Travel Credit Cards

Most travel-card rankings sort by welcome offer. We sort by whether the card actually lowers what you spend on travel in a normal year.

Cheap flights are usually bought with cash, not points. The right card is the one that lowers the total cost of a cheap ticket — bags, seats, insurance — and banks flexible points for the expensive trips.

Abroad, three things decide whether a card is good: no foreign transaction fee, acceptance where you are going, and what happens when something goes wrong.

Business class in cash is rarely worth it. Business class on transferred points frequently is — which makes the transfer partner list, not the perks list, the thing to compare.

Lounge access is the most oversold card benefit in the market. Here is how to work out whether it is worth a premium fee at the airports you actually use.

Transferable points are the only rewards currency that lets you shop award prices across airlines. This is a comparison of the four ecosystems, not a list of perks.

SkyMiles have no fixed value and no transfer partners, so a Delta card has to earn its fee on mechanical benefits: bags, boarding, the companion certificate and lounge access.

Two premium cards with high fees and very different personalities: one is an airport-experience card, the other is a travel-protection card. Most people should hold neither, and almost nobody should hold both.