Best Travel Credit Cards of 2022-2023

Our top picks will get you in the air or on the road quick, thanks to generous rewards. Best Travel Credit Cards of 2022-2023

If you’d like to travel the country—or the world—for less, a new travel rewards credit card can be a great place to start. Who wouldn’t benefit from a free trip this year?

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To choose the best rewards cards for travel, we focused on cards that have rewards you can use on all sorts of travel and entertainment.

Earn 3% cash back rewards on Costco Travel purchases when you use the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi‡.

After all, travel rewards are only worth anything if you use them. Note: We didn’t include loyalty cards tied to particular airlines or other travel partners in these picks.

If you’re a frequent traveler, you may want to pair one of these general cards with a loyalty card from a preferred airline, hotel group or cruise line to get perks like free checked bags or companion tickets.

The cards on this list, meanwhile, will give you the most flexibility in your travel planning.

If you’d like to read how we vetted these credit cards and which experts we consulted, scroll down for more detail.

Find The Best Travel Cards

Why We Picked It:

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is the one to get if you’re a moderate spender and don’t want to pay a huge fee. You’ll get a decent sign-up bonus, high ongoing rewards, plus a good amount of extras. With travel cards, there’s no one factor that makes a card best overall, because almost every perk in this category comes with caveats.

The Capital One Venture Rewards introductory bonus might not always be the best available at the same fee level, but its ongoing reward-earning rate for everyday purchases generally beats its competitors overall.

That tipped the balance in its favor now. If you hold the card for more than a year and spend a moderate amount per month, we think it’s the best value for travel rewards.

Are The Travel Rewards Worth The Fees?

This card’s generous reward rate of two miles for every dollar spent on everyday purchases means a household that charges $3,000 a month—in-line with spending for Wall Street Journal subscribers, for example—will earn 147,000 miles in the first year (calculated with a 75,000 intro bonus), and 72,000 miles in subsequent years. And that’s without having to think about which categories earn more.

Those rewards have a value of roughly a penny a mile if you redeem them in the issuer’s proprietary Capital One Travel program, but less if converted to cash by using the miles for statement credit or gift cards.

If you’re strategic about using the card to book travel and car rentals through Capital One Travel, you can earn five miles for every dollar spent, which is a top rate among similar cards. You also get up to a $100 credit towards Global Entry or TSA PreCheck every four years—which on its own would cover the $95 annual fee, at least for the first year.

There are other non-monetary perks that can add value if you use them, such as lounge access, protections for auto rental collision, as well as concierge services for entertainment tickets, dining and other leisure experiences. You won’t get as many perks as cards with higher fees, but you get enough to get a taste.

Best Travel Credit Cards of 2022-2023

Why We Picked It:

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is a top-notch travel rewards credit card that falls behind our top pick because its ongoing benefits are not quite as good. With only one point per dollar spent on most purchases, someone who spends $3,000 a month would only earn 36,000 points in a year, plus a 10% annual bonus of 3,600 points.

If you are a big spender in certain categories, though, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card could start to make up some ground, with three points per dollar on dining, online grocery delivery and certain U.S. streaming services. But the drawback is that you’d have to keep track of all the rules and caveats to make the most use of those, like sticking to a list of in-network restaurants.

One area where the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card wins over the Capital One Venture Rewards Card is with its travel protections, namely, the addition of insurance for trip cancellations and delays, baggage delays and loss, plus access to a global assist hotline to help you with your travel needs, like rebooking flights if you face delays.

Are The Travel Rewards Worth The Fees?

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card generally converts 100 points to a $1.25 value in its booking system, so a special intro bonus of 60,000 points could get you the equivalent of around $750 toward a trip if you can book with Chase. That more than covers the $95 annual fee, but only if you use the miles in that way.

If you add roughly 40,000 points during the year with spending and the annual bonus, that’s another $500 or so through the booking system. But you get roughly a penny a point for cash value, so your total real-world value after the first year would be closer to $1,200 in cash if you ended up using the points to pay for purchases or get gift cards.

Best Travel Credit Cards of 2022-2023

Why We Picked It:

While the Capital One Venture Rewards Card nabbed our top spot, the premium travel Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is only lower down our list because the ratio of its annual fee to benefits isn’t as good for a moderate spender. But if you’re a big traveler who spends more than $3,000 or so per month and can book through the Capital One Travel proprietary system, then the Capital One Venture X Rewards Card could work out in your favor.

While the 75,000-mile intro bonus is roughly the same you’d get for cards with a $395 annual fee, it’s still a good chunk of miles toward a big trip. Your biggest opportunity to earn more travel rewards is 10 miles for every dollar spent that you get for hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel, but you’ll only get five times for flights. You’ll get two miles per dollar for all other spending, which is the top of current offers.

Are The Travel Rewards Worth The Fees?

The annual fee on The Capital One Venture X Reward Credit Card is $395, which you can largely offset with the $300 in statement credits for bookings through Capital One Travel. That’s a big hoop to jump through because you have to book through its proprietary system. If you’re not going to put a significant amount of direct travel costs on this card, it won’t be worth it to you.

You also get a 75,000-mile introductory bonus if you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months. That works out to about $750 in value in the Capital One travel booking system. If your average ongoing spending is around $3,000 a month, you can earn 72,000 more reward miles in a year, plus you also get 10,000 bonus miles each year.

So your total after one year could be close to 200,000 miles, which is more than enough in most cases for a family of four to book a trip in the U.S. or maybe even to an international destination.

You can plump your rewards earning rate even more if you book through Capital One Travel, with up to 10 miles per dollar on spending on hotels and cars—a leading offer right now.

There are also other perks along the way, such as up to $100 in credits for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck every four years; unlimited Capital One lounge access for you and up to two guests and a Priority Pass membership to other lounges around the world.

The card comes with useful auto rental insurance and cellphone protection if you meet all the restrictions. But the card does not have the full suite of insurance protections offered by some other premium cards.

Best Travel Credit Cards of 2022-2023

Why We Picked It:

The Platinum Card from American Express has one of the highest fees for consumer credit cards at $695 per year, but it comes with a lot of bells and whistles that you can use to offset the cost if you spend a lot on travel and enjoy all the extra perks that can make your trips more comfortable.

Most of all, it comes with a very high introductory bonus, which should get you on a trip pretty fast. Ongoing, you can earn extra rewards in many spending categories, with the highest rate for travel and hotel stays booked through American Express Travel. If you keep your eyes open, you might be able to snag an even higher introductory bonus offer, which will make the value increase.

Are The Travel Rewards Worth The Fees?

With 80,000 points as an intro bonus (and sometimes more if you can snag a special offer), you get a top reward for that top fee. A caveat: You have to spend $6,000 in your first six months, which may be steep if you are using other cards as well. And it begs the question: If you’re spending that much and paying that much, you might want to consider The Business Platinum Card® from American Express if you qualify, which offers more points for the same cost. Or you could try the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, which offers the same amount of bonus points for a smaller fee.

Along with high reward points for the Platinum Card from American Express, you can also earn a lot of statement credits with this card, which, if you meet all the conditions, can offset the higher fee. These include credits for hotel stays, digital entertainment, airline fees, Uber Cash, Equinox, Clear, Walmart Plus and Saks, which add up to a possible $1,500 or more. You also get a suite of insurance protections, lounge access, concierge service, advance ticket options and warranty extensions of purchases.

But after all that, you only get 1x rewards for your everyday spending. So after your first year, if you spend $3,000 a month on the card in general spending, you would only have 116,000 reward points, which is less than the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, which has a lower fee. So if you’re not making use of the extras and perks, you might find more value with less restrictions with a different card.

Best Travel Credit Cards of 2022-2023

Why We Picked It:

If you don’t feel like playing the travel rewards game and just want to earn some miles while you spend, the Discover it Miles card will free you from having to think about spending categories or track your spending to make sure you qualify for your introductory bonus. But you’ll have to wait to hit the road because there’s no initial sign-up bonus within the first few months like many other cards, and instead there’s a bonus after the first 12 billing cycles.

Of the no-fee cards available that offer travel rewards that we considered, this card offered the best combination of low-hassle spending tracking and the ability to maximize travel rewards. The key factor is the combination of the unlimited 1.5 miles per dollar spent and the unlimited match of the first year of rewards.

If you spend $3,000 a month, you could potentially earn up to 53,000 miles after your first year. Subsequent years’ rewards would be based on 1.5 times your spending. That more than doubles the introductory offers of most other no-fee travel cards, and comes without caveats and rate tables to follow.

Are The Travel Rewards Worth The Fees?

Since the cost of the annual fee with the Discover it Miles is $0, you can immediately start to build value by earning miles at a rate of 1.5 times what you spend. You won’t get many other travel perks, but then again, you aren’t putting anything in either.

The value of those miles is one cent per mile across the board, according to Discover. So if you typically spend $3,000 a month, altogether, you’d earn around 108,000 miles after the first year, which is the equivalent of $1,080. There’s built-in flexibility here to use that bonus as cash, if you’d rather.

Compared to a cash-back card like the Chase Freedom Unlimited®, which has similar flexibility to switch between cash and travel rewards, the Discover it Miles is easier to manage because the conversion is a flat rate. You’d also potentially earn more because of that unlimited first-year match. Chase Freedom Unlimited matches 1.5% cash back rewards in first year, but it’s capped at $20,000 in spending (a potential $300 value).

More Cards To Consider

American Express® Gold Card

The American Express Gold Card is less of a value compared to the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card simply because the fee is higher. At $250 compared to $95 for the other cards, you get a similar level of rewards. If you can catch a special offer for a higher introductory bonus, that might change the calculation. Nevertheless, you can earn reward points at a pretty good clip in certain categories, but there are conditions, like spending caps. You get only one point per dollar spent on everyday purchases. (Terms apply. See rates and fees.)

Bank of America® Travel Rewards Credit Card

This no-fee card is a decent option to earn rewards without having to pay for them first, but the 25,000-mile introductory bonus, which you can get if you spend $1,000 in the first 90 days, is not as high as the Discover it Miles bonus. You can boost your rewards by becoming a Preferred Rewards member, but that’s more work than other cards require for perks.

U.S. Bank Altitude® Connect Visa Signature® Card

This is a mid-range card discounted to no-fee for the first 12 months, which makes it an enticing deal. You get a nice 50,000-point introductory bonus if you spend $2,000 in eligible purchases in the first 120 days of account opening, which is better than most offers, but not quite as high as either our no-fee pick of the Discover it Miles or our mid-range fee picks of the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.

Chase Sapphire Reserve®

This was a favorite card of many people in the past. But we think the better value now lies with Chase Sapphire Preferred, given the annual fee for the Reserve card is $550 versus $95 for the Preferred. Still, you get a lot of perks for that premium fee, including a $300 annual statement credit for qualified travel purchases.

Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards Credit Card

Primarily a cash-back offering, this card offers a bonus rate on the spending category of your choice, which includes travel. However, that rate tops out at 3%, below the 5% offered by Chase Freedom Unlimited®, Buy Side’s favorite cash-back travel card, and there are also caps on the spending.

Citi Premier® Card

For a card with a $95 annual fee and a 60,000-point intro bonus after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening, there’s little to dislike about this card. But overall, you can earn more travel rewards with our other picks. You can also get more travel perks from other cards, such as travel protections and lounge access.

Our Best Travel Credit Card Methodology

To pick Buy Side from WSJ’s Best Travel Card, we looked for cards with the most generous sign-up bonuses, rewards rates and other perks for a moderate annual fee. We also looked for cards that were easy to use, since we assume most readers are not credit-card obsessives willing to keep and track a dozen cards.

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