Do the Subtraction Before You Apply
You should finish this page knowing whether to pay a travel-card annual fee this year. Start with the fee. Count a welcome offer only if you will earn it on purchases you were already going to make. Count a statement credit only if it replaces spending you already do. Then set that result next to what a no-annual-fee cash-back card returns on the same purchases.
Leave out lounge visits, elite status, and credits you will not use. They do not offset a fee you still pay. If cash back wins after that cut, skip the travel card. The longer version of points versus a flat rebate is points versus cash back. This page is only the fee.
Three Fees, and What You May Count Against Them
These annual fees are the ones in our card file. A credit counts only when you would have spent the money anyway.
Chase Sapphire Preferred carries an annual fee of $95. The card file lists a $100 annual hotel credit via Chase Travel. Count that $100 only if you already book a hotel that way. The 75,000-point welcome offer counts only if the required spending is ordinary purchases. How that spend window works is in the welcome bonus guide. Preferred versus Reserve, including the higher fee on the Reserve, is Sapphire Preferred vs Reserve.
Capital One Venture X carries an annual fee of $395. The card file lists a $300 annual travel credit on Capital One Travel and 10,000 miles on the account anniversary. Both count only if you will book through Capital One Travel. If you will not, the fee stands. The transfer side of that card is the Capital One miles guide.
The Platinum Card from American Express carries an annual fee of $895. This page does not re-list that credit stack. If you will not use the credits, the fee is the cost. The card-by-card version is is the Amex Platinum worth it.
The Fee Still Needs a Trip You Already Plan
A credit that offsets the fee is not enough. The points have to buy a ticket you would have paid for. Our recorded transatlantic business one-way figure for Air Canada Aeroplan is 60,000 miles. Iberia Plus business to Europe is listed at 40,500 miles one-way, and that figure is an unverified snapshot. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club business on the East Coast Upper Class Saver maximum is 47,500 miles one-way. None of those cells says the seat is open, and none of them is a cash value of the points.
Look up the cash fare for the seat you would actually buy on CheapTickets, one of our booking partners. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Put that fare next to the miles in the cents-per-point calculator. How to value your points is the method, and what cents per point means is how to read one booking.
Chase points that you will transfer are covered in the Chase Ultimate Rewards guide. Amex points are in the Amex Membership Rewards guide. Confirm the seat in the search tool before you move anything.
When the Fee Is the Wrong Trade
Skip the travel card if you rarely pay for flights or hotels, or if you will not move the points. Interest on a balance you carry overwhelms a credit and a welcome offer. If the balance will revolve, a no-annual-fee card you pay in full, or no new card, beats the pitch.
The same answer applies if you will cash the points out at the issuer's portal or statement-credit rate and still pay the fee. That rate is the floor. You would be paying for a complicated cash-back card. A co-branded airline card is a different product from a transferable-points card. How to choose an airline credit card separates those two.
Pick the Card From the Trips, Not the Perk List
If you will not transfer, do not pay for transfers. If you want a rebate and nothing else, stay with cash back. If the credits cover spending you already do, and a trip above is one you will take, compare the transferable cards on the card ranking.
The beginner card guide stays on that first choice. The card quiz narrows it from how you spend. Before a new Chase application, read the Chase 5/24 rule so the fee math is not wasted on an application that will not be approved. Current public offers are on best card offers.
The Bottom Line
Subtract only the credits you will use from the fee in the card file. Keep the card if a trip you already plan, priced in miles and in cash, beats a no-fee rebate on the same spending. If it does not, do not apply.