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5 BEST PREMIUM TRAVEL CREDIT CARDS REVIEW IN 2023
5 BEST PREMIUM TRAVEL CREDIT CARDS REVIEW IN 2023
BEST PREMIUM TRAVEL CREDIT CARDS | Let’s see
what are the top 5 bonus travel credit cards in the USA in 2023 with a full review
& comparison for beginners.
BEST TRAVEL CREDIT CARDS WITH PRIORITY PASS
Here in
this article, I have explained in full detail about what are the 5 ultimate rated travel credit cards in the USA for
beginners with high amazing bonuses complete list.
How did
you manage to afford a $20,000 First Class plane ticket a year or two out of
college when you were only making like $60,000 a year?
Easy, I
just use these. So you just loaded up on credit card debt? Definitely not. I
got these travel credit cards, and I got a signup bonus.
And I
use those points to travel for free. Well, so you got credit cards to
travel for free.
Here, in
my career have had over 50 credit cards and accumulated over 4 million
miles and points and yes, I am very much still here.
I've
had over 50 Credit cards so that you don't have to unless you want to
in my career now is probably one of the hottest and best time to jump in if
you're in the marketplace for a new travel credit card.
In my
current career Never have I seen appeared with so many more benefits
coming out to the consumer in the way of additional Transfer Partners, more travel
perks, as well as high signup bonuses.
WHAT TRAVEL CREDIT CARDS DO YOU WANT FOR 2023
What travel
credit cards do you want for 2023 today is a segment of what
card today in which we talk about the top travel credit cards for 2023.
We're
going to talk about my top six cards
and my recommendations on how to really use them for travel in addition to one honorable mention and two cards.
WHAT ARE SOME TRAVEL CARDS THAT YOU HAVE?
What
are some redemptions you've taken or what are some dream redemptions you would
like to take now before I dive into the tomatoes and potatoes of this story,
two quick housekeeping tips?
One if
you are new to the travel game, listen,
a travel credit card isn't just strictly
limited to travel.
What I
mean by that is a lot of these travel
cards, if you will, are offering really high signup bonuses if you're not a
traveler.
And if
you're not looking to travel, I don't know 510 times a year, you can still take
those signup bonuses and store them
for a day in which you want to travel
or redeem them as a statement credit.
Now the
one caveat is don't do a max, you're gonna get dinged. But what I'm here to say
is that even though the term Travel Card is gonna get thrown around a bunch in this story,
that's just because the industry refers to these cards with generally better
travel perks as travel cards.
But how
I view it is anybody and everybody should be looking at getting one of these
cards, because you're coming with Monster
signup, bonuses, 50,000, 60,000, 70,000, 80,000 points, which is easily
equivalent to $5..6…7..8.. 900 worth of statement credits.
And for
some people, maybe you just want to save on holiday shopping, maybe you just want
to save on groceries, whatever that is, you can use those points for those
purposes.
Now, of
course, that's not the most optimal way to use it. But I do understand that
everyone has different spending preferences.
The second point is if
you are in this credit card game if you want to get
a travel credit card, if you
want to do what I do, which is open one or two or three or 440 cards, you need
to make sure you understand how to manage your credit.
What I
mean by that is are you paying on time and in full? If yes, then you can
continue onward.
Which
of my cards had the lowest APR fortunately, you're gonna have to pause and exit if you're asking about APR interest rates, it's showing me that you carry a
credit card balance, you can carry a credit card balance and you're paying
interest rates.
Fortunately,
you're paying for my free vacation. I don't need you to do that. Thank you so
much though please do not hold a balance.
So with
that being said though, I've got a tonne of really good material to go over
today. However, I'm going to keep it somewhat brief I will deep dive into
particular cards are certain redemptions just let me know what you're
interested in.
Now, we
have the Capital One Quicksilver
listen, if you're also a beginner or you're new to this credit card field, this is also a
phenomenon and one of my favorite beginner
cards.
CAPITAL ONE QUICKSILVER
So Capital One Quicksilver is gonna give
you a $200 signup bonus after you spend 500 bucks in the first three months
Thank you visit really easy 200 all discount if you are already going to spend
$500.
In the
next three months, this card has an earnings rate of 1.5% cash back for everything.
As far as benefits and features.
The biggest benefit feature is the fact that
you can use this card abroad because there are no foreign transaction fees as a Visa Signature card.
And all of this gets wrapped with a $0
annual fee. So my verdict for
the Capital One Quicksilver is this is a phenomenal first card or even second
card.
If you
want to start traveling a little
bit here and there. But again, that's not what this card is focused on. Coming
in at number five.
5#- BILT MASTERCARD
We have
the bilt MasterCard, just know that
this is the only card on the marketplace
that lets you earn points for your largest monthly expense which is likely
paying rent.
I mean,
let me know in the comment section down below. How much do you pay for rent per
month?
I
imagine it's probably one two, maybe even $3000 for some people. Anyway, back
to the card. This card unfortunately doesn't come with a signup bonus which I think is a huge mess.
Next
up, we have earnings, this card will
earn three points per dollar spent on dining, two points per dollar spent on travel, and one point for
every dollar you spend on rent.
Now,
this is where it gets really exciting. If you live in one of these large high
rises in like New York, or San Fran, or wherever your apartment building likely
already has a relationship with bit and you can just use the card to pay and
you're not going to get hit with the processing
fee.
Keep in
mind, you can use credit cards to pay for rent. But the thing is, you're
probably going to have to pay I mean 2%,
3%, 4%, 5% for the processing fee.
And
that would essentially negate the points you would earn for rent with the biltcard,
they actually cover that processing fee.
I know
the next question you probably have is can I have a small time landlord, I only
pay them with a check.
Well,
the Bilt Team has thought of that as well. This thing is pretty crazy.
So basically, you sign up for the card, you get on their platform, and you can
actually put in your landlord's information, and they will cut your landlord a
check on your behalf every single month.
So even
if you're paying by check, or Venmo, or whatever the built platform is able to
send out a check to your landlord.
So you
are still earning points for rent.
The only limitation with rent is that you can earn a maximum of $50,000 points
in a year.
So
roughly that's about $4,000 or so a month in rent, which if you're paying
$4,000 a month in rent, yikes.
And
this card will also earn one point for dollars spent everywhere else. Next up,
we have benefits.
So the bilt
card earns points on rent. That's great. But what does that actually mean?
Let me
explain something to you credit card points are extremely valuable. So that's
talking your Amex membership reward
points your Chase ultimate reward points city.
These
points are crazy valuable because you can take those points and transfer them to
say a travel partner in an airline or hotel and get crazy value by using the word
truck.
And
typically that's been reserved for the big banks. Well, the bilt card comes
here in absolutely disrupts that model because bilt points can also be
transferred to partners.
And not
just any partners, some of the partners that the Bilt Team has inked honestly
surprised me.
So you
can take your bullet points and transfer them to places like Hyatt you can transfer them to United Airlines.
And you
can also even transfer to American
Airlines. That is crazy folks. Like the only way to get points to American
Airlines is to sign up for a city American Airlines card.
That's
it no other currency can transfer to American Airlines. But the bilt points can
which is just oh my god, like you need to run to check this card out.
So what
can you actually do with the points. so one way you can use the points is by
redeeming them with Hyatt.
Hyatt I believe has
incredible value and one of the last hotel chains that offer that so we're
going to look at a booking for the Hyatt is a layer all inclusive resort in
Cancun. The cash value per night is a little bit over $600.
So if
we take a look at it two nights would be over $1,200 However, let's say you are
in that case of having to pay $4,000 a month in rent you would come out with
about 48,000 points.
So
after one year with the bilt card, you could easily afford two nights at the
highest layer all inclusive for just 42,000 Bilt points transferred to Hyatt
and then redeemed and as for the airline partners I know I mentioned them
before but there are a tonne of flight partners.
The one
that I am most excited about is going to be American Airlines because America still has some of the most
valuable awards space sweet spots for getting to the Maldives.
One of
the ways you can do Boston to the Maldives on Qatar Airways Q suites which is
that double beds lie flat in the sky instead of paying $6-$9,000 per person you
can just use 70,000 American Airlines miles and less than about 50 bucks per
person.
In
addition to transfer Partners, the bilt has a laundry list of features and
benefits one of which is your points are worth 1.25x.
If you
just redeem them through the bill to travel portal the bilt card also gives you
cell phone protection if you were to get your phone stolen, damaged or
involuntarily party which to me seems like last this card will also give you
trip delay coverage.
And if
you use the card to pay for lifts after three lift rides a month you'll
automatically get a $5 credit the card also gives you a dash pass for three months
and every single month you will get $5 off of your first DoorDash purchase.
Having
gone through the earnings and the benefits. We got to talk about the annual fee
to put it into perspective 99% of cards that allow you to transfer points to a
flight partner come with an annual fee so you're probably thinking this comes
with an annual fee.
That's
what I would thought but now there is no annual fee guys this is a 100% free
card.
It's a free premium Travel Card which just it
doesn't exist when you think premium
travel you think annual fee.
Oh
sorry, I completely forgot to mention there's obviously no foreign transaction
fee so you can go ahead and use this card abroad so this card if you're looking
for a no annual fee card.
If you
pay rent if you're looking for a premium no annual fee card and you pay to rent
the biltMasterCard is going to be
the one for you in 2023.
#4- Chase Sapphire Preferred
Coming
in number 4 we have the Chase Sapphire
Preferred. This is a perennial workhorse
Travel Card this card comes with a 60,000 points signup bonus After you
spend $4,000 In the first 3 months as far as earnings, you will earn five
points which are spent on travel as long as you book through the chase ultimate
reward portal three points per dollar spent on dining three points per hour
spent on online shopping, excluding target Walmart
and wholesale clubs.
Three
points that are spent on select streaming services two points per dollar spent
on travel and one point per dollar everywhere else as far as benefits for this
card, you're gonna get a 25% bonus.
If you
redeem travel through the ultimate reward portal, so that 60,000 points
signup bonus could be worth up to 75,000 points, aka $750.
If you
use those to book travel through the chase ultimate reward portal. In addition,
this card will give you a $50 hotel credit every single year.
So if
you book hotels with a card, you'll get a $50 credit. This card also provides Transfer Partners as part of the chase
ultimate reward program.
There
is a slew of Transfer Partners. One to me that's pretty interesting. As of
right now is a transfer to Air Canada's
Aeroplan, you can fly on Etihad Airways business class on their brand new 350, 1000 new plane.
It's
big. It's phenomenal from Abu Dhabi to JFK. This typically costs 20,000 points
or so.
But
with a current transfer bonus, it would only cost about 70,000 points. So you
would take your Chase ultimate reward
points, transfer them to air Canada's Aeroplan, and then book An Etihad
Airways flight from Abu Dhabi to JFK.
I think
it's like 15 hours on an ultra premium
business class ticket that normally would probably cost over $6,000.
Another
transfer partner that up until really this year only Chase had is Hyatt now
that the bilt card launched, it's to transfer Partners.
Remember
the example earlier of the Hyatt booking basically, instead of spending $1,200
A
night, all you would need to do is come up with 42,000 points and you can stay
for two nights at an all inclusive Hyatt zilara Cancun resort in Mexico.
This card also gives you auto rental
insurance. So when you rent a car, you can go ahead and decline the
insurance, they always try to push on you you have baggage delay coverage, and you'll also earn five points for every single dollar that you spend on the lift
until the end of March 2025.
And you
will get a dash pass for free for one year. And when it comes to the annual fees.
This
card does come with a $95 annual fee.
Of course, it's not waived in the first year. But remember that offset we have
a $50 hotel credit.
So
every year you would effectively only be paying $45 A year my verdict for this
card. This is a workhorse card in the chase ecosystem, you've got freedom.
This is
a great workhorse card at the entry tier and I know some of you are going to be
asking me well what about the reserve which is its older brother.
We'll
talk about that in a little bit. Hang on to that thought. But right now if
you're looking at entry mid tier Travel
Card, this is definitely going to be one you should consider.
#3- CITY PREMIER
Number three, we
have the city Premier, it's good to
see a city card on whisper once this card comes with a super high signup bonus of 80,000 points after you spend $4,000 In
the first three months as far as earnings, this card is absolutely packed,
you're gonna get three points for every dollar that you spend at gas stations,
restaurants, supermarkets, and air travel and hotel and one point per dollar
spent everywhere else.
BENEFITS
OF CITY
PREMIER
As far
as benefits, I'd say this cards a
little bit light. So the two to call out are one you get a credit you will get
a $100 hotel credit if you make a hotel booking of $500 or more in one stay
with the card.
It's an
OK credit. The other one is Transfer Partners which are pretty par for the
course when it comes to travel cards.
Now I
took a look at all of the transfer partners that Citi has and honestly it's
pretty much what everyone else has.
The
only one that seems pretty unique is Qatar Airways but the issue with Qatar
Airways and now I've recently found out they've started leveraging more taxes
and fees and surcharges and all this stuff that makes the award booking a lot
less attractive.
However
Qatar Airways does earn its currency as a view meaning you could in theory,
and you actually could in practicality link your Qatar Airways account with
your British Airways account, you can take a view that you earn in Qatar
Airways, transfer them to British Airways, at which point you'd be able to make
a booking that would cost you less in terms of taxes and fees.
And a
couple months ago there was a 30% bonus when you took your city points and
transfer them to Qatar Airways.
So that
would be my play here is getting the points and then if another bonus like this
comes up in which tends to happen once or twice a year where you get a 20% or
30% bonus for transferring your points from Citi to Qatar Airways.
I would
do the transfer then I would take those abs points from Qatar Airways and
transfer them to British Airways and make all my bookings there.
Hopefully, that made sense in as far as an annual fee. This card comes with a $95 annual fee but if you're spending $500 At
one time booking a hotel with the card you'll get the $100 credit so you
can kind of offset it though.
I feel
like that might be a pretty niche in terms of who would use it. So I would say
effectively, it's a $95 annual fee.
My verdict for this card is jump on the
signup bonus the signup bonus is 80,000 points.
I will
take that any given day there's a slew of transfer Partners you can move them
off to but really that's about it.
And the
other thing to be cautious of though is the fact that the cards like the city
double cash in the city custom cash by the way, which is one of my favorite gas grocery cards also earn Thank you
points and insane these ecosystems, you can only get one thank you points
earning card bonus every 24 months.
So if
you get a city custom hash or a city
double cash, you will have to close the card and wait 24 months before
getting this one.
So my
recommendation is because those signup bonuses are like 200 bucks for spending
like 2000 or 200, for spending 500, whatever it is, they're not as valuable as
this one.
So I
would get this Citi card for the
purposes of meeting that thank you card eligibility, and then you can go
get double cash or custom cash even though you won't get a signup bonus,
you'll be able to pull those earnings into this card and transfer them.
But
it's worth it. In addition, this cards just a good catch all especially having
that 3x on gas which none of the other travel cards that I've talked about, or
we'll talk about will have in their earnings category. Coming in at number two.
#2 - AMERICAN EXPRESS GOLD
We have
the American Express gold or rose gold, whichever they're the exact
same. Now this card comes with a signup
bonus of anywhere from 60 up to 75,000 points after you spend $4,000 in six
months love that you have a huge period of time in which you can qualify for this
signup bonus as far as earnings for the American Express gold you will earn
four points per dollar spent on restaurants four points per dollar spent on
grocery stores.
And
three points per dollar spent booking airfare directly with a max traveling
one point per dollar spent everywhere else.
BENEFITS AMERICAN EXPRESS GOLD
Now
where this card absolutely rushes it is in the benefits section, you will get a $120 dining credit every single
year for this card which effectively comes out to $10 a month, which you can use
for GrubHub as well as a $120 Uber credit which comes out to $10 a month which
you can use Uber Eats.
So
effectively, you have $240 worth of dining credits you can use every single
year. The card also gives you the classic transfer partners that you would
expect from an Amex membership rewards earning card and an example of how you
can use membership reward points is by taking them.
And
transfer them to British Airways ABS Remember earlier how I also said that the
Citi card can transfer points to Qatar EViews.
And
those can transfer to British views, American Express can transfer directly to British Air views.
And you
can make an award booking from Boston to the Maldives on Qatar Airways, whew
suites full live flat business class seats for 85,000 views and about $206 in
taxes and fees.
Instead
of paying, I think the list price would be like anywhere from five to $6,000 per
person.
Now the
other thing you want to pay attention to throughout the year is that there are going to be bonuses for transferring your points from American Express to British Airways sometimes it's 20% to 25%.
I've
seen I think as high as a 30% Bonus before in so basically right instead of
having to cost 85,000.
It
would be much less than that right now. That's just what the sticker price is.
If you take American Express membership reward points transfer them to British
Airways. Another option for using the points is to transfer them to the flying blue
program which is comprised of KLM and Air France.
And
that's actually a really good way to fly domestically in the US with Delta and
specifically from the US mainland to Hawaii, you can do a round trip for about
35,000 points.
This is
according to upgraded points really good blog, feel free to check them out here
as well as for an annual fee.
This
card costs $250. Yeah, it's steep. But remember, we have $240 of total dining
credits.
What
does that mean? 250 minus 240 $10. You're paying effectively $10 a year for the
cart. And if you spend $250 in either a restaurant or a grocery category, you
will pretty much have made back the annual fee and you will break even my
verdict for this card is if you eat out you buy groceries.
This is
a card you absolutely should consider having in your wallet. For me this is the
only card I use when I go out and when I'm buying groceries on that Forex urn
and also of course, I really value the transfer partners that American Express
has.
And I
know some of you're probably wondering about the AMEX platinum, we'll save that
we'll get to that in just a second coming in at number one.
#1- CAPITAL ONE VENTURE X TRAVEL CARD
My top
travel card in 2023 is going to be Capital One Venture x this card comes
with a 75,000 points signup bonus after spending $4,000.
In the
first 3 months as far as earnings, this card will earn 10 points to spend as
long as you're booking hotel and car rental through the Capital One travel portal five points for every dollar spent booking airfare through the Capital One
travel portal, and two points per dollar spent everywhere else.
AMERICAN EXPRESS GOLD BENEFITS
Moving
on to benefits. This is where this
card absolutely crushes it, you're going to get a $300 credit for making
bookings through the Capital One travel portal every single year.
In
addition, you're gonna get a $ 100-anniversary credit just for having the card
every single year so now get that's $400
of total travel credits.
The
card also gives you a $100 credit to Global Entry slash TSA PreCheck pretty par
for the course you're also going to be able to get priority pass access
basically party pass gives you access to all the fancy lounges in the US though
I would argue they're way better abroad.
In
addition, this card gives you free authorized users to put into perspective. It
competes with the AMEX platinum in the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Amex platinum
charges you I think it's like 175 for three authorized users Chase Sapphire
reserve charges about $7.
To add
an authorized user Capital One Venture x three authorized users. The authorized user
gets a priority pass and gets to bring in two guests.
So big
family maybe you have a kid over 18 I don't know if you want to give them a
card now, but you can add them as authorized users they get a priority pass
they can bring in two more people.
This is
absolutely insane. No other card offers this besides the chase Ritz Carlton
card which you can no longer apply for anyway, sorry for another day. In aggregate.
This card comes with an annual fee of
$395.
But
remember, it's giving you $400 worth of total travel credits, meaning you're
getting paid $5 to have this premium
travel card.
This
card competes like I said the 695 Amex platinum in the 550 Chase Sapphire
reserve the Capital One Venture x comes
in at 395 but effectively will actually pay you $5 All three of those cards
give you lounge access but again, this one puts money back in your pocket.
So if
you're new to the travel space, are you looking for your second card or third card the venture x is one that I would 100% Jump on quickly.
Let's
run over and honorable mention of the American Express business platinum card.
This is going to come with a signup bonus of anywhere from 100 250,000 points
after you spend $15,000 In the first three months.
Now I'm
going to skip over the earnings and a lot of the benefits but really is to tell
you that this card is going to give you all of the amazing bells and whistles
of travel from a personal Amex platinum but unlike the personal platinum where
you end up having to pay for it, this card actually gives you enough benefits
in which you come out positive $335.
Basically, the card has an annual fee of 695. And it gives you about $1,020 worth of
overall business credits, meaning you come out net positive $335. By holding
this card, the AMEX business platinum is a phenomenal business card as well
as a travel card.
And
lastly, to wrap it all up two cards, I did not mention the Chase Sapphire
Reserve and the American Express
Platinum these cards just don't rank high for me on my travel list because
I think there are so many better options to consider.
For one business platinum is way better than personal platinum. And when you
think about American Express Platinum, it is so niche and specific
to a particular type of spender and travel.
Basically, people who are traveling through Centurion lounge airports, that's one, and
people who are booking a tonne of flights directly can earn that 5x
Multiple.
But for
everything else, it's just the poor earning card in the annual fee, I believe
is just so high, you have to spend so much time dedicating to really extracting
value.
I just
don't think for a lot of people, it's that worth it. When you ask the question
between gold or platinum, I would say gold all day for Meteor.
And if
you're looking at the top tier, it's the venture x the other one the Sapphire
reserve. Now the Sapphire reserve is a perennial favorite of both.
It's
been around forever. But the issue is it's a stale card 550 annual fee and a $300
Travel credit.
And
yeah, I will say though, if you have a stash of Chase ultimate reward points,
the Sapphire reserve is attractive because it gives you a 50% bonus, I have
about 1.4 million Chase ultimate reward points that 1.4 million is worth about
2.1 million or so or $21,000.
If I
redeemed through the chase ultimate rewards portal because I have a sapphire
reserve.
That's
not gonna be the case for everybody. And so when the question comes up, well,
should I be getting a sapphire reserve or adventure x?
Well,
my question is, if you want the premium lounges if you want all the travel
benefits do you want to pay out of pocket 200 bucks or so?
Or
would you rather get paid $5? Again, that's why the Sapphire Reserve and the
AMEX platinum aren't up there for travel cards if you happen to be able to
extract value from them.
Absolutely
go at it all day. They're still great cards, but for the vast majority of
folks, they're not it.
Conclude- Here I have explained in complete detail about what
are the best and high rated premium travel credit cards with bonuses
for beginners.
Thanks
for reading.
God
bless you.
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