Explore With Landon

One of the best ways to save money and travel for free is by using credit cards that earn you miles and points. I have saved thousands of dollars on flights using different credit cards, but it took me a while to get here. With many different companies and cards to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start. Travel credit cards vary immensely and yearly fees can range anywhere from $0 to $695 for high-end cards. In this article, I’m breaking down the best travel credit cards for beginners—perfect for anyone ready to start earning free travel or looking to add a low annual fee card to their travel hacking toolkit. Let’s get started!

Am I ready for a Travel credit card?

You should not get a travel credit card unless you are financially ready for one. Earning free travel is not worth going into debt or hurting your credit score. How do you know when you are ready for a travel credit card, well here is a three-part checklist of things that you need:

1. You need a good credit score. You can’t get a travel credit card without one. Most Travel Credit cards require a good credit score of at least 690, but higher is always better. I applied for my first travel credit card at age 20 with a 730 credit score and was accepted.
2. You need a healthy relationship with credit cards: Treat your credit card like a debit card and pay off the statement balance every month. If you don’t think you can control your spending and make timely payments it’s not worth going into debt.
3. You should be prepared to spend enough money to earn the sign-up bonus: One of the main appeals of getting a travel credit card is the sign-up bonus which looks like this: “Spend X amount of money on the card in X amount of months and earn a huge bonus.” In my opinion, it is a complete waste to sign up for a card and not be able to earn the bonus. Two of the four cards that I am going to highlight in this article both have the same spending requirement which is $4000 in the first three months. If you aren’t ready to do that, it is probably best to wait until a later time when you plan on having some bigger expenses.

Should I get an Airline Card that earns miles or a Rewards Card that earns Points?

Miles vs Points: What’s the difference?

Miles (aka Frequent Flyer Miles) are a type of airline “currency” that is earned on one specific airline. Miles can be earned by spending money on flights with an airline, spending on their co-branded credit card, or through other means such as shopping portals. Those miles can then only be used to book flights through that specific airline and its partner airlines. 

Points are a type of “currency” earned on rewards cards offered by various banking and credit card companies. For example, American Express, Citi, Capital One, and Chase all offer rewards cards that earn points. Points are earned at different rates on different spending categories such as dining and travel. Points can be redeemed for gift cards, money off of your bill, travel, or transferred to airline mileage programs and converted into miles. 

An expert travel strategy uses both miles and points to maximize the potential for earning free travel.

Airline Card vs Rewards Card

Almost every airline has multiple credit cards that you can use to earn miles on that airline. In fact, this is a huge way for airlines to make money. For example, in 2023 American Airlines made over 5.2 BILLION dollars just with its credit card business alone. If you are super loyal to one airline, getting their credit card is often a great way to get better perks, earn more miles, and earn coveted airline status faster. However compared to rewards cards, airline cards kind of…well…suck. 

It’s funny to be writing this because my first travel credit card was actually an American Airlines card, but if I were to do it all over again I would have gotten a rewards card first. Here are three main reasons why: 

1. Points are more flexible than airline miles: Points can be transferred to different airlines at a 1:1 ratio. For example, you can transfer Citi Thankyou points to 14 different airlines and 4 different hotel chains. Out of those 14 airlines, there is at least one in each major airline alliance meaning that you can use your miles on 54 additional airlines on top of those 14. Compare this to American Airlines miles that can be used only on American Airlines and its 24 partners. So with points, you have over 65 different options compared to 24 with airline miles.

2. You earn free travel faster with rewards cards: On average most airline credit cards offer 1-2 miles per dollar spent. On the other hand, rewards cards usually offer anywhere from 2-10 points per dollar spent.  I find myself earning points almost twice as fast if not more on my points cards vs my miles cards.

3. Rewards cards offer Transfer Bonuses: This is one of my favorite features of owning a rewards card. Throughout the year rewards cards will offer transfer bonuses to airlines which can range anywhere from 20-40 percent. Let me use a real example that was recently offered by American Express. In December 2024, they offered a 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic. If you had 50,000 those would normally transfer to Virgin Atlantic as 50,000 miles, but now with the transfer bonus, those points are converted to 70,000 points. That can mean the difference between an economy ticket and a lie-flat business class seat with no extra money spent. 

At the end of the day, I do think that airline credit cards hold an important strategic space in a well-rounded credit card portfolio, but as a beginner, none of them fall in my top cards. 

Top Travel Credit Cards for Beginners

Now that you have learned a little bit about the world of travel credit cards let’s dive right into my recommendation. Instead of recommending one credit card, I decided to give my top two low-fee credit cards and my top two no-fee credit cards. I think that each one has a specific use case so it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.

You should pick a travel credit card based on which one is going to earn you the most points and that comes down to the way that you spend. So my recommendation is to read through each of these and see which one resonates the most with your spending habits.

I also wanted to say that these are my honest opinions and in no way do I get compensated or anything like that if you choose to apply to any of these cards.

Important note: If you’ve recently applied for a card from one of these companies, you may be ineligible to receive the welcome bonus. Be sure to review the eligibility rules on their website before applying.

Okay, let’s dive in!

Top 2 Travel Credit Cards with a Low Annual Fee

Citi Strata Premier Card

Stats

Annual Fee	$95
Current Sign-Up Bonus (Limited Time Offer so might decrease soon)	75,000 points after spending $4000 in the first 3 months
Yearly Credit	$100 Hotel Credit on a $500+ Booking through Citi Travel
Points	– 10x on Hotels, Rental Cars, and Attractions purchased through Citi Travel – 3x on Air Travel and Other Hotels – 3x on Restaurants  – 3x on Supermarkets (excludes discount superstores, convenience stores, wholesale clubs, and drug stores) – 3x points on gas and EV charging – 1x on All Other Purchases
Other Bonuses	– Trip Delay Protection – Trip Cancellation & Interruption Protection – Lost or Damaged Luggage Protection – MasterRental Coverage (Car Rental) – No Foreign transaction Fee

** (10x, 3x, etc means 10 points per dollar spent, 3 points per dollar spent, etc.)

This card is relatively new and was introduced by Citi in May of 2024 and it quickly became one of my favorite beginner cards out there. There are not really any other cards right now with a $95 fee that comes close to earning 10x points on any category.

Strengths: 

• High Welcome Bonus
• The $100 hotel credit more than covers the annual fee
• High points are earned not only on travel booked through Citi with 3x miles on all hotel and airline purchases
• High points on everyday spending categories like groceries, restaurants, and gas
• Excellent travel insurance benefits for trips booked using the card

Weaknesses: 

• Citi Points are generally ranked a little bit lower in transfer value than other programs such as American Express and Chase
• No annual points bonuses
• Only 1x points earned on other travel

My Take:
This is one of the best travel credit cards for beginners, in my opinion, and here’s why: Most people aren’t spending a fortune on travel, they might take 1-2 big vacations a year, with a few smaller trips in between. The majority of their spending tends to go toward everyday expenses like groceries, gas, and eating out.

This card strikes the perfect balance, offering great rewards for travel and generous points for everyday spending. Plus, its $95 annual fee is easily offset by using the $100 hotel credit on one multi-night hotel stay.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

Stats

Annual Fee	$95
Current Sign-Up Bonus	60,000 points after spending $4000 in the first 3 months
Yearly Credit	$50 Hotel Credit through Chase Travel
Points	– 5x on Hotels and Rental Cars purchased through Chase Travel – 3x on Dining, Select Streaming Services, and Online Grocery Purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs) – 2x on All Other Travel Purchases1x on All Other Purchases
Other Bonuses	– Free Door Dash Dashpass for one year – 10% Anniversary Points Bonus (ex: if you spend $25,000 on purchases in one year, you’ll get 2,500 bonus points) – Travel Protection – Extended Warranty Protection – Purchase Protection – No Foreign Transaction Fees

The Chase Sapphire Preferred visa card is a well-rounded credit card with a good mix of travel benefits and non-travel benefits. 

Strengths: 

• Hotel credit with no spending requirement
• 2x points on all travel including everything from flights to trains, cruises, taxis, tolls, and more
• Chase has one of the strongest points in the travel game with a slightly higher transfer value than Capital One and Citi points 
• Anniversary Bonus 

Weaknesses: 

• Lower points on hotel and car rentals booked through the travel portal compared to Citi
• You only earn 3x points on groceries when ordering online
• You only earn 1x points on gas 

My Take: 

Chase offers a strong credit card with the Sapphire preferred. It has several benefits and I think there is a use case where I would say that the benefits could be better than the Citi card. For example, Chase points transfer directly to United and Southwest Airlines, neither of which are transfer partners of Citi, so this could sway you if you like to fly either of those airlines.

Top Two Travel Credit Cards with No Annual Fee

Bilt Rewards MasterCard

Stats

Annual Fee	$0
Current Sign-Up Bonus	None
Yearly Credit	None
Points	– 5x points on Certain Restaurants and Lyft Rides – 3x on All Other Dining – 2x points on Travel booked through Built Travel – 2x points at Walgreens – 1x points on Rent – 1x points on all other purchases
Other Bonuses	– Waived transaction fees when used for Rent payments – Trip Cancellation and Interruption Protection – Trip Delay Reimbursement  – Rental Collision Insurance – No Foreign Transaction Fees

The Bilt MasterCard is one of the most unique cards on the market right now because it is the only card that allows you to earn points by paying your rent. This is a must-have if you rent and are looking for a card with no fees. 

Strengths: 

• Earn points on rent and waive the transaction fee
• No annual fee
• Built has the strongest point value out of any reward card just slightly beating Chase in transfer value.
• Great earnings for travel 
• Strong Travel protection 

Weaknesses: 

• Probably not for you if you don’t rent 
• The card must be used at least 5 times per period to earn points, so you can’t just use it once a month for rent

My Take:

This card is a great beginner travel card, especially for someone who pays rent. It can also be paired with one of the low-fee cards to maximize point-earning potential. However, if you don’t pay rent, the value of this card diminishes. You are better off getting either the other no-fee credit card or one of the low-fee cards and dealing with the $95 annual fee.

Citi Double Cash Card

Stats

Annual Fee	$0
Current Sign-Up Bonus	20,000 points after spending $1,500 in the first 6 months
Yearly Credit	None
Points	2x points on all purchases
Other Bonuses	N/A

You might be thinking wait.. Is this a travel card? I thought I wanted to earn points not cash back? While the Citi double cash back card has cash back in the name, it actually rewards you with points. This is a great card if you a looking to keep things very simple and you don’t want any annual fee. 

Strengths: 

• Earn 2x points on everything with no annual fee

Weaknesses: 

• No bonus categories for travel spending 

My Take:

With no bonus categories, I would use this card as a catch-all in my strategy. For example, if a purchase fell in my card’s 1x points category, I would use this card instead. Some people like combining this card with the Citi Strata Premier which can be a good strategy, just make sure to read the fine print first because it’s subject to change and you don’t want to miss out on the welcome bonus for either card.

The next level: The best Premium Credit Cards

Eventually, once you become more experienced in the world of points and miles you will probably want to move to a premium travel credit card. I plan on writing an article about this in the near future so stay tuned!