150. Battle of Premium Cards: Rewards, Earning Power, and Perks (Part 1)

Points Talk®: Your Travel Dreams, Made Possible by Points

Alex, Pam and Jess

Places & Travel, Education, Society & Culture, How To

4.9 • 734 Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Which premium credit card is really worth it for your travel style and spending habits? In this episode, the Travel Mom Squad put four of the top-tier cards head-to-head. They break down the American Express Platinum Card®, Capital One Venture X, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, and the brand-new Citi Strata Elite℠, exploring the earning potential, perks, and lifestyle benefits of each to help you evaluate which one fits your wallet best.

Alex, Jess, and Pam walk you through the differences in earning power and rewards structures across all four cards. By the end of the episode, you’ll have a clear framework for comparing premium cards without getting lost in the fine print. You will hear strategies for choosing the card that aligns with your spending patterns, travel goals, and home airport, plus tips for getting the most out of credits and perks so that you can make premium cards work for you.

You can find links to resources mentioned in this episode plus the transcript here: travelmomsquad.com/150

Ready to get started with NEARLY FREE travel? Click here for the exact offers we would sign up for this month: travelmomsquad.lpages.co/bestoffers/

The Travel Mom Squad is also on YouTube! You can watch this episode here: youtube.com/@travelmomsquad

Let us know what you want to hear on the podcast by sending us a DM on Instagram: instagram.com/travelmomsquad

Transcript

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0:00.0	There have been so many changes to premium credit cards this year. Annual fees keep going up,
0:05.8	but benefits also keep just getting better. In this episode, four premium credit cards are going
0:11.3	head to head. Which one will come out on top? You'll have to listen to find out. Welcome to Points Talk
0:17.2	with the Travel Mom Squad. We are three moms who've discovered how to leverage credit card
0:21.9	welcome offers to get hundreds of thousands of dollars of travel expenses for nearly free.
0:27.4	We've used credit card points of miles to take vacations to places like Hawaii, Paris, Greece,
0:32.8	Maldives, Japan, and so much more. And the best part, we each still have 800 plus credit scores. Imagine being
0:40.2	able to take the vacation of your dreams for nearly free. It's totally possible and we're here to
0:45.1	show you how. Hey, I'm Alex. And I'm Pam, Alex's mom. And I'm Jess. Let's talk Points. As Alex said, we are putting four premium cards
0:57.0	head to head in today's episode. We're going to be discussing the American Express Platinum
1:02.0	Personal Card, Capital One Venture X, Chase Sapphire Reserve Personal Card, and City Strata Elite.
1:09.0	The crazy thing is we had planned to record these episodes a couple like a
1:15.3	month or two ago and then we found out about all the changes coming to the amex platinum the chase
1:21.1	the fire reserve got a complete refresh the city strata elite is a completely new card and so I feel like we have a ton to talk about.
1:29.7	And I'm glad we didn't record this episode a month or two ago because we would have to basically re-record the entire thing.
1:36.3	But Alex is going to kick us off with the reward.
1:40.1	We're going to kind of break this up into different categories, I guess, and then discuss each card within that category.
1:46.3	So the first category is the rewards and earning power of these cards.
1:51.0	So, Alex, why don't you take it off with that?
1:54.1	Okay.
1:54.6	First, we have the American Express Platinum card.
1:58.5	This card earns 5X on flights booked directly with airlines or through American
	...

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