Category

Which card earns most on portal travel

Every card we track, ranked by what it actually returns per dollar of portal travel spending — annual fee shown beside it, because a rate that loses to its own fee is not a good rate.

Rates re-checked against issuer pages; most recent check September 2, 2026.

The rate we use when a portal charge cannot be identified as a flight, a hotel or a car — which is every portal charge on an uploaded statement, since a statement line gives only a merchant name. Where a card pays different rates on the three, this is the lowest of them, so an unidentified charge is never scored more generously than it might deserve. Cards that pay one flat portal rate simply show that rate here.

Top of the table: Citi Strata Premier at 15¢ per dollar, against a $95 annual fee. Whether that beats a free card depends entirely on how much portal travel spending you actually put through it.

Portal travel — every card we track

#CardRateValue per $Annual feeNotes
1 Citi Strata Premier
Citi
10× 15¢ $95
2 Chase Sapphire Reserve
Chase
14.4¢ $795
3 Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business
Chase
14.4¢ $795
4 Chase Sapphire Preferred
Chase
$95
5 Amex Business Platinum
American Express
8.5¢ $895
6 Amex Platinum
American Express
8.5¢ $895
7 Capital One Venture
Capital One
$95
8 Capital One Venture Business
Capital One
$95
9 Capital One Venture X
Capital One
$395
10 Capital One Venture X Business
Capital One
$395
11 Hilton Honors Amex Surpass
American Express / Hilton
12× $150
12 Bilt Obsidian Card
Bilt
5.4¢ $95
13 Bilt Palladium Card
Bilt
5.4¢ $495
14 Amex Business Gold
American Express
5.1¢ $375
15 Capital One SavorOne
Capital One
5% $39
16 Capital One Spark Cash Plus
Capital One
5% $150
17 Chase Freedom Unlimited
Chase
5%
18 Chase Ink Business Premier
Chase
5% $195
19 Citi Double Cash
Citi
5%
20 Bilt Blue Card
Bilt / Wells Fargo
3.6¢
21 Amex Gold
American Express
3.4¢ $325
22 Wells Fargo Autograph
Wells Fargo
23 Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select
Citi / American Airlines
2.6¢ $99
24 Delta SkyMiles Gold Amex
American Express / Delta
2.4¢ $150
25 Chase Ink Business Preferred
Chase
1.8¢ $95
26 World of Hyatt
Chase / Hyatt
1.7¢ $95
27 Chase Ink Business Unlimited
Chase
1.5% 1.5¢
28 Atmos Rewards Ascent Visa Signature
Bank of America / Alaska
1.4¢ $95
29 Marriott Bonvoy Boundless
Chase / Marriott
1.4¢ $95
30 Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus
Chase / Southwest
1.3¢ $99
31 United Explorer
Chase / United
1.3¢ $150
32 Amex Blue Cash Preferred
American Express
1% $95
33 Chase Ink Business Cash
Chase
1%
34 Discover it Cash Back
Discover
1%

Cents-per-dollar figures use our standard point valuations, not transfer-partner rates. Transferring to an airline or hotel partner at the right moment can beat these numbers; routine redemptions generally will not. We publish the conservative figure on purpose.

Caps matter more than the headline rate for anyone who spends seriously in a category: a 5× rate that stops after $1,500 of spend is a different product from an uncapped 3×. Both are shown above.

This is a curated catalogue of the cards we track, not every card on the market. Rates can change without notice; confirm with the issuer before applying.

Disclosure — some Apply links pay us. Some of the cards listed here carry a referral link and some do not; each card’s own page says which. Where one exists, applying through it earns a referral reward for MaxMyPoints or for someone here, at no cost to you, and the offer through it is sometimes better than the issuer’s public one. Rates here are read from each issuer’s own published page, and the audit ranks cards on published rates and your own spending, and never reads which cards carry a referral link. These pages carry no application links.

All cards we track

This page ranks categories. Your statements know what you actually bought.

A table of published rates can tell you which card is best in theory. It cannot tell you what last year cost you, because it has never seen a line of your spending. The audit reads a full 12 months and prices every purchase against the card you used and the card you should have.

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