My Favorite Travel Credit Cards and Why You Should Get One
If you love to travel, have an excellent credit score, and curious about different travel credit cards, then this post is for you! I’m going into detail about the benefits of having a travel credit card, the travel credit cards I use and love, and my thoughts on some of the other popular travel credit cards.
Disclaimer: this post contains referral links, which means I may earn a bonus if you apply using one of these links.
The Key Benefit of Travel Credit Cards
There’s many benefits to having a travel credit card. Depending on the card you get, there’s a wide variety of benefits ranging from dining credits to airport lounge access. If I dove into the wide array of benefits, this would be a loooong post! So I’ll hone in on the key benefit of having a travel credit card, which is the points you accumulate from everyday spending. With a travel credit card, you earn points on your everyday spending that can then be redeemed for travel purchases like flights, hotels, rental cars, and even trains. The money you’re already spending on groceries and bills? With a travel credit card, that spending can lead to free flights and hotels without spending any extra money (other than the annual card fee of course) or doing any extra work!
My Travel Credit Cards
Here are the travel cards I’m currently using and why I love them!
Capital One Venture X
Why I love it: 2x points for ALL spending categories, low annual fee compared to competitor cards in the same tier, annual travel credit, access to Capital One lounges and Priority Pass Lounges
This is the travel credit card I got started with, and to this day it’s still my favorite card. This is a great card to start with if you’re new to travel credit cards and want airport lounge access and just a great card overall. Why? For starters, you get 2x points for every dollar spent regardless of spending category. Not having to do the mental math of which spending categories gets you more points is really nice. Also, the annual fee for the Venture X card is lower than competitor cards of the same tier. The fee is $395, but the $300 annual travel credit and airport lounge access alone pays for itself – not to mention numerous other benefits like reimbursed global entry (which includes TSA Pre-check) and rental car coverage.
If you already have a different travel credit card and are looking for a new one to get, especially if your home airport has a Capital One lounge, I’d get this one too. As mentioned above, it’s so easy to have the annual fee pay for itself. And having unlimited access to the Capital One airport lounges is a great perk! Their lounges are such a high quality, from the food to the ambiance, that it’s basically enough reason to add this card to your portfolio.
If you’d like the 2x points on all spending categories but don’t necessarily need all the extra perks that Venture X has, Capital One has a lower tier travel credit card, the Venture card, that has a $95 annual fee.
Click here to apply to the Capital One Venture X card.
Chase Sapphire Preferred
Why I love it: strong transfer partners and redemption value, complimentary DashPass, 3x points on dining, 5x points on Lyft rides
Many travelers tend to have more than one travel credit card in their portfolio to get access to a wider variety of transfer partners and maximize the perks they receive. That’s why I also have and love the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. What drew me to this card is the strong transfer partners and redemption value of points. What is a transfer partner? A transfer partner is an airline or hotel that allows you to transfer your credit card points to your respective rewards account. For example, United Airlines allows me to transfer my Chase points to my United MileagePlus account. Both Capital One and Chase have a wide variety of transfer partners, but there’s some strong partners Chase has that Capital One doesn’t, like United Airlines and Hyatt. Another perk of Chase Sapphire Preferred is the strong redemption value of points. There’s times where they run a transfer bonus to select partners, meaning the points you transfer get multiplied with the respective transfer partner.
The other perks of my Chase Sapphire Preferred that I love are the high point value for dining spend, complimentary DashPass, and 5x points on Lyft rides. As someone who loves to try new restaurants, either from my couch via Doordash or out on the town, I appreciate being able to earn 3x points for every dollar spent on dining and saving money on delivery fees via DashPash. I also use Lyft quite often, so earning 5x points per dollar spent on Lyft is amazing.
You might be wondering why I chose the Chase Sapphire Preferred over the Chase Sapphire Reserve, which is the higher tier of Chase’s travel credit cards. One reason is the lower annual fee – the Preferred annual fee is $95 whereas the Reserve annual fee is $795. The Reserve has way more benefits than the Preferred, like airport lounge access, priority access to Chase Sapphire lounges, and more, but since I already have airport lounge access through Capital One and my husband has Chase Sapphire Reserve I’m sticking with the Preferred for now. That said, the airport lounge access benefits are stronger through Reserve vs Capital One because of access to nap and gaming lounges and guests allowed with you so that is something to consider.
Click here to apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
Bilt Palladium
Why I love it: can earn points by paying rent & mortgage, hotel credits, strong transfer partners
The third travel card I have in my portfolio is Bilt Palladium. I got Bilt because of the ability to earn points on rent and mortgage payments, but this card also comes with additional perks like strong transfer partners, $400 hotel credits, and airport lounge access. The annual fee is $495, but with the rewards the card almost pays for itself! Bilt also has lower tiers that are more affordable.
Click here to learn more about the Bilt cards and apply.
Other Travel Credit Cards to Consider
American Express Platinum and Gold Cards
American Express has two great options for travel credit cards, with the highest tier being the Platinum card. The allure of the AMEX Platinum card is access to their Centurion lounges and Delta SkyClub lounges on top of Priority Pass lounges. Some other great perks include an annual $600 hotel credit and annual $209 CLEAR+ credit. The annual fee for the Platinum card is a steep $895, but if you utilize enough of the benefits it pays for itself. I’d love to have this card, but they keep offering me the 80k points sign on bonus instead of the coveted 175k points sign on bonus and I’m too stubborn to accept the smaller value!
Click here to apply for the AMEX Platinum card.
Airline or Hotel Specific Credit Cards
If you’re loyal to a specific airline or hotel, it’s worth looking into their respective credit card options. Some strong airline credit cards are Delta and American Airlines, and I’ve also heard good things about Marriot and Hilton cards. I don’t have any specific airline or hotel credit cards because I’m not extremely loyal to anyone specific, but if I was I’d probably have at least one company-specific card!
There’s a lot of wonderful options for travel credit cards, and you really can’t go wrong with any option. What else would you like to know about travel credit cards? Let me know in the comments or shoot me a DM on Instagram!
