Best travel credit cards of March 2025

A great travel card will earn points or miles that carry high redemption value. 

While cash back is easy to understand, points and miles are trickier, since they can potentially be worth more or less depending on how you use them. Our points valuation guide can be a great resource if you want to get a sense of how much a rewards program's points are worth on average and how they compare with those of other programs.

Great example: The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, with points worth 25 percent more when you redeem for Chase Travel bookings.

Once you understand how much a card's points are worth, consider its bonus categories and how they relate to your spending and travel needs. 

A great travel card will earn rewards in your biggest spending categories, making it easier to accumulate points to assist with your travel desires. 

For frequent travelers, a card's rewards  rate on travel purchases or with the airline or hotel affiliated the card will likely be most important. Ideally, you'll also get some extra value through additional everyday bonus categories.

If you only travel occasionally, you may get more value out of a card that has higher rewards rates on everyday spending than travel. If a card has a high rewards rate in popular categories like groceries, dining or gas, you'll have an easier time earning travel rewards even if you don't actually spend a ton on travel.

Great example:  The Citi Strata Premier℠ Card, which earn rewards at a great rate on both travel and everyday spending.

Most of the top travel cards charge annual fees, which can be quite high on some premium cards. However, a great travel card will offer enough value via its ongoing rewards and perks to make the annual fee more than worth it.

Premium cards can return value in the form of statement credits for travel bookings and fees, elite benefits and travel perks like lounge access or priority boarding, and annual point bonuses each year on your cardmember anniversary.

We recommend periodically evaluating whether you're squeezing enough value from your card to justify the price tag. Although a card may advertise hundreds of dollars in potential rewards and perk value, you could be leaving money on the table if you can't actually use those benefits.

Great example: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, which offers a pair of annual perks valuable enough to easily make the card worth it on their own.

Another way to offset your annual fee — at least for the first couple years — is with a valuable welcome offer. A great travel card will carry both a valuable bonus and a spending requirement you're confident you can meet.

While we don't typically recommend getting a card just for its bonus, a good offer can help you earn rewards far more quickly than you would via spending in a card's bonus categories. For example, it could take over $33,000 in spending to earn $1,000 worth of travel points on a 3X rewards card, but several cards offer that value via a welcome offer after only a few thousand in spending in your first few months.

Since you can only earn a welcome bonus once on a new card, we recommend getting as much value from it as you can. An ideal time to apply for a card is when it has a limited-time elevated offer, giving you a window to further increase your return. Just make sure you can meet the minimum spending requirement within the specified timeframe and have the means to pay the balance in full. 

Check out our best credit card bonuses page to compare offers and see how your potential card measures up

Great example: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, which is currently offering one of its best sign-up bonuses with a reasonable spending requirement.

The best general travel cards will be as flexible as you need them to be. Ideally, you'll be able to redeem rewards with multiple airlines and hotels or opt for cash back in addition to travel. 

These cards may not have brand-specific perks such as in-flight discounts or extra hotel amenities, but they make up for it with flexible rewards and wider-reaching perks like general travel credits, credits for expedited security screening and comprehensive airport lounge access perks. 

The top general travel cards also let you transfer your points or miles to airline and hotel loyalty programs, often at a 1:1 rate. Redeeming with some airlines and hotels can even make your rewards more valuable than they would be if you redeemed with the card issuer.

Getting a general travel card makes the most sense when you have no preferred airline or hotel and want the additional flexibility a general travel card offers. 

Great example: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, which lets you redeem for travel via Chase Travel, transfer to travel partners or even redeem for cash back at a solid value.

Depending on your priorities and preferences, you may be fine having rewards tied to one airline or hotel as long as you can get solid redemption value and loyalty benefits with that travel program.

Co-branded cards tend to offer higher rewards rates on eligible travel purchases in exchange for limiting your reward redemption options to just one airline or hotel program. They may also feature more specific perks associated with the respective hotel or airline, such as free award nights, complimentary elite status or priority boarding — which general-purpose travel cards don’t often carry.

That said, the higher rewards rates and brand-specific perks you'll get on these cards may be worth less than a general travel card's points and perks.

You should consider a co-branded travel card if you often fly or stay with a specific airline or hotel and want to maximize your benefits with that brand. You might also consider our picks for the best airline cards or best hotel cards.

Great example: Hilton Honors American Express® Surpass Card, which offers great perks like a chance at a Free Night Reward and statement credits for Hilton purchases.

The best travel credit cards do more than help you rack up rewards toward your next trip —  they also offer perks to upgrade your entire travel experience. 

Some travelers will be happy with common, easy-to-use perks like trip insurance, concierge services and credits for expedited airport security screening, while others will want premium perks like annual travel credits and airport lounge access.  

Top co-branded cards generally offer perks specific to their brand, like elite status benefits, on-property or in-flight benefits, free night awards or flight credits.

Great example: The Platinum Card® from American Express, which offers more value via its various luxury perks than nearly any travel card out there.