Thinking of applying for a travel credit card, then you have landed on the right page. In this article, we have covered everything about travel credit cards and how they work. Having the right credit card is the only key to making your experience more rewarding with it. Know your spending habits and needs so that you can choose the right credit card. You can find affordable travel credit cards to premium travel credit cards in the market. Choose the one which suits your profile. Without any further ado let’s begin with the research on travel credit cards.
What are travel credit cards?
The incentives of travel credit cards revolve around travel expenditures. Every time you spend on travel categories you earn miles/reward points which you can use to further for booking flights/hotels or for other categories as well. These credit cards are specifically designed to meet the needs of frequent flyers. These are the most rewarding credit cards as compared to other types of credit cards as they offer shopping benefits, dining benefits, movie benefits, travel benefits, and various other benefits as well.
How do travel credit cards work?
Most travel credit cards are offered in association with the airlines. Such as Air India SBI Signature credit card, Etihad Guest SBI Premier Credit Card, and so on. There are other travel credit cards also which are partnered with a chain of hotels/resorts or with online travel portals such as Yatra SBI Credit Card, MakeMyTrip ICICI Signature Credit Card, and so on. And there are some travel generic credit cards as well which you can avail of like Citibank Premier Miles Credit Card, HDFC Bank Diners Club Miles Credit Card, and so on.
Some of these credit cards even provide complimentary membership to the partner airline’s frequent flyer program on achieving the spend-based milestones.
Features and Benefits of Travel Credit Card:
With the airline credit cards, you get to earn specific Airmiles on the travel spends whereas on the generic travel credit cards you get to earn reward points. The key highlights of the travel credit cards are as follows:
- Complimentary Lounge Access: On the travel credit cards you get complimentary airport lounge access. Also, some travel credit cards provide you the IRCTC Lounge access.
- Welcome benefits: To make the credit cardholder’s experience more rewarding the credit card issuers provide you with welcome benefits of complementary vouchers and Airmiles.
- Accelerated reward points: Travel credit cards offer you accelerated reward points on travel categories and on other categories as well. You can use your credit card to earn those reward points to further use for purchasing products from the product catalogue or for booking flights/hotels.
- Loyalty programs: Some of the premium travel credit cards offer the advantage of loyalty programs that allows you to enjoy complimentary stays at partner hotels or enjoy complimentary meals/desserts as well.
Bottom Line:
With the parting thought, travel credit cards are highly rewarding without a doubt. After identifying your needs and spending habits if travel credit cards fit perfectly with them then you should definitely go for a travel credit card. You can enjoy from shopping benefits to entertainment benefits along with the travel benefits on these credit cards. Just to remind you, you need to keep your credit card dues clear and maintain a low credit utilisation ratio in order to keep enjoying the features and benefits of your credit card.
Do share your experience with a travel credit card in the comment section.