Which Travel Rewards Credit Cards Are Best?

Once upon a time we were able to exchange our banked frequent flyer miles for free airfare. In 2007, we cashed in about 400,000+ American Airlines miles to receive four, first-class roundtrip tickets from Washington, DC, to China. We flew like royalty and were convinced that the other four people in our cabin must have been real royalty to pay cash for their seats.

For our trip to Zambia and Zimbabwe this summer, 300,000 miles would get us only one business class, roundtrip seat. Alas, airlines are making it tougher and tougher to use miles. The number of available mileage seats is down and the amount of points required for pocketing a complimentary ticket are up. Still, we dream.

NextAdvisor, a research firm, compares various bank, hotel and airline credit cards with the intent of discovering which ones are best for travel rewards. Among those NextAdvisor deems excellent are: Chase Sapphire Preferred, Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards, Gold Delta SkyMiles from American Express, JetBlue Plus Card, and Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite.

Click below for NextAdvisor’s comparison chart highlighting more than 30 travel reward credit cards.

Click the image for an expandable full version of the chart.