It’s Spring Break season and the weather is only starting to warm up across much of the country, but it’s actually now or never if you want to plan a summer trip. That’s particularly true if you’re hoping to score free travel with a credit card sign-up bonus.
It pays to plan ahead
The best introductory offers require spending a few thousand dollars within your first few months of opening the card. Once you hit the spending threshold, you need to allocate additional time to receive the points/miles — they’re usually credited when the statement closes. Plus, you need some advance notice to book the trip. If anything, it’s actually getting a little late in the game to employ this strategy for Summer 2025, but it’s perfect timing to start planning for 2026.
Still, if you’d like to plan some free fun in the sun (and who doesn’t?) for this summer, you do have some options. Here are some of our favorite deals available right now:
Notable credit card sign-up bonuses in March 2025
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: Earn 75,000 bonus miles and a $250 credit that can be used on the Capital One Travel portal during your first year as a cardholder. To earn the bonus, spend $4,000 within three months of account opening. According to our points and miles valuations, each Capital One mile is worth about 1.7 cents each when transferred to a high-value travel partner, making this bonus worth approximately $1,275 plus the $250 travel credit. The card charges a $95 annual fee.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: Receive 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 within three months of opening the account. We value each of these points at about 2.0 cents apiece when transferred to a high-value partner, making the welcome offer worth roughly $1,200. The Sapphire Preferred also has a $95 annual fee.
The Platinum Card® from American Express: Awards 80,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 in your first six months with the card. At an estimated valuation of 2.0 cents per point when transferred to a high-value travel partner, this welcome bonus is worth approximately $1,600. The card has a much higher annual fee of $695, but there are plenty of credits to help offset it, so it’s worth considering for certain travelers (especially those who travel a lot and would benefit from perks such as airport lounge access and a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck membership).
The cash value of travel rewards
Travel rewards cards are more likely to charge annual fees that cash back cards, but they can be well worth it. The aforementioned general-purpose travel cards provide plenty of ways to earn rewards and keep your options open. If you’re loyal to a particular airline or hotel chain, you should consider their co-branded credit cards. These often include sweeteners such as free checked bags, priority boarding, room upgrades and an easier path to elite status.
With all of these cards, what you get depends in large part on what you put in — in terms of spending and effort. The more you spend and the more you travel, the greater your returns are likely to be (just make sure to always pay in full to avoid interest). And it helps to understand the ins and outs of the various rewards programs, especially the benefits of transferring points to airline and hotel partners or using the issuer’s travel portal.
For example, you can get 1.25 cents per point if you’re a Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholder and you book any travel through the Chase TravelSM portal. It’s basically like Expedia, Travelocity and other online travel booking sites, so you have a ton of flexibility to pick from a wide variety of flights, hotels and rental cars and cash in points for 1.25 cents each. Still, you can extend the value of your points even more if you transfer them to one of Chase’s 14 airline or hotel partners.
These are select partnerships that essentially allow you to exchange one rewards currency for another. A Chase point is worth 1.25 cents if you book travel through Chase, but we estimate that Virgin Atlantic points are worth an estimated 2.6 cents each, so you could transfer your Ultimate Rewards to Virgin Atlantic for possibly a lot more value. For instance, it’s sometimes possible to nab a one-way business class flight from the U.S. to Asia for 60,000 points. If that ticket would cost $3,000 in cash, your redemption would be worth a whopping 5 cents per point.
But travel cards aren’t for everyone
All of this can be confusing, and it’s one of the reasons why cash back is Americans’ favorite credit card feature, according to a recent Bankrate’s 2024 Credit Card Rewards Survey. Cash back is simpler, more straightforward and more universally appealing. Travel redemptions, however, can be more lucrative if you’re willing to put in some legwork, and if you have the flexibility to travel on the optimal dates when the best deals are offered.
It helps if you’re a planner, too. While it’s still possible to book award travel for this summer, before you know it, the early birds will be thinking ahead to Summer 2026. Airlines often start posting award availability 10 to 12 months out, and bargain-hunters always have their antennae up.
Ultimately, you need to know yourself. Let these questions guide you:
- How do you spend?
- What do you want to get out of your rewards?
- How much complexity are you willing to tackle?
The bottom line
The best redemption is one that’s valuable to you, even if you don’t necessarily wring every last cent of value out of each point or mile. Our survey revealed a disappointing mistake: One in 4 rewards cardholders didn’t redeem any of their points or miles over the past year. That’s a big error, since these programs have real value.
Credit card sign-up bonuses and rewards earned from everyday spending can put money back into your wallet and help you enjoy champagne travel on a beer budget.
Have a question about credit cards? E-mail me at [email protected] and I’d be happy to help.
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