As with any major financial decision, choosing the right travel credit card can seem like an exhausting process. However, with just a bit of careful research and planning, finding the travel credit card best suited for the specific wants and needs of you and your team is actually less difficult than you might think.

Once you find the right travel credit card, you’ll be able to begin taking advantage of the many exclusive benefits that these kinds of credit cards offer to cardholders. So, if you think a travel credit card would be beneficial investment and you’ve been considering signing up for one for a while now, don’t put it off any longer; the sooner you sign up and start enjoying the perks of being a travel credit cardholder, the better.

There are many travel credit cards to choose from. This can make it feel like you’re trying to find a needle in a haystack when you’re considering your options. Knowing about the three types of travel credit cards can help make the decision-making process easier by shrinking this giant haystack into three smaller ones.

The three types of travel credit cards include co-branded hotel and airline cards, and general travel cards. Co-branded cards are great for those who frequently book room nights or flights with one particular hotel brand or airline, while general travel cards are better for those who prefer flexibility.

 

Types of Travel Credit Cards

Hotel and Airline Cards

If you and your team often stay at one particular hotel chain, such as Hyatt or Marriott, you might want to consider signing up for their travel credit card. Using a card that’s tied to a specific chain to book accommodations at one of their hotels will earn you the most points. In many cases, cardholders with a hotel card will earn five points per dollar spent with that brand. This makes hotel cards especially lucrative if you and your team travel regularly and stay overnight when you do.

In addition to earning points towards future purchases with a hotel chain or their affiliates, hotel cards provide cardholders with an expedited path to elite status. Generally speaking, those with elite status enjoy exclusive perks such as guaranteed room availability, priority check-in, complimentary upgrades, and membership discounts.

Much like hotel cards, co-branded airline cards are typically used to earn miles that can be redeemed for free flights. By using the card to book a flight with a particular airline or its affiliates, cardholders usually earn two to three times the miles. Day-to-day purchases earn miles as well, albeit at a lower rate.

As an airline cardholder, you’ll also be treated to a cheaper and more comfortable flying experience. Just imagine how much less stressful it’d be to fly with benefits like free or reduced baggage fees, priority boarding, discounts on in-flight purchases, and access to the airport lounge.

All of these perks definitely make hotel and airline cards an alluring option. As tempting as this may all sound however, there are some significant downsides to both kinds of co-branded travel credit cards that you should also consider before making a decision.

While hotel and airline cards are a great travel credit card option for those loyal to one or two brands in particular, they are also somewhat restrictive. For instance, cardholders with either a hotel or airline card earn the most points when they use the card to book hotel rooms or flights with only one specific brand. Also, once the cardholder has accumulated a significant amount of points on their card, they can only be redeemed with that brand or its partners.

This means that those who don’t book hotel rooms or flights often won’t find owning a co-branded card to be as advantageous as cardholders who do. If you and your team only travel once or twice a year, these kinds of travel credit cards probably aren’t the best option.

Another reason why co-branded cards are considered restrictive is because of their many complicated rules and, well, restrictions. This is especially true for airline cards in particular. Cardholders with an airline card may find it difficult to redeem their miles and could end up spending a significant amount of time planning or negotiating with the airline’s customer service department trying to do so. Factor in other annoyances like blackout dates, limited seat availability, confusing terms and conditions, and restrictions on earning miles, and you might find that you’re better off opting for a general travel card.

 

General Travel Cards

Unlike hotel and airline cards, general travel cards are not co-branded. Because of this, general travel cards offer cardholders the freedom to redeem the points they’ve earned in a variety of different ways. These kinds of cards reward all types of spending as well. So, if you’re a team travel coordinator whose team travels only a couple times a year and when you do, typically don’t book with the same hotel brand or airline, a general travel card is likely a better option than its co-branded counterparts.

Additional advantages to general travel cards include no blackout dates or travel restrictions, since these cards are not associated with a single provider, as well as the ability to transfer your points to other loyalty programs. This means that even though you don’t use a travel card that’s co-branded with Hilton, United Airlines, and so on, you can still use your points to book a room or flight with them. The ability to also redeem points for statement credits or cash back makes this type of card particularly attractive to users who prioritize flexibility.

General travel cards are not exempt from downsides of their own however. Because these cards are not co-branded, points transferred to another brand’s loyalty program are often subject to an exchange rate. Depending on this exchange rate, you could end up getting a little or a lot for your points; it varies from brand to brand.

All purchases made with general travel cards are also subject to a flat reward rate in most cases. This means that, unlike hotel and airline cards, there is not one kind of purchase in particular that will earn you multiple points per dollar spent. Simply put, while general travel cards offer greater flexibility, they don’t allow cardholders to accrue points as quickly as they would if they made frequent purchases with a hotel or airline using the corresponding co-branded card.

 

Choosing the Right Travel Credit Card

When it comes time to choose the travel credit card that’s the best fit for the wants and needs of you and your team, there are a variety of things you should consider. First off, you should thoroughly assess relevant factors such as travel preferences and spending habits. Both play an important role in determining which travel credit card will benefit you the most in the long run.

Teams that don’t travel frequently won’t get much use out of a hotel or airline card. Travel credit cards generally charge a hefty annual fee as well, so choosing the card that you’ll get the most use out of is a must. That being said, it’s not unheard of to call credit card companies to negotiate having these annual fees reduced or even in some cases, waived entirely.

If this will be your first time signing up for a travel credit card or your team travels only a couple times a year, opt for a general travel card. Their flexibility makes them a fantastic way to learn firsthand the many ins and outs of travel credit cards as you accumulate points that you can use towards a variety of rewards. You can always sign up for a co-branded card later on anyway if need be.

With so many different general travel cards to choose from, the decision-making process can feel overwhelming. The process becomes far simpler if you have a grasp of what makes each card unique. This will help make it easier to decide by narrowing down your options. As you conduct your research, be sure to keep factors like sign-up bonuses and annual fees in mind. They can be a big help in determining which card is the right one for you.

Sign-up bonuses are lucrative deals that entice prospective cardholders by promising to award a large amount of points to cardholders who spend a certain amount by a specified date, usually within three to six months. These bonuses can be worth hundreds of dollars, so be sure to take them into consideration when comparing cards.

For example, cardholders with a Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Card can earn 40,000 points if they spend $1,000 in the first three months of opening an account. In comparison, the Bank of America Travel Rewards Credit Card awards cardholders with 20,000 points if $1,000 is spent in a month’s time.

While these bonuses can be tempting, don’t sign up for a card that encourages you to spend more money than you usually do. Spending more money than you should just to reach a certain threshold is counterintuitive and negates the point of a sign-up bonus.

Like sign-up bonuses, annual fees can vary significantly from card to card. Some cards have a low annual fee, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. The annual fee for this card is only $95 and it’s even waived for the first year.

Don’t let a high annual fee deter you from considering a card though. In many cases, the perks offered by a card actually outweigh the cost of the annual fee. Take the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card, for instance. This card has a hefty annual fee of $450. Although this sound like a steep price to pay each year for a general travel card, once you take into consideration perks like a $300 credit towards any travel-related expense and a sign-up bonus of 50,000 points, the annual fee actually begins to seem much more reasonable.

With so many general travel cards to choose from, it can certainly be difficult trying to keep track of them all. For your convenience, here’s a chart that compares five of the most popular general travel cards on the market.

Card	Annual Fee	APR	Sign-Up Bonus
Chase Sapphire Preferred	$0 first year, then $95	17.24% – 24.24% Variable	50,000 points if $4,000 spent in first 3 months ($625 value)
Capital One Venture Rewards	$0 first year, then $95	14.24% – 24.24% Variable	50,000 miles if $3,000 spent in first 3 months ($500 value)
Bank of America Travel Rewards	$0	16.24% – 24.24% Variable	20,000 points if $1,000 spent in first 90 days ($200 value)
Barclaycard Arrival Plus	$0 first year, then $89	17.24%, 21.24%, or 24.24% Variable	40,000 miles if $3,000 spent in first 90 days ($400 value)
Chase Sapphire Reserve	$450	17.24% – 24.24% Variable	50,000 points if $4,000 spent in first 3 months ($750 value)