The Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards
Whether you travel often or just take the occasional vacation, a travel rewards credit card can be an excellent companion. With every purchase, you can use a good travel card to collect points or miles that are redeemable for flights, hotels or other travel bookings. And many travel cards come with extra benefits, too, from free entry into airport lounges to statement credits toward application fees for TSA PreCheck and other programs that expedite security screening at the airport.
Take a look at our picks of the best travel rewards credit cards. If you’d rather have a card that offers cash-back rewards, see The Best Cash-Back Credit Cards.
For each card (except premium travel cards), we’ve calculated a typical annual rebate based on spending patterns in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey and assuming $25,000 spent on the card annually. For cards that do not waive their annual fee the first year, we’ve subtracted the annual fee from the cash value of the annual rebate. Except where noted, these cards don’t charge a foreign-transaction fee.
Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards: No Annual Fee
With these cards, reap points or miles without paying an annual fee.
Chase Freedom Unlimited Visa
- Website: www.chase.com
- Interest rate: 0% for 15 months, then 17.24% to 25.99%
- Annual fee: None
- Sign-up bonus: $200 back if you spend $500 in the first three months; 5% back on gas station purchases for the first $6,000 spent in the first year
- Typical annual rebate: 45,277 points, worth $453
Chase Freedom Unlimited is a compelling no-fee option for domestic travelers who are willing to book trips through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program. It provides five points per dollar spent on travel purchases through Chase, three points on dining and drugstore purchases, and 1.5 points per dollar on other spending—a higher rate than the one point per dollar or 1% that most cards offer on purchases outside their maximum-rebate categories. Redeem points at a rate of a penny each for cash back, gift cards or travel. The card charges a 3% fee on foreign transactions, so for trips abroad, look to our other winners that charge no such fee.
A couple of other perks: You earn 5% cash back on Lyft rides through March 2025, and you get three months of free membership to DashPass (regularly $10 a month), which waives the delivery fee and reduces service fees on eligible orders through food-delivery service DoorDash. After three months, you’re automatically enrolled for nine months of
