Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards

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Whether it’s cash back, miles, points or perks, most credit cards offer a variety of high-value rewards. These can help you get more out of your next adventure through free hotel stays, access to airport lounges, expedited security screenings or even statement credits for ridesharing.

Read on for our picks of the best travel reward cards, and our answers to the most frequently asked questions about how to best use them.

(To see our picks for the best travel cards overall, make sure to check out our guide to the Best Travel Credit Cards.)

• Best Flexible Points Card: Chase Sapphire Preferred®
• Best Premium Card: The Platinum Card® from American Express
• Best No-fee Card: Capital One VentureOne Rewards Card
• Best Travel Card for Small Businesses: Chase Ink Business Preferred®
• Best Discount Airline Card: FRONTIER Airlines World Mastercard®
• Best Premium Airline Card: United Club SM Infinite Card
• Best Hotel Card: World of Hyatt Credit Card
• Best Hotel Card for Families: Wyndham Rewards Earner® Plus Card

Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards Reviews

Reward rates

• 5x total points on travel booked through Chase Travel℠
• 3x points on dining
• 2x points on other travel expenses
• 3x points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target®, Walmart® and wholesale clubs)
• 3x points on qualifying streaming services

Why we chose it: The Chase Sapphire Preferred® card earns points that can be redeemed for travel reservations through the Chase Travel℠ portal, or transferred to a participating airline or hotel partner that best meets your needs, such as United, Southwest, JetBlue and Hyatt hotels.

This card sets the standard for flexibility, as the Chase Travel℠ program allows you to both use your points to book travel or to transfer your rewards to hugely popular travel partners and loyalty programs.

You can also get extra perks on your account anniversary. To start, you'll receive up to $50 in statement credits for hotel stays purchased through Chase Travel℠. You’ll also earn bonus points equal to 10% of the total amount you spent the previous year. For example, if you spent $10,000 on purchases, you’ll get 1,000 bonus points.

Reward rates:

• 5x Membership Rewards® points on airfare booked directly with airlines using your card, or through American Express Travel (on up to $500,000 per year)
• 5x per dollar spent on prepaid hotels booked through Amextravel.com
• 1x per dollar spent on all other purchases

Why we chose it: The American Express Platinum Card® offers numerous features and benefits, plus plenty of statement credits that can help offset its substantial annual fee.

The American Express Platinum Card® was the original premium rewards card, but even now with plenty of premium competitors, it still rises to the top. Yes, you'll have to pay a $695 annual fee to carry this metal card, but the generous statement credits make it worth the fee.

You earn 5x Membership Rewards® points on airfare booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel (on up to $500,000 per year), and 5x on prepaid hotels booked through Amextravel.com. You'll also earn 1x on all other purchases and rewards can be transferred to 20 airline and hotel programs.

Reward rates:

• 1.25 miles per dollar spent on all purchases
• 5 miles per dollar spent on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel website

Why we chose it: The VentureOne Rewards Card is a great, no annual fee, travel rewards card that offers you travel statement credits and the ability to transfer your miles to airline and hotel programs.

This version of Capital One’s flagship Venture Rewards cards offers real value to those who want a travel rewards card without an annual fee.

You'll earn 1.25 miles per dollar spent, and miles are each worth one cent paid as statement credits towards any travel purchase you make with your card.

Alternatively, you can transfer your rewards to participating airline miles or hotel programs, giving you additional redemption options. Capital One miles transfer to most airline programs at a ratio of 2:1.5, but they recently added several new airline transfer partners with a more favorable 1:1 ratio.

Reward rates:

• 3x points per $1 on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases in categories such as shipping, advertising, internet and travel
• Unlimited 1x point per $1 spent on all other purchases
• Points are worth 25% more when you redeem for travel through Chase Travel℠

Why we chose it: The Ink Business Preferred® card offers plenty of opportunities to earn valuable travel perks on frequent business purchases.

If you're looking to leverage your small business purchases to earn travel rewards, then this is the card for you. You'll begin with the chance to earn 100,000 bonus points after spending $15,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.

Then you'll earn 3x points on up to $150,000 spent each year in combined business categories such as internet, cable and phone, shipping, advertising (made with social media sites and search engines), and travel purchases.

Points are worth $1.25 cents each when redeemed directly for travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards®, or they can be transferred to participating airline miles or hotel partners. There's a $95 annual fee for this card.

Best airline cards

Generally speaking, most travelers will get better rewards from cards that aren’t tied to one specific airline. Having said that, the best airline cards do have significant benefits to offer.

For one, choosing your favorite airline’s card can help you reach elite status faster. In most cases, this can garner you deep discounts, better mileage rewards and great upgrades, including to first or business class.

Having an airline card also give you access to comfortable lounges with complimentary food and drinks, which can make those increasingly frequent flight delays a lot more bearable.

However, the airline card you choose largely depends on a few things: whether you’re willing to stick with one airline, which destinations you’re likely to visit and what you hope to get out of it.

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Reward rates:

• Every dollar you spend earns one mile towards the Elite Status program
• 5x miles on eligible Frontier purchases
• 3x miles at restaurants

Why we chose it: What if you could fly with a discount carrier, but enjoy some of the perks and benefits you'd receive from a legacy airline? That's the benefit of the FRONTIER Airlines World Mastercard®.

Frontier is a discount carrier based in Denver with service to over 100 destinations in the U.S., the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America.

The FRONTIER Airlines Mastercard® counts every dollar spent as a mile that can be used towards its Elite Status program. First tier status is reached after earning 20,000 flying miles — in other words, after spending $20,000 on your card — or after 25 flight segments in a year. Benefits with this first tier of elite status include priority boarding, advance seat assignment, free carry-on bag and priority boarding at participating airports, saving you plenty of money on the extra fees normally charged.

This card has a $0 introductory annual fee, but does have a $89 annual fee after that. However, it makes up for it with a $100 flight voucher you earn every year that you spend at least $2,500 with the card. Given Frontier’s low ticket prices, this voucher can represent a significant discount.

While this card has a great reward rate compared to other airline cards, it does have a much more limited number of destinations than the legacy airlines. However, if most of your traveling is domestic and your priority is low ticket prices, this could be a great deal.

All information about the FRONTIER Airlines Mastercard® has been collected independently by Money.com.

Reward rates:

• 4 miles per $1 spent on purchases on United®
• 2 miles per $1 spent on all other travel purchases, including airports, ridesharing, and tolls
• 2 miles per $1 spent on dining purchases, including takeout
• 1 mile per $1 spent on all other purchases

Why we chose it: United Club℠ Infinite Card offers some of the best rewards an airline card can offer including some of the highest reward rates on purchases in the market, free checked bags and an extremely generous sign-up bonus offer.

While most airline-branded cards fall short when compared to travel cards that aren’t tied to a specific carrier, the United Club℠ Infinite Card might be the one exception.

This premium card also offers 4 miles per dollar on United purchases. That’s higher than its nearest competitor, the comparably priced Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, which offers 3x miles on Delta purchases.

But the card offers a host of other benefits as well, starting with access to the United Club, a network of 45 airport lounges where you can find comfortable seating, personalized travel assistance, beverages and snacks. Membership to the United Club usually costs $650 per year, so the value of that alone could offset this card’s steep $595 annual fee.

If you use your card to buy food, beverages and/or Wi-Fi while on board United flights (or to buy premium drinks in its lounges), you’ll get 25% back as statement credits.

Finally, you’ll get Premier Access® to travel services, which includes preferential boarding, priority check-in and baggage handling privileges.

As with any airline-branded card, this card is best for frequent flyers who want to and can travel mostly on United. However, given that United has one of the widest destination networks of all domestic airlines, however, this might not be all that limiting.

Best hotel cards

If you already belong to a hotel membership program — such as Hilton Honors, Wyndham Reward Earner or World of Hyatt — their co-branded cards are good ways of maximizing those programs’ benefits. The points you earn with these cards can help you get free nights and convenient perks like free room upgrades and discounts.

Reward Rate:

• 9X points total for Hyatt stays and experiences
• 4 bonus points per $1 spent with your card at Hyatt hotels, including participating restaurants and spas
• 2x per $1 spent on local transit and commuting
• 2x points per $1 at restaurants, cafes and coffee shops
• 2x per $1 spent on airline tickets purchased directly from the airline
• 2x per $1 spent on fitness club and gym memberships
• 1x per $1 spent on all other card purchases

Why we chose it: The World of Hyatt card gives you a lot of opportunities to rack up points, whether you’re using the card to purchase hotel stays or for restaurants, gyms or transit.

The World of Hyatt card really lets you unlock more value from its popular loyalty program, as it offers plenty of bonus points, certificates for free stays at Hyatt properties around the world and credits towards elite status.

You also get a free-night-stay certificate each year, and a second certificate after spending $15,000 in a calendar year (on Category 1-4 Hyatt hotels or resorts).

Card members are granted Discoverist status, the second tier in Hyatt’s elite membership program. With this status, you receive bonus points, complimentary fast-speed internet, free bottled water daily while at their properties and room upgrades. You’ll also be able to take advantage of checkouts as late as 2 p.m. where available.

Most important, however, are the five tier-qualifying night credits each year — that’s in addition to two tier-qualifying night credits for each $5,000 you spend on your card.

While there’s a $95 annual fee for this card, the free nights alone more than make up for the fee.

Reward Rates:

• 6x per $1 spent on qualifying purchases made at Wyndham hotels and gas stations
• 4x for every $1 spent on qualifying dining and grocery store purchases (excluding Target® and Walmart®)
• 1x for every $1 spent on everyday purchases (excluding Wyndham Timeshares down payments)

Why we chose it: Wyndham has properties all around the world catering to every budget, and its loyalty program and card perks could make the next family vacation considerably more affordable.

With more than 9,000 properties around the world, Wyndham is easily one of the most recognized and widely available hotel brands. Its network includes hotels for every type of traveler, from the budget- and family-friendly Howard Johnson to the luxurious Wyndham Grand.

In addition to accessibility, however, the Wyndham Earner® Plus Card also offers extremely generous perks.

This card makes it easier to rack up points you can then redeem for free nights and perks. You’ll get automatic entry into the loyalty program’s Platinum level which grants you lowest room rate guarantees, 10 points per dollar spent on every qualified stay, free Wi-Fi, dedicated member services, as well as early check-in and late checkouts. Platinum level members also enjoy Avis or Budget car rental upgrades.

The card also rewards you for everyday expenses, giving 1 point per $1 spent on household supplies, groceries and even bills.

All information about the Wyndham Earner® Plus Card has been collected independently by Money.com.

Frequently asked questions about travel rewards credit cards:

Should I get a travel rewards card if I carry a balance?

As with any rewards credit card, travel rewards cards are best used by those who avoid interest by paying their balance in full. Those who are unable to do that should focus on finding a low-interest-rate credit card that doesn't offer travel rewards. The exception could be a small business owner that uses a credit card as a short-term line of credit in order to run his or her business.

Should I start earning travel rewards now, even if I won't be traveling until later this year or next year?

The best time to start earning travel rewards is long before you actually plan on using them. That's because it will take time to receive the card, qualify for a bonus and receive the bonus points. Plus, it may take even longer to earn any additional points or miles you need for your next trip. Finally, you'll likely want to book your trip several months before you plan on traveling.

What happens to your airline miles or hotel points earned from your credit card if you cancel the card?

Frequent flyer mile and hotel cards award points or miles in programs operated by airlines and hotel chains. Once those rewards are in your airline or hotel account, they’re subject to the rules of that program, regardless of whether you keep the card. But when the rewards are with a program operated by the card issuer, then they could be forfeited if you cancel the card and don't have another card that is part of the same program.

Which is best: airline miles, hotel points or flexible rewards?

These travel rewards programs all have their strengths and weakness, and the right program for you will be the card that offers the most value per dollar spent on purchases.

Hotel rewards tend to be the most flexible, while airline miles can still offer plenty of value if you understand how each program works. Flexible points programs can offer the best of both airline and hotel programs, but they'll lack the company-specific perks that airline and hotel cards offer.

How we chose the best travel rewards cards

To find the best travel rewards cards, we first divided the market into the six most popular types of cards. Then we looked at the travel rewards credit cards offered by all of the major card issuers. Each of their travel rewards credit card offers were examined and compared to other travel rewards cards. We focused on the initial bonus offered, bonus rewards for certain purchases and travel specific features and benefits.

The winners were the cards that offered no foreign transaction fees and most valuable rewards and benefits in each category.

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