---
title: 'I Found The BEST Travel Credit Cards in 2026'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=AVB6hT6pbZg'
video_id: 'AVB6hT6pbZg'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 1268
---

# I Found The BEST Travel Credit Cards in 2026

> Source: [I Found The BEST Travel Credit Cards in 2026](https://youtube.com/watch?v=AVB6hT6pbZg)

## Summary



## Transcript

That is my credit card binder, and after
flipping through its many, many pages
and strolling through dozens of credit
cards and all the main issuers'
websites, I gave myself a challenge.
Identify the single best travel credit
card from all the major banks,
regardless if it was a super high or a
super low annual fee, or how many points
or how many benefits total each card
had. The goal was simply to find the
single card that overall was the best,
most well-rounded, highest-value
product. And here is what I decided.
Let's begin with Chase. My number one
pick here is the Sapphire Preferred
credit card, and rightly so. It recently
got a huge overhaul to its benefits and
rewards structure. What hits you right
up front, though, is the super strong
limited-time welcome offer to earn
100,000 bonus points after meeting the
spend requirement. That's worth an easy
$1,000 toward cash back or travel, or
even more toward travel when maximized
completely. And in light of that modest
$95 annual fee, you are well into many
times over in your first year. Plus, you
can even see if you're pre-approved for
the offer with no impact to your credit
score. If you want a closer look at
about all the changes that occurred on
the Sapphire Preferred, watch the other
video that I did on that for a deeper
dive going over Chase's press release.
But for the purpose of this video, to
mention a few things that I really like
about it and what makes it so strong as
my number one pick is the revamped
rewards structure. It was already good,
now just even better with the addition
of two more categories, namely triple
points on gas and EV charging, and
triple on vacation homes at top brands
like Airbnb, Vrbo, and a few others. All
the other legacy multipliers still
remain intact. And helping you earn back
the cost of the annual fee is now a $100
hotel credit that you can use every
single card anniversary. Coupling that
with over 200 bucks of additional value,
and you have a very strong proposition
here. The additional partner benefits
include DashPass from DoorDash. That is
the membership itself being credited to
you, plus some additional credits and
some additional multipliers. That is
five points per dollar with Lyft and
Peloton through September and December,
respectively. You can also transfer your
Chase points out to other airline and
hotel programs for additional
flexibility in building your
itineraries, all while getting some very
strong travel and purchase coverages
here. Moreover, the card now features a
$120 credit to be used toward Global
Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS, and a
complimentary Apple TV subscription for
a full year when you activate by
December 31st, 2026. I should also add
that this card has no foreign
transaction fees, which, being a Visa
credit card, pairs very nicely for great
acceptance globally and avoiding that
roughly 3% fee on your charges outside
of the US. Adding up all these benefits,
plus the reward multipliers at a low
annual fee, and you've got one very
strong card earning my number one pick.
Up next, we have American Express.
They're running a variable offer here,
up to 100,000 points after meeting the
spend requirements. So, you have to go
through the application process to see
what your offer is, and they'll let you
know before you go all the way through
and before any hard hit to your uh
score, too, which is great. It's kind of
like another pre-approval type of
experience. The annual fee is a lot
higher than the Sapphire Preferred,
though, at 325 bucks per year, but they
do add more benefits to help you make
sense of that. And the first part of
this is a strong reward structure. Four
points per dollar at restaurants
worldwide on up to a 50K cap, four
points per dollar on groceries at US
supermarkets subject to a 25K cap, a
newer five point per dollar category on
prepaid hotels through the Amex travel
portal, then triple on flights through
the portal, the app, or directly with
the airlines themselves, and double on
prepaid car rentals, plus cruises, also
through Amex. Beyond these categories,
it's one point per dollar for your other
purchases. I like seeing when cards
debut reward structures that are useful
at home and while you travel. So, that
way while you're not traveling, you can
still earn great points for your future
trips at home. Hence, dining at
restaurants around you and on your
grocery bill. Now, helping you earn back
that cost of the annual fee that you
paid up front is a 120 dining credit.
That's up to 10 bucks a month in
statement credits for the partners
listed there on the screen. You'll also
be given up to $120 in Uber cash per
year in $10 per month increments, a $100
Resy credit. That's $50 twice per year
for Resy restaurants, and an $84 Duncan
credit. That's $7 per month. Yes, it's a
lot of small things here and there
throughout the course of a 12-month
period, but hey, Amex's goal is to have
you use the card on a regular basis, not
cash out on everything in 1 month and
then never use it again. They've also
earned a Hertz five-star status, giving
you things like complimentary upgrades,
skipping the counter, and more elite
benefits. And the hotel collection is
nice, giving you some additional
benefits at upscale properties when you
book through that special portal. The
card also gives you some travel
protections, and at the bottom you also
see no foreign transaction fees, which
is always nice. Plus, purchase
protection and extended warranty on the
retail side. On to my third top pick
here with Capital One. Drum roll,
please. My choice this time around is
the Venture X, which probably is not too
big of a surprise because despite some
small devaluations that we've seen
consistently over time since it
originally launched, it is still the
most affordable value-packed premium
travel card that you can get. You can
get off to a great start with 75,000
miles as a bonus after meeting the spend
requirement. That's kind of been the
default for a while now. It could go
higher during promo times. Every year
that you keep the card and pay your
annual fee, it gives you a bonus 10,000
miles, kind of like a built-in retention
offer. A $300 annual travel credit that
you can use to help offset your fee each
year and that's valid through the
Capital One travel portal. And once
every four to five years or so, when you
renew in Global Entry or TSA PreCheck,
it will reimburse you up to 120 bucks
for that application fee, too. In fact,
just that $300 credit plus the 10K mile
bonus together is about a $400 value and
that fully wipes out the $395 annual
fee. Pretty sweet how you can cover that
with just using two benefits and nothing
else. You can also earn Capital One
miles very quickly long-term in a very
simple way. 10 miles per dollar on
hotels and rental cars booked through
Capital One, five miles per dollar on
flights and vacation rentals booked
through Capital One, and then for all of
your other regular purchases, you're
getting a base rate of two miles per
dollar, making this not just a great
travel card, but also a great catch-all
card, too, regardless of the categories
in which you're spending. The card will
also provide you access to a growing
network of Capital One lounges plus
Priority Pass lounges. There are also a
couple of hotel portals, namely the
Premier Collection and the Lifestyle
Collection, both giving you kind of VIP
elite light benefits when you book the
properties that are within these
portfolios. That could be things like an
additional credit to use for food and
beverage, for instance, early check-in,
late checkout, maybe room upgrades, and
the like. The top-tier elite status with
Hertz, their President's Circle, is also
available with this card at no
additional charge when you simply enroll
and activate this benefit. And there's
also auto rental collision coverage,
too, which is primary, by the way, not
something you see all the time. And
while not fully unique to just this
card, at least it does give you access
to the Capital One travel portal, which
itself has some really class-leading
benefits. One of which is to book
confidently with free price drop
protection. Then, if you find a better
price, they'll match it. You can also
add an option to cancel your flight up
to just 3 hours before your scheduled
departure and get most of your booking
cost refunded. And even set a price
alert for them to watch your flight for
you and notify you when a price drop
occurs. Very nice consumer-friendly
features. There's also the Capital One
dining program giving you access to
special dining and culinary experiences
and the Capital One entertainment
portal, too. Again, with more exclusive
access, pre-sales tickets, and more with
another five X mile multiplier on your
purchase. And like any good travel card,
yes, this one also has no foreign
transaction fees. Another kind of unique
feature that's not too widespread across
the industry is cell phone protection,
which is great. And on the miles
redemption side, there are also a bunch
of transfer partners, too, like we've
seen with Chase and Amex previously.
Again, the crossover is not perfect
here. They have some of their own unique
partners, but there's a nice list to
choose from. After seeing so many of the
top-tier premium cards between five and
$900 a year for their fees now, seeing
$395, at least until they raise it, is
still super refreshing while it lasts.
Now, as you look to build out your own
travel card setup, you're inevitably
going to run into a classic problem.
Managing different cards from different
banks and incorporating them all into
your broader financial picture. That's
where today's sponsor, Monarch, can make
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using my link on the screen or by
signing up with the code Reese50. Now,
let's get back to the best credit cards
from the major banks. Now, let's take a
look to see what City has to offer. At
least for now, the choice here was very
obvious to me. The City Strata Premier
card. Now, there are some rumors that
City may be changing this card somewhat
in the near future, but nothing's been
solidified yet. So, as the card stands
right now in Q2 of 2026, this one is
actually pretty darn phenomenal. The
standard offer that we've seen for a
while now of 60,000 points is still
quite strong, and you can get that after
meeting the spend requirement. That's an
easy $600 travel value right there, or
maybe more with transfer partners if you
can do that. But, the annual fee at 95
bucks, like that Sapphire Preferred, is
on the low side here, allowing you to
have a lot of profit from your rewards
and that bonus. Again, I love seeing
cards that give you a huge step forward
in your first year. And this card's
reward structure really sets it apart
here because it covers so much on the
road and at home. At the very top high
end here, you get 10 points per dollar
on hotels, car rentals, and attractions
when you book them through
citytravel.com. Talk about earning
points very quickly. Then below that we
have a three-point per dollar category
that covers a whole bunch, air travel
and other hotel purchases, restaurants,
supermarkets, gas and EV charging
stations, and then one point per dollar
on your other purchases. It amazes me
how many travel cards do not include a
gas category on them. I get it, kind of,
but when you think about a road trip, to
me that's just another form of travel.
And even if you classify it as transit
or commuting, that's still a cousin of
travel anyway. That $95 annual fee that
we just talked about is really easy to
recoup as well because it has a $100
annual hotel benefit with a couple
restrictions that are not super
consumer-friendly, but hey, you got a
whole year to use it. It'll give you a
hundred bucks off a single hotel stay
when that entire stay is $500 or more
before fees and taxes, and you book that
through the city travel portal. At least
they do make it highly convenient to use
though. It's automatically applied when
you check out through the booking
process. The card also gives you access
to the Reserve by City Travel, which is
their hotel collection of upscale
properties giving you VIP benefits like
complimentary breakfast for two, free
Wi-Fi, and more. You can also transfer
your points out to a bunch of other
transfer partners. Here's a screenshot
listing them right here for the hotels
and the airlines. And then lastly here
we've got travel protections too,
several which are mentioned right there
on the screen. In short, it's one of
those cards that's very simple to use.
You don't have to track a million
different benefits. You don't have to
enroll in certain reward categories that
change over time. It just covers a lot
in a very straightforward manner without
charging you a crazy annual fee. Let's
move on now to Bank of America. Out of
all their cards, I chose their Premium
Rewards credit card. To get you started,
it's offering 60,000 bonus points after
meeting the spend requirement. That's a
solid $600 of value toward travel right
there, and up to $200 in travel
statement credits. That's broken down
into two separate parts. One is up to
100 bucks in airline incidental
statement credits for airline bag fees,
in-flight services, and more. And also
up to another 100 bucks for TSA PreCheck
or Global Entry. Since you renew those
trusted traveler programs only once
every four to five years, we can't count
them annually to cover your annual fee.
But fortunately, the first part of up to
100 bucks in airline incidental credits,
that one does cover the fee, which is
only $95 a year. Meaning nothing to cut
into the rewards that you earn on top of
that. Which I've got to say is not a
very compelling reward structure. But
hey, it's still the best that Bank of
America offers with a little caveat that
can supercharge these that you'll see in
just a moment. The base earning rates
are just double points on travel
purchases, double points on dining
purchases, and then the true base on all
of your other purchases will be 1.5
points per dollar. What can help you
though is their Bank of America Rewards
program, which is separate from their
credit card. This is a standalone
program where if you have a certain
amount of deposits or assets with Bank
of America, they give you additional
perks with credit cards and more, too.
Just on the credit front though, based
on the requirements that you're able to
qualify for, you could have your
standard two points per dollar get a
10%, 25%, 50%, or 75% boost. Meaning you
could have this card giving you 3.5
points per dollar on travel and dining,
and two .6 two points per dollar on all
of your other purchases. The qualifying
criteria do get pretty high though. To
start here, feel free to pause this if
you want to look it over in more detail,
but the standard rate is, you know, no
minimum balance required. Then it does
get to the preferred plus at $30,000 of
total assets, preferred honors at
$100,000, and premier at $1 million.
That's the relationship banking model at
full display for you all. The more you
do with a certain bank with multiple
accounts, the more they tend to reward
you. And Bank of America is known to do
that. The card will also give you some
automotive protections here like with
roadside dispatch and also the Visa
Signature Luxury Hotel Collection,
another one of those portals giving you
some VIP perks when you book through it.
And we can't forget the Visa concierge
service, too, if you ever want help with
travel planning, restaurant
recommendations, or other event
reservations. Our next bank here doesn't
have very many travel focused cards
anymore, but the one that they do have
listed is actually quite compelling
after it's refreshed not too long ago.
The bank I'm referring to here is US
Bank and the card, their Altitude
Connect Visa Signature. The welcome
offer, as you'll see, is pretty low,
20,000 bonus points, but the spend
requirement's also pretty low, too,
$1,000 in your first 90 days, but you
also can't expect too high of a bonus on
this card because there's no annual fee,
either. But, it gives you some pretty
strong rewards, five points per dollar
on prepaid hotel tells and car rentals
through the US Bank Travel Center, four
points per dollar on other travel, as
well as on gas stations and EV charging
stations on your first $1,000 each
quarter of the year, double points on
dining, streaming services, and grocery
stores, then one X on your other
eligible purchases. It also includes a
little bit of a surprise here, too.
Check this out, premium travel benefits.
Enjoy airport lounge access and TSA
precheck, plus have peace of mind with
travel protections. It's spanning on
those travel benefits a little bit
further here, the lounge access gives
you Priority Pass Select, specifically
four free visits to those lounges every
year. That could be all for you or you
and a combination of guests. The TSA
precheck and Global Entry credit is up
to $100 to help you cover the cost of
those programs. There's also Smart Delay
airport lounge access where when you
register your flight online, it'll give
you access to a day pass if your flight
is delayed. Furthermore, with their Bilt
Sky program here, they give you access
to global mobile data. That is a
complimentary 5 GB 15-day global mobile
data plan, and that's available through
November 30th, 2026. Beyond that, there
are also some coverages here like trip
cancellation and interruption insurance,
trip delay reimbursement, zero fraud
liability, and more. And believe it or
not, there are even some entertainment
benefits, too, like premier golf rewards
with Troon, So Far Sounds access for
exclusive tickets to discover new music
with pre-sales, Hollywood Studios
Hollywood offers, and Universal Orlando
Resort offers, too. And like every good
travel credit card, no foreign
transaction fees. While there may not
have been anything that totally wowed
you, when you actually step back and
think about all the stuff that we
covered for that US Bank card, and you
put a $0 annual fee price tag on it,
that's where it truly does surprise.
We've got one more issue or two go. And
they've got a card product that I've
liked for a number of years. The bank is
Wells Fargo, and my number one pick from
their lineup of cards is their Autograph
card. The welcome offer here is again on
the low side, but it's another one of
those $0 annual fee cards. So, decent
value, but nothing crazy. 20,000 points
after spending 1K in 3 months. That's a
solid 200 bucks with no fee reducing
that. And it's got a lot of amazing
reward categories. Take a look at all
these 3x multipliers. Triple on
restaurants, triple on travel, triple on
gas and transit, that category we don't
see often enough on a travel card,
triple on popular streaming services,
triple on phone plans, and then one
point per dollar on your other
purchases. If only it had grocery
stores, too. But hey, it's got a lot of
other good stuff, too. In fact, it's one
of the very few $0 annual fee cards that
actually gives you access to transfer
partners. Now, this program is very new
to Wells Fargo, so it's not super robust
or, you know, they're not dozens of
partnerships here, but it is a lot more
than just nothing at all. In fact, it's
actually been growing over the past
number of months with now 11 different
transfer partners. And hopefully they
keep investing into this program to
bring more partnerships on board as time
goes on. The card also gives you cell
phone protection as one of their
coverages, auto rental collision damage
waiver, and roadside dispatch. It's also
one of those cards giving you no foreign
transaction fees, too. Plus, Visa
concierge services and that Visa
Signature Luxury Hotel Portal, as well,
giving you some of those premium perks
at select properties when you use that
portal. And topping it all off here, a
kind of niche but pretty cool benefit,
too. It's called Autograph Card
Exclusives, which is a program that
gives you access to tickets for big-name
artists in smaller, more intimate
venues. So, how did I do? Do you agree
with my picks for the number one spots
for all these travel cards across all
these banks? Or do you have other
contenders that would be a better fit?
Let me know down below in those
comments. And with all that said, if you
want to get some additional value coming
your way, I've got some great links down
below, one of which is just some of the
best high-yield savings accounts out
there to where you're earning way more
interest than what the main banks
actually offer you. In fact, all the
options you see there should give you
better interest rates than you see with
Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, and
all the others. There's also another
link down there to Rakuten to reward you
even more when you do online shopping,
whether it's cash back or flipping your
settings over to Amex Membership Rewards
points, you can get those for travel,
too. Then, if you want me to keep you up
to date about great credit card offers
as they become available and before they
expire, I've got some free credit card
offer alerts that you can sign up for.
And of course, a phenomenal way to
manage your broader world of finances
with budgeting, tracking your progress
towards certain goals, and planning for
the future with Monarch. Thank you all
for joining me in today's video, and I
look forward to seeing you in the next.