Bank of America Travel Rewards Credit Card Review (2026)

The Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card gets pitched as a travel card. It isn’t, really. Strip away the marketing and it’s a flat cash-back card wearing a travel costume — and whether that’s a good deal for you comes down to one number: how much money you keep at Bank of America.

I don’t hold this card myself. I bank with Bank of America and carry the Unlimited Cash Rewards card, which runs on the same rewards engine, so I’ve spent real time inside this ecosystem. This review is research-based, built on verified issuer data and the actual mechanics of BofA’s rewards program — not a first-hand card diary.

Here’s the honest version: , None, unlimited 1.5 points per $1 on everything, and 3 points per $1 if you book Travel booked through the Bank of America Travel Center. Points are worth 1 cent each toward travel and dining purchases. That’s most of the card. The part that actually decides whether it’s worth carrying is your Bank of America banking relationship — more on that below.

How the rewards actually work

• Base rate: 1.5 points per $1, on every purchase, no categories to track and no spending caps.
• Bonus rate: 3 points per $1 spent on Travel booked through the Bank of America Travel Center — flights, hotels, and rental cars booked in-portal only.
• Sign-up bonus: 25,000 online bonus points after spending $1000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening.

That bonus is worth a real $250 as a travel or dining statement credit, and the $1,000 spend requirement is a realistic bar for most people’s normal spending — you don’t need to manufacture spend or front-load a big purchase to hit it.

At $1,000/month in everyday spending, here’s what year one looks like:

So $180/year in ongoing value on $12,000 of spend, plus a one-time $250 in year one. Nothing dramatic — this is a 1.5%-back card doing 1.5%-back things.

The redemption catch nobody puts in the headline

Points aren’t worth a flat 1 cent no matter what you do with them. That 1¢ rate only applies to statement credits against travel and dining purchases. Redeem the same points as cash back — a check or direct deposit to a Bank of America account — and they’re worth roughly 0.6¢ each instead.

Run the numbers on the sign-up bonus alone:

That’s a $100 haircut — 40% of the bonus’s value — just for redeeming it the “easy” way instead of the travel-credit way. If you’re getting this card, redeem for travel or dining credit every time. Anything else is leaving money on the table.

There are also redemption minimums: 2,500 points to redeem for a travel/dining credit or cash, 3,125 points for gift cards (which carry their own, generally weaker, value).

What counts as “travel” for the statement credit is broader than you’d expect — it’s not limited to flights and hotels. Eligible categories include:

• Airlines, hotels, motels, cruise lines, and timeshares
• Car, truck, and RV rental agencies, plus campgrounds
• Travel agencies and tour operators
• Trains, buses, taxis, limousines, ferries, and boat rentals
• Tourist attractions — amusement parks, aquariums, zoos, museums

Dining purchases qualify too, which is unusual — most BofA travel-branded cards limit statement credits to travel only. Purchases have to be made within the past 12 months to redeem against them. A few things don’t count even though you’d assume they would: in-flight purchases and duty-free airport purchases are both excluded.

Points don’t expire as long as the account stays open, so there’s no use-it-or-lose-it pressure — a real advantage over cards that force you to redeem within a fixed window.

The number that actually decides if this card is worth it: BofA Rewards

Bank of America rebuilt its banking loyalty program in May 2026 — Preferred Rewards became BofA Rewards — and the new structure is the single biggest factor in whether this card beats a plain 2%-back card. If you have a checking account and any meaningful balance with Bank of America or Merrill, your card’s earn rate gets boosted automatically:

Translate that into cents-per-dollar (at the 1¢-per-point travel/dining redemption rate) and compare it against a plain 2%-back flat card like the Citi Double Cash — no annual fee, no BofA relationship required:

That’s the entire decision tree. Below Preferred Honors — meaning below a $100,000 combined balance at Bank of America and Merrill — this card’s base spend loses to a plain 2% cash-back card, full stop. No amount of “but it’s a travel card” changes that math; you’re comparing dollar-for-dollar value, and a flat 2% card just pays more.

At Preferred Honors and up, the gap flips and grows. On $12,000/year in spend at the Preferred Honors tier: 27,000 points ($270) vs. $240 from a 2% flat card — a real but modest $30/year edge. At Premier, the base rate hits 2.625%, which is a genuinely strong flat rate. The catch is obvious: qualifying for Premier means keeping $1 million with Bank of America, which is not a rewards optimization decision, it’s a private banking decision.

One more wrinkle if you’re already enrolled in the old Preferred Rewards program: Bank of America is honoring your previous bonus percentage (the old 75% top tier, for example) through your next program anniversary following November 2026. If that’s you, don’t recalculate off the new tiers yet — you’re still getting the old rate for now.

Bottom line on the tiers: this card is only a rewards upgrade over a flat 2% card for existing Bank of America customers with six figures in combined balances. Below that, it’s a convenience play — simple, no-fee, decent — not a rate play.

What the Visa Signature network actually adds

This card runs on Visa Signature, not standard Visa, which brings a handful of baseline protections most people never use but are worth knowing exist:

• Visa Signature Concierge — a booking/assistance line, more useful for restaurant reservations than anything travel-critical
• Roadside Dispatch — pay-per-use towing, tire change, and fuel delivery
• Travel and emergency assistance — 24/7 medical/legal referral, lost luggage locator, emergency translation
• Extended warranty and standard purchase protections

None of this is a reason to get the card on its own — it’s baseline Visa Signature boilerplate, not a differentiator. The one feature worth actually using is BankAmeriDeals, BofA’s card-linked offer program: log into your account, activate deals at participating merchants, and get anywhere from 5% to 50% extra cash back (or a flat $4–$35 credit) on top of your normal rewards rate. It stacks with the base earn rate and costs nothing to use — just remember to check it periodically, because unactivated deals earn you nothing extra.

No annual fee, no foreign transaction fee, real intro APR

Three things this card does unambiguously well:

• — permanent, not a first-year waiver.
• None — a genuinely useful, no-cost feature for anyone traveling internationally, and one that a lot of no-fee cards still charge for (typically around 3% — see what is a foreign transaction fee for what that actually costs on a trip).
• 0% for 15 billing cycles on purchases and on balance transfers made within the first 60 days of account opening on purchases and on balance transfers made within the first 60 days of account opening — roughly 15 months, which is a long runway among no-fee cards. After that, a 17.49%–27.49% applies.

If you’re planning to use the balance-transfer offer, know the transfer isn’t free: there’s a 3% balance-transfer fee within the first 60 days, rising to 5% after that window closes. On a $5,000 transfer, that’s $150 upfront to lock in roughly 15 months at 0%. Worth it if you’re paying down debt with a plan — not worth it if you’re just shifting the problem sideways.

I run every card in my wallet on the same rule regardless of the APR offer: pay the statement balance in full, every month. An intro APR window is useful for a planned purchase or transfer, not a reason to carry a balance you weren’t already planning to carry.

How it compares to the card I actually carry

I hold the Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards card — the cash-back sibling to this one. Same 1.5x base structure, same BofA Rewards tier boosts, same issuer relationship. The entire difference between the two cards is what happens to your rewards after you earn them.

Unlimited Cash Rewards pays out as straightforward cash back — deposit it, use it, done. Travel Rewards earns points that are worth full value only against travel and dining purchases, with a real penalty (40% off the top) if you cash out instead. Banking with Bank of America, in my experience, is the same regardless of which card sits on top of it: solid mobile app, normal customer service, nothing remarkable in either direction.

If you already know you’ll redeem consistently for travel or dining and like the idea of a dedicated “travel fund,” the points structure is a fine trade. If there’s any chance you’ll want the flexibility of pure cash, take the cash-back sibling and skip the redemption tax entirely. I’d rather not build a rewards strategy around a discipline requirement I might not keep.

Who this card is actually for

Good fit:

• Beginners who want one simple no-fee card with no bonus-category tracking
• International travelers who want to skip foreign transaction fees without paying an annual fee for the privilege
• Existing Bank of America / Merrill customers at Preferred Honors ($100K+) or Premier ($1M+) tiers, where the effective rate genuinely beats flat 2% cards
• Anyone who reliably redeems for travel or dining and won’t be tempted by the weaker cash-out rate

Skip it if:

• You’re not a Bank of America banking customer with a meaningful balance — a flat 2% card will simply pay you more
• You want redemption flexibility without giving up value — cash-back cards don’t punish you for redeeming in cash
• You want real travel perks — this card has none of the lounge access, transfer partners, or airline/hotel credits you’d get on a premium travel card, because it isn’t one

Credit score and approval odds

This card is aimed at Good (690+) applicants — generally 690+ FICO. That’s a mid-tier bar: high enough that you’ll want established, on-time payment history first, but well short of the near-perfect scores premium travel cards ask for. If your credit is still developing, our guide to building credit cards covers cards designed for that stage instead.

The bottom line

The Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card is a competently built, zero-fee, zero-hassle card that does exactly what it says: 1.5 points per $1 everywhere, 3 points per $1 on Travel Center bookings, None. It’s an honest beginner card and a fine choice for BofA banking customers with real balances sitting behind it.

What it isn’t is a rate leader. Below a $100,000 BofA/Merrill balance, a flat 2% cash-back card beats it on every dollar you spend outside the Travel Center portal. If you don’t already bank with Bank of America at scale, there’s a stronger no-fee card sitting right next to this one on the shelf: the U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Visa Signature pays a smaller $200 bonus against this card’s $250, but its 4X rate on general travel (versus this card’s 1.5X base) pulls ahead for anyone spending $300 or more a month on travel outside the Bank of America relationship. See our best travel credit cards roundup for the fuller field, or our cash back vs. travel rewards breakdown for how to decide between the two structures generally.