3 Best Travel Credit Cards for Entrepreneurs

Travel credit cards can save you money. If used carefully and paid off every month, you can enjoy serious benefits with greatly reduced expenses. 

So, what are they? As a frequent traveler, I consider them tools to use carefully. If you intend to have two or more return flights over the coming year, it is hands-down worth the investment. They frequently pay for themselves multiple times over. 

I’ve enjoyed free flights and huge discounts on luxury hotels, and often find myself in some of the best lounges available. Before starting, one quick disclaimer: I am not being sponsored by any of these companies. This is just my experience, based on my research and travel, and I’d like to share a little of what I’ve learned. 

I need to briefly explain air miles because that’s a big part of this. Each of the three cards offers sign-up bonuses ranging from 60,000 to 150,000 points that can convert into air miles depending on the card and offer you get. Here’s a table to give you a rough idea of what that could get you. It’s from Turkish Airlines, one of my personal favorites:

There are three travel credit cards I’ll cover today. For each card, many daily expenses from dining to filling your car with gas can gain some extra air miles on the side towards your next trip. If you pay it off monthly, you can effectively get free air miles on every dollar you spend. If we assume an air mile is worth one cent–that’s the way the value is often calculated–you can have a permanent one to 10 percent discount on all your expenses. That’s an outrageous claim to make. But from all I’ve seen and experienced, it’s completely true.

The three travel credit cards also have no international fees, making them extremely useful. They also all come with comprehensive lounge access worth $469. With all of that said, let’s dive into the top three.

1. Capital One Venture X

The Capital One Venture X is the newest and best of the three. It comes in at $395 annually, but that cost isn’t how it looks. First, you get a $300 travel credit. Then, the unlimited lounge access is worth $469. After that, 10,000 extra air miles every year, worth $100. However, the biggest reason for getting it is the sign-up bonus of 75,000 air miles, worth roughly $750. That means in your first year, you’ve got savings of $1124. That’s excluding the extras: phone insurance and the extra earned air miles from daily expenses. This is the single best travel credit card I know of.

2. Chase Sapphire Reserve

The second best is the Chase Sapphire Reserve. This one has an annual fee of $550. Like the Capital One Venture X, it has a $300 travel credit and the same $469 of unlimited lounge access. It usually comes with 60,000-75,000 depending on the sign-on offer. Just measured at this, you’re still at a positive of $819. However, this one has more “lifestyle” bonuses that aren’t as easy to use. For example, credits toward DoorDash, Lyft, and Instacart. 

Chase offers a 50 percent bonus on the value of their points when booking through their travel portal. This effectively converts that 60,000-75,000 into 90,000-112,500 air miles. That can go a long way.

3. Amex Platinum

Lastly, the most well-known, but worst of the three is the Amex Platinum. This one has a pretty high annual fee of $695. It’s far more of a “lifestyle” credit card, tailored toward a specific audience, and harder to use. It comes with a wealth of bonuses like a $240 entertainment credit for some subscription services. Then it has a $100 Saks credit. Like the others, it comes with the $469 lounge access. It also has a $200 credit for luxury hotels, which won’t appeal to everyone. I will also say that these folks have had the best customer service I’ve ever witnessed, and a concierge service, if you’re into that.

Why is it really on this list? You can regularly find sign-up bonuses of 75,000 to a tremendous 150,000 air miles. That’s $750 to $1500.

It’s also worth noting that this is the only one of the three that can also be obtained by people outside of the U.S. However, the U.S.’s offer stands head and shoulders above the rest. 

I can’t preach it strongly enough: if you’re an entrepreneur who travels even occasionally then these cards will all pay for themselves, at least for the first year.