4 Exciting Luxury Perks You Can Get From Travel Rewards Cards

Travel cards are useful for saving money when you go on vacation, but that's not all they have to offer. Many of the best travel rewards cards have luxury benefits that are like an instant upgrade on every trip.

There are lots of travel cards available, and they all have different features. Below, you'll learn about some of the best luxury travel perks, so you know what's out there and can decide which ones you want.

1. Access to airport lounges

The typical airport experience is stressful and uncomfortable. It's crowded, the seating isn't the best, and everything's expensive. When you can visit a relaxing airport lounge, free of charge, it's a different story.

Many premium credit cards include a complimentary membership to at least one airport lounge program. With airline cards, it's usually that airline's lounge program. With travel cards that aren't tied to an airline, it's often a membership to Priority Pass, a program with airport lounges around the world.

Visiting a lounge is a much more enjoyable way to pass the time at the airport. Lounges have comfortable furniture and free food and drinks. The exact offerings vary depending on the lounge, but I've found that it's always better than waiting in the boarding area.

2. Elite status with your favorite hotel

If you stay at hotels often, you might have wondered what it'd be like to have elite status. You could check in at the fancy desk reserved for gold and platinum members, eat a free breakfast every day, and maybe even score a room upgrade.

Earning elite status the old-fashioned way isn't easy. You need to stay quite a few nights, especially if you want to get into the highest status tiers. For example, the Hilton Honors program requires staying at least 40 nights per year for Gold status and at least 60 nights for Diamond status.

But there's another option. You could open a travel card that includes automatic elite status for cardholders. Most hotel credit cards have this benefit, so they're a good choice for frequent guests.

3. Welcome offers worth $1,000 or more

You can find welcome offers (introductory bonuses for new cardholders) on cash back cards and travel cards. But travel cards tend to have much larger bonus amounts.

Most cash back cards I've seen have welcome offers of between $200 and $300. Many travel cards, on the other hand, have welcome offers of between 60,000 and 100,000 points, and some offer even more than that. They also typically have higher spending requirements, but if you spend enough, you can earn lots of bonus points with a travel card.

To make it even better, it's often possible to get more value from travel points than you could with cash back. Some travel cards let you transfer your points to airline and hotel partners, and then use them for an award booking. Depending on what you book, you could end up getting $0.02 to $0.03 per point or more this way. A 60,000-point bonus could easily be worth $1,200 to $1,800 in travel.

4. Premium hotel collections

There's another way that a travel card could deliver a special hotel experience, with no elite status required. Some travel cards include access to premium hotel collections hand-picked by the card issuer.

These collections have high-end hotels and resorts you can book through your card issuer. They also normally include complimentary benefits for eligible cardholders, such as:

• Complimentary upgrades when available
• Daily breakfast for two
• A spending credit to use at the property
• Early check-in and late checkout when available

Whether you just want to add a little luxury to your next trip, or you want a five-star vacation experience, using a travel card could help. Luxury perks like these are common on premium travel cards. If you spend a little time comparing cards, you're sure to find one you like.