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Erika's Picks for Best Luxury Credit Cards
- Best overall:
American Express Platinum Card® - Best for businesses:
Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ - Best for affordable luxury:
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card - Best for couples:
Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card - Best for frequent hotel stays:
Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card - Best for cashback:
Bank of America® Premium Rewards® Elite Credit Card
Luxury credit cards promise big perks, but with a high price tag.
And while some luxury cards deliver real benefits, others rely on sleek design and aspirational branding to mask a lack of substance.
To separate the truly rewarding from the merely expensive, we conducted a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of every luxury credit card available to U.S. consumers. The ones that met our standards offer enough value to exceed their annual fees several times over.
Best Overall
American Express Platinum Card®
Rewards Rate
- 5x points on flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel® on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year; 1x thereafter
- 5x points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel®
- 1x points on all other spending
Welcome Offer
You may be eligible for as high as 175,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $8,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Welcome offers vary and you may not be eligible for an offer. Apply to know if you’re approved and find out your exact welcome offer amount – all with no credit score impact. If you’re approved and choose to accept the Card, your score may be impacted.
Annual Fee
$895 (rates and fees)
The American Express Platinum Card® backs up its sizable welcome offer with ongoing, best-in-class benefits, like special privileges at over 18,000 hotels worldwide, and better chances of finding a quality airport lounge no matter where you travel.
Its three standout features are:
1. Over $2,000 in annual statement and prepaid credits. These dollar-for-dollar reimbursements and advanced credits apply to card purchases from popular brands and for select travel purchases, including:
- Up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year for incidental airline fees, such as checked bags and in-flight refreshments
- Up to $300 in statement credits semi-annually on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts® or The Hotel Collection bookings through American Express Travel® (The Hotel Collection requires a minimum two-night stay)
- Up to $25 in monthly credits for digital entertainment partners (enrollment required)
- Up to $12.95 monthly for Walmart+ membership (subject to auto-renewal)
- Up to $15 monthly Uber Cash for U.S. orders and rides, plus a $20 Uber Cash bonus in December after you add your card to your Uber account
- Up to $75 quarterly for eligible purchases at U.S. lululemon retail stores (excluding outlets) and lululemon.com (enrollment required)
2. Hilton Honors™ Gold Status and Marriott Bonvoy® Gold Elite Status. Status benefits include an 80% bonus on base points earned from Hilton property stays, a fifth night free at Hilton properties when you redeem Hilton points for four consecutive nights in a standard room, and a 2 p.m. late checkout time at Marriott properties.
3. Access to 1,550+ airport lounges across six lounge networks: Priority Pass, Delta Sky Club, Lufthansa, Plaza Premium, Escape Lounges, and Centurion Lounges.
The American Express Platinum Card® isn’t the only luxury credit card with automatic hotel elite status, airport lounge access, and ample statement credits. But it comes out on top for the average luxury cardholder because:
- Unlike some competitors, most of the Platinum Card’s credits apply to widely used merchants.
- It’s one of the few cards that provides elite status for two major hotel loyalty programs — and the two most popular at that.
- Widespread Priority Pass access has reduced lounge exclusivity, and travelers are often turned away from lounges due to overcrowding. The Platinum Card and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express provide access to more lounge networks than any other credit card, boosting chances you’ll find a spot to recharge between flights in any airport.
Best for Businesses
Sapphire Reserve for Business℠
Rewards Rate
- 8x points on Chase Travel℠ for airline tickets, hotels, including The Edit℠, car rentals, cruises, activities, and tours
- 5x total points on Lyft rides (through 9/30/27)
- 4x points on flights and hotels booked direct
- 3x points on social media and search engine advertising
- 1x points on all other purchases
Welcome Offer
Earn 200,000 bonus points after you spend $30,000 on purchases in your first 6 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$795
The Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ checks all the boxes businesses should look for in a credit card.
Generous merchant credits? Check. It offers over $2,000 in potential annual merchant credits and memberships for all cardmembers and an additional $1,000 in credits if you meet a $120,000 annual card spending minimum.
Elite status? Check. Hitting that $120K annual spending threshold also entitles you to IHG One Rewards’ highest-level “Diamond” status and Southwest Airlines A-List.
Travel insurance? Eight checks. It comes with eight types of travel insurance coverage: trip cancellation and interruption, trip delay, baggage delay, lost luggage, emergency evacuation, emergency medical, travel accident, and primary car rental.
Lounge access? Check. While its lounge entitlements aren’t as wide-reaching as Amex’s Platinum Card®, Sapphire Reserve for Business cardholders and up to two guests can access over 1,300 lounges worldwide via Priority Pass. If those are too crowded, your card gets you into the more exclusive Sapphire Lounges that are popping up in a growing number of airports.
While its headline perks are already impressive on first glance, the Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ really shines once you dig into its fine print and compare its benefits with competitors:
- Most credit cards provide either hotel or airline elite status, not both.
- It includes protections rarely offered by credit cards, like emergency evacuation coverage, giving it more comprehensive travel insurance than its competitors.
- Although most of its credits apply only to specific merchants (ZipRecruiter, Google Workspace, Lyft, etc.), some are impressively flexible. Its $300 annual travel credit applies to virtually any purchase from any travel company.
- The Ultimate Rewards® points it earns for spending are among the most versatile and can be transferred into loyalty programs for some of the world’s largest airlines (United, Southwest, British Airways, Air France-KLM, etc.) or hotel companies (Marriott, IHG, Hyatt); exchanged for cashback at a value of one cent each; or redeemed for flights and hotels through Chase Travel℠ at a value of up to two cents each.
And although some of its features are only unlocked after meeting $120,000 in minimum annual spending, most small businesses easily exceed that, according to data from Intuit QuickBooks.
Best for Affordable Luxury
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Rewards Rate
- 10x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- 5x miles on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel
- 2x miles on all other purchases
Welcome Offer
LIMITED-TIME OFFER: Earn 100,000 bonus miles once you spend $10,000 on purchases in the first 6 months from account opening - equal to $1,000 in travel
Annual Fee
$395
For an annual fee that’s hundreds of dollars lower than most luxury cards, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card offers a respectable collection of benefits, including:
“Affordable” is a relative term — the annual fee on the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is nearly four times the average credit card annual fee listed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
But by luxury card standards, the Venture X is a steal. It overdelivers on benefits for its price point and even outperforms more expensive cards in some respects.
Based on consumer spending data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other trusted sources, we estimate that the average luxury cardholder who focuses spending on the Venture X will earn about 140,000 Capital One miles annually, not including the welcome bonus.
Our estimated annual point hauls for the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and American Express Platinum Card® are much lower, at only 109,000 Chase points and 79,000 Amex Membership Rewards® points.
That said, the Venture X’s lower annual fee also comes with tradeoffs frequent travelers should be aware of:
- Its maximum trip cancellation and interruption benefit ($2,000 per insured person) is low for a luxury card, and it’s missing some common types of credit card travel insurance, like baggage delay coverage.
- It doesn’t provide elite status for any airline or hotel.
- Currently, there are only six Capital One airport lounges and Landing locations.
- Flights from popular airlines like Southwest aren’t always available on the Capital One Travel portal.
Best for Couples
Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express
Rewards Rate
- 3x miles on Delta purchases
- 1x on all other eligible purchases
Welcome Offer
Earn 70,000 Bonus Miles after you spend $5,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
Annual Fee
$650 (rates and fees)
The Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card is a well-rounded option for most folks who fly regularly. Its key air travel features include:
- An automatic $2,500 of Medallion Qualification Dollars for each status qualification year. This gets you halfway to Silver status in Delta Medallion, our top-ranked airline elite status program.
- Unlimited Centurion Lounge access and 15 annual entrances to any of the 50+ global Delta Sky Club lounges. Sky Club access is unlimited after $75,000 of annual card spend.
- First checked bag free per passenger on a Delta flight reservation, up to nine bags per reservation.
- 15% off the SkyMiles needed for Delta award flights booked through Delta.com and the Fly Delta app.
But the card’s knockout perk is its annual Companion Certificate, which offers an additional round-trip ticket for domestic, Caribbean or Central American routes after you buy a primary Delta flight (taxes and fees extra).
The Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card isn’t the only airline credit card that offers a companion fare. But it’s the most flexible and valuable companion fare out there because:
- There’s no minimum annual spending requirement to qualify.
- It applies to any Delta cabin class.
A first-class ticket from the U.S. to Mexico can cost over $2,500 during peak travel season. So, couples, business partners, travel besties, and anyone else who frequently flies with a plus one can strategically use this benefit to offset the card’s annual fee several times over.
The card’s lounge access package is couple-friendly, too. In addition to its 15 annual Delta Sky Club visits, it comes with four one-time Sky Club guest passes, which also renew annually.
Best for Frequent Hotel Stays
Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card
All information about the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by Erika.com. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Rewards Rate
- 14x on eligible purchases made directly with hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio
- 7x on flights booked directly with airlines or through AmexTravel.com and car rentals booked directly with select car rental companies
- 7x at U.S. restaurants, including takeout and delivery
- 3x on all other eligible purchases
Welcome Offer
Earn 175,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases on the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card within your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer ends 1/14/2026.
Annual Fee
$550 (rates and fees)
If you spend as much time in hotel lobbies as your living room, a luxury hotel credit card like the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card can help you earn free nights, elevate your stay experience, and save money on other travel expenses with features like:
- Hilton Honors’ highest elite status (“Diamond”), which gives you executive lounge access, free food at Hilton properties, and double base points earned for Hilton property stays, among other perks
- Up to $400 Hilton resort credit (two $200 semi-annual credits) for eligible purchases made directly with participating Hilton Resorts
- Up to $200 flight credit ($50 quarterly credit) for flights purchased directly from an airline or through amextravel.com
- Up to three free night rewards annually: one regardless of your spending volume, another after making $30,000 in annual card purchases, and a third after $60,000 in annual purchases
- Up to $209 CLEAR® Plus statement credit per calendar year (subject to auto-renewal)
- Up to $100 in credits for qualifying hotel charges when you book a 2-night minimum stay at participating Waldorf Astoria® Hotels & Resorts and Conrad® Hotels & Resorts through hiltonhonorsaspirecard.com (must select the Aspire Card Benefit rate option on the booking page or call Hilton Honors with the booking reference; terms and conditions apply)
Of the major hotel companies, only two — Hilton and Marriott — offer luxury credit cards: the Hilton Aspire and the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card. Both have a rich roster of benefits, and folks who log lots of hotel nights often use both to ensure their stays are comfortable everywhere they travel.
If paying for two luxury cards’ annual fees is beyond your budget and both brands have properties in your favorite destinations, the Aspire usually edges out the Brilliant due to its massive points-earning power.
While the Aspire technically gives you 14 Hilton Honors points per $1 spent on Hilton properties, your automatic Diamond status as an Aspire cardholder increases that earn rate to up to 34 points per $1 spent, the highest rewards rate of any credit card.
We estimate that by concentrating spending on the Aspire, the average luxury carholder will earn about 325,000 Hilton points annually, enough for up to 81 free nights in budget Hilton properties or an unforgettable night at an iconic Hilton property, like Thailand’s Conrad Koh Samui.
Best for Cashback
Bank of America® Premium Rewards® Elite Credit Card
Rewards Rate
- Unlimited 2x points on travel and dining purchases
- Unlimited 1.5x points on all other purchases
Welcome Offer
Get 75,000 online bonus points (a $750 value) after you make $5,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening
Annual Fee
$550
The America® Premium Rewards® Elite Credit Card combines features of cashback cards, travel rewards cards, and relationship banking:
- Its base rewards rate is higher than most luxury credit cards, and points get a minimum redemption value of one cent each.
- Card spending earns 25% to 75% more points if you maintain a minimum combined balance of $20,000 to $100,000 or more across BofA banking and Merrill investment accounts.
- The card offers up to $450 in annual credits toward U.S. airline incidental fees ($300) and lifestyle purchases, like streaming, food delivery, and ridesharing ($150).
- It provides up to four separate Priority Pass Select memberships you can gift to family and friends, without adding them as authorized card users.
- It comes with seven types of travel insurance, positioning it just behind the Chase Sapphire Reserve® among luxury credit cards with extensive travel protections.
BofA points can be redeemed at a value of 1.25 cents each for flights offered in the BofA Travel Center. Alternatively, they can be redeemed for card statement credits or deposits into BofA checking or savings accounts at a cashback-like value of one cent per point.
This is a much higher minimum redemption value than what’s offered by competitors like Capital One miles or Amex Membership Rewards®, which give only about half a cent per point for statement credits.
But unlike most of its competitors, BofA points can’t be converted into rewards for airline or hotel loyalty programs.
This makes the Premium Rewards Elite card a good fit for folks who want essential luxury card features (statement credits, airport lounge access, travel insurance, etc.) and a consistent return on spending but don’t have the bandwidth for the more complex elements of most travel rewards programs, like transferring points and calculating redemption values.
What Is a Luxury Credit Card?
A “luxury” or “premium” credit card typically has an annual fee above $400 or so. Many of them have fees that can exceed the cost of a new iPhone, a pair of Burberry heels, or even a month’s rent. Invitation-only luxury cards can be even pricier.
But in exchange for its high annual fee, a luxury card provides significant perks and benefits that can significantly reduce your day-to-day expenses and make travel more comfortable and secure.
Premium card perks
Luxury credit cards should have benefits you can’t usually get with cards with moderate annual fees, such as:
- Free, preferably unlimited access to multiple airport lounge networks
- Automatic upper-level elite status for hotel and airline loyalty programs, or accelerated status qualification
- Thorough travel insurance that covers nonrefundable airfare and hotel bookings, delayed bags or flights, lost luggage, and emergency medical transportation if travel goes awry
- Significant statement credits that reimburse card purchases made from specific merchants or any merchant within a broad purchase category, like restaurants or travel
Premium card rewards
Purchases made with premium credit cards earn rewards points of varying value and flexibility, depending on the card type:
- Luxury cashback cards earn moderate rewards in all spending categories and have predictable redemption values, but their rewards can’t be combined with airline miles or hotel points.
- Cards “co-branded” with a hotel company earn lots of points for spending. But their points get relatively low value when redeemed for nights at their hotel company’s properties, and they don’t transfer into other loyalty programs at favorable ratios.
- Co-branded airline cards earn miles at elevated rates for spending with their co-branded airline. But their rates in everyday spending categories tend to be low, and their miles usually can’t be redeemed for many flights outside their airline’s alliance.
- Transferable-points credit cards earn at elevated rates for spending within their issuer’s travel portals and at varying rates in other purchase categories. Their points can be transferred to loyalty programs for major hotel companies and airlines across multiple alliances, allowing you to selectively redeem them for the best deals available.
Not all luxury cards earn more points for spending than cards with lower annual fees. For example, we estimate that the average luxury cardholder will earn about 79,000 Amex points annually by focusing their spending on the American Express Platinum Card®
The same spending on the American Express® Gold Card, which has a much lower annual fee, will earn an estimated 106,000 points annually. But the Amex Gold offers less than one-third of the Platinum Card's annual statement and prepaid credits, and it doesn’t provide airport lounge access or elite status.
How To Choose a Luxury Credit Card
Because there are fewer luxury cards on the market, the selection process is generally less complex than with standard credit cards.
Think business or personal
Start by considering whether you need the card for business or personal use. There are a handful of open-market luxury business cards to choose from:
- Sapphire Reserve for Business℠
- The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
- Capital One Venture X Business
- Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card
- United Club℠ Business Card
Find your niche
Then reflect on your spending and travel habits.
If most of your personal travel budget goes toward airfare, consider:
- Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card
- United Club℠ Card
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®
- JetBlue Premier Card
Focus on cards affiliated with airlines that have a large flight volume in your local airports.
If you spend more on hotels than flights, take a look at the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card and the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card. Remember, although both companies have a large global footprint, some travel destinations have properties from one but not the other.
If your travel spend is evenly split among flights and hotels, choose from:
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- American Express Platinum Card®
- Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
- Bank of America® Premium Rewards® Elite Credit Card
Once you’ve narrowed the options down, read in-depth card reviews from unbiased sources to get a sense of the more nuanced details that give one card the edge over the others.
Bottom Line: Are Luxury Credit Cards Worth It?
The cost-benefit analysis you should run before applying for or renewing any credit card is particularly critical in the luxury market, where annual fees can be exorbitant and some cards are all flash and little function.
Only apply for a luxury credit card if you’ll comfortably meet its welcome offer’s spending requirements based on your planned upcoming purchases, and at least three of these statements apply:
- You take at least four out-of-state trips annually.
- Your annual card spending will earn enough rewards points to offset at least 75% of its annual fee when redeeming the points for a value of one cent each.
- You’ll use enough of its merchant credits to offset 75% or more of its annual fee without modifying your brand usage.
- It provides access to a lounge with reasonable wait times in your home airport.
- It provides elite status or significant status-qualifying shortcuts for a major hotel or airline rewards program.
Otherwise, a credit card with a more modest annual fee may be a better fit for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who qualifies for luxury credit cards?
Luxury credit cards are intended for affluent individuals and business owners with very good credit scores.
Many luxury cards — including those analyzed on this page — are publicly available, and you can apply for them like any other credit card. But some luxury cards are available by invitation only.
What’s a “black card”?
“Black card” is an unofficial name for the invitation-only Centurion Card from American Express. It has a $5,000 annual fee and a $10,000 initiation fee, making it the most expensive luxury card.
What are incidental fees for airlines?
Incidental fees are fees charged by airlines for services they provide other than the flight itself.
Fees for checked bags, airport lounge guest entrance, and in-flight food generally count as incidental. Airfare, cabin upgrades, and fees for buying miles usually don’t count.
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Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
