Best Credit Cards for Travel Spending (2021)
Easily Earn Points for Free Travel, Best Cards for Each Bonus Category
Make sure to read the tips and general advice in our Optimize Rewards by Using Different Cards for Different Purchases guide.
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Card suggestions (for most people)
Most people are going to want at least one premium credit card (like the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Amex Platinum Card), so that they can get free access to airport lounges and other valuable benefits. And most of these premium cards also offer great reward rates on travel purchases. A few of them also provide free travel insurance when you use them to pay for your tickets. Which Premium Reward Card is Right for You?
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The simplest option is to stick with the Sapphire Reserve Card or Ink Preferred Card. They earn 3x Ultimate Rewards points, valued at 5.1 cents per dollar, on every type of travel purchase, including ground transportation and cruises; and provide the best travel insurance available from any credit card (the Sapphire Reserve is slightly better). If you buy through the Chase website, you can earn 5x Ultimate Rewards points, valued at 8.5 cents per dollar, on airfare; and 10x on hotels and car rentals. But hotel purchases through Chase won't qualify for the hotel's own loyalty program and you will often be able to find better rates on hotels and car rentals on other sites. After adjusting for its $300 travel credit and $60 DoorDash credit, the effective annual fee is $130-250. Its not a bad idea to stick to this card for your travel and restaurant purchases. But if you spend a lot of money on airfare and restaurants or decide on a different approach than the Chase Unlimited combo for your everyday spending, you might be better off using one of the other cards for your travel spending. | |
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The Amex Platinum Card earns the most valuable rewards on airfare. It earns 5x Membership Rewards points, valued at 7.5 cents per dollar, on flights booked directly with the airline or through Amex Travel and offers travel insurance (but not baggage delay insurance). Also, you only get travel insurance if you book a round-trip itinerary (but you can pay independently for each of the different segments). For most people, the effective annual fee on the Platinum Card is too high to justify the card just for the airfare rewards and other benefits. But if you are collecting signup bonuses or highly value some of the Platinum Card's benefits, you could easily wind up having one of the several different varieties, at least for a year at a time. If so, you should probably use it to earn extra points on your airfare purchases. Just be sure you are comfortable using the resulting Membership Rewards points for booking frequent flyer tickets. The Platinum Card also provides 5x Membership Rewards points for prepaid hotel bookings bought through Amex Travel. But, when you book this way, you won’t get any credit or benefits with the hotel’s loyalty program and you are unlikely to get the best room rates. So, this is only a good option when you are staying at a non-chain hotel, the rates are prepaid (but possibly cancellable), and Amex’s prices happen to be good. | |
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The U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Card can be your best option if you don’t want to mess around with frequent flyer points or you don’t travel enough to warrant getting a more expensive card. It earns 4.5 cents per dollar on all travel purchases (as well as on anything bought with a mobile wallet). There are a few no-annual-fee credit cards that offer good bonus rewards on travel, but for most people, the limited lounge access and other benefits you’ll get from the Altitude Reserve, make it worth paying what amounts to $75 per year. For people who can't get the Sapphire Reserve, the Altitude Reserve provides the highest reward rate of any card that includes extensive travel insurance benefits. |
Recommended cards (other options)
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If you frequently travel on Amtrak, the Amtrak World Card offer perhaps the best rewards on travel spending. It earns 2x Amtrak points on all travel purchases, which can then be redeemed for 5.8 cents on Amtrak travel. Points are extremely easy to redeem. |
Quick comparison
The point values used in the table below are estimates based on a typical traveler. They may need to be adjusted for your individual preferences and travel patterns. For example, if you highly value premium cabin award tickets and are willing and able to build up large point balances, Ultimate Rewards, Membership Rewards, and ThankYou points are much more valuable and you should earn as many of those types of points as you can. If you have trouble finding good frequent flyer redemptions, you might want to focus on cards that earn points that can be used more like cash. Deciding What Type of Points to Earn
The annual costs in the table below reflect the annual fee minus any travel credits. For travel credits that are harder to redeem, we value the credit at 50% of the maximum credit amount. We value the Amex Airlines Incidental Credit at only 25% of the maximum credit amount. If you are willing to do the work or are otherwise able to get full value from these credits, the effective annual fee can be considerably lower.
Some cards waive the annual fee for the first year. But the table focuses on what you would pay in the longer term.
| Value | Earns | Included Purchases | Includes Insurance | Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chase Sapphire Reserve | ||||
| 17%
8.5% 5.1% |
10x UR
5x UR 3x UR |
Hotels/Cars through Chase
Airfare through Chase All other travel |
Yes | $190-250 |
| Freedom Unlimited Card | ||||
| 8.5% | 5x UR | Only travel bought on Chase website | No | $95+ |
| Freedom Flex Card | ||||
| 8.5% | 5x UR | Only travel bought on Chase website | No | $95+ |
| Fairwinds Visa Signature Card | ||||
| 7.5% | 5x Points | All travel | Yes | $249 |
| US Bank Altitude Reserve | ||||
| 7.5% | 5x | Prepaid hotels & rentals booked through US Bank | Yes | $75 |
| Amex Platinum Card | ||||
| 7.5% | 5x MR | Airfare and prepaid hotels booked through Amex | Yes | $250 |
| Amex Business Gold (if one of your two categories) | ||||
| 6% | 4x MR | Airfare | - | $295 |
| Synovus Travel* | ||||
| 6% | 5x | All travel (up to $5,000 per year) | - | $50 |
| Amtrak Credit Card | ||||
| 5.8% | 2x | All travel | - | $79 |
| Ink Preferred (Business card) | ||||
| 5.1% | 3x UR | All travel | Yes | $95 |
| Priceline Rewards Card | ||||
| 5% | 5x | Prepaid hotels rooms at Priceline and Cruises | - | $0 |
| US Bank Altitude Reserve | ||||
| 4.5% | 3x | All travel | Yes | $75 |
| Amex Green Card | ||||
| 4.5% | 3x MR | All Travel | - | $150 |
| Amex Gold | ||||
| 4.5% | 3x MR | Airfare | - | $30-250 |
| Citi Premier | ||||
| 4.5% | 3x TY | Airfare and hotels | - | $95 |
| BOA Premium Rewards / BOA Travel Rewards | ||||
| 2-4.1% | 2-4.1x# | All travel | Yes | $45 |
| Altitude Connect Card | ||||
| 4% | 4x | All travel | - | $95 |
| Wells Fargo Propel Card (with Wells Fargo Visa Signature) | ||||
| 3.9% | 3x GoFar | Flights, hotels, car rentals, transit, homestays | - | $0 |
| Amex Everyday Preferred (with 30 transaction bonus) | ||||
| 3.75% | 2.5 MR | Airfare and prepaid hotels booked through Amex | - | $95 |
| Penfed Pathfinder (for account holders) | ||||
| 3.6% | 4x | All travel purchases | - | $0 |
| Chase Sapphire Preferred | ||||
| 3.4% | 2x UR | All travel | Yes | $95 |
| Hyatt Card | ||||
| 3.4% | 2x | Airfare and car rentals | Yes | $75 |
| Amex Everyday (with 20 transaction per month bonus) | ||||
| 3.3% | 2.2x MR | Airfare and prepaid hotels booked through Amex | - | $0 |
| CNB Crystal Infinite | ||||
| 3.3% | 3x | Most Travel | Yes | $150 |
| Morgan Stanley‡ (for Morgan Stanley customers only) | ||||
| 3% | 2x MR | Airfare and car rentals | - | $0 |
| AAA (available to anyone) | ||||
| 3% | 3% | All travel | - | $0 |
| Costco / Sam's Club | ||||
| 3% | 3% | All travel | -/- | $0 |
| Southwest Plus | ||||
| 2.8% | 2x miles | Southwest, plus hotels and car rentals | - | $69 |
* The Synovus Card is only available to people that live within their territory in the Southeast.
‡ This card has a foreign transaction fees of 3%, making it a bad choice for booking foreign hotels and sometimes airfares.
# Cardholders with more than $20,000 in combined balances at BOA / Merrill Lynch earn bonus rewards, maxing out at 3.5 points on travel purchases with the Premium Card, and 2.625 points with the Travel Rewards card. But, with both cards you'll earn a base rate of 3 points on purchases made through BOA's travel booking site. With the relationship bonus, this can be boosted as high as 4.125%.
Free travel insurance when you use your card
Several premium credit cards offer good reward rates on travel purchases and provide free travel insurance benefits when you use them to purchase travel. The Citibank cards used to have the best travel insurance benefits of any card, but as of September 2019, no longer provide this coverage.
| Chase Premium | Other Chase | Amex Premium | BOA Premium Rewards | Altitude Reserve |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Covers award flights | ||||
| Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Trip Cancellation & Interruption | ||||
| $10,000 | $5,000 ($10,000 Sapphire Preferred) |
$10,000 | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Trip Delay (max. amount) | ||||
| $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 |
| Trip Delay (min. hours) | ||||
| 6 hours | 12 hours | 6 hours | 12 hours | 6 hours |
| Baggage Delay (max. amount) | ||||
| $500 ($100/day) |
$500 ($100/day) |
$500 ($100/day) |
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| Baggage Delay (min. hours) | ||||
| 6 hours | 6 hours | 6 hours | ||
| Lost / Damaged Bags (per passenger) | ||||
| $3,000 | $3,000 | $3,000 | Yes | $5,000 ($2,000/bag) |
| Travel Accident (Death and Dismemberment) | ||||
| $1,000,000 | $500,000 | Yes | $1,000,000 | |
| Emergency Evacuation | ||||
| $100,000 | None | Unlimited (Platinum only) | Yes | $10,000 |
| Emergency Medical | ||||
| $2,500 | None | |||
| Auto Rental Coverage | ||||
| Primary | Primary* | Secondary | Secondary | Secondary |
* For Sapphire Reserved and some other Chase cards. On Ink Preferred, rental must be for business purposes.
A few additional tips:
- The Amex Platinum Card gives you emergency evacuation coverage, just by having the card. You don’t have to use it to buy your airfare. So, you can use it along with any other coverages.
- Trip cancellation and interruption insurance only covers expenses that were paid for with the card. With Chase, you need to pay for any portion of the cost, including award ticket fees. With Amex, the entire cost of the trip needs to have been purchased with the card or with Membership Reward points. So, if you want your Platinum Card's trip insurance to cover non-refundable hotel and other travel expenses, you need to charge them to your Platinum Card and not use a card that earns more valuable rewards on non-airfare spending.
- Amex's travel insurance requires round-trip travel. You can purchase each segment separately, but all segments must be purchased with your card and you must wind up in the same city you left from.
- Chase only covers family members on the same itinerary as you, not other travelling companions. Amex covers both family members and travelling companions
When to use your hotel or airline card instead
If you have a hotel or airline branded credit card, it will earn bonus rewards when you make purchases from that hotel company or airline. However, you can usually still earn more valuable rewards from one of the cards above, rather than the hotel or airline’s own card. You’ll also get more flexibility when redeeming your points and often some added travel protections.
- If you have the Citi Prestige, American Express Platinum Card, Freedom Flex, or Freedom Unlimited Card, they earn the highest rewards on airfare purchases. No airline card comes close.
- The Chase Sapphire Reserve, the Altitude Reserve, and the Citi Prestige / Premier cards, (almost) always earn higher rewards than the hotel’s or airline’s card. The only exceptions are the Hilton Aspire Credit Card, Hilton Surpass Credit Card, Hyatt Credit Card, Best Western Credit Card, JetBlue Plus Credit Card, Wyndham Earner Plus Card, Wyndham Business Card, and (probably) the Frontier Credit Card.
- If you are just using a general purpose reward card that earns 2-2.5%, you’ll always get more valuable rewards by using the hotel or airline card instead. Just make sure that you are likely to have a good chance to redeem whatever points you earn with a given hotel or airline program—it is often easier to take advantage of general bank points (or cashback) than the points you might earn separate hotel or airline programs.
