Speaking of the Best Luxury Credit Cards, anyone that travels often knows that having a premium credit card can make a huge difference in your travel experience. These cards often include things like lounge access, rental car status, fee reimbursements, and more — all of which can save headaches, and generally give you a more relaxed experience at the airport.
Best Luxury Credit Cards
American Express, Chase, and Citi all offer their own premium credit cards that offer various benefits like lounge access, elevated points earning, and other various benefits. These benefits aren’t specific to 1 airline in most cases, so travelers that frequently travel on award tickets or switch airlines frequently will get the most use from the perks of these credit cards.
The Platinum Card from American Express
The Amex Platinum card is one of the most well-known travel cards on the market. It’s long been seen as a staple of luxury in the travel space due to its huge list of benefits.
This card grants you access to an airport lounge at just about any airport in the world. While its U.S. offerings are slim, lounge access in Asia, Europe, and South America are second-to-none with this card. Furthermore, the card has a $200 airline incidental fee credit that can be used to cover incidental fees — think baggage fees, priority boarding, and seat selection — incurred from 1 airline of your choice.
The card falls short when it comes to points earning, though. It offers 5 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on airfare booked through Amex Travel or directly through the airline but offers a mere 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases. These points can be used for tons of high-end redemptions like first and business-class travel.
Benefits
- Earn 60,000 to 75,000 Membership Rewards points after you use your new Card to make $5,000 in purchases in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
- Earn 10X points on eligible purchases, in your first 6 months of Card Membership, on your new Card at U.S. Gas Stations and U.S. Supermarkets (on up to $15,000 in combined purchases).
- Earn 5X Membership Rewards points on flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel (up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year) plus earn 5X Membership Rewards points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel.
Chase Sapphire Reserve Card
The Chase Sapphire Reserve is Chase’s answer to the Amex Platinum. However, this card replaces flashy benefits with elevated points earning, making it better for customers that need a card that both offers some benefits and great points earning.
On the benefits side, some of the card’s most notable include Priority Pass lounge access, a $300 annual travel credit that can be applied to any travel purchase, a $60 DoorDash statement credit, primary rental car insurance, travel insurance, and a Global Entry fee reimbursement.
These benefits provide discounts for their respective service, with Lyft Pink offering 15% off Lyft rides. And both the GrubHub+/Seamless+ membership and DoorDash DashPass offer free delivery on orders of $12 or more. Plus, the card now earns 10 points per dollar on Lyft purchases. This means that you can earn some serious extra points on your rideshare rides. For example, a $75 Lyft ride to the airport would earn a whopping 750 Ultimate Rewards points!
Citi Prestige Card
The Citi Prestige card is Citi’s flagship Thank You Points credit card. Like the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, this card largely promotes points earning over flashy benefits. But it has a few interesting tricks up its sleeve.
Some of the card’s other benefits include a Priority Pass lounge membership, and a fourth night free at select hotels. A Global Entry fee reimbursement, and extensive cell phone insurance. Just maximizing the fourth-night free benefit and annual $250 travel credit can entirely offset the card’s hefty annual fee.
Their awesome bonus categories are mixed with a generous welcome bonus. What this means is that you can rack up Thank You Points relatively quickly. Then, you can transfer these points to 1 of Citi’s numerous transfer partners to redeem high-end tickets. Like Singapore Suites first-class, ANA first class, and more.
- Earn 50,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 within 3 months of account opening. Redeemable for $500 in Airfare at ThankYou.com
- 5 Thank You Points per $1 spent on Airfare and Restaurants
- 3 points per $1 spent on Hotels and Cruise Lines
- Annual Fee: $495
Finally, Picking a card depends on what you value the most in your travel experience — but as we discussed earlier. We think that a general premium travel credit card is best for most travelers. These cards provide the widest range of benefits and will reward you for spending in certain categories. More research can be done on Google. That is it for this article Best Luxury Credit Cards.
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