When I wrote the article for the best cashback cards, I noticed some edge cases where other cards might be better—but only if you spend a lot. For those of you with substantial annual airfare expenses, you can access cashback rewards that far exceed the standard 3% cashback you’d get on a basic travel card or even the 5.55% that was in my original article. Just to note, I left cards like the Citi Cash Rewards Card off because of its low spend limit and when doing break-even calculations, I calculated based on the whole of annual fee, if you were seriously looking the break-even point should be lower as most cards have useful credits.
Baseline Option: 3% Cashback on Travel
Many cards, such as the Venmo Credit or Wells Fargo Autograph®, offer a solid 3% cashback on travel. These cards are easy to obtain and provide reliable rewards without any fuss. They serve as a useful benchmark for comparing higher-tier options.
Stepping Up: The Smartly Credit Card
For those with $100k with US Bank, the Smartly Credit Card delivers 4% cashback on every purchase.
Booking Through a Travel Portal: Earning 5%+
If you’re okay/work allows you to use a travel portal to book flights, you can 5% back on quite a few cards such as Chase Freedom Unlimited or Capital One cards and have no annual fee or other requirements.
5% Back - No Portal Needed
The GreenState CU World Mastercard gives 5% back on travel with no limit but there is now a hard geo-fence to get credit cards with them. Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota (you can still join the credit union through the American Consumer Council).
The standard best option: Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards
BoA’s Customized Cash Rewards lets you choose travel as your bonus category, earning 5.25% cashback on airfare—but only on the first $2,500 each quarter.
Unlimited High-Spend Option: Truist Wealth Credit Card
It offers an unlimited 5.25% cashback on travel spend. However, you need at least $1 million in investable assets with Truist. You don’t see much about this card, and with the requirements and the lack of a niche, that makes sense.
Annual Fee: $450
Break-Even: If you spend over $36,000 per year on airfare, but we’ll see better cards later in this list.
A Flexible Approach for High Spend
- Amex Platinum Schwab Card For airfare and cashback, it has to be the Schwab variant of the Amex Platinum.
Earning: The Platinum earns 5× MR points on airfare booked either directly or via Amex Travel. Limit of $500,000 a year.
Redemption Boost: When you redeem your points through Schwab, they’re valued at 1.1¢ per point (compared to the typical 0.6¢ when redeemed as a statement credit).
Effective Cashback: This translates into an effective return of about 5.5% on airfare spend. Also, if you can find sweet spots on travel, you can keep the MR points to be even more efficient with spend.
Ideal For: High-volume fliers who can consistently redeem points at the higher Schwab rate.
Break-Even: $46,333 spend required to earn more cashback against the Smartly.
- The 6× Option (Elan Visa® Reserve Rewards+ Credit Card)
The highest straight cashback option on this list, but it has to be done through a travel portal. This Elan card doesn’t have many reviews as it doesn’t excel, apart from this category. You do need to book through their travel portal though. If you want this card, you need to find a bank that provides it (many smaller banks do).
Earning: The Elan Visa® Reserve Rewards+ card offers 6× points on travel booked through its dedicated Rewards Center.
Redemption: With a standard conversion of 1¢ per point, that’s a straight 6% return on your spend.
Ideal For: Travelers who spend heavily and can reliably channel their purchases through the portal to capture the 6× multiplier. Break-Even: $19,500 spend required to earn more cashback against the Smartly.
- Chase Sapphire Reserve’s 7.5% Combo
Earning: The Sapphire Reserve earns 5× points on airfare when you book through Chase Travel.
Redemption Value: When you redeem these points for travel through the Chase portal, they’re worth 1.5¢ each.
Effective Cashback: This combination yields an effective 7.5% return on airfare spend (5 × 1.5¢ = 7.5¢ per dollar) but this isn’t cash, and has to be used in the portal.
- Amex Platinum & Centurion
Earning: The Amex Platinum earns 5× points on airfare, still a $500,000 limit.
Redemption Power: With the Amex Business Centurion’s Pay With Points feature, you can receive up to a 50% rebate on your points, effectively doubling the value of your earnings.
Effective Cashback: This can push your effective return on airfare to as high as 10%, though this is a niche strategy reserved for very high spenders with significant assets, but it’s not cash. For those traveling this much, you should be able to burn through acquired points quickly.
Let me know if I missed any cards or options.
