card from Chase has an offer for 3 Free Nights after spending $3,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening.
New to the card, you will earn 3x Bonvoy points on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each year on grocery stores, gas stations, and dining. The card is also offering an Elite Night Credit towards Elite Status for every $5,000 spent.
The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card earns 17 points for every $1 spent at over 7,000+ participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels. You’ll receive 2 points per $1 spent on all other purchases.
You’ll get a Free Night Award (valued up to 35,000 points) every account anniversary year and automatic Silver Elite Status. Additionally, you’ll receive 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year.
This card has no foreign transaction fees and the annual fee is $95.
The Capital One Spark Miles for Business Card is the best card for business travel. It’s got a huge welcome offer and gives bonuses on hotel and rental car spending.
CAPITAL ONE SPARK MILES FOR BUSINESS
The Capital One Spark Miles for Business card offers a bonus of 50,000 miles – equal to $500 in travel – once you spend $4,500 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening
Earn 5X miles on hotel and rental car bookings through Capital One TravelSM using this card. Capital One has 10+ transfer partners, potentially making your miles worth even more. Using the strategy of transferring your miles to these travel partners, we estimate 50k miles to be worth around $700.
This card earns unlimited 2X miles all purchases. Another benefit is one credit, up to $100, for a Global Entry or TSA Pre✓ application fee.
The annual fee is waived for the first year and is $95 after that.
*When booked through Capital One Travel.
The Wells Fargo Propel American Express Card is the best card for commuters. It offers three points for every dollar spent on flights, hotels, taxis, ridesharing, car rentals, passenger railways and trains, ferries, tolls, limos and gas stations, without an annual fee.
WELLS FARGO PROPEL AMERICAN EXPRESS® CARD
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
The Wells Fargo Propel American Express® Card has an offer for 20,000 bonus points. Earn 20,000 bonus points when you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. These bonus points are valued at $200 in cash redemption value.
This card has no annual fee (See Rates & Fees, Terms Apply) and a nice rewards structure. You’ll earn 3 points per dollar on the following:
- Eating out and ordering in
- Gas stations, rideshares, and transit
- Flights, hotels, homestays, and car rentals
- Popular streaming services
All other purchases will earn 1 point per dollar.
Additional Guides
While we focused on travel credit cards in this post, you’ll want to choose a card with additional earning potential that matches your spending behavior. Click here for our guide on the best credit cards in other categories or check out these other posts:
Bottom Line
Travel rewards cards are an excellent tool to keep in your wallet. When used strategically, they’ll help you travel anywhere you want to go without costing you much in out-of-pocket expenses. From newbies who want to offset the cost of a cross-country trip to seasoned hackers looking to upgrade their travel experience, there’s a travel credit card out there for you. Just make sure to pick a card that’ll help you maximize your spending habits and hit your travel goals.
READ MORE: SEE THE BEST BANK BONUSES HERE AND THE BEST INVESTING BONUSES HERE.
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