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The days are getting longer and winter is finally coming to an end. As the first summer vacation season approaches, you may be thinking about spending a few days at the beach or relaxing at a mountain lake.
As you start planning your summer trip, consider taking advantage of credit card bonuses and other benefits to ease the price shock. Travel credit cards can give you free flights or hotel stays, enhance your vacation experience with travel deals, and redeem rewards for future vacations.
With the summer travel season just around the corner, here are some of the best credit cards to consider. Just make sure the card’s annual fee and other features fit your spending habits before you apply.
How to choose the right travel card for your budget
As you focus on your vacation destination over the next few months, you’ll need some breathing room to earn the card’s welcome bonus through regular spending. Tailor the card to your spending habits – See if you’re regularly spending on purchases that earn the card’s bonuses, rather than spending just to get there.
Each of the above cards comes with an annual fee. This can essentially reduce your rewards or eliminate the value of the welcome bonus, so you’ll need to calculate it. But the welcome bonus value of all of the above cards is more than enough to offset the annual fee, at least in the first year. Before you apply, see if you can earn enough rewards or take advantage of enough benefits to cover the payment.
For rewards cards like the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card*, you might not find the annual fee high unless you travel frequently. However, when you book through Capital One Travel, it offers up to $300 in annual travel credits to help pay for some of your expenses, as long as you can use it.
The American Express® Gold Card also has a high annual fee, but the rewards are good, covering popular purchases at restaurants, supermarkets, etc. in the U.S. It also includes $120 in annual credits (up to $10 in monthly bill credits when you pay with the card at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar, and select Shake Shacks) and up to $120 in Uber credits when you add the Gold Card to your Uber account, earning cash back on Uber Eats or Uber rides in the U.S. each year (up to $10 per month).
Another card—the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card—offers fewer points but doesn’t charge as much. It costs $95, which shouldn’t be hard to offset the Sapphire Preferred’s growing rewards.
Terms and conditions apply to American Express offers and benefits. Certain American Express offers and benefits require registration. Visit americanexpress.com for more information.
How to Get the Best Welcome Bonus
It is important not to let your welcome bonus push you into buying things you otherwise don’t have or can’t afford. Any unnecessary spending will reduce the value of your welcome bonus.
Welcome bonuses are only useful if you earn them through everyday spending. Otherwise, your bonus will quickly be covered by interest.
If you get your welcome bonus without spending much, you can use it to fund a big planned purchase, such as a family trip or a vacation abroad.
The Gold card earns 4x points per dollar spent at U.S. supermarkets (1x points after $25,000 in purchases in a year), and the Venture X earns 2x miles on any purchase, making these cards a good choice for your basic spending.
You can budget ahead of time to see how much you need to spend on these categories to earn your bonus, and then plan accordingly. You can also see how much profit you’re making from these expenses.
How to make the most of your travel card
There are a number of ways to get the most value from your travel credit card. One is to use it to pay for purchases where you can earn more rewards – in this case, booking a trip where you can earn more rewards through a relevant credit travel portal.
Once you receive your welcome bonus, use it in a way that offers the best value. For most cards of this type, the easiest option is to use your bonus to travel through a travel portal. Usually the value is guaranteed to be 1 cent per point. However, if you want to travel more miles, your points may be worth more if you transfer to travel partners and earn great deals.
For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred has a 1:1 transfer rate, which means that 1 Chase Ultimate Rewards point will always transfer to at least 1 partner mile or point. You can then use those partner points to book flights or hotels directly through the company’s own loyalty program.
In some cases, you’ll find offers of more than 1 cent per point.
To calculate how much your miles are worth, divide your airfare or hotel costs by the number of miles you need to finance. For example, if you transfer 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Iberia Airlines and use them to book a business-class flight to Spain that would otherwise cost $6,000 in cash, your points are actually worth 12 cents.
You can view a full list of Chase, American Express and Capital One’s shipping partners on each issuer’s website.
Credit card issuer travel portal
Most major card issuers (except Discover) offer a portal or platform for booking travel and earning rewards. Intrepid travelers may scoff at the idea of booking all their travel through one website instead of surrounding sites, but it can be useful in some situations.
For example, the Venture X earns 10x points on hotel and car rental bookings through Capital One Travel, while the Chase Sapphire Preferred earns 5x points on travel bookings through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
The Sapphire Preferred also offers a 25% bonus on purchases when you use Ultimate Rewards points for travel through the portal, but it doesn’t give you extra points on your bookings. While you can get more valuable points by transferring points to partner airlines and booking through their frequent flyer programs, Chase Ultimate Rewards may be for those who value simplicity or who pay with cash and want extra rewards.
Amex Travel works the same way. If you use them to buy tickets through the issuer’s portal or transfer your points to its partners, you’ll get more benefits with Amex Membership Points. You’ll also earn 3x points on flights booked through the portal with the Amex Gold Card, though you’ll earn the same points on flights booked directly from the airline.
Bottom Line
If you’re planning on visiting a destination, now’s the time to consider adding a travel credit card to your wallet. With summer just around the corner (and hot), you’ll have plenty of time to earn new card welcome bonuses to limit your travel expenses. Just make sure the card has consistent value after you earn and use your welcome bonus, and that the card fits your budget in terms of rewards, benefits, and fees.
* All information about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card was collected independently by CNET and has not been endorsed by the card issuer.
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