Travel Credit Card Comparison

[Updated 2025.8] Benefits and annual fees have changed quite a bit across these cards, and there are also some new travel-friendly credit cards now, so we’ve fully refreshed this article.

For Chinese Americans living in the U.S., travel spending is also a major annual expense. Airfare, hotels, dining, and rental cars are hard to avoid on any trip, and the costs can add up quickly, especially when the whole family is traveling. In this article, we’ll review credit cards that are well suited for travel. Our main criteria are strong travel rewards (generally 3%+ back) plus useful travel-related perks.

Each of the cards below has its own strengths, and they are listed in no particular order.

Chase Sapphire Reserve

Chase Sapphire Reserve is a credit card with a $795 annual fee. You can earn 8x points when booking flights, hotels, rental cars, and activities through Chase Travel; bookings made directly with airlines or hotel websites earn 4x. UR points are estimated to be worth 1.6c/p, which works out to roughly 12% and 6.4% back respectively, both very strong returns. In addition, this card includes airport lounge access through Priority Pass Club, plus complimentary entry for 2 guests. It also comes with rental car insurance, and there is no foreign transaction fee (FTF) on purchases outside the U.S. Holding this card also lets you transfer UR points to United (UA), British Airways (BA), and Korean Air (KE) for award flights, or to Hyatt points. Award tickets and points hotel bookings can sometimes be much cheaper than booking with cash. After the refresh, this card also allows points to be redeemed directly for business class flights or premium hotels, with redemption values around 1.5c/p-2c/p.

The annual fee looks intimidating, but the card comes with up to $2,300 in various statement credits. Among them, the annual $300 travel credit is very easy to use, since airfare and hotel purchases on the card are automatically reimbursed. After the refresh, the card also added Edit hotel credits, dining credits, and Lyft credits. If spending requirements are met, you can also receive IHG Diamond and Southwest elite status, which are useful travel-related perks as well.

The downside is that this card is subject to Chase 5/24, and the starting credit line is relatively high, so you generally need a certain income level and credit history to be approved.

Chase Sapphire Preferred

Chase Sapphire Preferred is a credit card with a $95 annual fee. It earns 3x Ultimate Rewards points on dining, 2x on other travel purchases, and up to 5x when booking through Chase Travel. In addition, hotel, rental car, and dining bookings through Chase Travel can earn 5x points. The card also added a $50 hotel credit once per cardmember year, which requires booking a hotel through Chase Travel. Compared with the premium Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Preferred has the same transfer functionality, including transfers to multiple airline partners such as UA and AC, and Hyatt is also a very valuable hotel partner.

If you can’t get approved for Chase Sapphire Reserve, or feel that you wouldn’t use the premium benefits enough, Chase Sapphire Preferred is also a very solid travel credit card. If you decide you no longer want to keep it after holding it for a while, you can also downgrade it to a no-annual-fee card in the Chase Freedom family.

Citi Strata Elite

Citi Strata Elite is a credit card with a $595 annual fee. It earns 12x on hotels, rental cars, and attractions booked through Citi Travel, 6x on airfare bookings, 6x on restaurant dining and food delivery on Friday and Saturday nights, 3x on dining at other times, and 1.5x on all other purchases. So it offers relatively high rewards across many travel-related categories. The card also includes a $300 annual hotel credit, a $200 Splurge Credit that can be used with AA, and a $200 Blacklane premium car service credit. If you travel with some regularity, these credits can go a long way toward offsetting the annual fee. In addition, the card provides Priority Pass membership, and the primary cardholder can bring two guests. It also includes access to 4 AA-operated lounges.

On the points side, TYP can be transferred to AA miles, as well as Singapore Airlines, Avianca, and Air France, so all three major airline alliances are represented. The hotel partners are more average. Because of the addition of AA as a transfer partner, TYP value has increased significantly to 1.5c/p, so the 12x on hotels booked through Citi Travel is effectively equal to 18% back, which is excellent.

However, as a newly introduced world legend card, the approval bar is somewhat high, with approved credit lines at 10,000. If your income is not high enough, it may be difficult to get approved, so you may want to consider the Citi Strata Premier below.

Citi Strata Premier

Citi Premier is a credit card with a $95 annual fee. It earns 10x on hotels, rental cars, and attractions booked through Citi Travel; and 3x ThankYou Points (TYP) on supermarkets, restaurants, gas stations, airfare, hotels, and EV charging. Valuing points at 1.5 cents each, that means travel-related spending effectively earns about 4.5%-15% back. The card also comes with a $100 annual hotel credit, which can easily cover the annual fee if you use it. On the points side, ThankYou Points can be transferred to AA miles, as well as Singapore Airlines, Avianca, and Air France, so all three major airline alliances are covered. Hotel partners are average.

This card has a relatively low annual fee and a lower approval hurdle, and its bonus categories also make it suitable for everyday spending beyond travel. So if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of multiple credits, this is a very well-rounded choice. However, it does not include Priority Pass.

AMEX Platinum

AMEX Platinum is a charge card with a $695 annual fee. It earns 5x Membership Rewards (MR) points on flights and hotels booked directly with airlines or through AMEX Travel. Membership Rewards points can be transferred to airline programs such as Singapore Airlines, Air Canada (AC), ANA, Delta, and British Airways (BA), covering SkyTeam, Star Alliance, and Oneworld almost in full, making award redemptions extremely flexible. On the benefits side, the card offers a $200 airline incidental credit, $200 in Uber credits + Uber VIP status, and a $200 FHR hotel credit, bringing the effective annual fee down to $69. For airport lounges, cardholders can access Centurion Lounges, Delta Sky Clubs, Airspace Lounges, and Priority Pass lounges, offering the broadest combination of quality and coverage. On the hotel side, simply holding the card gives you Marriott Gold and Hilton Gold status, with benefits like room upgrades, late checkout, and free breakfast. For luxury hotels, AMEX also has its signature FHR program, where bookings can come with extra property credits, late checkout, room upgrades, free third or fourth night offers, free breakfast, and other perks. For rental cars, AMEX offers highly cost-effective rental car insurance that is very easy to use when filing claims, and it also now includes complimentary Hertz President status.

In addition, the card also has $240 in annual entertainment credits and a Saks $100 credit, which can help offset some of the annual fee as well.

The downside is that only flights and some hotel bookings earn 5x points, and hotel bookings must go through AMEX Travel. If you can’t make good use of the various credits, the annual fee may not be worth it.

Capital One Venture X

Capital One Venture X is a newer credit card with a $395 annual fee. Although it only earns 2x on all purchases, it comes with many useful travel-related perks. First, bookings through Capital One Travel earn an elevated 10x/5x, which works out to 10% or 5% back if you value points at 1c/p. In addition, the points can be transferred to airline miles, creating opportunities for additional value. The travel benefits below are also quite solid:

• $300 travel credit: Up to $300 in travel credits each year, though only bookings made through Capital One Travel are eligible
• Add 4 authorized users for free, which can be useful for expanding lounge access.
• Capital One Lounge: Both the primary cardholder and authorized users get complimentary access, and each visit includes up to two free guests. This is Capital One’s own lounge network. Right now there is only one location at Dallas/DFW in terminal D, with Denver/DEN and Washington/IAD expected to open next year.
• Plaza Premium Lounge: Unlimited access to participating lounges, including select Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse locations, with up to 2 free guests. Click here to view the list.
• Priority Pass Select membership: Both the primary cardholder and authorized users receive their own separate memberships, and each can bring up to 2 guests for free. You can enroll through this link: Enrollment link
• Hertz President’s Circle: The primary cardholder and authorized users can receive Hertz President’s Circle status.
• Global Entry/TSA Pre: Up to $100 application fee reimbursement, which is standard on most premium cards. Only US citizens or green card holders can apply.

In addition, paying the annual fee each year earns you 10,000 points. Combined with the $300 credit mentioned earlier, this basically makes it possible to keep this premium Capital One card with no effective annual fee.

That said, the one real downside is that this card is issued by Capital One. Its approval criteria can be somewhat unusual, and it pulls all three credit bureaus at once, so getting denied can be pretty painful.

US Bank Altitude Reserve

US Bank Altitude Reserve is a credit card with a $400 annual fee that earns 3x points on travel purchases. Points can be redeemed at 1.5 cents each through US Bank Travel or via Real Time Rewards. If you have a Samsung phone, this card’s 3x on mobile wallet purchases plus Samsung Pay can effectively let you earn 3x points on nearly all your spending. For travel and dining credits, it offers $325 per year, and airfare, hotel, dining, and takeout purchases are automatically reimbursed on your account, bringing the effective annual fee down to just $75. For airport lounge access, the cardholder gets four visits per year to Priority Pass partner lounges, and the network coverage is fairly broad.

The downside is that this card can be difficult to get approved for and generally requires decent income. The airport lounge benefit is also limited in the number of visits. In addition, this card has already been removed from the official website, and there will be a series of negative changes next year.

AMEX Green

AMEX Green is a charge card with a $150 annual fee. It earns 3 Membership Rewards points (MR) per $1 spent on travel purchases, including airfare, hotels, and transit, as well as at restaurants. This 3x is not limited to purchases made through AMEX Travel; it also applies to purchases made elsewhere. MR points cannot be directly redeemed for cash, but they can be used through AMEX Travel to book flights or hotels at a value of 1:1. The best use of MR is usually transferring to airline miles for domestic US flights or international flights between the US and China, especially business class redemptions, which can provide excellent value. We generally value MR at about 100 points = $1.6. So 3x on travel and dining works out to about 4.8% back. This card also includes a Clear credit, which can be used for expedited airport security membership. That also falls under the travel category. In addition, AMEX cards come with AMEX OFFER deals, which can save you a meaningful amount of money each year.

The drawback is that for a card with a $150 annual fee, there is no other built-in way to offset that fee.

Wells Fargo Autograph Journey

Wells Fargo Autograph Journey is a credit card with a $95 annual fee. It earns 5x points on hotels, 4x on airfare, and 3x on restaurants, takeout, and other travel, with no cap on those bonus categories. It also comes with a $50 airline credit, which brings the effective annual fee down to $45, making it a pretty solid deal. In addition, after Wells Fargo revamped its points program, points can now be transferred to airline miles. Right now you can transfer 1:1 to Avianca LifeMiles, British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, Aer Lingus Aer Club, Air France KLM Flying Blue, and Virgin Atlantic. These are not airlines we use very often, but in theory they do cover all three major airline alliances. The points are worth about 1.2 cents per point.

Compared with some other cards, though, this one lacks mid-tier and premium travel perks such as airport lounge access and hotel elite status. It is better suited for people who want to save money over the long term and do not care too much about premium travel experiences.

Wells Fargo Autograph

Wells Fargo Autograph is a no-annual-fee credit card that earns 3x cash back on dining, travel, gas, and transit. For a no-annual-fee card, it is quite rare to see travel benefits this strong. After Wells Fargo updated its points program, points can now be transferred to airline miles. Right now you can transfer 1:1 to Avianca LifeMiles, British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, Aer Lingus AerClub, Air France KLM Flying Blue, and Virgin Atlantic. These are not airlines we use very often, but in theory they do cover all three major alliances. The points are worth about 1.2 cents per point.

That said, it lacks mid-tier and premium perks such as airport lounge access and hotel elite status, so it is better for people who want to keep a card long term to save money and do not need a more premium travel experience.

Other Credit Cards

There are also a few other cards worth noting:

• Citi Prestige: This card has already been discontinued and can now only be obtained through a product change. It earns 5x ThankYou Points on airfare, third-party booking websites (Priceline, Orbitz), and dining; 3x on hotel bookings and cruises; and 1x ThankYou Points on other purchases. ThankYou Points can be transferred to airline miles such as AA, Singapore Airlines, and Avianca.

All of the credit cards above are general travel cards that cover many aspects of travel. If you are especially loyal to a particular airline or hotel, you can also consider airline co-branded cards and hotel co-branded cards:

• Airline Co-Branded Credit Card Roundup
• Hotel Co-Branded Credit Card Roundup

Summary

When choosing a travel credit card, you should decide based on the quality of travel experience you want, your main spending categories, and how often you travel. For example, if you want a strong all-around experience, premium cards such as AMEX Platinum, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Citi Strata Elite, Capital One Venture X, and US Bank Altitude Reserve are all good choices. If you want better value for money, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Citi Strata Premier, and Wells Fargo Autograph Journey are all solid options. If you want no annual fee, Wells Fargo Autograph is a good choice.

Although many of the travel credit cards mentioned above have intimidating annual fees of $400+, after subtracting the annual travel credits, the effective annual fee is really only around $75-$200. If you do not have enough travel spending to use those credits, then you can simply choose cards with strong welcome bonuses, earn the sign-up bonus, and cancel or downgrade in the second year. Even one card per year can make your travels much more enjoyable for quite a while.

Travel Credit Card Comparison

Card	Rewards	Credits	Perks	Annual Fee	Link
Chase Sapphire Reserve	6.4%-12% back on flights, hotels, car rentals, and experiences	$300 travel + $2000 other	Airport lounge access, car rental insurance, luxury hotels	$795	Apply
Chase Sapphire Preferred	4.8% on dining, 3.2% on travel	$50 hotel credit	Free car rental insurance	$95	Apply
Citi Strata Elite	18% on hotels and car rentals; 9% on flights; 4.5%-9% on dining	$300 hotel, $200 AA, $200 car rental	Airport lounge access, extra hotel benefits, AA lounge access	$595	Apply
Citi Premier	15% on hotels and car rentals; 4.5% on flights, gas, and dining	$100 hotel credit	None	$95	Apply
AMEX Platinum	7.5% on airfare (5x)	$200 airline incidental fee credit $200 Uber $200 hotel credit	Airport lounge access Hotel elite status and FHR Strong car rental insurance	$695	Apply
Capital One Venture X	12% on car rentals and hotels; 6% on flights; 2.4% on everything else	$300 travel credit, 10k points every year	Airport lounge access, elite rental car status	$395	Apply
US Bank Altitude Reserve	4.5% on travel/mobile payments	$325 travel purchases	Airport lounge access	$400	Apply
AMEX Green	4.5% on flights, hotels, and car rentals	None	None	$150	Apply
Wells Fargo Autograph Journey	6% on hotels, 4.8% on flights, 3.6% at restaurants	None	$50 airline credit	$95	Apply
Wells Fargo Autograph	3.6% on dining, travel, gas, and transit	None	None	$0	Apply

*All point valuations are based on: Points Value Estimates and Analysis

**All welcome bonuses listed were the public offers available at the time this article was published. For the latest details, please check the linked card review pages.

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