In the realm of everything travel, maximizing rewards and points on credit cards is essential. Why go through the mundanes of taking 20+ flights a year to only miss out on the thousands of points that come along with it?
That’s why Uproxx is rolling out a series of articles for the new year ahead with the best credit card and travel hacking experts out there — to ensure that you know the best ways to maximize your travel points. From the renowned Chase Ultimate Rewards program to the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, this expert roundup navigates through the intricacies of foreign transaction fees, spending requirements, and the optimal timeframe for redeeming travel rewards.
Because flying first class doesn’t have to be a pipe dream for everyone… not if you use your points correctly.
Whether you’re seeking elevated experiences in hotels and flying first class or accruing benefits at gas stations and grocery stores, let’s dive into the most valuable credit card sign-up bonuses for holiday travel.
Vivian Tu (@your.richbff): Ask Amex Platinum For More
Pre-order “RICH AF: The Winning Money Mindset That Will Change Your Life” here.
This is somewhat of an urban legend but the Amex Platinum — depending on your spending through other Amex cards and how you might have in your savings account — they may offer certain people more to sign up than others. The hot tip here is no matter what you’ve been offered you can call them and just ask for more. You can ask for a 100,000-point signup bonus and some of the time depending on the customer service representative you talk to, you can snag it.
I also think that Capital One Venture X is currently offering a 75,000-mile signup bonus through the end of the year which is a great option, especially knowing their annual fee is $395. Chase Sapphire certainly had a higher welcome signup bonus back in the day of 100,000 but it is now 60,000. But I still think these are worth having. If you want something with a lower annual fee, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is also offering 60,000 bonus signup points and it’s only a $95 annual fee.
Kyle + Kenz Parks (@adventure_parks): Capital One Venture X
Ask your family and friends if they have a referral link for the Capital One Venture X. We consider this to be the best overall card and the signup bonus by referral right now is 90k points after $4,000 in three months. That’s easily one of the best offers for a personal card.
If you’re not feeling the premium-heavy Venture X, the regular Venture card also has a great offer of 75k points after $4,000 in 3 months.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a go-to for many travelers for the ease of redeeming points – especially for domestic travel – and it has a signup bonus of 60k after $4,000 in 3 months.
Angel Trinh (@pennywisetraveler): Southwest Rapids Rewards
The Southwest Companion Pass is one of the best travel hacking deals out there because you can get buy one, get one free flight for almost two years. For the companion, you just need to pay for the taxes $5.60+ each way.
So, for almost all of 2024 and 2025, you can get unlimited buy one, get one free flights.
If you sign up for 2 credit cards (1 business and 1 personal credit card) then you can get Southwest Companion Pass, since the signup bonuses count towards the 135,000 points to get Southwest Companion Pass.
For a personal credit card, I would go with either 1) Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card ($69 Annual Fee) 2) Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card ($99 Annual Fee), or 3) Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card ($149 Annual Fee).
Then sign up for a business credit card. Either 1) Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card ($99 Annual Fee). You can earn 60,000 points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open. Or 2) Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card ($199 Annual Fee). You can earn 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
If you sign up after December 11th, 2023, most likely the signup bonus will drop to 50,000 points so you would need to get one of the personal credit cards and the more expensive business credit card at $199 to get the Southwest Companion Pass.
You can also get both Southwest business cards, but wait at least 30 days between applications. You can find all of Southwest’s credit cards mentioned above here.
Spencer Howard (@straighttothepoints): Chase Freedom Unlimited
The Chase Freedom Unlimited’s new sign-up bonus that offers unlimited matched cashback for 12 months is amazing. The card earns 1.5% on non-bonus spending which doubles to 3% after 12 months. For dining and drugstore purchases that typically earn 3%, that doubles to 6%.
Even better, if you pair the Freedom Unlimited with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can turn that cashback into fully transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Once you do that, you can take advantage of Chase’s many airline and hotel transfer partners.
Thomas Lonergan (@travelliketommy): Capitol One Venture, Chase Sapphire Reserved & Chase Marriott Boundless
Everyone knows the holidays are an expensive time of the year, but it’s also the best time of the year to earn sign-up bonuses for the big spend!
Here are some of the best offers available to maximize your big holiday expenditures!
Core cards:
- Capital One Venture and Capital One Venture X – Earn 75,000 bonus points for spending $4,000 in 90 days.
- Amex Gold – Earn 60,000 points for spending $4,000 in 90 days.
- Chase Sapphire Reserve and Preferred – Earn 60,0000 points for spending $4,000 in 90 days.
Supplemental/sign up bonus only cards:
- American Airlines Barclays Aviator Red – 60,000 bonus AA miles for making just one purchase! You could buy a pack of gum and earn enough points for a one-way ticket to Europe in business class!
- Chase Marriott Boundless – Earn three free nights (worth up to 50k points each) for spending $3,000 in 90 days.
- Amex Hilton Surpass – Earn 170,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 in 180 days.
Allison Tackette (@luckytictac): American Express Platinum
It’s hard to pass up The Platinum Card from American Express with its 100,000 points welcome offer. That’s easily a round-trip flight in business class to Europe using the right transfer partner. It’s also great for lounge access and lifestyle credits. Business owners should take a look at the Chase Ink Unlimited. It’s currently offering 90,000 points that can be used for flights or hotels.
Jess Bohorquez (@pointsbyj): Chase Sapphire Preferred, Capitol One Venture X & Chase Freedom Unlimited
There are a few amazing credit card sign-up bonus offers available that will make holiday travel so much more rewarding! See below for my top three, and check out pointsbyj.com/cards for a full credit card guide.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is my top recommended card for friends and family who are looking for their first travel credit card for earning and redeeming credit card points. The sign-up bonus is 60,000 points when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. It has all the essentials of a great travel card: reasonable annual fee, strong points earning potential, and awesome travel insurance. In fact, it was my first travel credit card in my early twenties, and I still have it today. My personal favorite way to use my Chase points? Transferring my points out to Hyatt for luxury hotel stays. Click here to learn more.
The Capital One Venture X credit card is my #1 most-recommended card to people who want airport lounge access. The sign-up bonus is great: 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. That’s equal to $750 in travel. It does have a substantial annual fee of $395, but offers a $300 annual travel credit and 10k bonus mile anniversary gift – which completely offsets the cost. So, airport lounge access, up to $100 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit, and no foreign transaction fees are all cherries on top. Plus, the card earns 2 miles for every dollar you spend. That simplicity is incredibly valuable if you dislike having to keep track of bonus points-earning categories! Click here to learn more.
Right now, the Chase Freedom Unlimited card has a special sign-up bonus offer: at the end of your first year, Chase will automatically match all the cash back you earned. There is no limit to how much you can earn. The best part is that this will be given in the form of Ultimate Rewards points, so cardholders can transfer points earned into a Chase Sapphire account to maximize their value for travel redemptions! Click here to learn more.
Ryan Horn (@profitsandpoints): Capitol One Venture Rewards
The Capital One Venture Rewards card is offering 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of opening an account. Capital One Miles are awesome because not only can you transfer them to Capital One’s hotel and airline partners, but you can also redeem them for one cent per point to erase ANY travel purchases you charge to your Venture Rewards card.
Not only does that include flights and hotels but also things you normally wouldn’t be able to redeem points for like cruises and Ubers making this bonus worth around $750!
Sierra Smith (@highsierrapoints): Capital One Venture X
The Capital One Venture X card offers a valuable sign-up bonus of 75,000 points, which could translate to over $1,400 in travel if you transfer them to hotel or airline partners. Though it might be a stretch to earn the bonus before the holiday season ends, holiday travelers would still have access to immediate perks like a $300 travel credit, airport lounge access, and 2x points on all purchases.
Adam Hill (@adamhillyeah): Chase Freedom Unlimited, Amex Gold & Amex Platinum
Credit card sign up bonuses fluctuate quite often. I actually have a friend who searches for offers and displays the best current sign-up bonus for a variety of cards here, which will have the most current, up to date best offers. The hardest part for most people is not having a specific strategy in mind and not knowing how to navigate benefits. Sometimes a sexy large sign-up bonus could be a hindrance in the long run, for instance, Delta airlines Amex cards have often come out with these higher than normal sign up offers and while 90k Delta Skymiles sounds great, they don’t hold nearly the same value as say Amex Membership rewards, which you can earn and then transfer over to Delta, though I wouldn’t recommend doing that as you can get way better value of your Amex membership rewards points transferring to the Flying Blue program or Virgin Atlantic, to fly on Delta flights or other Sky team airline members. So the point is, 90k Delta Skymiles is way less valuable than 60k Amex Membership Rewards.
So, depending on your strategy, there are a few cards that currently have a great sign up bonus and are transferable points earning cards that allow you to move points to multiple airline and hotel transfer partners as opposed to having a co branded card that earns with only a specific airline or hotel program.
The no annual fee Chase Freedom Unlimited currently has an offer of earning UNLIMITED matched cash back at the end of the first year. Basically, all the points you earn are doubled. This can be really insane at the end of the year. 3x on dining becomes 6x on dining. 1.5x on all purchases becomes 3x back on all purchases. You catch my drift? If you are under the Chase 5/24 rule and you haven’t applied to this card in 48 months, go for it!
The Amex Gold card (personal) has an offer available for 90k Amex MR points but this is only through personal referral links, which you can find on StraightToThePoints website. On top of the solid offer you earn 4x for dining and grocery stores and 3x when booking flights directly with airlines, plus added perks to offset the $250 annual fee.
The Amex Platinum (personal) has an offer through personal referral links of up to 150k Amex MR points. You can also find this via StraightToThePoints. The card has a rough annual fee of $695 however it comes with perks and benefits to offset that fee and even come out ahead. You just have to determine if these are perks that will benefit you. Do remember that Amex often has transfer bonuses to transfer partners.
If you have a business, I would HIGHLY recommend getting the Chase Ink Preferred with a current sign up bonus of 100K points.
