There are a lot of reasons to collect miles and points.

• For free luxury hotel stays and First Class flights
• To travel to more countries than you could otherwise afford (like Norway, pictured above, where I traveled last July)
• To take your family on vacation
• To visit home for the holidays
• To earn big rewards for everyday spending

Whatever your reason for coming to MileValue, there is a rewards card that suits your needs.

In fact, there is probably more than one. That’s what makes this miles and points game exciting and playable.

But before you rush to sign up for new cards, remember to take into account that some miles are better than others for getting to specific destinations–not to mention issuing bank rules concerning eligibility if you’ve had rewards cards in the past.

• If you need help deciding which card is the right one for you, try our Free Credit Card Consultation Service. We’re happy to help guide you in the right direction towards effectively and efficiently collecting the appropriate rewards.
• Need help redeeming your miles efficiently? Try our Award Booking Service. You send us your goal and current balances, and we do the work making sure your miles are stretched just as far as possible.

Without further ado…below are, in my opinion, the top ten rewards credit cards right now.

1. Sapphire Reserve

The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers 50,000 Ultimate Rewards after $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. Ultimate Rewards transfer 1:1 to United, British Airways, Singapore, Korean, Southwest, Virgin Atlantic, Hyatt, and more.

Chase Sapphire Reserve holders get a $300 travel credit each cardmember year (not calendar year), as well as a $100 credit to cover the application fee for Global Entry or TSAPre √® every five years, and a free Priority Pass Select membership–which gives you access to over 900 lounges around the world and free unlimited guest access to those lounges for anyone you’re traveling with.

The Sapphire Reserve offers 3x Ultimate Rewards on travel and restaurants. Travel and restaurants are broad categories and include flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, tolls, parking, Uber, taxis, restaurants, bars, fast food, and night clubs.

The $450 annual fee is not waived, but you can see how the benefits more than make up for it.

2. Sapphire Preferred

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a personal card that earns 50,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards after spending $4,000 in the first three months. Ultimate Rewards transfer 1:1 to United, Singapore, British Airways, Korean, Southwest, Virgin Atlantic, Hyatt, and more.

For the reasons presented in this post, this is one of the first two cards I recommend everyone get.

You also get 5k bonus points for adding an authorized user while applying, so I think of this as a 55k bonus point card. (Adding an authorized user does not prevent that person from getting the card at the same time or in the future as a primary account holder and getting the full sign up bonus.)

The Sapphire Preferred earns 2x points on dining and travel. Dining includes bars, restaurants, and fast food. Travel includes airfare, hotels, taxis, rental cars, tolls, parking, and much more.

The Sapphire Preferred has no annual fee the first year, then $95 thereafter.

For the moment there is another sign up offer floating around for the Sapphire Preferred card: 60,000 Ultimate Rewards for spending $4,000 on the card within three months of account opening and paying the first year’s annual fee of $95. Check out New Sapphire Preferred Bonus: 10k Points Higher for a $95 Fee to learn more.

3. Platinum Card from American Express

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 60,000 Membership Rewards after spending $5,000 in the first three months. Membership Rewards transfer to around 20 hotel and airline programs including Delta, All Nippon Airways, Singapore, and British Airways.

The card has a $550 annual fee. But it comes with huge benefits like airline fee reimbursement, airport lounge access, hotel status ,and a 5x category bonus for purchases directly from airlines. For more info on setting up and maximizing the benefits, see Get the Most Out of Your Platinum Card. The annual fee just increased on this card, but it comes with new benefits like $200 in Uber credit annually. Read all about them in Amex Platinum Annual Fee Jumps to $550: Changes Coming March 30.

Before applying for this offer, read 100k Amex Platinum Targeted Offer is Back! to learn how to check if you’re targeted for the 100,000 Membership Reward bonus offer on the Platinum Card (for spending the same amount of $5,000 in three months)

4. Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express

The SPG Amex offers 25,000 SPG points after spending $3k in the first three months.

When you transfer SPG points to airline partners, you get a 5k mile bonus for each increment of 20k SPG points transferred. So the 28k SPG points you’ll have after meeting the minimum spending requirement for the bonus is really like 33k airline miles (and SPG has TONS of airline transfer partners, more than any other transferrable point type).

The card comes with other benefits like category bonuses of 5 points per dollar spent at SPG properties and 2 points per dollar spent at Marriott properties. You’ll also get complimentary, unlimited Boingo Wi-Fi on up to four devices at more than 1,000,000 Boingo hotspots worldwide.

Read about why both of the SPG credit cards (personal and business) should be on your immediate radar for credit card applications.

5. Citi ThankYou Premier

The Citi ThankYou Premier Card now offers 50,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. Transfer points to 14 airline loyalty programs for the most outsized value. Points are also redeemable for 1.25 cents each on any airline’s cash tickets (sign-up bonus is worth $625 redeeming this way).

Category bonuses include a stellar 3 ThankYou Points per dollar spent on travel and gas purchases, and 2 ThankYou Points per dollar spent on restaurant and entertainment purchases.

For a card with an annual fee of just $95 (that is waived the first year), that’s a valuable benefits package. You can also use this card abroad or on foreign purchases and no foreign transaction fees are collected.

6. Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard

The Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard offers 50,000 American Airlines for putting just one purchase on the card and paying one $95 annual fee! That means you’d effectively be paying $95 (or .19 cents a mile) and a hard credit pull for 50,000 American Airlines miles.

Other benefits include two American Airlines miles for every dollar spent on American Airlines purchases, free checked bag, discount on inflight purchases, 10% rebate on all American Airlines miles redeemed per year (capped at 10k returned each year), access to American Airlines Reduced Mileage Awards, and no foreign transaction fees.

Note that this AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard is a separate product from the AAdvantage Aviator Red MasterCard, also issued by Barclaycard, which is what most of you who used to have the U.S. Airways card were converted to back in early 2015. So if you have the AAdvantage Aviator Red MasterCard, you should still be eligible for this card.

7. Chase Southwest Rapid Reward Visas

If you live and travel often to destinations served by Southwest, now is a good time (although not ideal… December/January is better…more on that below) to sign up for a Southwest co-branded credit card from Chase. There are are two personal versions and one business card, and all of them come with big sign up bonuses.

• Personal Plus: 50,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 in three months, $69 annual fee NOT waived for the first year, 3,000 bonus points each year you renew
• Premier Plus: 50,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 in three months, $99 annual fee NOT waived for the first year, 6,000 bonus points each year you renew
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Card: 60,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 in three months, $99 annual fee NOT waived for the first year, 6,000 bonus points each year you renew

More importantly, the closer it is to the beginning of the calendar year, the better time it is to earn a Southwest Companion Pass. A Companion Pass is one of the best deals in travel. It allows you to designate a companion who flies for just the taxes on every Southwest flight you fly. That’s $5.60 each way within the United States and a bit more on Southwest’s international flights. You qualify for a Companion Pass by earning 110,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards from credit cards during a calendar year, and you keep it for that calendar year you earned it in as well as the following one. So you can see how the timing when you earn the points is key to fully maximizing a Companion Pass.

The easiest avenue to take right now is opening one personal Southwest card and the business Southwest card. The 110k Rapid Rewards are worth about $1,1540 in free travel on Southwest on any flight, any time with no blackout dates at all. And you can fly basically free with your significant other, friend, family member–whoever–for all of 2018 and 2019 by earning the Companion Pass now.

Each Southwest card earns two Rapid Rewards per dollar on Southwest purchases, and one Rapid Reward per dollar on all other purchases.

I love Southwest because of its two free checked bags, no change or cancellation fees, and efficient boarding process. Southwest Rapid Rewards can be very valuable for domestic redemptions/redemptions to Mexico or the Caribbean if you can book it far enough ahead of time (award prices are based on the cash price of the ticket, unlike most award pricing schemes that are region based).

8. Iberia Plus Card

Chase has released a new card called the Iberia Plus Visa Signature card comes with 50,000 bonus Avios after spending $3,000 in the first three months on the card. If you spend $10,000 on the card within the first year of card membership, you’ll earn an additional 25,000 bonus Avios, for a total of 75,000 Avios. Spend $30,000 in the card within a year and you’ll get a $1,000 discount towards two tickets.  

The card comes with 3 Avios per dollar on Iberia purchases and 1 Avios per dollar on other purchases.

Iberia Avios are similar to British Airways Avios are perfect for short economy flights on partners that do not levy fuel surcharges like these partners. For instance, the west coast to Hawaii on American Airlines or Alaska Airlines flights for 12,500 Avios or only 4,500 Avios between Cuzco and Lima, Peru are two of the sweet spots. The nice thing about Iberia Avios is that while the award pricing is distance based, it is not segment based. You can fly multiple segments and the award won’t fragment into multiple awards like a British Airways Avios award would–the distance measured for the award price is cumulative. 

There some premium cabin award sweetspots on the Avios chart, however, like this 45k Avios flight I booked myself on Iberia Business Class between Brazil and Spain last year (no fuel surcharges departing Brazil). Iberia also has an awesome off-peak season chart with cheap prices to fly between the United States and Europe.

The card has a $95 annual fee that is NOT waived.

9. Gold Delta SkyMiles Amex

Through April 11, the Delta Gold card is offering 50,000 bonus Delta miles after you spend $2,000 on purchases in your first three months from account opening. If you spend an additional $1,000 on the card within six months of opening it, you’ll get an additional 10,000 bonus miles for a total of 60,000. You also get a $50 statement credit after your first Delta purchase in the first three months. In the past, all Delta purchases (even very small ones) and gift cards have activated the statement credit.

You will also earn 2 miles per dollar spent on Delta purchases and a get a free checked bag on Delta reservations. This card does not charge foreign transaction fees and the $95 annual fee is waived the first year.

10. United MileagePlus Explorer Card

The Chase United MileagePlus Explorer card comes with 40,000 United miles after spending $2,000 on the card within three months of opening it. 

The card comes with 2 United miles per dollar spent on United purchases.

You also get a ton of perks United related perks–one highly valuable and non-marketed one being extra MileagePlus award space called “last seat availability”. This basically means cardholders have access to more United award space than non-cardholders. 

You and one travel companion can check your first bag for free to save up to $100 per roundtrip flight. You and anyone on your reservation get Priority Boarding, which means you get to board before the majority of people and have a better chance to get your carry on luggage in the overhead bin. You’ll also get two passes for the United Club per year, and if you’re a MileagePlus Elite, cardholders are eligible for upgrades on domestic award travel.

The card charges no foreign transaction fees and no annual fee the first year. After that, it is $95 annually.