When I look for a travel card, my philosophy is go big or go home. I love finding cards with benefits that save me a ton of money, dramatically upgrade my travel experience, or both. I couldn’t care less about small perks, like $10 spending credits to restaurants I never visit.
After eight years of using travel cards, the list below covers the most valuable perks I’ve found. Each of them could potentially save you over $500. If you want to see cards that have these benefits and more, check out our curated list of the top travel rewards cards.
1. A free night certificate
Many hotel credit cards offer a free night certificate. This is normally a yearly benefit, although you can sometimes earn additional certificates if you spend enough. They work just like they sound — you get a free night at one of the hotel’s properties.
Where you can use these depends on the certificate. As a general rule, the higher your hotel card’s annual fee, the more options you’ll have to redeem your free night.
If you like staying at nice hotels, you could get incredible value from a free night certificate. Some travelers, myself included, have saved $500 to $1,000 with this benefit. You can usually combine a free night certificate with a stay you book in points, too, and get a luxury stay for as little as $0.
2. A welcome offer
Travel cards tend to have the biggest welcome offers for new cardholders. Cash back cards typically offer anywhere from $150 to $250 in bonus cash. But with travel cards, it’s not uncommon to see welcome offers of 50,000 to 100,000 points. Depending on the rewards program, 100,000 points would be worth $1,000 or significantly more.
Most welcome offers have a spending requirement you need to reach to earn them. Before you apply, make sure you won’t have any trouble spending enough to reach the minimum. Falling short of the spending requirement also means missing out on your card’s welcome offer.
3. Airport lounge access
Kicking back in an airport lounge before your flight is far more enjoyable than spending that time in the general boarding area. Premium travel cards often include a complimentary membership to a lounge program.
Everyone has their own opinion on how much airport lounge access is worth. Some people put it at $50 per visit, based on the value of a better airport experience and what they’ll save on food and drinks. At that value, if you take 10 flights per year (five round trips), you’d be getting $500 out of this benefit.
4. Hotel elite status
This is another perk you can get from hotel credit cards. Instead of needing to stay a certain number of nights per year to reach elite status, you get it automatically thanks to your credit card.
The benefits depend on the hotel and the status you have with it. Here are some of the typical perks you could get courtesy of hotel elite status:
- Complimentary upgrades when available
- Free daily breakfast for two
- Late check-in and early checkout when available
- A fifth night free on award stays
Considering hotel breakfast prices these days, just getting that for free can help you save quite a bit. For a firsthand example, it saved me $328 earlier this year during a four-night hotel stay. Upgrades, although not guaranteed, are also a valuable benefit.
5. Travel insurance
As exciting as travel is, there’s a lot that can go wrong. Bad weather leads to your flight being canceled. The airline loses your luggage. Your rental car gets scratched in a parking lot. These are all issues that could easily cost you $500 or more.
Travel insurance can protect you in these kinds of situations, and some credit cards provide it as a complimentary benefit. Here are a few examples of the travel protections available with certain credit cards:
- Rental car damage and theft insurance
- Lost or delayed luggage reimbursement
- Trip delay reimbursement
- Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
If you’re trying to find a credit card, figuring out which benefits you want can help narrow down the list. Now that you know about some of the best travel card perks, you can pick the ones you like and start looking for your next card.
