As an avid world traveler people are always asking me for travel budgeting tips. My #1 tip that I always recommend is utilizing travel credit cards. Now when I suggest this I ONLY suggest you get one to build up travel points that can be redeemed for hotels, flights, car rentals, and other travel related items. Travel credit cards can be your BFF and here’s how: 

Tips for Using a Travel Credit Card

💸Only use travel credit card if you have the funds to pay it off right away. That way you won’t accumulate any debt but can reap the benefits for travel by racking up those points. 

✈️Take advantage of sign up bonus points. Many travel credit cards will offer bonus points when you first sign up. For example my Chase Sapphire preferred gave me 80,000 points once I spent $4K in my first 3 months. That’s easy if you use the card for all of your everyday purchases i.e things you’re already going to be buying. To give perspective I used 60,000 of those points to cover a 3 day stay at an all inclusive resort in Cancun! ⁣Different cards have varying qualifications for the bonus points, just depends (see the ones I recommend below).

👯‍♀️See if any of your friends have one of the cards and get a referral. You will both get bonus points! (𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 both 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘹 𝘋𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘢 𝘚𝘬𝘺 𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘴 & 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘚𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘥).

Recommended Cards:

Here is a table of different cards that I think you should consider looking into. This table will show the top travel perks, bonus points and referral links per card. Note that every card has more than just travel perks!

*Please note referral offer changes and may be different from the exact points listed below. Click referral link to see exact offer details.

Which Travel Credit Card Should You Choose? 

Go with the Chase Sapphire Preferred if:  

• It is your first travel credit card
• You will be traveling often and book with various hotels 
• Will use it in your daily purchases 

Go with the Amex SkyMiles Gold if:

• This is a supplemental travel credit card
• You travel with Delta when flying
• You travel often, but not often enough to go with the Platinum card

Go with the Amex SkyMiles Platinum if:

• This is a supplemental travel credit card
• You travel very often with Delta when flying
• You travel very often and want the extra perks of companion pass, lounge access and TSA Pre-Check or CLEAR membership

Go with Amex Platinum if: 

• It is a supplemental travel credit card
• You are an AVID traveler (i.e 6-12 trips yearly)
• You’re going to make use of the perks to offset the annual card fee

How My Travel Cards have Benefited Me

To give you some perspective on how great these travel cards are, here are some things I’ve been able to accomplish with them.

Chase Sapphire Preferred

I mainly use this card for hotel and overall trip perks so generally it is my go to credit card for daily purchases. 

• Used 60K points to cover my 3 day trip to Hyatt Ziva Cancun All-Inclusive resort. 
• Used 10K points to cover a 2 day stay in Phoenix, AZ. 
• Use this card when booking anything travel related (minus flights) to take advantage of trip protection and insurance. 
• Enrolled in Lyft to get 15% back on all Lyft purchases. 

⁣

American Express SkyMiles Gold / Platinum

I mainly use my Amex SkyMiles cards for flight perks. I started off with Amex SkyMiles platinum, but during the pandemic I downgraded to gold since travel was halted. (note: I still use the Gold card now and haven’t upgraded back to Amex SkyMiles platinum because I get a lot of the same perks as an added member to my mom’s regular Amex Platinum card.) Here are some things I’ve done:

• Used my companion pass for my friends to join me on trips every year. 
• Got access to Delta sky club whenever I traveled – there’s unlimited food & drinks, places to shower or rest, wifi, and a business center. Most popular airports have Delta SkyMiles Lounges.
• Earned $100 Delta flight credit from spending $10,000 in one year. 
• I always use this card when traveling internationally to avoid any foreign transaction fees (where Amex’s are used). 
• Upgraded to Comfort+ using SkyMiles on 3 flights. 
• Purchases flights using points to Jamaica, Los Angeles, and Cancun, 
• Using my cards have helped me reach gold & platinum medallion status which has given me: unlimited FREE upgrades to comfort+ and first class, sky priority status, 2 free check bags on all flights and more. Learn about Delta’s Medallion Loyalty Program here. 

Travel credit cards can be your BFF and the time to sign up is now. I hope this post helped you learn more about travel credit cards and helped you decide which to go for. If you have any questions about them I’m happy to answer!