Choosing the best travel credit cards for summer 2024

Looking to make the most of your summer and your credit card points by booking a summer vacation? Yahoo Finance Senior Personal Finance Writer Kendall Little explains the benefits of using a travel credit card as well as the types of travel credit cards offered by most hotel and airline operators.

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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

Well, if you still haven’t booked your summer travel plans, it may be worth it to use or sign up for a credit card that offers the best rewards.

But which card is best for you to help with some tips When making that important decision, we’ve got Yahoo Finance’s own Kendall Little Kendall.

Great to see you here in studio with us.

All right, So for the folks that are still planning out those summer vacations, there are a range of card options that they could lean into for some of these rewards.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I think when you are talking about travel credit card rewards, you really to focus on one your budget and then how you travel.

So say, for instance, that you’re a really frequent traveller.

You’re always on the go.

Then you might want to look for a card where you can get the airport lounge access or the annual credits to your travel expenses.

Even if it has an annual fee, you’re probably going to be, uh, worth that extra price.

You also are gonna wanna look for rewards and categories that are travel related, whether that’s airfare, hotel spending so you can really maximise the cost that you’re incurring when you’re travelling a lot.

And then on the other end of the spectrum, we have people who are beginners to travel rewards who may only travel once or twice per year.

In that case, you might benefit more from a low or no annual fee card that actually reward you on your daily spending.

So your groceries your gas.

Then you can accrue those points and miles throughout the year and then cash them in when you actually do travel.

And finally, there’s also the type of traveller who always uses the same airline.

Maybe they live in a hub city or always travels using the same hotel chain.

Then they might want to consider a co branded card.

And that co branded card is going to give you benefits on the actual loyalty programme for the travel brand.

Maybe that means early check in to your hotel or priority boarding on the airline, and you’re also accruing those rewards within the loyalty programme to help you reach elite status more fast.

So I think depending on what type of travel that you’re used to and your budget that’s really important to consider