How to Tell If a Premium Travel Card Is Worth the Fee

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Speaker 2 Megan, how much do you you spend on credit card annual fees?

Speaker 5 Oh man, Tess, I think it's like over $1,000, but I get way more back in award travel and saving credits, so that's how I justify it.

Speaker 2 All right, but the math on that is a little complicated, isn't it?

Speaker 5 That's why Sally and I will be talking a little bit later about how we actually get value from these more expensive premium travel cards and how to decide which one and how many are right for you.

Speaker 5 Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Megan Coyle.

Speaker 2 And I'm Tess Viglund. And for Sally French, who is everybody with me now?

Speaker 3 Traveling.

Speaker 5 Yep, we are the travel nerds, and we're ready to help you plan your next big trip, which could be made possible by a premium travel credit card.

Speaker 5 At least if today's episode convinces you that it's worth having one in your wallet.

Speaker 2 You know, I just got my first premium card strictly on the recommendations of you and Sally. So thank you.

Speaker 3 Let's hope it works.

Speaker 2 But first, our disclaimer, today's episode does discuss some credit card companies that are nerd wallet partners in this episode, but that doesn't influence how we discuss them.

Speaker 2 The benefits, terms, and fees mentioned were accurate at the time of posting, but things can change. Some offers may have expired by the time you're listening.

Speaker 2 For the latest details, follow the links in the episode description.

Speaker 5 Tess, I just went to the lounge openings of two brand new lounges at the Salt Lake City International Airport.

Speaker 3 Have you followed through there before?

Speaker 2 Long time ago, yeah.

Speaker 5 Oh, you would not recognize it anymore. They've expanded this new Concourse B, and there's now a new Delta Sky Club and a new Amex Centurion lounge.

Speaker 2 Oh, you so fancy.

Speaker 3 How was it?

Speaker 5 It was really nice. I think flyers with access to these two lounges are really going to like them.
The first one I'll talk about is the new Delta Sky Club.

Speaker 5 So this is actually the second Delta Sky Club in Salt Lake City airport, and it is huge. It's actually the second largest Delta Sky Club in the entire network of those lounges.

Speaker 5 And they have one thing that I think everyone will really appreciate in 2025, which is these little private phone booths for work calls. And there's not just one, there's nine of them.

Speaker 5 So hopefully you won't have to wait long if you need to take a meeting there.

Speaker 2 I have two questions. One, are they soundproof? And two, if you're Superman, can you change your clothes?

Speaker 5 Well, I don't think the podcast recording soundproofing is that good, but I think for most people, it'll work great. Superman, get back to me on what you think.
Email us at travelinnerdwall.com.

Speaker 5 And heads up, no showers in this particular Delta Sky Club, which might be a deal breaker if you're connecting in Salt Lake City before or after a long flight or coming in from the slopes.

Speaker 5 But the other Delta Sky Club in the Salt Lake City airport does have a shower.

Speaker 2 Okay. And what about the new MX Centurion Lounge?

Speaker 5 That one also super nice. I think that lounge actually has all the amenities that travelers want.
It has a shower suite. It has a full coffee bar with a barista.

Speaker 5 There are two full service bars for alcoholic drinks and an outdoor terrace with these gorgeous mountain views.

Speaker 2 Can I move in?

Speaker 5 That's what I was thinking. I was like, I'm getting so much inspo from my living room.
Like, how can I make it cozy like this?

Speaker 3 Who's the designer?

Speaker 5 Yeah, exactly. This is the first Centurion lounge at Salt Lake City.
And I think it's just a culmination of all the best parts of the lounges that they've already built elsewhere.

Speaker 5 And one cool fact that the designers were really excited about is that this is the first Centurion lounge in the world with a fireplace. And there's two fireplaces.
So very cool.

Speaker 5 Actually, maybe I should say warm. It was very

Speaker 5 coozy. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Well, we will link to your review of both lounges in the episode description, as well as our articles on which credit cards can get you into both Delta Sky Clubs and Centurion lounges.

Speaker 5 Moving on to debit card news, which is something we don't cover all that often. Southwest just launched the Southwest Rapid Rewards debit card.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's a a debit card, not a credit card, issued by Sunrise Banks on the Visa Network, and it lets you earn rapid rewards points with everyday spending. Not a ton of points, though.

Speaker 2 It earns one point per dollar on eligible Southwest purchases, dining, subscriptions, and utilities. Also, one point per $2

Speaker 2 on other everyday purchases.

Speaker 5 It also has a welcome bonus.

Speaker 5 I was sort of surprised to see that because I don't think a ton of debit cards have those, but the welcome bonus is 2,500 rapid rewards points when you set up two recurring deposits and spend $100 in the first 90 days.

Speaker 2 And there is also a monthly fee of $6.99, which is waived if you keep at least a $2,500 average monthly balance in the linked checking account.

Speaker 5 Interesting. So it could be similar to a $0 annual fee credit card if you have a high enough monthly balance, but this card, unlike a credit card, does not require a credit check.

Speaker 5 So it's easier to get and won't affect your credit score.

Speaker 2 And Southwest doesn't currently have a $0 annual fee credit card.

Speaker 2 So this might be a viable alternative for people who want to earn rapid rewards points without paying an annual fee or who just prefer using debit.

Speaker 5 The earning rates are pretty modest though compared to typical travel credit cards.

Speaker 5 You can double the points you earn and get a much bigger signup bonus with one of the Southwest credit cards, which by the way, have increased signup offers right now.

Speaker 2 Plus purchases made on a debit card generally don't have the same protections as credit card purchases. So, fraud liability, chargeback rights.

Speaker 2 If you fly Southwest occasionally and you can meet the balance requirement and you don't want to open a Southwest credit card, though, this debit card option might seem like a good fit for you.

Speaker 5 Just make sure you're considering the opportunity cost of spending money on this debit card as opposed to a travel card or even a cashback card that possibly earns more points.

Speaker 5 I think the signup bonus on the Southwest debit card is just not enough to consider doing this.

Speaker 5 Like there are some bank bonuses that people people do move money and open new accounts for, but it's usually for at least $100, $150

Speaker 5 of a bonus. The bonus on this card is worth only $32 of Southwest Points.
So that's not a lot.

Speaker 2 No, that's not going to get you very far. We'll drop a link in the show notes to the story on this card.

Speaker 5 And another big update in the world of bank points, Wells Fargo Rewards Program just added JetBlue True Blue as a one-to-one transfer partner.

Speaker 5 Now, that means if you hold a wells fargo autograph or autograph journey card that earns wells fargo rewards you can now transfer points directly into your true blue account one wells fargo point becomes one jet blue point you might remember that last week we talked about how jet blue recently launched its blue sky partnership with united airlines so that means These Wells Fargo cardholders could possibly book flights on United by transferring their points to JetBlue now.

Speaker 2 Still a few caveats here. The number of transfer partners with Wells Fargo is still smaller compared to big issuers like Chase or Amex.

Speaker 2 And you'll want to check award availability before transferring because once you transfer points to TrueBlue, you cannot reverse it.

Speaker 5 Bottom line, if you are already earning Wells Fargo rewards points and you fly JetBlue or its partner airlines, this is another option.

Speaker 2 More redemption options is always better for travelers. Speaking of, the opposite is happening for Wyndham Rewards members.

Speaker 2 The vacation rental platform Vaycasa is ending its partnership with Wyndham Rewards.

Speaker 5 Travelers still have some time though. New reservations can be made through November 30th, 2025 for travel through January 2026.

Speaker 5 Those new reservations must have a checkout date of January 31st, 2026 or earlier.

Speaker 2 And existing reservations will be honored, but again, modifications have to be made by November 30th, 2025.

Speaker 5 This is a real bummer because this used to be a sweet spot with Wyndham Rewards.

Speaker 5 So the way it worked was participating Vicasa home rentals only cost 15,000 or 30,000 Wyndham rewards points per bedroom per night, if that makes sense.

Speaker 5 And it was all based on like the cost of the room as well. So if the one bedroom was $250 or less, then that redemption would require only 15,000 points per bedroom.
So 15,000 points.

Speaker 5 But if the average cost was more than 250, but less than 500, then the redemption required 30,000 points per bedroom per night.

Speaker 5 So all of this made it pretty easy to get more than 1.5 cents per point on these bookings, which is decent.

Speaker 2 And Wyndham Rewards is a one-to-one transfer partner of Capital One and City. So this was a way that people who earn either of those types of points could redeem them for vacation rentals.

Speaker 2 It was really good for families.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I know a lot of people who did that. And lastly, I threw in some news related to Southeast Asia for you, Tess.

Speaker 3 Oh, Kap Kung Ka, Megan.

Speaker 2 Yes, I lived in Southeast Asia for three years, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, and I could have used this for trips home.

Speaker 2 United Airlines is back in Bangkok, BKK, for the first time in more than a decade. The airline launched its inaugural flight from Los Angeles, LAX, to Bangkok, BKK, near the end of October.

Speaker 5 This is a big move. United is going to be the only U.S.
airline to fly to Bangkok, and it's part of their ongoing strategy to add more Trans-Pacific routes.

Speaker 2 It's a long flight, too. I will tell you that this route actually has a stop in Hong Kong, which does give travelers a fun stopover option.

Speaker 2 Didn't some anyone, or maybe a hot bowl of congee with fried shallots and pork floss?

Speaker 5 Ugh, sign me up. You're making me hungry, Tess.

Speaker 2 I know, me too.

Speaker 5 This route is great news for points travelers as well.

Speaker 5 If you've got United Mileage Plus Miles or Chase Ultimate Rewards, which transfer to United, this new route opens up more award space to Southeast Asia.

Speaker 5 Or maybe you'll see this United flight as a redemption option with other Star Alliance partners like Air Canada.

Speaker 2 But of course, you'll have to decide, do you want to fly United to Southeast Asia or do you want to fly one of the Asia-based airlines that can also get you there?

Speaker 2 I will say I loved Cathay Pacific and ANA.

Speaker 5 Now who's fancy tests?

Speaker 5 And you do have to stop anyways.

Speaker 2 It's always good to have options. All right, that's it for the news.
Let's turn it over now to you and Sally and everything everyone ever wanted to know about premium travel credit cards.

Speaker 5 Okay, time to talk about whether or not our listeners should add a premium travel credit card to their wallet. wallet.

Speaker 3 I think this is the most anticipated episode of all time. So many people want to know, should I add on this credit card that has many hundreds of dollars of annual fees?

Speaker 3 And then some people already have one and they're like, should I add two? Should I add three? And I think we should be clear, we have many of these cards and we like these cards.

Speaker 5 So we're not necessarily normal either.

Speaker 3 We're not normal. That is correct.
We're not normal. Just end the podcast there.

Speaker 3 So let's start by kind of laying out how we think about travel credit cards, whether it is a no annual fee card or one of these premium cards that has these annual fees that are close to four figures.

Speaker 3 I group these cards into basically one of three buckets. Bucket number one, these are general cards that earn rewards that can be used to book travel across a range of travel.

Speaker 3 This is not necessarily a specific brand. So when I think about this, I'm thinking about transferable currencies, something like Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex membership rewards.

Speaker 3 These points can be used to book travel in these banks' own portals. They can also be transferred to these banks' transfer partners.

Speaker 3 And transfer partners vary by bank, but they're usually big hotel or airline frequent flyer mile programs.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I think these are the category of cards that people think about first when they think about premium travel cards. We're talking the Amex Platinum card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Speaker 5 These all fall into that general travel cards bucket.

Speaker 3 Yes, but these are not necessarily the cards I hear about often. I often hear people say, oh, I spend everything on my airline card.
So that is the next bucket. These are airline-specific cards.

Speaker 3 They only earn airline miles that can be used with that airline. And then my third bucket, same concept, but it's hotels.
They only earn points that can be used at that hotel program.

Speaker 5 Okay, so we're going to get deeper into all three of these categories, starting with the general premium travel cards.

Speaker 3 Yeah. So Megan, as you mentioned, I would say there are four main players.
The biggest one is the platinum card from American Express. I say biggest because it has the biggest annual fee.

Speaker 5 I was about to say, I don't know if it's the biggest.

Speaker 3 They're all the same size. All cards are the same size.
Although weight, who knows? They all, the platinum is like oddly heavy. Okay.
And then there's the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Speaker 3 There is the Capital One Venture X. And then the one, I'm sorry, I always forget about it, but I'm not going to forget now.
That is the City Strata Elite card.

Speaker 5 Well, that one's a new card. So you're forgiven for forgetting it sometimes.
Thank you, Megan. What makes these premium? I would say anything that has an annual fee over $350-ish dollars.

Speaker 3 Like many hundreds of dollars is pretty. good.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it's kind of flexible. So the Capital One Venture X is the cheapest one.
It has an annual fee of $395.

Speaker 5 And then next is the City Strata Elite card. That one has an annual fee of $595.

Speaker 5 And then now we're starting to get into the big bucks here. The Chase Sapphire Reserve, which just raised their annual fee in 2025, that one has a $795 annual fee.

Speaker 5 And the Amex Platinum card also raised their annual fee in 2025. And now that one's $8.95.

Speaker 3 Oh my gosh, people are like, this is wild, $895 in annual fees. And I say, you are not wrong.

Speaker 3 That is wild, especially for people who don't frequently travel, who don't frequently use the benefits, which we will talk about later.

Speaker 3 If you are screaming at us, saying, why would anyone spend $895 on an annual fee? I say that's okay. Don't spend $895 on an annual fee.
You definitely do not have to.

Speaker 3 And for many people, you also only need to have one of these cards. I think a lot of these cards have duplicative perks.
You might have maybe two of these cards. I have two of these cards.

Speaker 3 I have both the Amex Platinum and then I have the Venture X. I did have the CSR.
That's a Chase Apple Reserve, but we broke up. And that was actually before I applied for the Platinum card.

Speaker 5 I also have two premium cards. I have the Capital One Venture X because we know I love the Capital One lounges and also the Amex Platinum card.

Speaker 5 And I sort of have the Chase Sapphire Reserve because I made my boyfriend keep his. Nice.
And I'm also thinking about adding an airline one to the mix, but I'll save that for later.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah. Okay.
We're only, we're only talking about general cards. So we will get to the airline cards later.
So let's break these down.

Speaker 3 I think we have to start with the Amex Bottom because that one has the highest annual fee of this bunch. Reminder, this year it got a fee hike to $895.

Speaker 3 Believe it or not, though, Save with Sally here does not hate this annual fee hike.

Speaker 3 And Megan, I got to say, I had a party at my house this weekend and we were sitting around my island and three other people were like, oh, where did you go with your Resi benefit?

Speaker 3 What did you buy from Lululemon? I really like the new benefits.

Speaker 3 i don't mind the fee hike and i was like oh my gosh what are we all saying but it's true they raised the annual fee this year but then they added these new benefits dining credit that's the resi thing i was talking about they added this basic free money at lululemon you just have to spend 75 per quarter and you get a statement credit well you're a gym rat sally so of course you love the lululemon credit yeah yeah this this was a gym party i should say uh and actually you don't even need to spend 75 you just get a statement credit up to 75 and so i'm like this is incredible value throw in, you know, I love a centurion lounge.

Speaker 3 And if your airport has a centurion lounge, this is such a good benefit, especially if you can eat as much free food as you can. If you enjoy a cocktail, there are showers at some of these lounges.

Speaker 5 The showers are really nice. Also, some Delta Sky Clubs have showers, and the Amex Platinum can also get you into Delta Sky Clubs when you're flying Delta.

Speaker 3 There is the limit, though.

Speaker 5 Up to 10 times a year, right?

Speaker 3 Yes, up to 10 times per year.

Speaker 5 But how many showers do you need, Sally?

Speaker 3 10 showers, man.

Speaker 3 I did did a layover and it was like six hours in London, which is not enough time to actually go to London, but I used the shower. Oh, it was so nice.
So I do love a layover shower.

Speaker 3 And then I will say there are some kind of drawbacks that used to not be drawbacks. Now they have cracked down a lot on guests.

Speaker 3 So for example, with the Delta Sky Clubs, if you want to bring a guest, that will cost you $50 each visit. Remember that.
And then also with Delta, you cannot be flying in a basic economy fair.

Speaker 3 I have had friends panic text me because they thought they could get into the lounge and then they had a basic economy fair and they could not.

Speaker 5 This is why no one should fly basic economy. I stand by that.
I never buy basic economy if I can avoid it.

Speaker 3 I do kind of agree with you just for like even the change and cancellation aspect of it. So that is the platinum card.

Speaker 5 Wait, I want to mention one other tip. So I actually chose Delta as my preferred airline on the Amex Platinum card.

Speaker 5 And then that basically gives you a statement credit for airline incidentals, quote unquote, which I think most people think of as like checked bags or something like that, or in-flight cocktails.

Speaker 5 I have no idea what they actually use those for, but I use mine for the guest fee to get into the Delta Sky Clubs. Oh, that's a good tip.

Speaker 5 Yeah, the airline fee credit is up to $200 a year and the guest fee to bring someone into the Delta Sky Club with you is $50 per person. So basically I can bring my boyfriend like four times.

Speaker 3 Oh, very nice. Yo, so we should specify that fee credit is one of the things that can go a really long way in justifying the Amex Platinum Cards $895 annual fee.

Speaker 3 With that one, you have to choose one airline, which is kind of irritating because if you're doing, you know, United once and you want a free drink on United and then you're doing Delta and you want to drink there, you do have to commit to just one airline to get that credit.

Speaker 5 I don't hate it. I recommend using Delta.
Delta.

Speaker 3 All right. Mine's Southwest, actually.
I haven't broke up with Southwest entirely yet.

Speaker 3 Okay. So I mentioned the $200 fee credit goes a long way in justifying the Platinum Cards annual fee.
Other statement credits that justify the annual fee, there is a $200 Uber cash credit.

Speaker 3 This one is broken out into $15 per month, and then there's like a bonus credit to make up the full $200 in December. So basically, I feel like this covers 70% of one Uber item month.

Speaker 3 And that to me feels pretty easy to use. I don't own a car.

Speaker 5 We did an episode about all of the benefits on the Amex Platinum back in September.

Speaker 5 So we're not going to go too much further into all the Amex Platinum stuff, but I think we both agree the annual fee is still worth it for both of us.

Speaker 3 The Amex Platinum is one that we don't recommend for infrequent travelers, but if you're someone who travels frequently, and especially if you're someone who can make that spreadsheet to track all the benefits, this card can really work for you.

Speaker 5 And we should mention that the Amex Platinum is really aimed at people who live in metropolitan areas.

Speaker 5 If you live in a rural area and there are no Resi restaurants around you, then you might be like, what am I going to do with this?

Speaker 3 Yeah, there's an Equinox credit. I'm like, oh, sorry if your city doesn't have an Equinox.

Speaker 5 So I would really recommend making sure that all the merchants that they have statement credits for are convenient to you and you will get the maximum value you can out of this card.

Speaker 3 And then this card earns points that can be used to book travel in Amex's travel portal. They also have some transfer partners.

Speaker 3 Although, Megan, you're kind of a transfer partner hater when it comes to Amex's transfer partners.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I think they're a little bit difficult to use if you're not super well versed in points and miles.

Speaker 5 There's a lot of international airlines and they do have domestic airlines like Delta, but there's a fee to transfer your points from Amex to Delta. That's crazy.

Speaker 3 That's not cool. And then they do have some hotel partners.
I'm thinking about Hilton, which I used to do, but then Hilton really devalued their points recently.

Speaker 3 So even that is kind of making me a little nervous. We do think some of the other credit card rewards programs like Chase Ultimate Rewards or even City Thinking Points are more valuable.

Speaker 3 So maybe we jump in and talk about some of those cards.

Speaker 5 Let's talk about the Chase Sapphire Reserve. That one has an annual fee of $795

Speaker 5 and it is slightly lower than the Amex Platinum, but once you're paying that much, it's all the same. Yeah, it's very much in the same tier.

Speaker 5 And my favorite thing about the Chase Sapphire Reserve is that it earns four points per dollar on hotels booked directly, which I try and book all my hotels directly. I want my hotel elite status.

Speaker 5 I don't want any issues.

Speaker 3 And just like, don't create this middle band. I hate booking through some other third party anyway.
Right.

Speaker 5 And the Chase Sapphire Reserve also gets three points per dollar on dining at restaurants worldwide. It's crazy that Amex doesn't have a bonus category on either of those two types of spending.

Speaker 3 Yeah, well, you know, I actually think the Amex Platinum spending categories are so bad that I never actually use my Amex card to pay for anything except the things that it has benefits for.

Speaker 3 So my Amex is linked to my Lululemon account, my Uber account, and like, that's basically it.

Speaker 5 Same.

Speaker 5 And I will say the Chase Sapphire Reserve also has one of the best travel credits in the game. It's $300 and it's automatic.

Speaker 5 You don't have to do anything for the statement credit to show up, like enroll. It applies to pretty much anything travel related, even things like ferries or rental cars or trains.

Speaker 5 So it is very easy to get that statement credit back.

Speaker 3 Yes. So especially when someone's like $795, this is wild.
Then I do say I just like kind of already.

Speaker 3 delete $300 from that annual fee because I think this travel credit is so easy to use, especially in contrast with something like that MX credit we mentioned earlier.

Speaker 3 They have the $200 credit, but it's only for not just airlines, but only one airline that you pick. And then not even airfares, but only those incidentals.

Speaker 3 So you said, you know, the Delta Lounge credit, or if you're buying a drink on the plane or whatever.

Speaker 3 I think it's so annoying that Amex really limits it versus Chase. I just am like, oh, amazing.
This credit pops up. It's great.

Speaker 5 We should also mention that the Chase Sapphire Reserve does have some statement credits that.

Speaker 5 kind of do give that coupon book energy that the amex platinum credits give and to be honest i don't find these to be super easy to use or widely applicable to people again not really useful for people outside of cities.

Speaker 5 But I will say that I like the Chase Sapphire Reserve redemption options a lot better. I think they have super high value redemptions through their Chase Travel portal in some cases.

Speaker 5 They did devalue the points.

Speaker 5 Your points are no longer worth 1.5 cents per point if you book in the Chase Travel portal, but they do have something called Points Boost, which lets you get access to certain redemptions that might be worth like two cents per point in the travel portal.

Speaker 5 I've done this for hotels and I really like it actually. There's also a bunch of great transfer partners, including Hyatt, which we both love.
We love Hyatt.

Speaker 5 It easily has the best hotel redemptions of any of the hotel loyalty programs out there. And other good airlines too, United, Southwest.

Speaker 5 I think these are airlines that people are familiar with and know how to use the points with them.

Speaker 3 And if you're in the U.S., you're probably more likely to encounter a lot of these airlines that Chase does transfer with anyway. Right.

Speaker 3 You mentioned some of those statement credits, and I would recommend listeners go into the episode description and see our detailed reviews of these cards because we spell out all the statement credits.

Speaker 3 Personally, I think the Chase statement credits are so much harder to use than the Amex Platinum credits.

Speaker 3 Even when you look at the dining credits, Resi restaurants seem to be basically everywhere versus I feel like the Chase restaurants are very few and far between.

Speaker 3 And they're also super expensive restaurants anyway, where even with a statement credit, I still feel like I'm out of pocket a lot of money.

Speaker 3 So I do highly recommend that people look and see how far these statement credits will actually take you. For some people, they could take you quite far.
And then for other people, maybe no way.

Speaker 5 It's unfortunate that the open table partnership does not go quite as far as I thought it would, like the Resi credit does. No.
I do want to mention the lounges, though.

Speaker 5 Chase does have a couple of airport lounges and they are super nice. A lot of them open in the past couple of years.

Speaker 5 They have a lot of amenities that honestly Amex Centurion can't compete with, like free facials at some of their locations.

Speaker 3 Well, remember, these really great lounges used to have facials and then they really cut back on that.

Speaker 5 Yeah, not anymore.

Speaker 3 So Chase is like, we still got facials.

Speaker 5 If you want a facial, you got to get a chase out of our reserve, basically.

Speaker 3 The only chase lounge I think I've been to is the one in Phoenix, and it was super nice. I felt like I was in the most chic bar of all time.

Speaker 3 They did the small plate style, which, you know, I'm less of a fan of than just like big buffet.

Speaker 3 I'm a buffet girl, but I did think their drinks were really fancy, custom cocktails and really nice design. Again, I was like, can you please redesign my house, be my interior designer?

Speaker 5 Well, I went to the San Diego Chase Lounge and they actually not only have small plates, but also a menu you can order from at the table. And it's like table service and those are much bigger plates.

Speaker 3 Oh, shoot. I didn't know that.
Yeah. All right.
Welcome back to Chase, actually.

Speaker 3 Welcome to a Chase Lounge with you.

Speaker 3 And then the other thing, this is really nice. I've used this benefit.
My husband actually does have a Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Speaker 3 So he's hooked me up with this is that Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders and their guests, one guest, get access to Air Canada lounges. This is if they are flying Star Alliance Airlines.

Speaker 3 So if you're flying United out of SFO, which I frequently do, you can get into the Maple Leaf Lounge, which is great.

Speaker 5 You taught me that. So I went last time I was in San Francisco and I'm like, did you see their patio?

Speaker 3 They have an outdoor cat

Speaker 3 with views of the plane spotting. So nice.

Speaker 5 Yeah, there's actually a lot of Air Canada lounges. So I think that really helps bolster like their lounge access.

Speaker 3 I will still say Amex Platinum is the winner for a number of lounge locations. So if you are just like a little lounge menace like me, maybe Amex Platinum will serve you better.

Speaker 5 And last consideration for the Chase Sapphire Reserve, I do think they have the best travel protections of any of the premium travel credit cards.

Speaker 5 The trip delay coverage, rental car insurance, lost luggage reimbursement. If you travel a lot, something does eventually go wrong.
And this card might be able to cover you.

Speaker 5 And I will say, The Amex Platinum did not cover me in a situation this summer. So I wish I had booked on my Chase Sapphire.

Speaker 3 You know, I'm so glad you bring this up because I think a lot of people see travel insurance and they assume it's the same if there's a benefit like tsa precheck that's probably the same on any card travel insurance varies widely so i actually just got a listener question about the capital one venture x travel insurance and we realized capital one venture x only covers

Speaker 3 common carrier costs.

Speaker 3 So they had this huge trip and they had paid like $5,000 for a deposit on a ski trip for the ski camp and they pay for it on their venture x card and the venture x only will cover common carriers so that means like the flight to get to the ski trip but it won't actually cover the ski trip so this is so important to remember so they didn't get the money back from their camp no only the flight and and the big cost was a five thousand dollar ski trip so this is so critical i really really do believe chase sapphire reserve has far and wide the best travel insurance we will link to nerdwallet's guide to the best cards for travel insurance but it is critical.

Speaker 3 You know, that travel insurance is not created equal and Chase Off Our Reserves is definitely the best.

Speaker 5 Okay, this is a good segue into the Capital One Venture X.

Speaker 3 It's still a good card, just not for the travel insurance.

Speaker 5 So this one has an annual fee of $395. So literally half the cost of the other two.

Speaker 3 And we still like it. Just don't go for the travel insurance aspect of it.

Speaker 3 One of my favorite benefits of this card is an annual $300 travel credit for travel booked in the Capital One travel Travel Portal.

Speaker 3 This portal is kind of like this Expedia-esque experience where they basically have all sorts of things you can book.

Speaker 3 I book my rental cars through Capital One Travel Portal, and I'm also a Costco girly, but I feel like the prices are quite comparable in, you know, often. So I always use my travel credit.

Speaker 3 Bing, bang, boom, right there.

Speaker 5 Plus, you also get this 10,000 mile bonus every year you renew the card starting on your first anniversary, which if you just calculate that to how much they would be, those points would be worth in the Capital One travel portal, it would be a hundred dollars yeah but you could also transfer it to capital one's list of transfer partners as well it could be worth even more than that so i mean a hundred dollars plus the three hundred dollar travel credit that's 400 right there you've covered the annual fee yeah you're making five dollars off of this card and it doesn't stop there you do get the mediocre travel insurance but you get another benefit that we love is lounge access and the capital one lounges are delightful i still think the centaurion lounges are better but i do love me a Capital One lounge.

Speaker 5 I'm a stan for the Capital One lounges. I just think the food is so much better.

Speaker 5 They also have some fun amenities that I haven't seen at a ton of Centurion lounges, like napping pods at the Las Vegas lounge. I love it.

Speaker 3 You know, okay, Megan, I was in the Las Vegas lounge and they had caviar.

Speaker 5 Yeah, it's so good.

Speaker 3 I don't really like caviar. If you like caviar, email us.
I don't like caviar.

Speaker 5 I also really like their restaurant concepts. I went to the one in Reagan, one of the airports outside of Washington, D.C., And it's so fun.
It's like being at a very fancy restaurant, great food.

Speaker 5 I was like, wait, this is actually what I want out of a lounge experience, not everyone like on their laptops.

Speaker 3 So it's just a restaurant.

Speaker 5 Yeah, a restaurant with free unlimited food.

Speaker 3 How long does it take? That's my problem with restaurants is sometimes I just like want to eat my food immediately and go.

Speaker 5 I mean, I went for breakfast, so it didn't take long at all. I don't know if it's different at dinner time, but I mean, maybe 10 minutes.
And then there also is some grab and go food.

Speaker 5 Oh my gosh, the grab and go food.

Speaker 3 I always take like a sandwich or two sandwiches or three sandwiches.

Speaker 5 Yeah, that's the best part of these Capital One lounges. I feel like they're really designed with travelers in mind.

Speaker 3 Okay, but the worst part of these lounges is that there are just not that many of them.

Speaker 5 That's true. So I would consider a Capital One lounge if you fly out of an airport that has one of these lounges.

Speaker 3 So we're talking Denver, Dallas, what else? Reagan, you said Vegas has one, but Dulles and Washington.

Speaker 5 Dulles.

Speaker 3 Okay. We'll post a link in the episode description of all the cities that have lounges, but but San Francisco does not have one.

Speaker 5 And we should mention that the earn rates are really solid, especially the two miles per dollar on all kinds of purchases, like that everything else category.

Speaker 5 It earns you way more miles than the Amex Platinum or the Chase Sapphire Reserve because both of those only earn one point per dollar on the everything else spending. So your points really rack up.

Speaker 3 Chase Sapphire Reserve is better for dining, but everything else, I really like the Capital One card.

Speaker 3 You know, I mentioned I don't use my Amex Platinum card for anything except Lulu, Lemon, and Uber, but with the Venture X card, you can use it and know that you're getting 2X on anything.

Speaker 3 So that's whether you're at Walgreens or the cafe or your kids' tuition, if you can charge that to a credit card. This card just gets you a really solid earn rate on everything.

Speaker 3 And here's the thing, with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, sometimes you're like at the random little cafe in the gym and you're like, is this going to count as dining or is this going to code as gym?

Speaker 3 And you're not sure.

Speaker 5 so with a chase out of a reserve if it codes as gym then you're only getting 1x but if you're charging your protein shake to the venture x card you know no matter what you're getting 2x okay last thing we should talk about with this card is the transfer partners so there is a very robust list of international airlines that capital one partners with but these airlines might be a little unfamiliar to people because you know it's like singapore airlines or virgin atlantic it's a lot of international airlines.

Speaker 5 Right. So if you're trying to book a lot of domestic flights really easily, you can do it through these transfer partners, but it does take a little bit more knowledge of how partner airlines work.

Speaker 5 And you might have to go through the portal.

Speaker 3 But that's where you have us. Ask us if you have any transfer partner questions.
Email us, travel at nergola.com. And let's get to the last one of these general cards.

Speaker 3 And that is the City Strata Elite. So this is City's newest premium card.
It sits in that sweet spot between the Venture X and the other two. This one has a $595 annual fee.

Speaker 5 This one's kind of interesting. The earnings structure is kind of funny.
It is 12X points on hotels, cars, and attractions when you book through their portal, which is citytravel.com.

Speaker 5 And also 6X on flights book through there as well.

Speaker 3 Interesting. 12X is way higher than any of these other cards.

Speaker 5 It is, but, you know, we don't recommend booking inside of a travel portal because it introduces that middleman.

Speaker 5 But they do give you 6X at restaurants, restaurants, but only, get this, only if you dine between Friday and Saturday nights between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Speaker 3 Oh my gosh. I remember we were talking about this.
It's such a specific time window. I'm like, it's reverse happy hour.

Speaker 5 Yeah, weirdly, that is like one of the most common times to go out for dinner. So that's kind of nice, but it's just two days a week.

Speaker 5 And then the rest of the time, you get three points per dollar on restaurants. So that's like fine and on par.

Speaker 3 That's so odd. I feel like someone at City thought they were being cute, but this just gives me anxiety with that weird time restriction.

Speaker 5 You don't go out to eat on Fridays, Sally?

Speaker 3 I mean, I would, but it's just too stressful to actually use that. That's fair.

Speaker 5 That's fair. They also have something interesting called a splurge credit.
This is a $200 statement credit where you can pick two merchants from this list of seemingly sort of random retailers.

Speaker 5 Some of them are cool though, like American Airlines, Best Buy. There's a bunch of others.

Speaker 5 If you're a big American Airlines flyer, that might be a good way to get basically $200 statement credit for those purchases.

Speaker 3 I don't know. It just feels so random.
Although I guess if you like Best Buy, then good for you. True.
And then the card has a bunch of other random benefits. One of them is a $200 black lane benefit.

Speaker 3 And I didn't even know what this was. I had to look it up.
It's a chauffeur service. And also, this is annoying.
It's split into two $100 credits per year.

Speaker 3 I would never use a black lane chauffeur even for the credit.

Speaker 3 So I would just say, look at all these credits, see if they're worth a $595 annual fee, but I'm not going to incorporate the Black Lane into my value of this card.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I've never used a chauffeur service and I don't think this card would make me start. You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 Okay. You are kind of bougie, though, so maybe you'll change.

Speaker 5 Nah, not that bougie.

Speaker 3 I don't even own a car and I'm like, I don't need a chauffeur service.

Speaker 5 True. Okay.

Speaker 3 So if you're listening to this and you've used Black Lane, hit us at travel and nerdwallet.com.

Speaker 5 Tell us about it. Moving on to the lounge access, because we know that's an important benefit for these premium travel cards.

Speaker 5 This one gets you priority pass, which I don't think we mentioned, but all of the cards we just talked about have priority pass.

Speaker 3 Priority pass is like the McDonald's of airport lounges.

Speaker 5 What do you mean by that? It's just everywhere?

Speaker 3 Yeah, like there's a lot of them and they're not good.

Speaker 5 I beg to differ. I love McDonald's fries.

Speaker 3 Oh, whoa, okay. Hot take time.

Speaker 3 Okay, no shit on McDonald's. Sorry about that.

Speaker 5 The other lounges that you get access to with this card is American Airlines Admirals Clubs. So kind of again, like not the most exciting type of lounge in my opinion.

Speaker 5 Some of them are a little outdated, but some of the new ones are kind of nice.

Speaker 3 Although you only get four passes per year.

Speaker 5 Right. Only four passes.

Speaker 3 It's like a little, a little taste, but not all of it.

Speaker 5 I do kind of like that it's less stressful, like to use, you know, when it gives you too many lounge visits, I get a little stressed. Like, am I going to go that many times? But four, I'm like, okay.

Speaker 3 Oh, I feel like four is not enough.

Speaker 3 Really?

Speaker 5 Well, you can also bring a guest with them. So that's kind of nice.

Speaker 3 All right. Moving right along to their transfer partners.
Citi Thank You Points transfer to a bunch of airlines, including American Airlines. I know you're a big fan.

Speaker 5 That's huge because American isn't a transfer partner of any of the other rewards programs we've talked about from other credit cards like Chase, Amex, Capital One.

Speaker 5 You can't transfer miles to American, but you can with Citi.

Speaker 3 This is a really good option if you are an American Airlines fan and you don't necessarily want their co-branded card.

Speaker 5 Right. And you also get transfer partners like Avianca, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Cutter, Singapore Airlines.
So those are also some really premium options for international travel.

Speaker 3 Megan, who would you say this card is for?

Speaker 5 I think you hit the nail on the head.

Speaker 5 I think it's mostly for American Airlines flyers who want a more general card, just in case they want to transfer to some other travel partner or earn a lot of points on their Friday and Saturday nights out.

Speaker 5 I don't know.

Speaker 3 People who dine out a lot on Friday night. Exactly.

Speaker 3 I guess maybe I'm just not that into it because I rarely fly American. They are not that big in SFO.
Sorry to American Airlines fans. Maybe this is a good one for you.

Speaker 3 Now, if someone is thinking, okay, I'm only going to get one of these for.

Speaker 5 What do we tell them? Here's my take. The Capital One Venture X is a no-brainer if you live near one of those airports with the Capital One lounge.

Speaker 3 And even without the lounge, we said it was a $5 money maker.

Speaker 5 Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 3 So no one should apply for a card for $5. I will say that.

Speaker 5 If you think you'll actually use the Capital One Miles, then go for it. The Chase Sapphire Reserve is good for really good redemptions and bonus points on hotels booked directly.

Speaker 5 So if that's something you're spending a lot on, yeah, also the dining. So I would recommend that one.
The MX Platinum is good for the credits.

Speaker 3 If you like Lululemon,

Speaker 5 if you shop at any of those merchants regularly, then you could probably make a lot of money back with the Amex Platinum through a bunch of these statement credits.

Speaker 5 And then the City Strata Elite card is good if you're an American Airlines enthusiast, but not sold on their card.

Speaker 3 And we will talk about their card later.

Speaker 5 That is coming up after this.

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Speaker 3 And we're back. Now we are talking about airline-specific credit cards.

Speaker 3 When you go into thinking about an airline credit card, I would ask yourself, are you willing to be loyal to one airline or are you someone who likes to play the field?

Speaker 5 If you're loyal to one airline, a co-branded premium card can be a good way to get access to those airline-specific lounges.

Speaker 5 Plus, Plus, you'll also earn points with that airline, and often you'll get a head start on elite status.

Speaker 3 I am not an airline card girly. That is because I am the person who just likes to book the cheapest flight, the one without the layover, the one at the best time.
That is my vibe.

Speaker 3 So, I might apply for airline cards every once in a while just to take advantage of, let's say, a great sign-up bonus, but I rarely hold on to these cards.

Speaker 3 Instead, I am just really into those general travel credit cards that we talked about at the first half of the show.

Speaker 5 I'm on the other side. I actually really like my airline card.

Speaker 5 I don't have a premium one yet, but I am sort of interested in some of the premium cards because they're coming out with new benefits that are great for people who fly mostly one airline like I do.

Speaker 5 So the one I'm interested in now is the Atmos Rewards Summit card. That one is the premium airline card for Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, and it has a $395 annual fee.

Speaker 3 I kind of knew you were going to say that.

Speaker 5 I know.

Speaker 5 I've been booking so many flights with Alaska Miles lately, which is kind of strange because I actually have elite status with American Airlines, but I've just been finding really good rates with Alaska.

Speaker 5 And so it's hard to turn down. Like my dad and I flew to Dublin and the flight was on American Airlines, but I booked through Alaska and it was only 35,000 Alaska miles for premium economy.

Speaker 5 And American was charging 90,000 American miles for those same seats.

Speaker 3 I do feel like Alaska redemptions are really good. And then I don't have any Alaska miles, so I can never use them.
So maybe I am wrong here. Maybe you're doing it right, Megan.

Speaker 3 The other standout perk on this card is the Global Companion Award. So, with this, every cardholder anniversary, you get up to 25,000 points to cover a companion's flight.

Speaker 3 This applies to flights on not just Alaska, but also Hawaiian or any one world partner. You can also use this on any class of service anywhere in Alaska's network.

Speaker 3 And then, if you are going on a more expensive flight, you can top off that award with points if you want to spend more than the 25,000 point limit.

Speaker 5 I want to point out that getting a high-value companion certificate of some sort is another good reason to maybe think about getting a premium airline card.

Speaker 5 So, the Alaska card has this version, which I think is pretty flexible. And some of the other cards have them too.
We'll talk about those.

Speaker 3 Yeah, and you were telling me maybe I should use this to go to Madagascar because that's going to be such a long flight.

Speaker 3 Okay, I also want to talk about the American Airlines version of their premium card. That is the City A Advantage Executive World Elite MasterCard, which has a $595 annual fee.

Speaker 5 The big draw here is the Admiral's Club membership, which normally costs $850. So you're saving yourself like a couple hundred dollars plus.

Speaker 3 If you would pay cash for that, this is like basically a moneymaker.

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 5 And you also get a bunch of perks when you fly american airlines including free check bags you earn american airlines miles and also the points toward elite status which i think is the most important part of an airline card this card basically did you the elite status perks without the elite status right but also if you're trying to get elite status you can earn that through this card basically every dollar you spend on an american airlines card earns you one loyalty point and you accumulate enough of those and then you're able to qualify for elite status that's actually how i earn elite status a big part of it is is through the credit card spending.

Speaker 5 So I think if you are going for elite status with American Airlines, getting a airline card is really important here, but you might not necessarily have to get the premium one.

Speaker 5 So that's important to check with these cards.

Speaker 3 And also, I do think the earn rate on this card is super met. You do get 4x on American purchases, which is good if you're paying cash for American flights, but it's just 1x on everything else.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 All right, Delta Time, their premium offering is the Delta Sky Miles Reserve American Express card, which has a $650 annual fee.

Speaker 3 With this, you get 15 visits to the Sky Club, but limit, you do need to be flying Delta to get access. And then you can also use this to get access to the Centurion Lounge.

Speaker 3 Again, though, you do need to be flying Delta. So this really just suckers you into flying Delta all the time if you have this card.

Speaker 5 And it does have a limit of 15 visits per year to the Delta Sky Club, which is kind of crazy that the Amex Platinum has 10 visits. And then this more restrictive Delta card only gets 15 visits.

Speaker 5 I mean, if you need the Sky Club access, you basically got to be Delta Elite here.

Speaker 3 One thing I like about this card is their companion certificate is cool because it works on not just economy flights as many companion certificates do but also first class there are some limits like it's only flights within the us or mexico caribbean central america but basically when you have this you pay for your ticket and then your companion gets a ticket on the same flight for just the cost of taxes and fees yeah that's nice but you also have to think about the opportunity cost of earning sky miles versus earning a more valuable type of point currency so delta doesn't publish an award chart and their sky miles are famously inconsistent in value.

Speaker 5 Like, sometimes you get great value, and then sometimes you get like terrible value. So, it's really only worth it if you're a die-hard Delta flyer.

Speaker 3 This is a good card if you can be flexible, if you're willing to pay cash sometimes, if you're willing to use points, sometimes.

Speaker 3 If you're not sure if you're getting a good redemption, NerdWallet has points calculators for all of these airline miles programs.

Speaker 3 So, you could just go do a Google search for NerdWallet Delta points value, and then this calculator will come up.

Speaker 3 You basically just type in how many points a flight is, and it'll tell you what the cash value is. So you can know if it's better to book and cash your points.

Speaker 5 Moving right along, we're at the last of the major players in the U.S., which is United Airlines. Their United Club card actually has the highest annual fee of all of the airline premium cards.

Speaker 5 It's $695.

Speaker 3 But this one might be the best. Who knows? Because this card gives you full United Club membership.
Now, if you were to pay cash for United Club membership, it would be $750.

Speaker 3 So again, it is kind of a money maker to just have this card and get the United Club membership if you were otherwise going to pay for United Club membership out of pocket.

Speaker 5 Right. I think if you don't want the lounge access, then you're just better off with one of the cheaper United cards, like the United Quest card or the United Explorer card.

Speaker 3 I went to my first United Club lounge recently and I was not super impressed.

Speaker 5 Yeah, they're in the middle of renovating them, but

Speaker 5 it's going to take a while.

Speaker 3 All right.

Speaker 3 The O'Hare United Club was like sandwiches, and I don't like sandwiches. That's my hot take.

Speaker 5 Okay, let's go to hotel cards. These are your favorites, Allie.

Speaker 3 So when it comes to the land of premium hotel cards, I would say there really are only two.

Speaker 3 There is the Hilton Honorous Amex Expire card, and then there is also the Marriott Von Voy Brilliant American Express card.

Speaker 5 Right. Those are the two cards that actually fall into this super high price point, like the other premium cards we've talked about.

Speaker 5 Hyatt and IHG are two other big hotel brands, and they have cards that we love, but we wouldn't put them in that premium tier.

Speaker 3 Instead, we will start by talking about the Hilton Aspire card, which you know I am a super fan of.

Speaker 5 I know you're obsessed. You're always telling me how you use your free night certificate this year.

Speaker 3 Okay, so this card has an annual fee of $550 with it. You get automatic diamond status with Hilton.
This is great.

Speaker 3 My top benefit of diamond status is something you also get with gold status, but it is a food and beverage credit. The credit varies by hotel, but often it's like $30.

Speaker 3 And I'm always hitting the jackpot when I book a room that's like $200. And then I also get this like $30 dinner out of it.
I'm like, yes, this is a good, good value.

Speaker 3 You also get room upgrades, late checkout, that two free water bottles, you know, that's always a top perk.

Speaker 3 But really the top perk on this card is the free night certificate. And this certificate is amazing.
It can be used at pretty much any Hilton property worldwide.

Speaker 3 These are including these top tier resorts like the Waldorf. Astoria brand.
There are some caveats like all-inclusives and, you know, things like that.

Speaker 3 You can't use it on a suite, but you can use it to book a standard room. And then because you have diamond status, you are very likely to get upgraded to a suite anyway.

Speaker 5 I kind of think of these free night certificates as like the companion certificates of hotel cards. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5 Because it's like you still have to pay this high annual fee, but it is very easy to get one hotel night or one companion fare for someone on a flight with you that's worth more than the annual fee.

Speaker 3 I will say, if you are totally an embassy suites person and you're never booking a hotel room that's more than $300, then you can probably pass on this card.

Speaker 3 But if you are going to a fancy hotel, if you got a honeymoon coming up, which I don't know who's got a honeymoon coming up, not me. You want to stay at a fancy hotel?

Speaker 3 If you are going to stay at a hotel that costs more than $550,

Speaker 3 then just go ahead and apply for this card and then apply that free night certificate to that hotel stay.

Speaker 5 All right. And then let's talk about the Marriott version of a premium hotel card.
It's the Marriott Bonboy Brilliant card. And that one has an annual fee of $650.

Speaker 5 You only get Platinum Elite Status, which actually isn't the top tier elite status. It's one below.
And you also get a free night certificate and priority pass lounge access randomly.

Speaker 3 The problem with the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card is that they have a free night certificate, but it is capped at 85,000 points.

Speaker 3 And that's like obviously a lot of points, but that is probably not covering the super bougie hotels, especially in expensive cities.

Speaker 5 For Marriott's, like the bougiest hotels are like 200,000 points or more. So the 85,000 free night certificate won't actually go that far.

Speaker 3 Yeah. So I think this card is still very good, especially if you're a regular Marriott guest, but the value to me is not as clear as what it is on the Hilton Aspire card.

Speaker 5 Let's wrap this all up. How does someone actually choose between all of these premium cards, whether it's a general card or a hotel card or an airline card?

Speaker 3 Yeah, so I would really think about the hotel and airline cards similarly.

Speaker 3 If you are always staying at a specific brand, maybe because you fly the same route from home to your office or from home to your parents' home, and it's just always on United, then it can make sense to have that United card.

Speaker 3 Or if you always stay at a hotel next to your office and it's a Hilton, then it might make sense to have a Hilton card.

Speaker 3 But if you want to be that free agent, meaning you just want to book the best flight at the best time to any destination, maybe you don't want to be tied to a hotel, but you want to stay at an Airbnb or you want to stay at a boutique hotel, then I would go with one of those general travel credit cards.

Speaker 5 I would also mention that not only do you need to be flying one of those airlines a lot to get one of those airline premium cards, but also would want to use the lounge access for those airline specific lounges.

Speaker 5 I think that's the real reason to get a premium airline card.

Speaker 3 And it really just comes down to how much do you spend on travel? You know, I think about myself, especially when I was 22 and I was like, I am good just staying overnight in the airport.

Speaker 3 I don't need a fancy hotel. Motel 6 is fine with me.
I will pack a PBNJ. I don't need all these things.
I don't check a bag. Then these cards are totally not for you.

Speaker 3 But I would say, if you are someone who is booking those expensive hotel rooms anyway, you are paying for those seat upgrades or for that priority boarding, if you kind of want that luxury travel experience, then you could be leaving a lot on the table by not having one of these cards.

Speaker 5 It is sort of a fun way to cosplay as a rich person. Like I did not used to book these super bougie hotels until I got a premium travel card that let me do it for a lot cheaper and on points.

Speaker 3 So when it comes to the time that you have to pay cash, are you just like, oh my gosh, I can't go back to this life anymore?

Speaker 5 Oh, no. I just book like a budget hotel.
I'm like on cash, budget hotel, but when I'm splurging or something or on a really nice trip, I'm like, all right, let's book the nice hotel.

Speaker 3 I'm at the point where now if an airport doesn't have a lounge, I'm like, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Do I have to pay $7 for the Starbucks coffee? Oh, no.

Speaker 5 Wait, I love the Starbucks coffee. I'm addicted.

Speaker 3 All right. What do we say? What's our final verdict for everyone?

Speaker 5 I would say if you're a frequent traveler and you want lounge access, then it would be good to consider at least one of these premium cards, especially a general travel card.

Speaker 5 If you fly a lot with an airline and you want that airline's lounge access, maybe get an airline premium card. And you can also get a hotel card.

Speaker 5 If you stay a lot with that hotel, you want the hotel elite status and you want the free night certificate. But, you know, no one made any rules about having more than one of these.

Speaker 5 So if you can't choose, you could possibly get a couple of these if they fit in your budget.

Speaker 3 We do have a couple of these. So you're not completely off the rails if you have multiple.

Speaker 3 And then, you know what, I will also say, we talked about the premium cards, then there's also the no annual fee cards, and then there are the mid-tier cards, IHG and Hyatt cards being mid-tier hotel cards.

Speaker 3 They're still around $100, which you can get a lot of value out of that without the multi-$100 annual fees.

Speaker 3 I also think about something like the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, where this card still has an annual fee, but it's not as high as a Chase Sapphire Reserve. It doesn't have as many benefits.

Speaker 3 It doesn't have the lounge access, but it still gets you some kind of like feet in the water benefits, like the transfer partners. So I would definitely also consider those cards.

Speaker 3 We should probably do a feature show on those cards, but we also have links to those cards in the episode description if you want to learn more about those and you can't wait.

Speaker 5 I would say if you need access to the transfer partners and you don't need all the lounge access and all the other stuff, then those cards are a really good option.

Speaker 5 Sally, should we do a listener question?

Speaker 3 Oh, we have so many good ones. We do have one about the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
So let's do this one. It comes from Sean.
Short and sweet.

Speaker 3 What will happen to the points in my Chase Sapphire Reserve account after I cancel my credit card?

Speaker 3 Sean is canceling his credit card.

Speaker 5 Ah, Sean, we totally get it. With that Chase Sapphire Reserve annual fee hike earlier this year and all those perks that might be too hard to use, I don't blame you for thinking about canceling.

Speaker 3 Sean, my friend, I also canceled my card a few years back. So you are not alone in wanting to cancel this card.

Speaker 5 And when Sean says cancel, do you think they mean downgrade? Because I will say this, before you cancel a card, you should consider whether you're able to downgrade a card.

Speaker 5 That way, you don't lose the credit history of that account.

Speaker 3 Yes, you would lose the credit history and then your points would also just go poof as well. So, you do not necessarily have to cancel your card and lose that credit history, lose those points.

Speaker 3 I would actually recommend you downgrade your card to something like the Chase Freedom Unlimited, the Chase Freedom Flex. These cards have no annual fee.

Speaker 3 They still retain your points and they still retain your credit history.

Speaker 5 Your other option is you could downgrade the card to a Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Speaker 5 That one has a $95 annual fee, but still gets you some of the travel benefits you might like, like access to the transfer partners, like I was talking about.

Speaker 5 And then you have other options, which is you could transfer the points from your Chase Sapphire Reserve to a transfer partner that you think you'll book with in the future.

Speaker 5 Now, usually we don't recommend transferring things speculatively, but if you really don't want to go with any of the other cards in the Chase ecosystem, then you could get them out of the Chase ecosystem by transferring them.

Speaker 3 And then if you just really want to be done, then you can also go ahead and redeem your points for statement credits or gift cards.

Speaker 3 You might not get the top value this way, but at least you won't lose your points entirely if you decide to just be completely out of the chase life.

Speaker 5 You earn those points, Chon. Let's make sure that they get the send-off they deserve.

Speaker 3 All right. That is it for today.
That was a long episode. Tell us what you thought about our long episode, if you liked it, or if we got to talk less.
You can email us at travel at nerdwallet.com.

Speaker 5 Give us your thoughts. We're also both on Instagram.
You can follow Sally at Save with Sally and you can follow me at MilesWithMeganCo. Megan has an H in it and Co.
is CEO.

Speaker 5 I don't have a company though. That's just like part of my last name.

Speaker 3 The first two letters. I love it.
And if you love this episode, let us know, leave us a review. We love when you leave five-star reviews.
We also accept one, two, three, or four-star reviews.

Speaker 3 Either way, leaving your review helps other travelers find us. So please do that so we can grow the show.

Speaker 5 And don't forget to follow Smart Travel on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes.

Speaker 3 This episode is produced by Tess Figland. Nick Harissimi helped edit our audio.
Claire Soci and Hilary Georgie helped us with fact-checking. Thank you so much.

Speaker 5 And here's our brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors.
This info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.

Speaker 3 We hope you're inspired to keep your passport full and your wallet even fuller. Thanks, everyone.
See you next time.