Not every credit card is all work and no play. As a frequent traveler, it’s smart to have a credit card that earns bonus points on your most common purchases. The other half of the equation is putting those rewards points to good use along with the additional travel benefits for all of your trips.
If you’re a frequent traveler, here’s some credit card travel benefits worth considering:
Free Priority Pass Visits
Are you a frequent flyer looking for a more comfortable respite during long layovers or when you arrive at the airport early? Each year, you get 10 free Priority Pass lounge passes as a benefit of the Hilton Honors Business Card. This benefit is worth $249 from Priority Pass and easily pays the $95 annual credit card fee.
If you make at least $15,000 in annual card purchases with the Hilton Honors Business Card, you’ll also get one free weekend night and a second certificate when you spend $60,000 in total card purchases each year.
Premium Travel Rewards
You should seriously consider the American Express Business Platinum Card, if you frequently fly for business. It’s a popular business credit card for frequent flyers for these reasons:
- 1.5 points per $1 on all purchases over $5,000 instead of 1 point per dollar
- Points are worth 1.35 cents each when redeemed for air travel
- 1:1 point transfers to Membership Rewards travel partners
- $200 annual airline fee credit
- Complimentary airport lounge access to over 1,000 global lounges
- Global Entry application fee reimbursement
- Elevated Hilton Honors and Starwood Preferred Guest membership status
- Unlimited Boingo Wi-Fi hotspot access
- 10 free Gogo airline in-flight internet passes
Cardholders get all of these travel credit card perks for only $450 a year. If you fly on a weekly or monthly basis, you know how many points you can rack up from your travel and non-travel purchases plus the air travel benefits that can make for a more relaxing trip.
In addition to all the travel credits and complimentary benefits like access to The Centurion, Priority Pass Select, and Delta Sky Clubs, you also have a wide selection of 1:1 airline travel partners.
Free Companion Travel
If you fly Delta, your travel companion can fly free once a year with the Platinum Delta SkyMiles Business Credit Card from American Express. When you renew your credit card, your anniversary bonus is a free domestic roundtrip economy fare when you book an economy seat; all you have to pay is $75 in taxes and fees.
Additional Delta travel benefits include checking your first bag free, Zone 1 priority boarding, and a 20% discount on in-flight purchases.
If you’re a Delta loyalist, you can earn some additional points each year after making $25,000 in total card purchases. As a reward, you’ll earn 10,000 bonus SkyMiles and 10,000 bonus Medallion Qualification Miles. By spending $50,000 a year, you’ll earn a second bonus of 10,000 SkyMiles and 10,000 Medallion Qualification Miles.
The British Airways, Southwest and Alaska credit cards have companion travel offers for cardholders as well.
Free Annual Hotel Night Certificate
Maybe you use another business rewards card for your primary spending, but still want a secondary hotel rewards credit card for your overnight travel. One hotel business credit card that can pay for itself is the Marriott Rewards Premier Business Credit Card.
The main card perk is the free annual night certificate at any category 1-5 Marriott property that’ll easily pay the $95 annual fee. You don’t get this perk the first year, but Chase waives the annual fee so that’s a fair trade to me.
Including the free night, you will also earn 2 points per $1 on restaurants, office supply stores, and your phone, internet, and cable services.
Because of the generous purchase rewards, this can be an excellent primary credit card if you largely want to use your rewards points for Marriott hotel stays.
1:1 Airline and Hotel Transfers
With the Chase Ink Business Preferred, you earn Ultimate Rewards points with every purchase. Your points are worth 1 cent each for gift cards and statement credits or 1.25 cents each for award travel booked on the Ultimate Rewards travel portal.
Another, more lucrative redemption option is to transfer your points on a 1:1 basis to any Ultimate Rewards airline or hotel travel partner including Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, World of Hyatt, and Marriott Rewards.
If you also own a personal Chase Sapphire or Chase Freedom rewards card, owning the Ink Business Preferred lets you pool your Ultimate Rewards points from your other Chase cards for 1:1 point transfers or the 25% travel redemption bonus so you can book award travel sooner.
Finally, the Ink Business Preferred offers Chase’s largest signup bonus with 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points. Assuming you can redeem each point for 2 cents each--which is easy to do with award flights--this bonus is worth $1,600 in award travel!
These are just a few of the credits that offer bonus reward points for your business and travel purchases. If you’re a frequent traveler booking several trips a year with your credit card these perks might add some additional value for both your business and leisure trips.
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Written By:
Johnny Jet
For the past 20 years, Johnny Jet averaged 150,000 miles and 20 countries a year. He has been featured in many major publications and appeared on ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NBC and PBS.
