What’s in
Our Wallet?

Every card we carry, ranked — why we have it, and what we actually use it for

Some links below are referral links — we may earn a bonus if you’re approved. We only feature cards we personally carry and use. Card terms change often; confirm current details with the issuer.

These are our cards in the order we’d recommend getting them — ranked by how much value they’ve actually delivered for our family, not by annual fee or hype. Each card has a couple of quick tags so you can see at a glance who it’s best for, and whether it’s a long-term keeper or a card you might open for the bonus and reassess later.

What the tags mean

🌱 Best for Beginners A great first travel card.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Best for Families Perks that genuinely matter when you travel with kids.

🔒 Keeper We renew this one year after year.

👥 Both Spouses Worth holding two — the benefits stack.

👤 One Is Enough One card between the two of us covers it.

⭐ Rank #1 — Start Here

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Chase Sapphire Preferred

$95 annual fee

🌱 Best for Beginners 🔒 Keeper 👤 One Is Enough

Why we like it: If you only ever get one travel card, make it this one. Modest fee, a consistently strong sign-up bonus, and the points are flexible enough to cover almost anything. It’s the card we’d hand a friend who’s just starting out.

🏨 Hyatt is the magic. The best use of Chase points, hands down. Every one of our standout Hyatt stays — including the Grand Hyatt Kauai, Hyatt Regency stays, and many more — came from transferring Chase points to Hyatt.

✈️ Airline transfers too. Chase points move to Avios, Virgin Atlantic and more — handy for flight redemptions when Hyatt isn’t the play.

🛡️ Trip insurance saved us twice — both times a kid got sick before a trip, we recovered non-refundable costs in full.

🍽️ 3x points on dining — all our restaurant spending goes here.

Apply for Chase Sapphire Preferred →

🥈 Rank #2 — Almost the Perfect Family Card

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Bilt Palladium Card

$495 annual fee — credits can offset most of it

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Best for Families 🔒 Keeper 👥 Both Spouses

Why we like it: This is the card that surprised us most. Bilt points are widely considered some of the highest-value transferable points out there — thanks to a strong partner list and, crucially, frequent transfer bonuses you won’t find elsewhere. It’s almost the perfect card for a traveling family.

🏆 Costa Rica for 75K points. Midwest to Costa Rica, family of four — flights priced at 15K Avios per person each way (120K total). A 60% Bilt transfer bonus meant we only had to move 75K Bilt points. Cash price would have been $2,500+. That bonus is the whole point of Bilt.

🏡 Points on your mortgage. Bilt is the rare card that lets you earn points on rent and mortgage payments — spending you’re doing anyway, that no other card rewards.

🛋️ Priority Pass that fits a family. The Bilt Priority Pass lets you bring 2 guests free — a big deal for us, especially since Capital One tightened its policy to cardholder-only.

💵 2x on everyday spend plus a $400 annual hotel credit (two $200 chunks) through the Bilt travel portal, and an annual Bilt Cash bonus.

🎁 Welcome bonus: 50,000 Bilt Points + Gold Status + $300 in Bilt Cash — not too shabby for getting started.

⚠️ The honest catch: Bilt is a newer card and the rollout has been a little rough. Putting the extra Bilt Cash to use can be fiddly. Worth knowing before you apply — but it hasn’t changed our verdict.

Learn About the Bilt Palladium Card →

🥉 Rank #3 — The Easy Premium Card

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Capital One Venture X

$395 fee — offset to essentially free

🔒 Keeper 👤 One Is Enough

Why we like it: The most low-effort premium card we carry. The credits basically erase the fee, and you don’t have to think hard to come out ahead. Still a keeper — though since Capital One dropped Priority Pass guest access, we lean on Bilt for lounge visits as a family.

✈️ Sign-up bonus → flights to India. We used part of the welcome bonus for one-way Turkish Airlines economy tickets, DTW–DEL, at just 35K miles each.

🌺 Transferred to Finnair Avios to book our Hawaii flights — a great example of Capital One’s transfer partners coming through.

💵 $300 travel credit + 10K anniversary points each year. Net effective annual fee: essentially $0 or better.

🚗 Hertz President’s Circle status included. Skip the counter, pick your car, drive off — a 15-minute process instead of a 90-minute line.

🛋️ Priority Pass + Capital One Lounges — but note: guest access was removed, so it’s now cardholder-only.

🛒 2x on everything — daycare, groceries, all general spending lands here.

Apply for Capital One Venture X →

🏨 Rank #4 — The Family Hotel Powerhouse

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Hilton Honors Amex Aspire

$550 annual fee — credits make it close to a wash

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Best for Families 🔒 Keeper 👥 Both Spouses

Why we like it: Refreshingly common-sense for a premium card — the credits are genuinely easy to use, no extreme-couponing required. The Free Night Reward alone does most of the heavy lifting, and top-tier-level Hilton Diamond status pays off again and again, especially abroad.

🎁 The Free Night Reward crushes it. One free night per year, every year — it can be worth far more than the fee on a single good redemption. This benefit alone is why we keep the card.

👥 Both spouses should hold this. Two cards means two Free Night Rewards — stack them for back-to-back free nights and turn one perk into a multi-night stay.

⭐ Hilton Diamond status just for holding the card — free breakfast, room upgrades and lounge access. It goes a long way, particularly at international properties.

🏖️ $400 Hilton resort credit — up to $200 in statement credits twice a year at participating Hilton resorts. Easy, predictable, no hoops.

✈️ Airline fee credit + CLEAR Plus credit — both straightforward to use, and the CLEAR credit covers a full membership.

💳 7x earning on flights, car rentals and U.S. restaurants — strong rates on the spending categories that come up most when you travel.

Learn About the Hilton Aspire Card →

🏩 Rank #5 — The Workhorse Hotel Cards

We rank these two together — same idea, two different chains. Low fees, and each one hands you a free night certificate every year. The real move: we hold two of each and stack the certs, so a single perk becomes a two-night stay. Easy keepers.

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Chase IHG Premier

$99 annual fee · we hold two

🔒 Keeper 👥 Both Spouses

Why we like it: The annual free night cert pays the fee back instantly, and IHG’s 4th-night-free on points stretches longer stays. IHG includes Kimpton — which is how we landed the coveted Kimpton Seafire in Grand Cayman.

🎁 Free night cert (40K points) every year — and with two cards, we stack two certs annually. We’ve used them at gorgeous Kimptons like the Kimpton Banneker in DC and the Holiday Inn in Estes Park.

🌋 IHG points across Hawaii. We’ve used IHG points for Holiday Inn stays on both the Big Island and Oahu — plus the big one, the Kimpton Seafire in Grand Cayman.

🌙 4th night free on points — book 3 nights with points, the 4th is automatically free.

✈️ $50 United TravelBank cash + a Global Entry / TSA PreCheck credit each year.

Apply for Chase IHG Premier →

🌺

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless

$95 annual fee · we hold two

🔒 Keeper 👥 Both Spouses

Why we like it: Same logic as the IHG card for the world’s biggest hotel network. We carry two Bonvoy Boundless cards and stack the free night certs every year, and Marriott’s 5th-night-free is great for week-long trips.

🎁 Free night cert (35K points) every year — with two cards, two certs annually, which we stack into back-to-back free nights.

⛰️ Marriott certs and points took us far: 3 nights at the Moxy in Banff and 2 at Kananaskis, 2 at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott on the Big Island, 2 at ITC Goa, and a night at the Westin Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale.

🌙 5th night free on points — redeem 4 nights, get the 5th automatically. We’ve used this in Hawaii and Banff.

Apply for Marriott Bonvoy Boundless →

⚜️ Rank #6 — For Advanced Players

⚜️

American Express Platinum

$895 fee — over $3,500 in annual credits if you actually use them

👤 One Is Enough 🎯 Advanced Players

Why we like it: An excellent card — with a very high fee. The sign-up bonus is fantastic (often around 175K points). But the credits are split into so many monthly and quarterly pieces that using them feels like extreme couponing. We rank it last not because it’s bad, but because it asks the most of you. Best once you’re comfortable juggling benefits.

🏨 $600 hotel credit — $300 semi-annually on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection stays through Amex Travel. We’ve used this at the Swan & Dolphin (Disney) and Portofino Bay (Universal), plus FHR perks: $100 property credit, free breakfast, room upgrades, and 4PM late checkout.

🍽️ $400 Resy credit — $100 each quarter at U.S. Resy restaurants. Easy to use even on quick family dinners.

📺 $300 digital entertainment credit — $25/month toward Disney+, Hulu, YouTube TV, Peacock, Paramount+, NYT, WSJ and more. Kids’ streaming basically covered.

🛂 $209 CLEAR+ credit — full reimbursement of an annual CLEAR membership. With two kids in tow, skipping the security line is priceless.

🚗 $200 Uber Cash + $120 Uber One — $15/month Uber Cash plus a $20 December bonus, plus Uber One credits. Handy on airport days and for food delivery while traveling.

✈️ $200 airline fee credit — covers checked bags, seat selection and in-flight incidentals on a pre-selected airline.

🧘 $300 Lululemon credit — $75 each quarter. Easy to stack with sales; CrossFit gear sorted.

🛋️ Best-in-class lounge access — Centurion Lounges, Delta Sky Club (on Delta flights), Priority Pass Select and partner lounges. Over 1,550 lounges worldwide.

⭐ Automatic Hilton Gold + Marriott Gold status (enrollment required) — free breakfast at Hilton, upgrades when available, and bonus points on stays.

💎 5x points on flights booked direct or via Amex Travel, plus 5x on prepaid hotels through Amex Travel. Everyday earning is weak — pair it with a Chase card or Amex Gold.

Apply for Amex Platinum →

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How We Play It as a Couple

The single biggest lever for a two-adult household is treating your cards as a team rather than two separate wallets. Two things we do:

🎁 Stagger sign-up bonuses — and refer each other. One of us opens a card and earns the welcome bonus. Months later, the first cardholder sends a referral link to the other, who applies and earns the welcome bonus too. Now you’ve collected three bonuses from one card — two welcome bonuses plus a referral bonus — easily the fastest way to build a points balance.

🏨 Double up and stack free nights. We hold two each of the Hilton Aspire, IHG Premier and Marriott Bonvoy Boundless — so every year we collect two free night certs per program and stack them into back-to-back stays. One perk becomes a two-night getaway.

👥 Watch the “Both Spouses” tag above. Cards marked 👥 reward a second copy — usually because the free night cert or credits stack. Cards marked 👤 don’t, so there’s no reason to pay a second annual fee.

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Quick Reference

Rank	Card	Fee	Best For
#1	Chase Sapphire Preferred	$95	Start here. Best all-rounder; Hyatt transfers.
#2	Bilt Palladium	$495*	Families; transfer bonuses; mortgage points.
#3	Capital One Venture X	$395*	Easy premium card; 2x everything; lounges.
#4	Hilton Aspire	$550*	Hilton families; free night + Diamond status.
#5	Chase IHG Premier	$99	IHG hotels; free night; 4th night free.
#5	Marriott Bonvoy Boundless	$95	Marriott hotels; free night; 5th night free.
#6	Amex Platinum	$895*	Advanced players; huge bonus; many credits.

*Annual credits and perks offset these fees significantly — see each card above for details. Fees and benefits change; confirm current terms with the issuer.

✈️ What about airline cards? We also carry United, American and Alaska airline cards — but airline cards work differently enough that they deserve their own page rather than crowding this one. An airline cards guide is on the way. In the meantime, our Flights Guide → covers how we book flights with points.

New to travel cards? Read our full rewards explainer first

Start Here →

What’s inOur Wallet?