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The best premium credit cards of August 2021:
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Best for earning travel rewards: |
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Best travel and luxury benefits: |
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Best perks for dining out and ordering in: |
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Best premium airline credit card: |
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Best premium hotel credit card: |
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Some of the top rewards credit cards – including the
Paying hundreds of dollars for a premium credit card won’t make sense for everyone, but if you take advantage of enough benefits, it can be well worth the money. Keep reading for a look at the best premium rewards cards and how to choose the best one for you.
Best for earning travel rewards: Chase Sapphire Reserve®
If your number one criterion for picking a premium credit card is rewards, the
Read more: Chase Sapphire Reserve review
While other premium credit cards may have higher points multipliers on select spending categories, the
The card has a
Note that through December 31, 2021, Chase will also apply the travel credit to gas station and grocery store purchases – a limited-time feature that has been extended because of the ongoing pandemic.
Best travel and luxury benefits: The Platinum Card® from American Express
It’s hard to beat the
Read more: Amex Platinum card review
On the travel side, you get up to a $200 annual airline fee credit**, more airport lounge access options than any other card, complimentary elite status with Hilton and Marriott**, and up to $200 in Uber credits** every year. Other benefits include up to $100 in Saks credits** every year (broken up as up to $50 semi-annually), and Amex Offers** for cash back or bonus points when you shop with specific retailers.
The
Best perks for dining out and ordering in: American Express® Gold Card
The
Read more: Amex Gold Card review
You’ll also earn 4x points at restaurants (including food-delivery services) and 4x points on up to $25,000 spent at US supermarkets each calendar year (and 1 point per dollar if that cap is met).
The
The best premium airline credit card: United Club℠ Infinite Card
The best premium airline credit card for you will depend on what airlines fly out of your home airport. But if any of the major US airlines are a convenient option for you, the
Read more: United Club Infinite card review
This card has an annual fee of
The
You also get two free checked bags on United flights when you pay with the card, plus priority check-in and early boarding.
The best premium hotel credit card: Hilton Honors Aspire Card
Just as the best premium airline credit card for you depends on which airline you prefer, the right premium hotel credit card for you will be the card that offers benefits where you’re most likely to stay. If you already have status with a particular hotel chain, you’ll probably want to get a card associated with that loyalty program so you can continue building rewards and even potentially earn higher status.
Read more: Amex Hilton Aspire credit card review
But if you don’t have a favorite hotel chain and simply want the card that will get you the most benefits and save you the most money, there’s a strong argument to be made for the
The
Other card benefits include a free weekend night reward each year after your account renewal, and up to $250 in statement credits each year for purchases made at participating Hilton resorts. You can use this statement credit to effectively get $250 off of a Hilton hotel room rate. In addition to that, you also get up to $250 in annual statement credits for airline fees.
Other premium credit cards that just missed the cut
Our final list of the best premium credit cards includes six options, but we considered several other cards as well. Here’s a look at the other premium credit cards that didn’t make the final cut.
New United Quest℠ Card – The latest addition to Chase’s lineup of United credit cards comes with up to $125 in statement credits each year toward United purchases (like airfare and incidental fees) and a free first and second checked bag when you use the card to pay for your ticket. Cardholders also get up to two 5,000-mile rebates on award flights each year starting after the first card anniversary, excellent travel protections, and a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application fee credit. Read our United Quest card review.Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card – The top-of-the-line Marriott credit card has some great benefits, including up to $300 in annual statement credits for eligible purchases at hotels participating in the Marriott Bonvoy™ program. It falls just a bit short of theHilton Honors Aspire Card in terms of the value it can offer, since that card offers top-tier Hilton status, and both a Hilton statement credit and an airline fee statement credit. Here’s our review of the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card.Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card – This premium Delta credit card has some strong benefits, such as a Status Boost that earns you Medallion® Qualification Miles toward Delta status when you meet annual spending requirements (offer ends 12/31/2021). It also comes with an annual companion certificate each year upon your account renewal. That said, it has aDelta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card annual fee(See Rates) , which is the highest among premium airline cards. Read our review of the Delta SkyMiles Reserve card.Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ Mastercard® – It was a right race between this card and theUnited Club℠ Infinite Card . Unlike United’s card, theCiti® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ Mastercard® offers airline lounge membership (for American Airlines’ Admirals Clubs) to both the primary cardholder and up to 10 authorized users that can be added to the card for free. Those 11 cardholders can each bring in two guests, so you’re getting 33 people free lounge access from one card. TheUnited Club℠ Infinite Card ultimately won because it offers more miles on everyday purchases – and not everyone will care about airport lounge access. See our Citi AAdvantage Executive card review.U.S. Bank Altitude® Reserve Visa Infinite® Card – With a $400 annual fee and a long benefits list including up to $325 in annual credits for travel, this card is a lesser-known gem. However, it didn’t make the cut because you need to be a U.S. Bank customer to apply, and there are fewer options for redeeming your points compared to other premium cards from Amex, Chase, and Citi.
How our list compares to other publications
No matter what type of credit card you’re looking to open, doing your research is key. That means digging into the options and comparing them, and seeing what various experts recommend.
To help streamline the process of finding the right premium card for you, we made this chart that shows how our recommendations align with two other top publications.
| Personal Finance Insider | NerdWallet | The Points Guy | |
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| ✓ | X | X | |
| ✓ | X | X | |
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Frequently asked questions about premium credit cards
How did we choose the best premium credit cards?
Our list of the best premium credit cards doesn’t include every option under the sun – Personal Finance Insider narrowed down our list to the top options. To do so, we used the following criteria:
- Annual fee – It’s a given that premium credit cards charge high annual fees, but some fees are lower than others, and some cards are able to justify the higher fees with benefits like annual statement credits that give you money back.
- Welcome bonus – A welcome offer of bonus points or miles for new cardholders who meet a minimum spending requirement is a great incentive to sign up, and it can help jumpstart your next trip booked with rewards. It’s not the most important factor in deciding whether a premium credit card makes sense for you in the long run, but we did give some weight to how a card’s sign-up bonus stacked up against the competition.
- Ongoing rewards – How many points or miles per dollar does the card offer on everyday spending? The stronger the earnings on purchases, the better.
- Benefits – Beyond earning points and miles, what kinds of benefits does the card offer? Ideally, cardholders will get a strong combination of statement credits that reduce their out-of-pocket spending, travel protections, and extras like airport lounge access.
From there, we looked at the overall value each card offers based on these various features.
Is a premium credit card worth it?
A premium credit card is worth it for some people, but not for others. To decide whether a premium card is worth it for you, you’ll want to look at the card’s benefits and determine how many of them you’ll use. Premium credit cards justify their high annual fees by offering high-end benefits you can’t get with less-expensive cards, but they’ll only be worth it if you can actually put those benefits to use.
Another important step in determining whether a premium credit card is worth it for you is to assess your spending and see if the card will offer you strong rewards on the purchases you make. Some premium cards only offer bonus points when you spend with a particular airline or hotel, while others, like the
What is the best premium credit card?
Just as a premium credit card could be worth it for one person but not make sense for another, the best premium credit card depends very much on the person. Some of the most popular premium cards are the
Which is better – the Chase Sapphire Reserve or the Amex Platinum?
The
Read more: American Express Platinum versus Chase Sapphire Reserve: Which premium card is right for you?
Its annual statement credit of up to $300 applies to all sorts of travel purchases, including those you make close to home like parking, highway tolls, and subway fares. It also earns bonus points on dining, and you can get great value from your points for non-travel purchases like groceries and home improvement.
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