Wells Fargo Autograph Journey

The Autograph Journey earns at the top of the travel stack where it counts: 5x points on hotels, 4x on airlines, and 3x on dining and other travel, which is a strong set of rates for a $95 annual fee. The opening offer is 60,000 points after $4,000 in three months, and a $50 annual statement credit on a $50 minimum airline purchase quietly claws back half the fee if you fly at all. Protections are unusually deep for this price tier: up to $1,000 per claim in cell phone coverage, $3,000 in lost baggage reimbursement, and up to $15,000 in trip cancellation and interruption coverage. The catch is the base rate, since everything outside travel and dining earns a flat 1x, so this needs to sit next to another card rather than carry your whole wallet. There is no foreign transaction fee, which is the right call on a card built for trips abroad.