Reciprocal museum programs

  Credit Card Reference

“Premium” reward cards have high annual fees. But, they come with the annual credits, bonus reward rates, lucrative signup bonuses, and valuable benefits (such as free airport lounge access), that can make these fees worthwhile.

The most famous premium cards are the Amex Platinum card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve, but there are also several lesser-known premium cards available from other credit card companies.

The ongoing benefits of premium credit cards can be very valuable. Depending on your travel patterns, you may want to add one or more of these cards to your "permanent" credit card collection.

Even if you don't, you probably want to eventually apply for each of these cards, if only to collect their extremely lucrative signup bonuses. By spreading your applications over time, you’ll not only earn hundreds of thousands of points, you'll be able to freely access airport lounges for years to come.

Jump to

• What all the premium cards have in common
• Collecting every premium card's signup bonus
• Keeping a card for its unique benefits
• Obtaining continuous airport lounge access
• Holding onto a premium card for travel and restaurant spending
• Side-by-side comparison

What all the premium cards have in common

While each premium card has valuable unique benefits, they also share some general features.

• Airport lounge access. Each premium card provides free access to airport lounges, typically the over 1,000 airport lounges and restaurants that are part of the "Priority Pass" program. You (and some number of additional traveling companions) can freely access airport lounges located all around the world. They aren’t the fanciest lounges around, and there may not be one in the terminal you are using for your flight, but you should still have plenty of opportunities to take advantage of this benefit on your travels. Get Free Airport Lounge Access from a Credit Card.


The Amex Platinum card provides access to some additional lounges, besides the ones that belong to Priority Pass. For example, you get access to Amex’s own collection of Centurion lounges, which are located at a handful of locations around the world, plus access to Delta’s lounges when flying Delta.

• Extremely valuable signup bonuses. All the premium cards have excellent signup bonuses—typically worth anywhere from $600 to more than $2,000, depending on current promotions, and the way you choose to use the points. Because of the signup bonuses, it is worth signing up for each of these cards, even if you aren’t interested in holding onto them for the long run.
• Some sort of credit that reduces the amount of money the card costs each year. Every premium reward card comes with some sort of “credit”, which rebates some of the travel purchases you make with the card. For example, the first $300 you spend every year on travel with your Sapphire Reserve card is automatically subtracted from your credit card bill, without having to take any additional action. You pay a $450 annual fee, but you get back $300 in free travel.

With some cards, it is trivial to take advantage of their credit. For example, everyone (who is reading this) is likely to spend at least $300 per year on travel. As long as you use your Sapphire Reserve card to pay, you’ll wind up receiving the credit.

With other cards, it is considerably harder. The Amex Platinum's $200 airline credit only pays for incidental expenses, like checked bag fees and inflight beverages, on a single airline (that you have to choose at the beginning of the year). There is a good chance that you won’t have a natural opportunity to take full advantage of this credit. However, there are still ways to get value from the Amex credit using airline gift cards. Get Full Value from Your Airline Incidental Credits.

• Global Entry rebate. Each high-end card (and some lower-end cards) also pays up to $100 for Global Entry / TSA PreCheck application fees. Since, you only need to pay these fees once every five years, each card’s credit can only be used once every four to five years. If you need to pay fees for family members, you may need to take advantage of the TSA fee credit from multiple cards. The Hilton Aspire cards is the only premium card that doesn't offer a TSA credit. 

• Some sort of elite car rental status. Most of the high-end reward cards entitle you to elite status with at least one car rental company. While this is nice to have, it isn’t much of a reason to go out and get these cards. Elite car rental status usually just amounts to a one-car class upgrade, and some extra bonus points from the rental company’s reward program.

Singing up for every premium card

Assuming that you are comfortable signing up for credit cards, in order to collect their signup bonuses, the answer to which premium card you should signup for is easy—you should sign up for "all of them". {{Link|Signup Intro||

When you factor in their signup bonuses, every premium credit card offers a good deal, at least for their first year.

• All the premium cards have generous signup offers. For example, a typical signup offer for the Amex Platinum cards range from 60,000 to 100,000 Membership Reward points, valued at $900 to $1500. If you highly value premium-cabin frequent flyer awards, these points are even more valuable.
• Annual fees are high, but they are partially offset by travel credits. For example, the Sapphire Reserve has a $450 annual fee. But, it comes with an automatic $300 travel credit. So, while you need to pay the $450 annual fee to earn the signup bonus, you’ll also get back $300 in free travel, dropping your effective out-of-pocket expense to $150.
• In some cases, you can take advantage of the travel credit twice in your initial year. The Amex Platinum, Citi Prestige, and Hilton Aspire cards allow you to earn the travel credit each “calendar” year. The CNB Infinite card allows you to earn the travel credit each calendar year, including separate credits for each authorized cardholder.

That means you can use the credit twice during your initial signup year. For example, if you sign up for the card in August, you can get use the full credit between August and December, and then again between January and August. For some premium cards, you can get back more in credits, than you need to pay in annual fees—and that doesn’t even include the value of the signup points or ongoing benefits.

• You can earn the signup bonus from multiple different versions of the Amex Platinum card. Amex has partnered with a number of other companies, to offer slightly different versions of their Platinum cards. While you can only earn each Amex signup bonus once per lifetime, you are entitled to earn the bonus from each different version of the Platinum card.

Keeping a card for its unique benefits

Every premium card makes sense for the first year, due to their lucrative signup bonuses. The question is whether it make sense to make the card a more permanent part of your core credit card collection.

Several high-end cards have unique benefits that are potentially very valuable. Depending on your travel patterns, the unique feature of each card can be enough to warrant holding onto the card, and paying the annual fee every year.

• When deciding whether it is worth holding onto a premium card, you can usually ignore the Priority Pass airport lounge benefit. Chances are that you will already have Priority Pass access through another card. For example, if you decide to hold onto the Citi Prestige card for its 4^th night free benefit, you’ll get no additional value from the Sapphire Reserve’s airport lounge access. Even if you aren’t interested in holding onto one of the other cards, you can get airport lounge access for many years, by simply spreading out your applications over time, collecting the signup bonuses, and then cancelling the cards after the first year.
• Since you will probably be signing up for these cards to collect the signup bonus, you’ll get a “free” year to decide whether the ongoing benefits are worthwhile. Don’t worry to much about evaluating whether you’ll get enough value from the card’s benefits to make it worthwhile to continue to pay the annual fee. When you sign up to collect the bonus, you’ll have the card for a year, and will have plenty of opportunity to evaluate the ongoing benefits.

Citi Prestige Card

If you expect to stay four nights or longer at a hotel, at least two times per year, make sure to get the Citi Prestige card. Whenever you use this card to book a four night stay at almost any hotel, you’ll get the average cost of one night refunded to your credit card statement. As of now, you can use the benefit as many times as you want, at anything from a $70 per night roadside motel to a $800 per night ski lodge. Starting in 2019, you'll be limited to two uses per year (of your choice)

For example, if you pay $1,200 for a four night stay at a beach resort, Citibank will give you $300 back. Later in the year, if you pay $900 for a four night stay at a downtown hotel, Citibank will give you another $225 back. Depending on your travel patterns, this is the most valuable benefit that you can get from any credit card, savings hundreds of dollars per year. Get Your 4th Night Free with the Citi Prestige Card

Citi Prestige Guide

The Citi Prestige card costs $450 per year, but comes with an automatic $250 airfare credit, making the effective annual fee $200. If you are a preferred Citibank customer, you save an additional $100 off the annual fee. The card is also the only credit card (other than its sibling) to give bonus points on entertainment spending.

If you can use the 4^th night free benefit twice per year, it is almost always worthwhile to get this card, even if you have other premium cards.

Amex Platinum Card

The Amex Platinum card can be very attractive to some people, and is much less attractive to others. Unfortunately, it is less straightforward to determine whether the unique benefits of the Amex Platinum card are worth the annual fee. Unlike the other cards, it has several different unique benefits, that you will need to value separately. It is also less clear how much value you can get from its travel credits.

Amex Platinum Card Guide

• The Amex Platinum card gets you into more Airport Lounges than the other cards. The Amex card comes with a Priority Pass membership, but also provides access to Amex’s new Centurion lounges, to Delta lounges (when flying Delta), and to a small set of additional lounges. That makes it particularly valuable if you live in a Delta hub, or a city with a Centurion lounge. Get Free Airport Lounge Access from a Credit Card.

Just be aware that, unlike most of the other cards, you are limited to 2 free guests when you visit Priority Pass lounges (and when you are visiting one of their own Centurion lounges); and only the cardholders receive free access to Delta lounges. So, if you frequently travel with a family, and don’t pay the $175 additional fee to add authorized cardholders, the Platinum card’s lounge benefit can be less valuable than the lounge benefit from other cards.


• The Platinum card gives you automatic Gold status at Hilton, Marriott / Starwood hotels. At Hilton that’s good enough for free breakfast. While you can easily get Hilton Gold status from one of the Hilton credit cards, they have a $95 annual fee. Get Free Breakfast or Club Floor Access with the Right Credit Card.

• The Platinum card earns the highest reward rate on airfare. You’ll earn a whopping 5x Membership Rewards points on your airfare purchases. For every $1,000 that you spend, you’ll earn approximately $40 in extra rewards by using the Platinum card, instead of using one of the best travel reward cards, like the Sapphire Reserve. On the other hand, the Platinum card doesn't offer the extensive set of free travel protections that you can get from the other premium cards. (The Platinum card's 5x reward rate on hotels isn’t worth much, because of the drawbacks associated with needing to purchase pre-paid rates on a 3^rd party booking site.)

If you spend a lot of money on airfare, the extra rewards you earn from the Platinum card will offset a significant portion of the card's annual fee.

• “Fine Hotels & Resorts” is a great program, but you can often get similar benefits elsewhere. If you stay in luxury hotels, you can get great benefits with the Platinum card’s highly-touted Fine Hotel and Resorts program. But to be fair, many of the hotels in the program participate in similar programs run by the other credit card programs or luxury travel agents. On the other hand, Amex’s Fine Hotel & Resorts does more frequently provide 3^rd and 4^th night free offers, compared to the other programs. While the potential upside can be high, you might not get any real value from this in any given year, especially if you don’t often pay for the most expensive hotels and resorts. Take Advantage of Luxury Hotel Programs for Valuable Extra Perks.

The annual fee for most versions of the Platinum card is $550. Like the other high-end cards, it comes with some credits that can offset that fee, but unlike the Citi Prestige, Altitude Reserve, and Sapphire Reserve cards, it isn’t easy to get full value from these credits.

• The Uber credit is automatic, but not everyone uses Uber every month. The card comes with up to $200 in Uber refunds per year—$15 per month, and an extra $20 in December. The credits only apply to rides within the US, or food delivered via Uber Eats. If you frequently use Uber, this credit will wind up coming right off your bill, and the effective annual cost of the card will drop by up to $200. However, if you only use Uber infrequently, you’ll only get a partial benefit (you can "gift" your Uber credits to someone else, by letting them register your Platinum card, if you trust them with your card information).
• The Saks credit is automatic, but not everyone shops at Saks. The card comes with a $50 credit for purchases between January and June, and another $50 credit for purchases between July and September. You'll need to spend at least $50 in a single transaction to qualify for the credit. Once you've activated this feature, it works automatically when you use your card at Saks or on Saks online.
• It is hard to get full value from the airline credit. The travel credit on the Amex card is much less useful than the travel credit from the Sapphire Reserve, Citi Prestige, and Altitude Reserve cards.

It only covers incidental expenses like baggage fees and onboard food, not airfare, or even seat upgrades. And it only pays for fees on a single airline that you choose at the beginning of the year. Odds are you have ways to avoid these fees on airlines you fly frequently, and you might not be able to take full advantage of the credit, if you choose a less frequently flown airline. It is very rare for people to be naturally able to take full advantage of this credit.



However, if you are willing to work harder, there is a “trick” that allows you to get full value from the airline incidental credit. Even though it is technically against the terms-of-use, Amex often refunds gift card purchases from certain airlines. You can then use these gift cards to pay for airfare at a later time. So, if a little web research indicates that small-denomination gift card purchases are still being credited for your favorite airline, you take the time to purchase the gift cards, and then remember to use them later, you can easily take advantage of the entire credit, dropping the effective annual fee by another $200. Get Full Value from Your Airline Incidental Credits.

Depending on how fully you can use the Uber and Airline Incidental credits, the effective annual fee ranges from $150 - $550. If you don’t frequently use Uber, and don’t want to play gift-card games with the airline incidental credit, you’ll might get very little benefit, and bear the full brunt of the $550 annual fee. On the other hand, if you can take full advantage of both credits, you’ll get the annual fee down to $150—the same range as the other cards.

Once you estimate how much of the credits you are likely to use, you should also subtract the amount of extra rewards you expect to earn, by using the card to make your out-of-pocket airfare purchases. Then you need to decide whether you value the extended lounge access, elite hotel status, and Fine Hotel and Resorts program enough to justify whatever is left of the annual fee.

Amex Platinum Business Card

If you decide to get the Amex Platinum card, you should consider the business version instead. The business card costs $100 less, and gets all the valuable unique benefits of the personal card, except for the Uber credit. And it gets a few interesting extra benefits, that you only get from the business version.

Amex Platinum Card Guide

• It lets you redeem any of your Membership Reward points, to pay for certain airplane tickets, at a value of 1.54 cents each. While you should be able to get more value than this, by transferring your Membership points to airline partners to redeem for frequent flyer tickets, having the Business Platinum card gives you the option to get solid value from your points, with hardly any effort. It makes the Membership Rewards program much more attractive for people who don’t want to mess around with frequent flyer tickets.
• You’ll also get 10 Gogo Inflight Internet passes per year and a few other minor benefits, that you don’t get with the Personal card.

The annual fee is $450, which is $100 less than the fee for the personal card. However, you don’t get the $200 Uber credit. If you would get full value from the Uber credit, the business card will wind up costing you more. If you get no value from Uber credit, the business card will wind up costing you less.

You need to have some sort of business to be entitled to get this card. It can be a part-time gig, and you don’t need a special Tax ID number. Amex requires that the business revenue is at least $1,000 per year, but many people believe that is a projection of revenue over the next year, and not a summary of revenue over the previous year. Unlock Extra Reward Points with Business Credit Cards.

There is one other consideration. With the business version, it costs $300 to add an authorized user. With the personal version, you can add up to 3 authorized users for $175 total. If you need to add someone else on the card, so that they get airport lounge access when they are traveling alone, the pendulum can swing back to the personal card.

Altitude Reserve

The U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve card is the least expensive high-end card, and can earn back its cost, with extremely high rewards on mobile wallet payments. The Altitude Reserve’s signature feature is a 4.5% reward rate whenever you use a mobile wallet, like Apple Pay or Google Pay, to make a payment. This is much higher reward rate than you would get from any other card. For each $1,000 you spend with your mobile wallet (at brick and mortar stores, in apps, or online), you’ll earn somewhere between $15-25 in extra rewards. Maximizing the Altitude Reserve Card's Mobile Wallet Rewards.

Altitude Reserve Guide

• Plus, you’ll get 12 Gogo Inflight Internet passes per year. The Altitude Reserve costs $400 per year, but comes with an automatic $325 travel credit, making the effective annual fee $75.
• Keep in mind that this card only has limited airport lounge access—you only get 4 visits per year (and 4 total guest visits). Since you are likely to want at least one of the other cards that offers full access, this isn’t a big deal. But if this is going to be your only premium card, you’ll need to live with more limited lounge access.

For many people, the unique benefits aren’t amazing, but they easily outweigh your $75 in out-of-pocket expenses.

We consider it indispensable for people who can spend at least $5,000 on mobile wallet payments each year, and who want to fully optimize their reward earning. But it is an easy card to pass on, if you don’t want to deal with the added complexity of integrating this card into your point-earning routine.

The Hilton Aspire Card

The Hilton Aspire card provides good value for anyone who can take advantage of its free night certificate and various annual credits. You get an annual $250 airline incidental credit, that is otherwise identical to the one from the Amex Platinum card, an annual $250 credit for paying your bill at a Hilton Resort, and an annual free weekend night certificate good at almost any of Hilton's most expensive hotels.

Hilton Credit Card Guide

If you are willing to use the "gift-card trick", or can otherwise get good value from the Amex Incidental Airline Credit, and can expect to use the resort credit and free hotel night certificate every year, you can easily get more value than the $450 annual fee. The credits alone are worth $500 per year, and the free hotel night can be worth even more than that. In addition, you'll get automatic Hilton Diamond status, good for free breakfast and lounge access.

The SPG Luxury Card

The SPG Luxury Card is somewhat interesting for its annual free night certificate. For some people it also provides a possible path towards high-level Marriott / SPG Status, and/or can be the most cost-effective way to get airport lounge access. Its $300 Marriott / SPG credit can be used to offset actual room charges, and not just incidental expenses. Most people should be able to take full advantage of this credit, and lower their out-of-pocket cost for the card to $150.

Marriott Credit Card Guide

Every year, you'll receive a free night certificate. Unlike the certificates from the "regular" Marriott and SPG cards, the Luxury card's certificate is capped at 50,000 points. 50,000 Marriott / SPG points are valued at $350, and can be used for free nights at many nice hotels, even in expensive locations. Of course, the certificate is less valuable, because it has less flexibility than 50,000 actual points, and expires in 1 year. You also get Marriott / SPG Gold status, which comes with some minor benefits.

Given that the annual free night certificate and hotel credit are somewhat more valuable than the annual fee, the SPG Luxury card can be a very inexpensive way to get airport lounge access, if you don't already have it from other cards. However, it would be worthwhile to investigate the Hilton Aspire card as a potentially better alternative.

Marriott / SPG Platinum status is the level that comes with free breakfast and lounge access (at most hotels), and free room upgrades to the best available room (including regular suites) at check-in. The Luxury card allows you to receive Platinum Status by spending $75,000 with the card in a year. Assuming you have a way to generate this amount of spending, it could conceivably be worthwhile to take this path, as this is a compelling status level and can last for up to two years. You'll need to stay frequently enough to get enough benefit, but not so frequently that you would naturally earn this level of status.

CNB Infinite Card

Some people should consider the CNB Visa Infinite card (if you can get it) for its reusable $100 airfare credit. This card is one of only three cards, along with the UBS card and the no-longer-available-to-new-signups Ritz Carlton card, that comes with the valuable “Visa Infinite $100 Airfare Benefit”. Every time you book a domestic economy airplane reservation for two or more people, you get a $100 refund. For example, if you booked a quick getaway for two people on flights that cost $180 each, you would wind up paying $260, instead of $360. If you fly as a couple or family on several domestic flights per year, these rebates can really add up. You’ll also get 12 Gogo Inflight Internet passes per year.

CNB Crystal Infinite Card Guide

However, it can be difficult to get this card. You need to apply in-branch. Most of the branches are in California and Nevada, but they have “entertainment industry” branches in New York City, Nashville, and Atlanta, and a trust office in Wilmington. You are also likely to have to produce paperwork detailing your financial position, rather than just filling in a quick application form.

The annual fee is $400, but you get a $250 automatic airline incidental credit on domestic flights (per cardholder). Unlike Amex’s credit, this works for any airline. Depending on how much money you spend on these purchases, or how willing you are to try to get around the terms-of-use by buying airline gift cards, this credit can put a big dent into the annual fee. Uniquely, every authorized user of the Crystal Infinite card gets their own travel credit. Therefore, it is possible to take advantage of multiple credits per year, and more than completely offset the annual fee. Get Full Value from Your Airline Incidental Credits.

UBS Infinite Card Guide

The UBS Infinite Card is a less desirable option for taking advantage of the Visa Infinite $100 airfare credit. It has a $495 annual fee and a $250 airline incidentals credit that is good on only a single airline. In addition, there is no online access to manage your card or your points, unless you have a separate cash management account with UBS (and no online applications either).

UBS Infinite Card Guide

On the plus side, it does come with up to 24! free authorized users, primary rental car insurance, 12 Gogo inflight wi-fi passes, and airport lounge access.

The Sapphire Reserve Card

The main reason to hold onto the Sapphire Reserve card is for its reward earning rates. If you’ve read our recommendation for the best general-purpose reward card, you know that we recommend that most people get the Sapphire Reserve / Freedom Unlimited combination to earn great reward rates on travel, restaurants, and any purchases which doesn’t qualify for a category bonus on your other credit cards. The Sapphire Reserve has a $450 annual-fee, but an automatic $300 travel credit makes the effective annual fee only $150.

If you decide on an alternative option for your general-purpose reward card, it can still make sense to get the Sapphire Reserve, just for the high reward rates on travel and restaurant spending. However, unless you spend a lot of money in these categories, or don’t expect to have lounge access through another card, you may be better off using other cards instead. For example, the Uber Credit Card has no annual fee and earns 4% on dining. For every $1,000 you spend on restaurants, you are only getting an extra $20 on rewards from the Sapphire Reserve. The Citi Prestige Card and Altitude Reserve Card earn compelling rewards on travel. If you are getting either of these, you’ll get less value from the Sapphire Reserve’s bonus rewards.

Obtaining continuous airport lounge access

Free access to airport lounges is one of the most valuable benefits of premium credit cards. Most people are going to always want one card that provides this benefit.

• If you decide you want to make one of these cards part of your core credit card collection, you’re all set. If you are planning to hold onto the Citi Prestige for its 4^th night free benefit, the Amex Platinum or Ritz cards for their unique blend of benefits, the Sapphire Reserve for its reward earning rates, and/or one of the Infinite cards for the Visa Infinite Air Credit, you’ll already have a card that gives you ongoing lounge access.
• You may want to spread out your Amex Platinum applications for access to additional lounges. The Amex Platinum card provides access to additional lounges, beyond the Priority Pass program, most notably the Amex Centurion lounges. If this is important to you, you should spread out your Platinum card applications.

There are currently four different versions of the Platinum card that don’t have access restrictions, and that either have a valuable signup bonus or a waived first-year annual fee—the regular, Schwab, Ameriprise, and small-business versions. By signing up for a different one each year, you’ll have ongoing access to the additional Amex lounges (and the other benefits), while you are collecting each card’s signup bonuses. Hopefully, other versions will become available sometime over the next five years, and you can extend this strategy even further. Alternatively, you could try cancelling the Ameriprise version after the initial year, waiting a few months, and then re-applying.

Even if you want to permanently hold onto an Amex Platinum card, you are better off signing-up for a different version each year, and saving your favorite version untill last.

• Each person will need their own card, if they want to access lounges while travelling separately. While each card lets the cardholder bring in at least one guest, this doesn’t let another member of your family access a lounge without you. To do this, they will need their own card, or you will need to pay to add them as an authorized user. Only the Ritz Carlton card allows you to add authorized users for free, and gives them lounge access.
• If you need lounge access for more than two people, you may need to spread out your non-Amex applications. The Platinum card provides access to the largest number of lounges, but it only allows two guests per visit. Many of the other cards allow an entire family, or even an unlimited number of travelling companions. If both adults have access to their own Platinum card, you are set. However, if that isn’t possible, and you aren’t holding onto another premium credit card, like the Citi Prestige, you can spread out your applications, to extend the period of time, when you have at least one card that provides the right level of guest privileges.

Holding onto a premium card for travel and restaurant spending

The best reward rates for travel (and restaurant) spending are primarily available from high-end reward cards.

• If you have an Amex Platinum card, you probably want to use it for your airfare purchases. You’ll earn 5x Membership Reward points, valued at 7.5 cents per dollar, which is much higher than any other card. However, unlike other options, such as the Sapphire Reserve and Citi Prestige card, the Platinum card doesn’t provide most automatic travel insurance benefits. So, depending on the risk of covered trip cancellation or delays, you may want to settle for a lower reward rate. Also, unless you have the business version of the Platinum card, there are no good redemption options other than frequent flyer tickets.
• It can be worth getting the Sapphire Reserve card, just for it's bonus rewards on travel and restaurant purchases. It earns 3x Ultimate Reward points, valued at 5.1 cents per dollar, on both of these categories. For every $1,000 you spend on restaurants, you'll earn an extra $10 in rewards, compared to the no annual fee Uber Credit Card. For every $1,000 you spend on travel, you'll earn an extra $20 in rewards, compared to the Uber card, or an extra $5 in rewards compared to the Altitude Reserve card. Even if you already have the Citi Prestige card, it is somewhat better to earn 3x Ultimate Reward points, than 3x Thank You points.

Depending on how much you spend on restaurants and travel, it can be easy to earn more in additional rewards, than the Sapphire Reserve's effective annual fee of $150. For example, if you use your Sapphire Reserve for $5,000 restaurant spending, and $3,000 of travel spending, you will be around breaking even.

• If you can't get the Sapphire Reserve, don't spend enough money on travel per year, and already want to get the Citi Prestige or Altitude Reserve card, you’ll probably want to use one of them for your travel spending. However, you’ll need to avoid the Citi Prestige card, if you aren’t interested in redeeming your points for frequent flyer tickets, as that is its only reasonable redemption option.
• If you can't get the Sapphire Reserve, and don’t have one of these cards, you might want to get one just for your travel spending. For every $1,000 you spend on travel, you'll earn about $15 in extra rewards compared to the Uber card. For example, if you spend at least $5,000 on travel with the Altitude Reserve card, you'll earn enough extra rewards to offset the card's $75 effective annual fee.

Side-by-side comparison

	Chase Sapphire Reserve	Amex Platinum Card	Citi Prestige card	U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve	Hilton Aspire
Points Earning
Type of points	Ultimate Rewards	Membership Rewards	ThankYou	Altitude	Hilton
Bonus Categories	3x Travel 3x Restaurants	5x Airfare, prepaid hotels through Amex travel	3x Airfare 3x Hotel 2x Restaurants 2x Entertainment	3x Travel 3x Mobile Wallet	7x Flights and rental cars with Amex travel 7x Restaurants 14x Hilton
Lounge Access
Locations	Priority Pass	Priority Pass Centurion Delta	Priority Pass	Priority Pass (4 times only)	Priority Pass
Guests	2	2 (none at Delta)	Family or 2	1 per visit	2
Other Benefits
Primary Rental Car Insurance	Yes			Yes
Global Entry Fee Credit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hotel Elite Status		Hilton Gold Marriott Gold SPG Gold			Hilton Diamond
Gogo inflight Internet passes per year		10 (business version only)		12
$100 off domestic coach airfare for 2 or more people
4th night free at any hotel			Yes
Other notable benefits		Fine Hotel Resorts Amex Offers Discount Airfare Program Boingo Wi-Fi			Annual free night certificate
Credits
Travel Credit Applies	$300, any travel	$200, airline incidentals w/1 airline	$250, any airfare	$325, any travel	$250, airline incidentals w/1 airline
Per Year	Cardholder year	Calendar year	Calendar year	Cardholder year	Calendar Year
Other credits		$15/month ($35 in December) for Uber rides or Uber eats. 2x $50 credits at Saks.			$250 resort credit (cardholder year)
Applies	Automatically	Automatically	Automatically	Automatically	Automatically
Signup Bonus
Bonus	50,000 points	40-100,000 points	40-50,000 points	50,000 points	100,000 points
Spending Requirement	$4000	$5000	$4000	$4500	$4000
Annual Fee
Base Fee	$450	$550	$450, $350 for Citigold	$400	$450
Authorized card Holder	$75	$175 for up to 3	$50	$75	$0

Credit Cards 101

Get Free Airport Lounge Access from a Credit Card

Get a Great General Purpose Reward Card and Use It for All of Your Spending

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