12 Best Travel Credit Cards in May 2025

1. Decide what type of card is best for you

Once you know you want a travel credit card, you’ll need to narrow down what type of travel credit card. Travel credit cards can be grouped into three types:

• Hotel credit cards: Best if you stay frequently with a particular hotel brand and want to earn rewards like free nights and hotel elite status
• Airline credit cards: Best if you fly with the same airline frequently and want to earn airline credits, delay and cancellation protections and luggage or early boarding perks
• General travel cards: Best if you want the flexibility to opt for different hotel and airline brands.

 

2. Start with a goal in mind

Thinking about what your goal is with a travel credit card can help you make a decision. Some goals include traveling in first-class seats for an overseas flight, earning hotel elite status or booking a full trip for your honeymoon in the Maldives. Such goals will help guide you in the type of card you should pick and hotel and airline programs that will best cover your travel plans.

There are broader goals to keep in mind as well — if you just want to travel internationally or to specific regions, for instance, that can impact the card you get. You may look at travel cards with no foreign transaction fee or airline cards for the regions you’re interested in.

 

3. Research the underlying rewards program before you apply

Every travel credit card lets you earn points in a loyalty program. For hotel and airline cards, it will be the loyalty program of that brand. For general rewards cards, you’ll earn points with the issuer’s loyalty program, which you may be able to transfer to other airline and hotel loyalty programs.

Digging into how different rewards programs work is an essential step to finding the right card for you. Rewards programs have varying degrees of flexibility, value and simplicity. The right rewards program can make or break your travel plans — so it’s important to understand how the program works before you apply for a card because of its flashy perks or sign-up bonus.

• American Express Membership Rewards: Best for luxury perks/Delta flyers who want flexibility
• Chase Ultimate Rewards®: Best for earning points quickly/Southwest and United flyers who want flexibility
• Delta SkyMiles: Best for business travel/domestic travel
• JetBlue TrueBlue: Best for travelers who live on the East Coast
• Southwest Rapid Rewards: Best for domestic travel/simple rewards options
• United Airlines MileagePlus: Best for flexible international travelers
• Best Western: Best for budget-friendly hotel stays
• Hilton Honors: Best for hotel benefits
• IHG: Best for multi-day hotel stays
• Marriott Bonvoy: Best for large international travel network and free hotel stays
• World of Hyatt: Best for upscale hotel stays and elite benefits

 

4. Find a rewards rate that fits your spending patterns

A travel card with bonus categories that match your spending will help you collect rewards for free travel faster. Most travel cards offer a tiered rewards rate — which means the card offers varying earning rates across spending categories.

You can determine which travel credit card is best for you by gathering your top three spending categories and finding cards that reward those the most. Common spending categories include travel, dining, groceries and business.

 

5. Search for cards with elevated welcome offers

Another important aspect of a travel credit card is its sign-up bonus — it can often earn you free travel right off the bat. Many issuers frequently increase and decrease the size of the offers on their cards. Issuers also often set restrictions around their welcome offers — for instance, American Express will typically only let you earn a bonus for a particular card once in a lifetime. With this in mind, you should try to time your applications for cards for when their offers are at a “peak.”

While you’re at it, take a look at the required spending threshold for an offer to make sure you can meet it without overspending.

 

6. Factor in the value of other benefits

Don’t count out travel credit cards with higher annual fees. Most of the time, these premium cards offer benefits that can help you offset the cost of the annual fee with valuable travel benefits. They may include TSA PreCheck, airport lounge access and shopping credits.

Premium airline and hotel credit cards may also include travel credits for their respective brands. Benefits may include enrollment and other criteria to qualify for them.

When reviewing cards and their benefits and credits, it’s best to choose a card that will compensate you for things you’re already spending money on. For example, if you’re a frequent Uber rider and you spend a lot on incidentals with a single airline, you’ll be able to get the value out of the Uber and airline incidental benefits on The Platinum Card^® from American Express.

7. Don’t overlook a card’s travel protections

A card with travel insurance can provide you peace of mind, even if you don’t get immediate value from it. High-end travel credit cards often provide the most travel protections, but mid-tier cards can still provide solid insurance benefits.

A solid collection of travel protections include trip/cancellation insurance, car rental protection, trip delay reimbursement and travel and emergency assistance services.

Cards that go above and beyond may also include baggage delay insurance, emergency evacuation and transportation, roadside assistance and emergency medical and dental benefits.

 

8. Time your applications

When you’re ready to start applying, you should avoid going on a spree and applying for every card you can find just to earn sign-up bonuses. Not only can this negatively impact your credit score, but most issuers have limitations on their card offers to prevent people from applying for cards repeatedly to earn sign-up bonuses. You should make yourself aware of major issuers’ sign-up bonus policies and try to apply for cards with elevated offers to maximize your reward earnings.

 

Before you can redeem points or miles for travel, you have to earn them. You don’t have to overspend to earn points quickly, though. Below are a few ways you can earn more points without having to up your budget:

1. Use a shopping portal: See if your card’s rewards program offers a shopping portal. You can earn extra points by logging into the portal then making your purchases as usual.
2. Use multiple cards: Split your usage between multiple cards to earn extra points in bonus categories like groceries and dining.
3. Earn sign-up bonuses: Applying for a card with a large sign-up bonus can give you a rapid influx of points. Look for cards with higher limited-time offers. Co-branded cards like the Delta SkyMiles cards and the Hilton Honors cards frequently boost their offers.
4. Add authorized users: Add a trusted household member, such as a spouse, as an authorized user to your card, to earn points on their purchases. (Be sure to check whether your card has an authorized user fee first.)

• Cash back

  Some travel cards let you redeem points for cash back, but for far less value than cash back. You’ll typically get a rate of 1 cent per point — or even less.

  If you’re more likely to use cash back rewards than travel rewards, then you may be better off with a cash back credit card. The redemption options are often much simpler and cash back cards tend to have lower annual fees.

   

• Gift cards

  Some rewards programs, like Chase and American Express, will let you redeem points for gift cards. Gift cards are usually redeemable at 1 cent per point, but you can sometimes find promotions that offer a higher value.

• Other options

  Both branded and flexible travel cards usually have plenty of other ways to redeem points, including dining, cruises, car rentals, travel accessories, statement credits and more. In general, you’ll lose a lot of value by redeeming points and miles this way. However, if you need to make a purchase in a pinch or burn some points before they expire, you should check the rewards program site to see what your options are.

It’s possible to cover the cost of your next trip or vacation by maximizing your credit card travel rewards. Here are a few ways to do so:

1. Apply for a travel credit card when a large sign-up bonus offer becomes available.
2. Shuffle between multiple cards to earn rewards in each of your top spending categories.
3. Redeem rewards through issuers’ travel portals or transfer them to loyalty programs. (Also, keep an eye out for transfer bonuses that general rewards programs periodically offer to make sure you’re maximizing your point value.)
4. Make your purchases through the issuers’ online shopping portals when possible.
5. Consider a co-branded card if you’re loyal to a specific hotel brand, as they often include free night awards.

The value of your points or miles will depend on how you redeem them, as the rate varies with each redemption option. The value is also dependent on the underlying rewards program — some points or miles are much more valuable than others.

For example, Hilton points are only worth around 0.5 cents each while Hyatt points are worth around 1.7 cents each. If you’re redeeming miles for flights, your miles may be worth 1.8 cents if used for American Airlines flights or 1.1 cents if redeemed for Delta flights. Transferable points have the highest potential value. We estimate that Chase and Amex points are worth around 2 cents on average.

You’ll need to consider points and mile value to earn the most rewards on your spending. In general, you’ll find that some rewards will take you farther than others. Keep these rules in mind:

• With the exception of Hyatt, hotel rewards program points tend to be inflated.
• Airline miles tend to be a little more valuable than average.
• Flexible points like Chase Ultimate Rewards® and Amex Membership Rewards tend to be especially valuable because you can transfer them to a variety of loyalty programs.