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A travel credit card offers rewards for travel purchases — typically in the form of points or miles. Redeem these points or miles for specific travel goods or services, including hotel stays, flights or other travel expenses.
Travel cards also offer a variety of travel perks, such as airport lounge access or travel credits. And you tend to get what you pay for: No-annual-fee cards usually offer fewer high-class benefits than annual-fee products.
While “travel credit card” is a catch-all term for any kind of credit card that earns rewards on travel, there are generally three major types of travel cards. Here’s a quick breakdown of how they differ and who should get each type of card.
An airline credit card typically earns additional miles on purchases for a specific airline rewards program. Depending on the card and annual fee, you can also expect airline-specific perks as well, including priority boarding or free checked bags.
Get an airline credit card if you:
A hotel credit card typically earns additional points on purchases for a dedicated hotel rewards program. Like an airline card, it also offers additional hotel-related perks depending on the card, such as anniversary points, free fourth nights or early check-in and late checkout.
Get a hotel credit card if you:
General travel cards aren’t tied to a specific airline or hotel. Instead, they may earn points on any type of travel purchase. You can redeem the points you earn on any redemption option offered through the card, though your points might be worth more when redeemed on travel. These cards usually earn fewer points compared to a hotel or airline card but make up for that in earning and redeeming flexibility. General travel cards are also more likely to come with more general travel perks, such as airline lounge access or travel insurance.
Get a general travel card if you:
You want to look at the nitty-gritty features of two or more credit cards when comparing which one best fits your needs. Here are a few perks you can compare and what you can look for.
These credit cards let you avoid extra charges when you make purchases in a country outside of the US. They also typically offer points or miles, as well as bonus rewards in select categories.
In comparison, most travel credit cards charge foreign transaction fees of around 3% of each purchase made overseas or online at an international store. While you’ll still earn rewards, foreign transaction fees can eat into their value.
Say you’ve spent $5,000 on your credit card for an overseas trip. With a card charging a 3% foreign transaction fee, you’d be stuck with a $150 fee for your spending. With a card that offers no foreign transaction fees, you wouldn’t have to worry about this cost.
Watch out for these pitfalls so you make the most of your credit card:
After COVID hit in 2020, most of us withheld from traveling for most of the year. But once vaccines became more widespread and the pandemic was contained a bit more in 2021, 2022 is looking like a better for travel credit cards.
Airlines, in particular, are eager for cardholders to get back to the skies, and many travel cards are sporting big incentives for new cardholders to do just that. These include big new signup bonuses to get you in the air even faster or additional reward categories to help you build even more miles.
Depending on the airline, you may even find the costs of award flights lower than average as well. It’s tough to say if this bigger value will continue beyond 2022, so now is a perfect time to pick up a travel card if you’ve been on the fence.
Alex Miller, founder and CEO of UpgradedPoints.com agrees. “Right now, travel credit card bonuses are at quite a high, in an attempt to woo travelers back into the industry and to fly with a particular airline or stay with a particular hotel brand,” says Miller. “The travel industry is recovering quickly, and while COVID still lingers, most schools of thought currently don’t see a need for further lockdowns, so travel is likely to pick up and continue on an upward trajectory, making for increased usefulness for travel credit cards.”
Jeffrey Zhou, CEO of Fig Loans, tells Finder that right now is the perfect time to get a travel credit card. “Credit card rewards take a while to accrue, and it is reasonable to assume that by the time you will have saved up the required points to take a trip, there will be plenty of places to travel without having to worry about the pandemic.”
If you want a rough idea of how much each travel program’s rewards points are worth, check out our points and miles valuations. These are a rough average of the value of each program’s points. Naturally, you may find more or less value depending on how you redeem them.
If you consider yourself a jet-setter, you could get a lot from a travel card. There are a variety of options for whatever you’re looking for.
Before you start your search, consider whether you want to pay an annual fee, what you typically spend on and which travel benefits you’re looking for. Take your time to compare different credit cards, and you’ll likely find a card that’s perfect for you.
Here are our picks for the top travel cards on the market.
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