Comparing Hotel and General-Purpose Travel Credit Cards 

Generally speaking, travel cards pay dividends for everyday spending—you earn points as you pay for purchases with the card, though certain spending categories may be excluded. But they are particularly beneficial if you travel a lot. That’s because when you use the cards for travel-related spending, you accumulate points more quickly—usually at a rate of several points for every dollar you spend. You can then cash in those points for more travel or travel-related perks.

Some issuers provide several “tiers” of cards with different levels of benefits and annual fees. “If the sky is your home,” as Forbes put it in a recent article,¹ it’s more likely that the additional benefits of a premium card—which comes with a higher annual fee—will pay off. Also, some cards include big sign-up bonuses, awarding tens of thousands of points if you spend a specified amount within a few months of signing up—more than enough for some domestic or even international flights.

With general-purpose travel credit cards, your rewards are not tied to a specific airline or hotel chain. You accumulate points in the card issuer’s program, and you can use those points to buy travel via the issuer’s online portal or transfer them to a variety of partners such as airlines, hotel chains, and ride-share services.

When redeeming the points earned with general-purpose travel credit cards, the most popular options include free domestic flights and hotel stays, according to a survey by U.S. News and World Report.² But some cards also provide benefits you can use throughout your journey. Depending on the card, these may include:

• Free access to airport lounges, priority boarding, credits against fees for checked bags or flight changes, and discounts for TSA Precheck and Global Entry fees
• Free rental-car insurance and roadside assistance
• Credits for ride-share services and restaurant meals
• Elite membership status at selected hotel chains, entitling you to perks like room upgrades, free breakfast, Wi-Fi, and early check-in
• Elimination of fees that are usually added to each transaction in a foreign country—the savings can add up if you spend a lot while traveling abroad

Hotel credit cards are co-branded by a hotel company and a card issuer. With a hotel credit card, you accumulate points in the hotel’s rewards program, not the card issuer’s program.

As with general-purpose travel cards, you earn points for everyday purchases, but rewards are bigger for travel-related spending on flights, restaurant meals, and some other expenses, such as gas. As you might expect, you often earn even more points per dollar when you spend directly at the chain’s hotels and resorts.

Because your points accumulate in the hotel’s rewards program, experts say the best way to spend them is with the hotel chain or other hotel brands owned by the same company. That’s why they say hotel credit cards deliver the biggest benefits for people who are loyal to a particular hotel chain and spend a significant amount on hotel expenses.³

Typical hotel credit card benefits include:

• Membership in the hotel’s loyalty program, which comes with perks like free breakfast, late checkout, and room upgrades
• Free hotel stays, room upgrades, and vacation packages at resorts owned by the same company
• Some loyalty programs let you transfer points—although sometimes at a lower exchange rate—to different companies for airline miles, car rentals, and other services.
• Some cards pass along card-issuer benefits such as auto rental insurance, roadside assistance, no foreign transaction fees, and access to airport lounges.

Depending on your travel patterns and goals, it could make sense to combine a general-purpose travel card with a hotel card, experts say.⁴ The hotel card maximizes the benefits of staying at your favorite hotel chain, while the general travel card provides points-earning opportunities that a branded hotel card may not cover, such as flights, cruises and stays at different hotels.