Marcus Webb
The landscape of travel credit cards has undergone several significant changes in the last two years and thus much of the advice given in 2022 will not hold in 2026. With lower sign-up bonuses, higher annual fees, and reduced numbers of transfer partners, there are several less viable options among travel credit cards than in the past. With a two-person portfolio of four credit cards that we monitored in 2015, I explore what 2026 looks like for several of the options that were presented in 2022 and share some findings from running a portfolio of four credit cards between two people in 2025 and how we believe such a portfolio can be optimized in 2026.
The two cards that still anchor a portfolio
For spending that you pay off in full Chase Sapphire Preferred and Capital One Venture X are the best two cards to use, because of how you earn points and the large number of airline and hotel partners that you can transfer points to for Premium Travel Rewards. Because the Sapphire Preferred offers 3x on dining and online groceries, and 2x on travel the card covers a number of different spending categories, and the Venture X offers 2x on all purchases, covering the rest of your spending for 2x instead of 1x. These two cards cover all of your spending for high earning rates, and the largest number of airline and hotel partners with business class redemptions for Travel Rewards.
Sign-up bonuses worth chasing
Note the lower sign-up bonuses on travel credit cards in 2026. New sign-up bonuses for travel credit cards have significantly decreased from the 100,000 points and higher (especially 100,000 + 10,000 mile anniversary bonus for Venture X and for Amex PLAT) offers found in 2022 for many top travel rewards credit cards, dipping down to a range of 60,000 – 80,000 points for sign-up bonuses during regular promotion times with elevated bonus offers of up to 100,000 published on special occasions such as Black Friday/Cyber Monday and other major US holidays like Independence Day and Veterans Day. Regular offer terms for top travel credit cards can be found on DOCTandDont as well as Doctor of Credit pages detailing current elevated bonus promotions. Just because there is a regular public offer does not mean that is the very best sign-up bonus terms for you offered by a bank for a specific credit card– be smart. Spend required for sign-up bonus should align with your typical spending (not for purposes of manufactured spend or other ways to generate artificial spend). Annual interest rate for these type of credit cards (22%) easily erodes any value obtained by any reward when you have to incur interest to obtain such reward by way of carrying a balance on your credit account.
Transfer partners that still produce business class
There are several transfer partners for redemption of premium travel such as business and first class flights. For travel to and from Asia and Europe, there are few better options than to transfer points to Aeroplan (the miles and rewards program of Air Canada) for redemption on Air Canada and other Star Alliance airlines. Additionally, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club offers a good redemption price on ANA business class flights between North America and Asia. Avianca LifeMiles also offer a good price for redemptions on Star Alliance airlines. Note that for most of the major transfer partners (such as American Express Membership Rewards, SPG/Marriott, etc.) the transfer ratio to most airlines is 1:1. Some programs (Marriott HHonors for example) transfer at a 1:2 ratio, and for these programs it is generally not worth transferring for redemption of airline miles. For hotels, Chase Freedom, Ultimate Rewards transfer to several programs including Hyatt. Note that among the U.S. travel rewards programs, Hyatt is the best hotel transfer program for rewards redemptions. Also note that it is generally a good idea to confirm twice the transfer airline and transfer partner prior to starting the transfer process, since errors in the transfer process can result in significant loss of value.
I cross referenced this with my notes from 2024 and 2026 and they check out.
Cards I now skip
Don’t get sucked into a bunch of expensive airline-branded cards with annual fees of $200 or more. (Unless you actually fly that airline 4+ times per year—then maybe, just maybe). Don’t get sold on the Amex Gold Card if you don’t actually spend that much in dining and online groceries (then the $95 annual fee of the Chase Sapphire Preferred makes more sense to begin with). Don’t waste your time and money on ultra-premium business cards with silly calendar year credits (e.g. “$300 airline credit per year” that runs from 1/1-12/31 but then you’re stuck trying to get the credit at all). Premium cards cost a lot of money. And the more you spend, the more time and energy you’ll waste actually trying to break even with the annual fee by tracking every last credit here and there. (A nice lounge and decent airline credits can be nice for a select few, but I know I’d personally never bother. Amex Platinum is worth it for some people I suppose, but for most of us it’s not).
Strategy for someone starting fresh
Open the Chase Sapphire Preferred and spend the required to receive the sign-up bonus on the types of purchases that you normally make. Use the points you receive for a big redemption to get a feel for how the transfer system works. Open the Capital One Venture X 12 months later with an elevated offer if available. Open a 3rd card in 24 months or so, based on your typical spending patterns. The worst thing to do with travel credit cards is to sign up for 4 cards in the first year. Not only can the effect on your credit score be real, but you’ll likely find that the next round of sign-up offers are not available on very few new accounts.
