Top Travel Cards for 2026
We are going to be going over the top five best travel cards I have on my list for 2026 and why you should probably have them. Starting things off, we’re going to hit number five first, and that is going to be the City Strata Elite. Surprisingly enough, this did make my list. I was actually thinking of putting built on this. I know they’re going to be undergoing changes in February. So, I did not want to preemptively write something that was not going to fit into the video after a month of releasing. But in terms of the City Strata Elite, the credits are okay. You do get your annual fee back if you really try.
Credits and American Airlines Transfer Partners
They’ve got those weird ones that you just don’t normally see, but you also got that $200 splurge credit. And then the biggest reason why I kind of kept it on this list is a transfer ratio of one:1 to American Airlines. That is huge and I think that’s going to be huge for at least the next year. The signup bonus is okay. You know, you get 80 to 100,000 points after 6,000 spend in the first 3 months. The annual fee is $595. It’s a lot, but it’s not that top tier. You can say it is good though because it does have some good travel protections and purchase protections. So, I wouldn’t keep it totally off the list because of all that. And then to add on to that, you have some solid earnings rates, especially through the best travel card portal.
Earnings Through the Travel Portal
12 points on hotels and car rentals, six points on airfare, and you get that 1.5 points per dollar multiplier, three points on restaurants, and then six points on restaurants on Friday and Saturday night. It’s a pretty decent offer overall, especially because you have that transferred American Airlines. If you didn’t have that transfer to American Airlines, I don’t know if I’d put this on this list just because it doesn’t offer that many benefits compared to a lot of other cards. But because you can earn American Airlines points at a very high rate, 12, 6, 3, or 1.5, it’s a solid card and I do expect it to stay on this list at least for the next year. Only thing is with this card being a transfer partner to American Airlines, you’re going to see American Airlines award space dry up.
It’s going to be pretty hard to find them. So, I would say this would be a better year to take advantage of this best travel card. Transfer your points over American Airlines and then dump it after this year.
Card Four: MX Gold
Next up on number four of the list, I have the MX Gold. And yes, that is not a technical travel card. There is great reason to have it. And I think it’s honestly one of the best travel cards, especially better than the City Strato Elite. So, why do I consider this a travel card? Well, points are travel based, right? And this offers four points per dollar spent on groceries and dining. And then three points per dollar spent on airfare. The four points are both capped at 25 and 50,000 while the three points per dollar spent on airfare is not capped at all.
Groceries and Dining Multipliers
You’re paying that $325 annual fee. You’ll get about $425 back in credits. The best part about this, the credits are really easy. It’s all foodbased. And if you do have a lot of grocery or a lot of food spend, I mean, I don’t think anyone doesn’t, this is a great card to earn those points and benefit you towards your travel. I think it has one of the better earnings rates in the whole market of cards combined just because you get those high earnings rates and groceries and dining.
Those are some of your biggest spends monthtomonth. And if you can earn the max points and then put those points towards travel, I think that makes it a great best travel cards. Not only that, you’re going to get three points per dollar spent on airfare, which is a solid amount compared to a lot of other cards.
Comparing Airfare and Protections
If you notice something in the City Strata Elite, if you do not book through the best travel card portal, you do not get any point multiplier besides the 1.5 points per dollar multiplier that you get at a base. Having that three points per dollar base on airfare is a solid option. It doesn’t have the best travel protections, but it is a solid option for earning points towards travel.
Card Three: Chase Sapphire Reserve
Next up on the list, number three, the Chase Sapphire Reserve. And yes, it is coming at number three, and I do think it could swap with number two, depending on what happens this year. Right now, it’s at number three. Reason why you’re paying $795 for it. You do have a ton of credits to earn. I’ve gone over in the VU videos. Go check that out if you want to learn more about the details. But this card has a lot of potential for this next year. If you remember back in September when AMX was just about to refresh the platinum, they launched another $250 hotel credit for the Chase Sapphire Reserve on this 2026 year.
And one thing they noted was that they were going to be changing things throughout the years with this best travel card. And it’s not going to just be a 3 4 year cycle and it’s going to be shorter. There’s going to be more credits to be added and subtracted. So that’s why I do like this card. It’s going to have a lot of potential to be changed over the next year. And I do see changes coming, especially because the MX Platinum blows it out of the water on the credit side.
Industry Leading Transfer Partners
But this card has solid earnings rates with the best travel card portal. And not only that, you’re going to get that high signup bonus of at least 125,000 points. And the reason why this card is at number three, and the reason why all that matters is because you’re going to have the best transfer partners on the market through Chase. Yes, Built shares a lot of them, but Built is not a total travel card yet. Chase has some of the best transfer partners. You have Hyatt, you have Southwest, United. Those are for the people in the States. All these transfer partners make a solid way to redeem your points. An easy way to redeem your points and an easy way to get a lot of value out of this card.
Card Two: Venture X
Next up, number two, not surprisingly, it is going to be the Venture X. It’s pretty simple why Venture X is number two on my list. It is cheap to hold compared to other cards. You’re coming with a $395 annual fee compared to all the other cards on this list. It is the second lowest annual fee. And then comparing to every travel card that’s high-end. It is the lowest. I like that it’s nice to hold. It’s cheap to hold
Not only that, you’re only going to have to have two credits. Really, only one you have to earn throughout the year. You get that $300 travel credit when you book through their travel portal and then a 10,000 point bonus each year you hold the card. You’re getting $400 pretty much back immediately after you just make one purchase through the travel portal. That’s why it makes it so easy to hold this card.
Multipliers and Transfer Ecosystems
You have no shenanigans with getting 500 different credits each month, each week, each quarter, each half year. You have one credit to earn once a year, 10,000 point bonus coming to you. Again, with that, not only that, you have a two point for dollar multiplier on every single thing you purchase with this card. And it’s not capp. Those things put this card near the top of my list because it is so easy to hold.
Not to mention, you do have a small signup bonus, but that does play into effect because you do get some very solid transfer partners. I would say it’s the most diverse transfer ecosystem in the market just because it has so many different options. The only thing it is missing though is hotels. It doesn’t have a good option like Marriott, IHG, Hyatt, or Hilton. If they could add one of those or two of those, that would make it a very solid option.
Card One: MX Platinum
Last but not least, you’re probably guessing it. It’s going to be the MX Platinum. And this is the number one card on my list I think you should have for 2026. Back in September, this card was refreshed. It changed a lot. It went up $200 annual fee. You’re paying $895 a year for this card. But you’re going to get a massive up to 175,000 point signup bonus. Just depends on what they give you. The credits are really easy to earn. You have quarterly credits. You have semiannual credits, a couple monthly credits, but that’s it. The lifestyle credits are simple. You just have to spend at the place and you get the cash back.
Easy Credits and High Value
The hotel credit is really nice because you get a lot of value. $300 is a lot of money out of the hotel credit. You get that twice a year. The airline credits easy to use. All of that. I do have a review on the card, but the reason why this card is so good is because the credits are easy to use. You don’t have to jump through hoops to get your credits. Get that cash back and you can get it pretty easily. You can either take the lifestyle way or you can take the travel way.
Both ways, if you use all the credits, will get you that annual fee back and plus more. They advertise at $3500 plus in value. And that is really easy to see with this card. The only downside to it is it is expensive. It is $895. If you can’t spend at least $900 to get the credits and you can’t get that signup bonus, there’s no reason to get this card. But because it is such a high annual fee, you get that tremendous value. And that’s why it is at my number one on the list, I think you can get some outstanding value, especially if you apply around December of the current year or whatnot because you can then triple dip or if you’re able to double dip, it makes the card even better.
