The Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards of 2024

Last Updated on 08/01/2024 by Edy Ragnoli

How to get free flights, hotel rooms, vacation, cash, discount, and perks when you travel and pay for your everyday needs with a travel reward credit card.

We all love to travel and always will. But travelling can be expensive unless you know some tricks and how to get something back every time you spend money. Welcome to the wonderful world of travel rewards credit cards. You’ll discover the best ones in 2021, how they work, their benefits and how to choose the right ones.

Would you like to travel more and save money? Go through this guide and list of the best travel credit cards. You'll find the one for your needs.

Quick Overview: The Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards of 2021

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: Best starter travel credit card
• American Express® Gold Card: Best for worldwide dining
• United℠ Explorer® Card: Best airline rewards cards
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®: Best Premium travel rewards card
• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card: Best mid-tier hotel card
• The Platinum Card® from American Express: Best for lounge access
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card: Best for small business travel rewards
• Discover it® Miles Card: Best for no annual fee
• Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card: Best for earning miles at a flat rate
• Chase Freedom Flex℠ Card: Best for Cash back for travel bookings

How Travel Rewards Credit Cards Work

Travel rewards credit cards pay you back with a welcome offer, points or miles, bonuses, cashback, and discounts every time you use them for your purchase. The more you spend, the more you earn. Some cards also reward you with more points for certain purchases. Why do they do that? To gain and retain customers. So card issuers partner with travel companies to offer a variety of perks.

What can you do with the points and miles you earn? You can redeem them to get free flights, hotel rooms, vacation and more. But you have to distinguish between general-purpose travel rewards credit cards and branded airline/hotel-specific credit cards. We’ll see them in more details later.

What’s the best card depends on your specific needs and travel habits. For a sneak peek of the overall value of every card I examined, here’s a quick overview of the airline miles and hotel points they give.

AIRLINE MILE VALUES

Program	Mile value
Alaska	1 cent
American	1 cent
Delta	1.1 cents
Frontier	0.6 cent
Hawaiian	0.9 cent
JetBlue	1.3 cents
Southwest	1.4 cents
United	0.8 cent

HOTEL POINT VALUES

Program	Point value
Best Western	0.7 cent
Hilton	0.5 cent
Hyatt	1.9 cents
IHG	0.8 cent
Marriott	1 cent
Radisson	0.5 cent
Wyndham	0.9 cent

How To Choose a Travel Credit Card

I must tell you: there’s no perfect card. Everything depends on how you travel and what’s more important for you. Every travel credit card offers its advantages. That’s why I prefer to use many of them, depending on the situation. To discover which one is best, you must learn how to evaluate them and know the benefits they offer.

General-purpose travel credit cards reward you with points (or miles) you can use to pay for travel with several airlines or hotels. They have their own flexible reward programmes and you can transfer the points to multiple travel companies. Therefore, they are the best choice if you love (or need) to change them continuously.

Conversely, branded airline or hotel cards give you points you can use just with them (some cards allow you to transfer hotel points to airlines, but you get a poor value). So if you are a loyal traveller and like sticking with a specific company, regardless of the reason, this is the best choice for you.

Evaluating general travel credit cards

This kind of cards is issued by a bank and you earn 1 to 2 points per dollar spent on every purchase (even more in some categories). As a new customer, you usually benefit from big sign-up bonuses that converts in thousands of miles you earn by spending a given amount of money within a certain period.

These cards offer several perks and ways to redeem the points. So choose the card that offers the best combination for you.

Statement credit: you pay the travel (hotel, agency, etc.) with your card and then apply the credit to eliminate the costs.

Travel booking: you use your points as money to pay for your travel through the card issuer's website.

Point transfer: you can transfer your points to other loyalty programmes of partner airlines or hotels.

Cashback, merchandise or gift card: you can use the points to receive these rewards instead of travel.

Travel credit: you get reimbursed for travel-related expenses.

Airport lounge access: you can stay at special lounges you wouldn't otherwise have access to.

Trusted traveller reimbursement: they cover the application fee for TSA PreCheck™ and Global Entry programmes (you move through airport security and custom faster and free of charge).

Evaluating airline credit cards

Co-branded airline credit cards reward you with 1 or 2 points for each dollar spent with the same airline. You can buy a flight ticket or even spend them in other categories such as car rental or restaurants. They give you also welcome bonuses but the main benefits are the perks included.

Priority boarding: you get on board after the airline's elite-status frequent flyers, but before the general passengers.

Free checked bags: you often have the first bag free for you and one companion. Some cards may include up to two bags apiece.

In-flight discounts: you get discounted food and drinks plus free Wi-Fi.

Discounted ticket for a companion: you can travel with a friend or partner saving money.

Airport lounge: depending on the card, you can get completely free or discounted access.

Upgrade of your frequent flyer tier: high-end airline cards may help you advance within the programme and eventually gain the elite status.

In your evaluation, consider the place you live in, your destinations and the airlines covering your routes. The choice will be consequential.

Evaluating hotel credit cards

Like airline cards, hotel credit cards earn points with each purchase and reward more for dollars spent with the co-branded partner. The points earned go to the hotel loyalty account and you can redeem them for a free stay. In addition to sign-up bonuses, hotel cards offer several attractive perks.

Free nights: periodically (for ex. once a year) you earn a free stay at the hotel. You may unlock this perk also after spending a certain amount of money.

Early check-in or late check-out: you can have much more flexibility and zero waiting time.

Freebies and upgrades: you can upgrade your room or get discounted or even free amenities.

Loyalty program level booster: holding a hotel card may accelerate your status advancement so the elite level is closer.

In choosing your hotel card consider your destination and how many hotel companies may be part of the same group. This will definitely widen the opportunities of using your card.

Comparing The Best Travel Credit Cards

How To Compare Travel Credit Card

I’ve already said there’s no perfect card. You won’t find anything offering the best in every aspect. Therefore, you have to find a balanced combination of advantages that best fits your needs. In general, I look at the following features when I have to choose the best travel credit card for me.

Annual fee

Although there are cards without a fee, they all offer lower bonuses and perks. So if you would like to earn a lot, get the highest rewards and special offers and services, you must choose a card with annual fees. Most of the fees range between $50 and $100 and can go up to over $450. Consider how much you travel and spend in a year. You can then evaluate what's more convenient for you. If you travel a lot, you'll surely get more than you spend.

Rewards rate

You can distinguish between earn rate and burn rate that are equally important.
The earn rate is how many points (or miles) you earn per dollar spent.
The burn rate is the value of your points when you redeem them.

The higher the better, but remember to verify if the included categories meet your spending habits and needs.

Sign-up bonus

You can also call it “welcome offer”. It can give you a huge amount of points to spend with your preferred airline or hotel (sometimes up to 50,000 or 100,000). Here's how it works. The more expensive the card, the higher the bonus usually is, but you need to spend a specif amount with the first few months to earn it. This threshold is commonly between $3,000 and $5,000. But if you know you can spend it, what you'll get back will repay you.

Are you not sure if you can reach this amount? Ask some family members or friends if you can pay their purchases with your card. Alternatively, apply for the card when you plan to do a big purchase. Reaching that threshold will be much easier.

Foreign transaction fees

When you travel abroad, using another currency is inevitable and with it the currency exchange. Using a credit card can save you a lot of time and trouble but you must pay attention to the foreign transaction fees.

If you are charged (on average 3%) on every purchase, you can say goodbye to your points because their value will be literally wiped out by those fees. So in your quest to choosing the best travel credit card, pick the one with zero foreign transaction fees.

International acceptance

If you are a nomad and long-term traveller, you probably like visiting the world. So, make sure your card is accepted internationally. For example, American Express can have some limits abroad. This doesn't mean you have to give up on those cards and their perks. Just remember to have at least a backup card to stay out of troubles.

Travel protections

When you work abroad or go on holiday, you usually purchase travel insurance. But keep in mind your travel credit card may also give you some coverage for lost baggage, trip cancellation, car insurance, just to mention a few. The coverage can be good enough to even give up on some options for your travel insurance so that you can save money along the year.

Perks

Points are just part of the package. You need to spend money in order to collect them. But perks are something you earn just for holding the card. As I explained before, there are several kinds of perks that can repay you for what you've spent.

How much does a night at the Hilton hotel in New York worth? How much can a Spa treatment cost you when you stay at your favourite five-star hotel? It's all a matter of habits and spending patterns. So get the cards that offer the perks you'll really use.

Full List of My Pick: The Best Travel Credit Cards

My pick for Flexibility + point transfers + big sign-up bonus

My pick for big rewards on everyday spending

My pick for Airline credit card

My pick for Bonus travel rewards + high-end perks

My pick for Hotel credit card

My pick for Business travelers – perks

My pick for Flat-rate travel rewards + no annual fee

My pick for Business travelers — bonus rewards + big sign-up offer

My pick for Earning miles at a flat rate

My pick for Cash back for travel bookings

Does Opening A Lot of Credit Cards Hurt My Credit?

Opening and closing a lot of credit cards at once may hurt your credit. That's because every time you request a new loan or credit card, your score slightly drops. But there's a solution to keep your credit score good: applying for just a few credit cards over a medium to long period.

As long as you pay your monthly balance and keep good credit, nobody will knock on your door complaining about a poor credit score. On the contrary, owning more than one credit card can improve your overall debt-to-credit ratio (unless you spend all the credit available in every card you have). According to FICO^®, a good debt-to-credit ratio percentage is below 30%.

What If You Have Poor Credit?

If you have a low score (below 650), you won't have access to most travel credit cards or the full list of options. But you can still win your fight and eventually get the high-end credit cards that can grant you bigger points and rewards. For that, just follow these steps.

1. Check your credit score through dedicated services and websites (for the US, you can visit AnnualCreditReport.com and get your report).
2. Dispute any mistake or incorrect information with your local credit reporting agency.
3. Start improving your credit score over time getting a secured credit card. This card allows you to deposit some cash (like a pre-paid card) and spend it every month. But remember to pay off the amount monthly. This will make you trustworthy thanks to good credit reports that the secured card will automatically send to the credit bureaus.
4. Become an additional cardholder (on someone else's card with good credit). That person will act as your voucher and your credit score will improve quickly. Keep in mind your missed payments will also appear in his/her account and vice versa.
5. Reduce your current debts and pay your bills on time. Moving your debt to zero-interest cards such as Discover will give you additional help.

Pros and Cons of Getting a Rewards Travel Credit Card

Pros:

• High sign-up bonus: the best travel credit cards usually give you high welcome bonuses, even over $1,000. That's a great deal, good enough to get your next flight ticket for free.
• Rewards earned on every purchase: people buy goods and services almost every day. When you pay with a travel rewards credit card, the more you spend the more you earn in points. This will bring you closer and closer to your next trip that you literally get free of charge.
• Perks: I've already talked about them and their importance in evaluating travel cards (freebies, support, privileges, etc.). They can really make your travel cheaper and more comfortable.
• Variable redemption value: unlike cash-back cards, points you earn with other travel credit cards can have different value based on how you decide to use them. So 1 cent may become 2 cents or more. I think this multiplier effect is very attractive and allows you to maximise your profit using a strategic approach.
• Additional points: when you pay a flight ticket or hotel room using your travel card, you earn double points, both with your card and your travel company's loyalty programme.
• No international transaction fees: you can travel and spend abroad saving money. The currency exchange rate will be the only expense for using your card.

Cons:

• High annual fees: this is bad if you refuse to pay anything in any circumstances. But remember that if you use your card frequently, bonuses, points and perks will repay this expense.
• Not the best deal for occasional travellers: If you're not going to travel much, you lose most of the opportunities to earn and use your points and cover the annual fee.
• A high threshold to earn the welcome offer: spending money and accumulate debt – with the consequential negative interests to pay – just for the sake of gaining the sign-up bonus would do more harm than good. Fortunately, there are some solutions I've already given to you in the previous paragraphs.
• Higher interest rates: that's a bad deal if you think you'll carry a balance each month. In this case, your best option is a zero or low-interest card.
• Cashback gives poor value compared to redemption for travel: getting some cashback can be more simple and flexible because it lets you know exactly how much you get and you can spend your money on everything. But remember you'll get more value if you use your points to pay for travel. So it depends on your needs and the type of traveller you are.

There are many travel credit cards available and issuers compete with one another in offering the best options to get and retain more customers. There’s not a perfect travel card. They are all different and have pros and cons. But you can find the best one for your habits and lifestyle and I hope this guide helped you learn all you need to make your choice.

Which travel credit cards do you already use? How do they help you save and earn money? How do you prefer to redeem your points?