Are travel cards worth the fee?
47% Your Mileage May Vary
24% One Mile at a Time
15% FrequentMiler
14% Other
Travel rewards cards can be worth their annual fees if you use them strategically, but it depends on your spending habits and travel style. One Mile at a Time +5
Premium Cards: High Fees, High Perks
- The American Express Platinum Card® offers extensive benefits like lounge access, travel credits, and elite status, but its $895 fee is only justified if you use the credits and perks regularly.
- The Chase Sapphire Reserve® earns 4x points on direct hotel bookings and offers valuable travel and dining credits, making it worthwhile for frequent travelers who maximize these benefits.🔗
Mid-Tier Cards: Better for Everyday Spending
- Cards like the United Quest Card ($350 fee) offer a $200 annual travel credit that effectively reduces the cost to $150 if you book United flights.
- The Capital One Venture X ($395 fee) provides a $300 annual travel credit through Capital One Travel, which can make the card “free after rebate” if used consistently.🔗
Key Factors to Justify the Cost
- Travel credits are critical—many cards offer $200–$300 in annual credits that offset fees.
- Statement credits must be used on eligible purchases; if you don’t book through the right portals, the benefit is wasted. 🔗
- Lounge access and travel insurance add value, but only if you actually use them.🔗
Ultimately, the best card is one where the total value of benefits exceeds the fee—especially when credits and rewards are used effectively. Your Mileage May Vary +5
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Is Airport Lounge Access Worth It? The Reality vs. the Hype
For travelers just starting to explore the world of credit card perks, the allure of luxury travel can be irresistible. I remember reading about lie-flat business class seats and stays at five-star hotels before experiencing our first trip in business class. The promise of a premium experience is undeniably enticing. Yet among these perks, airport lounge access often stands out as the most overhyped. Having access to an airport lounge is undoubtedly a nice benefit. Escaping the crowded gate area and securing a comfortable seat with a working power port can significantly improve your airport experience. However, is it
Your Mileage May Vary 2%
Why Mid-Tier Travel Cards Beat Premium Cards for Everyday Travel
The cards with the biggest annual fees aren’t always the ones that reward the way we actually travel. While booking train tickets for a trip, I had an ah-ha moment—not about schedules or seat assignments, but about which credit card to use. Normally, that’s an easy decision. But this time I paused. Not because I didn’t have a good option, but because I didn’t want to bring another card just for this purchase. That got me looking at the cards we had already used for other parts of the trip. There was a card I used to pay
Boarding Area 7%
Your End-of-Summer 2025 Refresher: Amex Airline-Fee Credits That Still Work
As summer 2025 draws to a close, I’ve been reflecting on how these months are the ideal time to revisit a crucial travel perk: American Express‘s annual airline-fee credit. Over the years, I’ve seen how premium Amex cards—like The Platinum Card and the Hilton Aspire—can provide up to $200–$250 in reimbursements for incidental airline charges. Yet, many cardholders struggle to make the most of this benefit. From my perspective, cracking the code on these credits is one of the fastest ways to justify high annual fees and maximize your travel budget. I’ve observed that the key to unlocking Amex’s
FrequentMiler 15%
Amex Platinum: The card most frequent flyers should have, but rarely use
Despite the eye-watering $895 annual fee, the American Express Platinum Card® is a great choice for most frequent flyers. Get the card for its welcome bonus, keep the card for its perks, and justify the cost with its many valuable credits. The card won’t be a fit for everyone, but I think that many will find that it deserves a spot in their travel wallet. The Platinum card offers valuable perks for frequent flyers, including lounge access, emergency medical transportation assistance, hotel and car-rental elite status, cruise benefits, and more. The card also comes loaded with valuable credits.
One Mile at a Time 24%
Best Credit Cards: 6 Cards I Actually Spend On Right Now
In the interest of full disclosure, OMAAT may receive compensation when anyone clicks a link, has an application approved, or opens an account through this site. Bilt Points and Bilt Cash can be earned as a Bilt Cardholder. These are the best publicly available offers (terms apply) that we have found for each product or service. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of the bank, credit card issuer, airline, hotel chain, or product manufacturer/service provider, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Please check out our advertiser policy for further
Your Mileage May Vary 25%
United Quest Card Review: Is It Worth the $350 Annual Fee?
The United Quest Card sits between the United Explorer Card and the premium United Club Card. Its $350 annual fee is substantial, but the card includes benefits that can make it surprisingly easy for regular United flyers to justify keeping. United and Chase offer several personal MileagePlus credit cards. The no-annual-fee United Gateway Card sits at the bottom of the lineup, followed by the United Explorer Card, the United Quest Card and the United Club Card. The Quest Card doesn’t include a United Club membership, so it isn’t aimed at someone looking for a premium airport experience. Instead,
Eye of the Flyer 7%
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card — The Early Spend Bonus, and Whether $395 Nets Out
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card‘s lucrative 100,000 bonus points early spend bonus (which can ultimately make you 120,000 points richer) expires in just a few days: Monday, January 5. The card’s launch promotion ends on March 14. So, if you’ve thought about applying for Venture X, now’s the time to make your decision. The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card early spend bonus promotion awards new cardholders the opportunity to earn 100,000 bonus points spending $10,000 on purchases within six (6) months of being approved for card membership. Each purchase earns a base
Your Mileage May Vary 12%
Why Breaking Even Is No Longer Enough for a Travel Rewards Card
There was a time, not too long ago, when breaking even with a travel rewards card felt like a win. Back then, the ability to earn points on your purchases was often enough to justify paying an annual fee. For years, that alone was the basic pitch behind many rewards cards. If the points were valuable enough and you used the card often enough, the math could work in your favor. Things began to change when card issuers realized that earning points wasn’t always enough to stand out. In the early days of the points-and-miles boom, banks and
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One Reason I’m Still Keeping The Capital One Venture X
I’ve reached the point where merely breaking even on a credit card is no longer enough. If I have to pay a $395 annual fee and then carefully use several benefits to recover roughly the same amount, I need the card to offer something beyond a collection of prepaid coupons. That’s why I’ve been taking another look at the Capital One Venture X. On paper, the card remains relatively easy to justify. It comes with a $300 annual credit for bookings through Capital One Travel and 10,000 anniversary miles. Assuming I use both, those benefits can offset most