In this modern day and age, we all use credit cards to purchase items for ourselves or for our loved ones. So why not select a card (or two) that rewards us with travel miles or points, and we can redeem them for future travels? The only thing is there are so many travel rewards credit cards out there. Which one is the best?
Everyone’s needs are different, so you really need to do the research to see which card works best for you. Darren and I have looked into these ones below:
Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa Card
- Annual fee: $0 introductory for the first year, then $95 with no foreign transaction fees
- Earn 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
- Earn 2X points on travel and dining at restaurants, from airfare and hotels to fine dining and cafés
- Earn 1 point for every $1 you spend on all other purchases
- 1:1 point transfer to airline and hotel partners with Chase Ultimate Rewards
- Airline partners: British Airways, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Southwest, United, Virgin Atlantic, Air France and KLM
- Hotel partners: Hyatt, IHG, Marriott and the Ritz Carlton
Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Visa Card (Personal & Business)
- Annual fee: $95, with no foreign transaction fees
- Earn 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
- Earn 2 miles* for every $1 you spend on tickets purchased from United Airlines
- Earn 1 mile* for every $1 you spend on all other purchases
- FREE checked bag – the primary Cardmember and one companion traveling on the same reservation will each receive their first standard checked bag free – calculated as a $25 value for the first checked bag, each way, per person – on United-operated flights when purchasing tickets with their United MileagePlus Explorer card
- Priority Boarding – the primary cardmember and companions on the same reservation will be invited to board United-operated flights prior to general boarding
- The primary cardmember can use miles to book any seat, anytime – no limitations, restrictions or blackout dates. If seats are available for sale on United-operated flights, you can use miles to book an award ticket at the Standard Award level when you sign into your MileagePlus account before starting the booking process
- Two United Club Lounge one-time passes each year for your anniversary. Enjoy complimentary beverages, snacks, and other amenities like work spaces, free Wi-Fi and more
*Your miles don’t expire as long as your credit card account is open, with no limit to the number of miles you can earn
Chase Ink Business Preferred Visa Card
- Annual fee: $95, with no foreign transaction fees
- Earn 80,000 bonus miles after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
- For the first $150,000, you earn 3 points to every $1 you spend in combined business purchases on travel, shipping purchases, the Internet, cable and phone services, and on advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines each account anniversary year
- Earn 1 point for every $1 you spend on other purchases
- 1:1 point transfer to airline and hotel partners with Chase Ultimate Rewards
- Airline partners: British Airways, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Southwest, United, Virgin Atlantic, Air France and KLM
- Hotel partners: Hyatt, IHG, Marriott and the Ritz Carlton
Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard
- Annual fee: $0 introductory for the first year, then $95 with no foreign transaction fees
- Earn 60,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
- Earn 2 AAdvantage® miles for every $1 you spend on American Airlines purchases
- Earn 1 AAdvantage® mile for every $1 you spend on other purchases
- Earn 10% of your redeemed AAdvantage® miles back – up to 10,000 AAdvantage® miles each calendar year
- Free checked bag – on all domestic American Airlines itineraries for you and up to four companions traveling with you on the same reservation
- Priority Boarding – on all domestic American Airlines flights
- Receive a 25% savings on eligible in-flight food and beverage purchases when you use your card on American Airlines flights
Each of these cards has their pros and cons. We ended up going with the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer and the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select. We love the United MileagePlus Explorer card because where we live in San Francisco, United Airlines is the hub and they have a lot of flights and Star Alliance partner airlines that get us to the destinations that we want to go to. We also love the free checked bag allowance, the United Club Lounge passes, and priority boarding. Since we got the card back in 2012, we have been redeeming our miles and have not paid for any of our airfares – roundtrip to Africa from San Francisco was only 80,000 miles per person!
We also have the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select because we started out flying with American Airlines a long time ago when we lived in Southern California where Los Angeles is one of their hubs. We still have a bunch of leftover miles with them. American Airlines is great when our destinations take us to the Caribbean islands.
We came close to getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but ultimately the free checked bag and priority boarding with United was more important to us than all the other airline and hotel partners. We love to stay at local boutique hotels when we travel abroad, so accumulating points and redeeming them for huge hotel chains don’t work as well.
Let us know in the comments below if you have any questions for us!
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