Best Travel Credit Cards for Points & Miles (updated October 2026)

As I continue my quest to travel on credit card points, my list of personal best travel credit cards is constantly evolving. I’m big on my American Express cards as I get so much value out of them—the AmEx Platinum is my go-to with the Gold a close second—though the Chase Sapphire Reserve is always a top contender, too. That said, the annual fees on these credit cards are spiking dramatically, so you truly need to weigh the benefits you’ll get out of them before you make a choice.

This post was last updated October 2026. 

Some of the links below are my personal referral links. If you’re approved through one, I earn bonus points at no extra cost to you. Card offers change often, so always check the current terms before you apply.

In the past three years, we used points to take three major vacations to Europe, travel to Thailand and Qatar for three weeks, spend nearly a month in Australia, and take smaller trips to Tucson and Hawaii on points. And our miles continue to mount: We accumulate north of one million points annually, and no that is not the amount we are spending either.

Note: The below information pertains to American travelers, as credit card rewards are specific to the country of residence. If you live in Canada, check out this guide to best credit cards for Canadians.

Our top travel credit cards at a glance

Offers as of October 2026. American Express shows each applicant their own offer, so check the link for yours.

A deep dive into the best travel credit cards

If you’re planning to travel, here’s a closer look at my favorite travel credit cards and how to use them. I recommend choosing cards with no foreign transaction fees, and every card in this section qualifies. And if you decide to apply, please use my referral link so we both earn bonus points!

Chase Sapphire Reserve or Preferred

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the perfect entry point for earning travel rewards. It’s part of the Chase Ultimate Rewards program, meaning you can redeem points across numerous airlines, hotels, and car rental partners. With a low annual fee and the ability to combine points from multiple Chase cards, it’s an easy choice for anyone starting their travel credit card journey.

Benefits of the Chase Sapphire Preferred include:

• Up to $100 a year in hotel credits through Chase Travel, plus 3X on gas stations and EV charging and up to $120 every four years for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS
• 5X on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards
• 2x on other travel purchases
• 3X on dining, including eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out
• 3X on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
• 3x on select streaming services

Annual fee: $95

Current sign-up bonus: 75,000 points

And with the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you get additional annual benefits like:

• $300 annual travel credit
• $300 annual dining credit
• $500 credit for stays with The Edit
• $120 DashPass membership
• Up to $420 in DoorDash promos ($35 a month)
• $300 StubHub credit
• Apple TV+ and Apple Music subscriptions (about $324 a year)
• $120 Lyft credit
• $120 Peloton credit
• 8X on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards
• 4x on flights booked direct‍
• Up to $120 every four years for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS
• Access to the Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club
• Complimentary membership to Priority Pass lounges (access to 1,300+ lounges in 500 cities worldwide)

Annual fee: $795

Current sign-up bonus: 100,000 points after $6,000 in purchases in the first three months

Explore current elevated offers here.

Note: You can only have one Sapphire card at a time, so if you’re applying for the Preferred, you’re not eligible for the Reserve. Frequent travelers should still consider comparing the two. The hefty Reserve fee will only make this card worth it for travelers who use every one of the benefits attached to it.

Southwest Rapid Rewards Cards

The Chase Southwest cards are co-branded with Southwest Airlines and tied to its Rapid Rewards program. The lineup includes three personal cards—Plus, Premier, Priority—and two business cards, Premier and Performance. If you fly Southwest regularly, this is a good path for you. If you earn 135,000 points, you get Southwest Companion Pass status, meaning a plus one will fly for free with you for the rest of the calendar year in which you earned it in addition to the following year. Big change for 2027: Starting Jan. 1, 2027, Southwest card welcome bonuses no longer count toward the Companion Pass. But if you’re approved for a Southwest card by Dec. 2, 2026, and then meet the spending requirement (even if you finish that spend in early 2027), those bonus points still count. That makes the next few weeks the last chance to earn the Companion Pass the easy way.

Some benefits of the Southwest cards (depending on the card):

• 10,000 Companion Pass points every year
• 3X per $1 spent on Southwest Airlines purchases
• 2X per $1 spent on internet, cable, and phone services; select streaming
• $75 Southwest annual travel credit
• Complimentary Preferred seat at booking
• First checked bag free
• Extra Legroom seat upgrade

Annual fee: $99 to $299

Current sign-up bonus: between 60,000 and 85,000 depending on the card

Southwest cards are Chase products, but their points go straight to your Rapid Rewards account, not Chase Ultimate Rewards. To earn the Companion Pass through credit cards alone, start with the Southwest Performance Business card, then open a personal card—Plus, Premier or Priority—about 30 days later. Here’s the best strategy to do this.

The Platinum Card® from American Express

This is the gold standard card for those who travel often and well. It’s not for the frugal traveler, as the annual fee is high, but the American Express Platinum is worth it for many, myself included. That said, you absolutely have to go into the benefits section of your dashboard and enable everything to make the fee worth it.

Benefits of the AmEx Platinum include:

• $600 Fine Hotels + Resorts credit
• $300 Digital Entertainment Credit (included: Disney+, a Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, NYT, Peacock, WSJ)
• $155 Walmart+ credit (monthly Walmart+ membership at $12.95 plus applicable taxes a month)
• $200 Airline credit (enroll and choose your airline)
• $200 Uber Cash
• $100 Saks credit
• $120 Uber One credit
• $400 RESY credit
• $300 lululemon credit
• $209 CLEAR® Plus credit
• $200 Oura Ring credit
• $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck every four years

Annual fee: $895

Current sign-up bonus: up to 175,000 points

Yes, $895 is steep, but I easily save over $2,200 a year in credits on purchases I’d make anyway, not counting the value of Gold status with Hilton and Marriott or access to AmEx’s Centurion Lounges. Other perks include a $300 annual Equinox or SoulCycle at-home credit and 5x points on flights or travel booked through AmEx.

Explore current AmEx sign-up bonuses here.

American Express Gold Card

If you spend a lot on restaurants and groceries, the Gold is the card that racks up points fastest. It’s the second card in my wallet behind the Platinum, and it’s what we use for nearly every meal out and every grocery run.

Benefits of the AmEx Gold include:

• 4X at restaurants worldwide (on up to $50,000 a year)
• 4X at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 a year)
• 3X on flights booked directly with airlines or through AmEx Travel
• $120 dining credit ($10 a month) and $120 in Uber Cash ($10 a month)
• $100 Resy credit and $84 Dunkin’ credit each year

Annual fee: $325

Current sign-up bonus: varies by applicant. See your offer here.

Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

This card offers perks similar to the Chase Sapphire Reserve at a lower fee—plus early access to events like bowl games and concerts. The Capital One Venture X earns 2x points on all purchases, making it a solid everyday card for non-bonus categories like hardware stores, vet visits, or medical bills. If Capital One expands its lounge network, it could climb even higher on my list. The standard Capital One Venture is also a good lower-fee option at $95 with many of the same perks.

• 10x on hotels and cars booked through Capital One Travel
• 5x on flights booked through Capital One Travel
• 2x on all other purchases
• Unlimited access to Capital One Lounges
• Complimentary access to Priority Pass lounges
• $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck every four years
• Receive a $300 travel credit annually for bookings through Capital One Travel
• Get 10,000 miles as your anniversary bonus

Heads up: since February 2026, authorized users pay $125 a year for lounge access, and guests cost $45 at Capital One Lounges ($35 at Priority Pass) unless you spend $75,000 a year on the card.

Annual fee: $395

Current sign-up bonus: 75,000 points

Explore current Capital One bonuses here.

Related post: Global Entry vs. TSA PreCheck: Which One is Better?

American Express Business Gold Card

The Business Gold automatically gives you 4X points in your top two spending categories each billing cycle, out of six: U.S. advertising, electronics and software, U.S. restaurants, U.S. gas stations, transit and U.S. wireless phone service. If you drive a lot or run a small business, that adds up quickly, and you don’t have to track rotating categories.

• 4X in your top two categories (on up to $150,000 a year combined)
• 3X on flights and prepaid hotels booked through AmEx Travel
• Up to $240 a year in flexible business credits (Grubhub, office supply stores, UPS)
• Credits for ChatGPT Business, Squarespace and Walmart+

Annual fee: $375

Current sign-up bonus: varies by applicant. See your offer here.

Best travel credit cards with no annual fee

Not ready to pay an annual fee? These are the no-fee cards we actually use to earn transferable points on everyday spending. One catch: both charge foreign transaction fees, so leave them at home when you travel abroad.

American Express Blue Business Plus

It earns 2X Membership Rewards points on everything (on up to $50,000 a year) with no categories to track and no annual fee. Those are the same points the Platinum and Gold earn, so you can transfer them to airlines and hotels.

Chase Ink Business Unlimited and Ink Business Cash

Both have no annual fee and a $750 welcome bonus after $6,000 in spending in three months. The Unlimited earns 1.5% on everything, and the Cash earns 5% at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone. They’re marketed as cash back, but if you also hold a Sapphire card, you can move those rewards over as Ultimate Rewards points and transfer them to partners. You can hold more than one Ink card, and you don’t need a big business to qualify. Freelancers count.

Chase vs. AmEx vs. Capital One: which points should you collect?

The single best thing you can do is pick one or two of these points programs and stick with them, so your points pool together instead of scattering across a dozen loyalty accounts.

• Chase Ultimate Rewards (Sapphire and Ink cards): Great hotel transfers, especially Hyatt, plus United and Southwest. The Sapphire and Ink combo is the easiest way to earn a lot of points on everyday spending.
• American Express Membership Rewards (Platinum, Gold, Business Gold and Blue Business Plus): The most airline partners and frequent transfer bonuses. This is where most of our international business-class flights come from.
• Capital One Miles (Venture X and Venture): The simplest of the three, with 2X on everything and a solid list of airline partners. A great place to start if you don’t want to think about categories.

If your main goal is airline miles, collect one of these flexible points currencies rather than a single airline’s miles. You can transfer them to whichever airline has award seats when you’re ready to book. Here’s how I travel for free using points and miles.

What our points actually got us

Here’s what a few of our redemptions looked like.

• Business class to Qatar: We transferred 140,000 AmEx Membership Rewards points to Avios and flew business class from Atlanta to Doha, then on to Bangkok in Qatar’s QSuites, for the price of taxes. A three-night hotel stay in Doha cost 71,173 Chase Ultimate Rewards points (about $890). Here’s how we spent 48 hours in Doha.
• Hawaii for my 40th birthday: Round-trip flights from Nashville to Maui for two of us cost 39,238 Southwest points and $11 in taxes, thanks to the Companion Pass. For three oceanfront nights in Lahaina, we transferred AmEx points to Marriott during a 30% transfer bonus, and we covered our last night at the Andaz with 44,000 Hyatt points. Here’s the full Hawaii on points breakdown.

The lesson from both: transfer bonuses and planning 9 to 11 months out get you far more value than booking through a bank’s travel portal.

A few other credit card tips

If you haven’t already considered business cards, they’re a great way to rack up points without paying much at all in annual fees (even if you don’t have an established business yet and are just a freelancer!). Many of Chase’s Ink cards like the Ink Business Cash and Ink Business Unlimited have no annual fee, and you can hold multiple of them, which you can’t do for other popular credit cards like the Chase Sapphires.

And if you don’t eat out a lot, don’t buy a lot of groceries, never travel and don’t want to pay annual fees, then this is absolutely the card for you. Plus, it gets 2x points on everything up to $50,000 a year.

Here are a few other words of wisdom to keep in mind as you figure out the best travel credit card for your needs:

Know the 5/24 rule

Points players all create a plan that will keep them under Chase’s 5/24 rule: You can only be approved for five personal credit cards (from any issuer) within a 24-month period. If you’re serious about earning points, track your cards and opening dates in a spreadsheet. Once you’re close to that limit, consider applying for cards from other issuers, like American Express, while you wait for your Chase window to reset.

Having multiple cards alone will not hurt your credit

Contrary to popular belief, holding multiple credit cards will not damage your credit score if you do it right, including not having too many credit inquiries (or hard pulls) in a set amount of time as well as paying off your balance in full every statement cycle so you don’t find yourself paying interest. I repeat: You should only play this game if you have good credit already and can pay off your credit cards monthly. Free travel is awesome, but there’s nothing worth getting into credit card debt over!

Use all the benefits and offers

Cards like the AmEx Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve come with steep annual fees, but you can easily offset them by using every available benefit. For example, my AmEx Platinum gives me $1,200+ a year in credits and perks—not including lounge access. Don’t get these cards just for the points; get them if you’ll actually use the perks. And be sure to check your card dashboard regularly for new monthly and quarterly offers to activate.

Many cards offer insurance, so use it

Most of the top travel cards include trip delay, cancellation and baggage insurance, so if you’re stuck overnight or need a last-minute hotel, you can often get reimbursed. They also typically offer primary rental car and cell phone coverage, meaning if you book your travel with these cards and something goes wrong, you can file a claim for reimbursement.

Related Post: What to Do When Your Airbnb Host Cancels Last Minute

Stay within a flexible points system

The best way to earn flexible, valuable points is through Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) and AmEx Membership Rewards (MR). UR points transfer 1:1 to airlines like Delta, Southwest, Air Canada, British Airways and United—or you can redeem them directly through the UR portal (just cross-check prices on the airline’s site first). MR points also have strong transfer partners, including Delta, Qantas, Virgin, Singapore Air, and hotel brands like Hilton and Marriott.

Don’t cancel cards, product change them instead

A long credit history helps boost your score, so keep older cards open when possible—even with a $0 balance. For example, if you decide you’d rather use the Chase Sapphire Reserve as your own Sapphire product, don’t cancel the Preferred; call Chase to product change it to a no-fee Freedom card instead.

Sometimes, though, you’ll need to cancel a card to re-qualify for a new bonus, assuming there’s no lifelong language. Most issuers require 24 to 48 months between bonuses, for example the Southwest suite of Chase cards.

Co-branded cards often aren’t worth it

Co-branded cards like Sephora or Delta usually aren’t worth using one of your limited credit slots. If you’re a casual traveler without strong airline loyalty, flexible point cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve or AmEx Platinum are a smarter choice since you can transfer points to multiple partners.

he main exception is the Southwest card if you’re chasing the Companion Pass—or if you frequently fly with one specific airline. Otherwise, start your points journey with Chase, AmEx or Capital One.

Transfer monthly payments to meet a new SUB

Whenever I open a new card, I move recurring payments—like phone and insurance bills—onto it to help meet the sign-up bonus (SUB) faster. It’s an easy way to earn points on expenses I’m already paying. While you can’t charge your mortgage (though you can put rent on Bilt cards), you can usually pay things like income and property taxes with a credit card—so you might as well earn points on those big payments too.

Related Post: Tax Prep for Freelancers, Bloggers & Biz Owners: A Q&A with Accountants

The value of points depends on what you spend them on

No matter which card you use, point value varies depending on how you redeem them—gift cards and shopping usually offer less value than travel. I find travel redemptions stretch points the farthest, especially with 1:1 transfers to airline or hotel partners. You can also boost earnings during bonus periods, like 5x points on gas or pay-yourself-back promos. Paying attention to these details adds up quickly.

Travel credit card FAQs

Is a travel credit card with an annual fee worth it?

Only if you’ll use the credits and perks. Add up the credits you’d actually use (not the ones you’d stretch to use) and compare them to the fee. For us, the Platinum and Gold more than pay for themselves. If you won’t use the credits, a no-fee card like the Blue Business Plus is the smarter choice.

Will opening several credit cards hurt my credit score?

Not if you manage them well: Pay every statement in full, and space out your applications so you don’t rack up too many hard inquiries at once. Holding several cards can actually help by lowering your overall credit utilization.

Which travel credit cards have no foreign transaction fees?

The Sapphire Preferred and Reserve, AmEx Platinum and Gold, Venture X and the Southwest cards all have no foreign transaction fees. The no-annual-fee business cards above do charge them.

What’s the best credit card for earning airline miles?

A card that earns flexible points (Chase, AmEx or Capital One) rather than a single airline’s miles. You can transfer flexible points to many airlines, so you’re never stuck with miles on an airline that has no award seats.

What’s your favorite travel credit card?

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All links above are referral codes, meaning I’ll receive referral points if you sign up. That said, all opinions are my own, and I hold every one of these cards I recommend.