Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite

For a $550 annual fee, Bank of America hands most of it back in credits: $300 a year for airline incidentals like baggage and seat upgrades, $150 for airlines, rideshare, or streaming, and up to $120 toward Global Entry or TSA PreCheck every four years. Priority Pass Select membership extends to the primary cardholder and up to three authorized users, which is unusually generous if you travel with family. Earning is simple rather than rich: 2 points per dollar on travel and dining, 1.5 on everything else, no foreign transaction fees, and 75,000 points after $5,000 of spending in the first three months. The math only works if you reliably use both annual credits, since together they cover $450 of the fee, and both require enrollment, so forgetting to opt in quietly costs you real money. If your travel is occasional, skip it: the 2x and 1.5x rates are not high enough to carry $550 on their own.