Top 5 Travel Credit Cards Million Mile Secret Agents Are Signing-Up for Right Now
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Here’s what hot with readers this month:
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard®
- CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Mastercard®
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- Chase Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card
- Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card
Let’s take a look at why each card is so popular right now.
Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard®
Our Review of the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select
Folks are jumping on this for 2 main reasons:
1 – The bonus and benefits are really good
2 – Citi says they will pull this offer off the market. So Million Mile Secret Agents are getting in while they can.
With this credit card, you’ll earn 60,000 American Airlines miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months of opening your account.
This intro bonus can easily get you $1,000 or more worth of flights.
You’re NOT limited to flying on American Airlines either! You get access to American Airlines’ partners.
For example, folks on our team have flown First Class to India on Etihad just by using American Airlines miles and ~$20 in fees! Sure, most of us here would never pay the $9,500 cost. But we’ll take the amazing luxury experience! It sure beats being cramped in coach when you’re in the air for so many hours! (That trip costs more than the bonus offer, but your miles will add up fast.)
After you’re approved for your card, come back here and we’ll show you how to book flights like that as well as easy trips like using 60,000 American Airlines miles for
- 2 round-trip flights within the mainland US
- round-trip flight to Europe
- Buenos Aires round-trip (ask Meghan why she loved it!)
Cardholders get perks like preferred boarding and free checked baggage.
The card has a $99 annual fee starting in year two. So you pay $0 for your first 12 months. Basically, Citi lets you try it out for ~11 months to decide if it’s worth keeping. If you fly American Airlines, the free checked baggage could be enough to make this credit card worth keeping.
Apply Here: Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard®CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Mastercard®
Our Review of the CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Select
With the Citi American Airlines Platinum Select business credit card you will earn 70,000 American Airlines miles after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 4 months of opening your account. This is also a limited-time offer.
Tip: Do you have a small business but don’t have employees? You can apply for business credit cards using your social security number and your name as your business name. Meghan and Jasmin on our team do this.With the intro bonus of 70,000 American Airlines miles, you can get more than $1,500 worth of flights.
Here are some fun trips you can take with the bonus:
- Hawaii: 45,000 American Airlines miles for a round-trip flight to paradise
- Mainland America: 75,000 American Airlines miles (you’ll have at least 74,000 miles after meeting the minimum spending requirement) for 3 round-trip flights within the mainland US, including New Jersey
- Machu Picchu: 60,000 American Airlines miles gets you a round-trip flight to Peru!
- Japan: 65,000 American Airlines miles gets you a round-trip flight to Tokyo during off-peak dates
- India: Stretch your legs in Business Class when you use 70,000 American Airlines miles for a one-way flight
The annual fee for this business credit card is $0 in year one. After that it’s $95 per year. So you can decide then if all those free checked bags make the card worth it.
Apply Here: CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Mastercard®Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Our Review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is our #1 pick for travelers new to using miles and points. It’s a versatile card with a $0 intro annual fee in year one, so it’s easy to try out the hobby to see how you like it! In year 2, the annual fee is $95. Personally, I’ve paid this fee for years and years because it’s totally worth it.
This is the card I use to transfer my Chase Ultimate Rewards points to airlines for award flights to Europe. In fact, I just did that to fly round-trip in Business Class during peak summer season! And even though I don’t live in a big airline hub, the award ticket covered my connecting flight at no extra cost.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card comes with a 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards point bonus after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months of opening your account.
What travel can you get with 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points?
You can transfer them to United Airlines to travel to:
- Mainland US, Alaska, and Canada: 2 round-trip flights
- Costa Rica, Belize, and other parts of Central America round-trip
- Australia and New Zealand one-way
- Mexico round-trip
- Hawaii round-trip
Or transfer them to Hyatt for luxury hotel stays like:
- Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort (2 nights)
- Hyatt Centric South Beach Miami (3 nights)
- Park Hyatt Maldives (2 nights)
- Grand Hyatt Melbourne (3 nights)
- Hyatt Zilara Cancun (2 nights) I’ve been twice using points and it’s fantastic.
Or fly away to Hawaii on 2 round-trip Delta flights by transferring to Delta’s partner, Korean Air.
What I really like about the Chase Sapphire Preferred is that it’s impossible to go wrong. If you get stuck, you can always book travel through the Chase portal at 20% off the retail cost. I’ve done this when it was the best option for my flight.
And if you get REALLY stuck and realize you won’t have time to travel, you can wait it out (Chase points don’t expire as long as you keep the card open) or you can cash out your points at a fair rate. ex. the 50,000 point bonus is worth $500 if you want cash back.
Apply here: The Chase Sapphire Preferred
Chase Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card
Our Review of the Chase Ink Business Preferred
When you’re approved for the Ink Business Preferred, you can earn 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s worth $800 in cash back or $1,000 toward travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal.
This is our pick for the #1 BUSINESS travel credit card. Remember, you can sign-up with your social security number and your name as your business name. But you must have a business operation where you’re trying to make a profit. This may include businesses like real estate agent, eBay seller, freelance photographer, Airbnb host, etc.
You can use the sign-up bonus for all the ways I wrote about in the above Chase Sapphire Preferred section. But because this bonus is larger, you can do more travel!
A few fun examples:
- Europe in First Class one-way by transferring to Singapore Airlines (might be the best flight you’ll ever have)
- Europe in Business Class one-way by transferring to United Airlines
- Hong Kong in Business Class one-way by transferring to Singapore Airlines (you’ll have enough points because you’ll also earn points on the minimum spending requirement)
- Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile for 5 nights (Jasmin had a great time there by transferring her Chase Ultimate Rewards points)
- Mainland US: 3 round-trip flights by transferring to United Airlines
- Europe: round-trip by transferring to United Airlines
- $1,000 in travel with no blackout dates by using the Chase travel portal
The annual fee is $95 and is worth it if you make use of the many benefits. For instance, you get up to $600 in cell phone insurance when you pay your cell phone bill with the card.
Apply here for the Ink Business Preferred.
Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card
Our Review of the Capital One Venture Card
$500 worth of travel in the form of simple-to-use Venture miles is yours once you get the Capital One Venture card and spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months.You just pay for your travel expenses with your card and then log-in to your account and “erase” the charge by redeeming your miles. You can pay for your cruise, Airbnb, Costco travel package, and of course your flights, hotels, car rentals, and taxis.
I think the Venture card has gained more popularity recently with Million Mile Secret Agents because Capital One has added a TSA PreCheck / Global Entry rebate as a benefit. When you use this card to buy TSA PreCheck ($85) or Global Entry ($100), you’ll get the entire fee reimbursed.
Already have TSA PreCheck? Great! You can use the rebate to purchase it for your travel partner!
Hint: Go for Global Entry. Because when you’re approved, you’ll almost always get stamped for TSA PreCheck too! At least that’s been my experience!Apply here for the Capital One Venture Rewards card.
Bottom Line
Here are the top 5 travel credit cards Million Mile Secret Agents like you are currently being approved for:
Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)
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