Best Credit Card for Non-specific Hotel/air Travel Rewards?

You said you want to spread out the impact of the trips. Does that mean you won't be paying it off every month?

If that is true, you need to search for the lowest interest rate, and not worry about rewards.

If you do plan to pay it off, the look for something that gives cash back.

The reality is that you can almost never get both a good interest rate AND cash back rewards. You have to choose, and if you won't pay it off in full every month, you need to go with the low interest rate.

When I have people come in to town for interviews, we (the company) pays for it. oh wait - your husband is becoming a doctor, right? I don't recruit for the medical field so I don't know what they do.

I would go to LendingTree.com and tell them what you need and let them find the best card for you.

American Express comes to mind. Don't know your credit rating so I don't know how to help you.

Good luck on the interviews!! good luck on the credit card!

Any reward card we've ever had also had the option to receive cash back. Some sent checks to us. Some apply it to your account as a credit. Either way, the cash is always equivalent to any of the store gift cards or whatever other options they had. That's what we do. I don't care about airline points or hotel stays. We don't travel often enough for that, and when we do travel, we don't want to be locked into a particular place or have restrictions on it.

Both our AMEX and VISA give percentage cash back. And have certain categories that earn a higher percentage than the regular purchases.

We only have a Disney visa and an AMEX card. We went to Disney in 2014 and it paid for our families tickets, hotel and we had a few hundred dollars to use towards food. Our Amex points paid for our airfare. We were there for 9 days and our trip cost less than a $1,000.

My daughter went to Disney this year for senior week. Our points once again paid for her tickets and her meals. (She stayed at a friend's family's timeshare.)

As long as you pay your balance in full every month I think you just need to figure out what you want to use your points for and get a card based off of that. If you don't pay your balance in full monthly then go for the lowest interest rate card and forget about points/rewards.

Here is a link to best "cash back" CC...
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/top-credit-cards/nerdwall...

We looked into this this past spring. We ended up going with a Visa that does cash back. For us it made more sense than trips or points to use at hotels. We have done both in the past. We found trying to book flights with our points kind of a hassle. We used points for hotels but were limited to certain hotels. They weren't always convenient.

So far, liking the cash back. We have two Visas. One has very low interest rate. Our cash back does not - we use that one for major purchases and pay it off immediately. Get the points but don't carry a balance.

ETA: Since you are in the DFW area and the airport of choice is most likely DFW... consider flying Southwest out of Love Field. They have some fantastic airfares, especially if you book on the "sale" days. Another positive about Southwest is that if you miss your flight or something comes up whatever.... as long as they know before you check in and get on that plane, 100% of the funds go credited to your account. The funds in this account CAN be transferred to someone else in the family if needed and they are good for 1 year from the date of the cancellation. Those funds can be used for ANY flight ANY where they go. American and other airlines will give you credit BUT you have to use that ticket to go to the same location within a year and it is not transferable.

Also book hotels online with the hotel to get good deals. If you ever need help, let me know. I did ALL of the travel planning and booking for hubby for 30 years. I'll make sure you learn the ins and outs of the travel portion.
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I have a Bank of America and a Chase card used for business ( I put my personal things on is as well but those are minimal) These cards are always paid in full before any statement is cut and never carry a balance. So if you are looking interest and fee wise, I have no clue because I have no interest and no fees.

That said, both of these cards offer cash back. I'd MUCH rather get $$ back onto my statement or in my savings. Both of my cards are business cards so they might have different rules but I can easily get $1200 CASH BACK a year with each card. I just got $615 back on Chase this past month and around Christmas, I will cash in again. That is $2400 FREE money back in my savings. I refuse to pay a yearly fee.

Back before we did cash back we did airline miles and it was fantastic then, however, the airlines (and hotels) have made it SO hard to use it is just not worth it.

Another card we had was by Citibank Driver Edge and you accumulated cash back towards a car, any car you buy. The deal was, make you car deal the best you can and once you are done, THEN, send the paperwork to Citibank and they would cut you a personal check for the amount of benefits you have accrued. We got $2500 back AFTER the purchase of a new car a few years ago. This was so long ago that I don't know if this card is still around.

All that said, you know me on this site as saying debt is evil.. IT is.. However you go about it, just watch the rules and make sure it is paid in full so you have no worries about extra charges.

I realize my cash back is probably higher than the norm and that is because it is a business card and utilized for business which can generate more expenses than a normal household.

I have a Visa card that earns points for cash back. That way I can use it however, whenever, wherever I want. There is also a catalog where I can use the points for products, gift cards, travel, etc. I find it is just easier to take the cash option. The card is through my bank so I've set it up to make a direct deposit into my savings account when it reaches a certain amount.

My husband does have one through Delta that is nice in the fact that we don't have to pay any checked baggage fees when we fly Delta (which is usually what we fly because we live near a hub). Not sure what else he gets with it.