Best Credit Cards for Dining Rewards in 2026: How to Earn More at Restaurants

Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways

Hosts Meghan Coyle and Sally French dive into the best credit cards for dining rewards in 2026, offering strategies to maximize restaurant s

Key takeaways

• Premium credit cards with high annual fees (like the Delta SkyMiles Reserve Amex) offer substantial welcome bonuses including flight certificates and elite lounge access, making them worthwhile for frequent travelers.

Main topics

• Best credit cards for dining rewards in 2026
• Stacking restaurant rewards with airline loyalty programs

Notable quotes

"Food tastes better when it's free." – Sally French

Conclusion

The episode concludes that while premium dining cards come with high fees, they can deliver

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) In January of 1915, Ernest Shackleton's ship, Endurance, became encased in the ice in the Weddell Sea. Through determination, grit, and savvy, Shackleton would lead his men through a brutal winter, then over hundreds of miles of Antarctic ice, followed by 800 miles across some of the roughest waters in the world. It is one of the most extraordinary and inspirational journeys in the history of exploration. Find this story and many others at The Explorer's Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts. or at explorerspodcast.com. Sally, you know, I think food tastes better when it's free. Ooh, I 100% agree with that. In fact, nobody loves free food more than me. If you want to challenge me on that, I welcome you. It won't be me. I will not challenge you on that. Speaker 1 (0:45) Welcome to a special in-studio edition of Smart Travel from NerdWallet, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Megan Coyle. And I'm Sally French. And we're the travel nerds ready to help you plan your next big trip or maybe your next meal. And we are coming at you from a real studio here in San Francisco where you can watch us on Spotify. We've got our food with us so you can actually watch us eat if you so want to. But I'm willing to say it, San Francisco has some of the best restaurants in the country. Speaker 1 (1:13) But LA though, before we get to talking about what we're going to eat and how we get rewards for that, we do have to give our usual disclaimer. And that is that we will talk about a few credit card companies that are partners in this episode that does not influence how Megan or I discuss them. The benefits, terms, and fees mentioned here were accurate at the time of posting, but of course, things can change. The offers may have expired by the time you're listening. For the latest details, follow the links in the episode description. All right, let's hop back to our houses real quick, and then we'll be right back with you in studio. Speaker 1 (1:45) All right, we are back with news. Wait a second. That's not Sally. Tess, what are you doing here? Sally is on a cruise. Of course she is. So I'm just going to sit in the chair and keep it warm for her. Okay, perfect. Well, you get to talk. About one of my favorite things, which is higher welcome offers on travel credit cards, specifically the Delta Airlines credit cards. So now through November 4th, American Express has these limited time welcome offers on the Delta SkyMiles cards, including both the personal and the business versions. Yeah, you know, the one that stands out to me is the Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express card, which for the first time ever includes flight certificates in its welcome offer. So this is a bit. Speaker 1 (2:30) unusual. It's a $650 annual fee. Ouch. And the welcome offer requires some pretty hefty spending, though also over a longer period of time. So that might be a little easier. But you spend $10,000 in purchases in the first six months. And then you get two round trip Delta comfort flight certificates to the lower 48 Puerto Rico or US Virgin Islands plus 50,000 bonus miles. Not too shabby. All right, all right. We're talking bonus miles. We're talking comfort flight certificates. Yeah, those are really interesting because I've never seen them before as part of a welcome offer. And I think it's... Speaker 1 (3:09) just a little carrot like just enough to make cardholders feel like they got something special because you're not sitting in a middle seat back in the plane you know you're gonna be in the comfort extra legroom seats and they're actually pretty easy to use i would say so there are no blackout dates and you can use them for a lot of different flights not just in the us specifically the lower 48, but also to flights from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. So you have some options. A little bit of fine print to note, you have to book with these flight certificates 21 days or more before the departure date, and you have to use them by January 15, 2028. And of course... Speaker 1 (3:52) Nothing is ever free in the Points and Miles game. Fees. Yes, exactly. So there are going to be some taxes and fees, even when you redeem these comfort flight certificates, and they could be up to $80 per person. All right, so here's some standout reasons to hold the card besides this welcome offer. Car holders get 15 visits annually to the Delta Sky Club or unlimited visits each year if you spend $75,000 or more with the card. Annual companion certificate upon renewal, and that's good for one round-trip flight within the U.S., the Caribbean, or Central America. In first class, Delta Comfort or Main Cabin for someone traveling with you. Less, of course, say it with me. Taxes and fees. Taxes and fees. A $20 monthly resi statement credit, $10 monthly rideshare statement credit, fee credit for either global entry or TSA pre-check, and $200 in annual Delta States credits. Speaker 1 (4:50) Okay, so a lot of benefits, but there is that really high annual fee. So you might not be in the market for an airline card that costs that much yet. If that's the case, you might want to consider one of the other Delta SkyMiles cards. We'll go through those really quickly. The Delta SkyMiles Platinum Amex card has a limited time welcome offer of earn up to 90,000 bonus miles. plus a limited time $300 statement credit after you spend $4,000 in the first six months of account opening. And that card has a $350 annual fee. Other reasons to hold this one include companion certificate on a Delta, Maine, domestic, Caribbean, or Central American round-trip flight each year after renewal of your card, a $10 monthly resi statement credit, and a $10 monthly rideshare statement credit as well. Speaker 1 (5:39) And that's not all. If $350 is also outside of your budget, there is one more card. This card has a $0 introductory annual fee for the first year and then $150 each year after that. It is the Delta SkyMiles Gold American Express card. And the limited time welcome offer is earn 80,000 bonus miles plus a $250 statement credit after spending just $3,000 in the first six months. So that might be a little bit more achievable if you're adding. this to a wallet of cards where you're spending on multiple cards at once. Speaker 1 (6:13) Right. And we, you know, along with the cheaper card, you also have fewer perks than the previous cards that we talked about. But it's still pretty great for casual Delta flyers. And like each of the previous cards, this one offers two free check bags on domestic flights and one on international flights. That alone could still offset Delta's check bag fee at $45 for the first check bag, $55 for the second. That's $200 for two check bags on a single round trip. So this might work for you. Speaker 1 (6:41) Right. And the one thing I always like to mention about Delta credit cards is that you can get this take 15 discount. It's a 15% discount on award flights. Those are flights that you book with Delta SkyMiles, and you can only get those rates if you have a Delta credit card. So if you are someone who's booking a lot of Delta flights with SkyMiles, it is very important to think about applying for a Delta credit card. You will be spending a lot less miles. and you'll be earning a lot more miles on your Delta purchases. Okay. Are we done with Delta? Yes, we're done with Delta. But there's still a lot of airline news, Tess. You're not off the hook yet. This next one, JetBlue has opened its second ever Blue House Airport lounge at the Boston Logan International Airport last week. That new lounge is in Terminal C near Gate C25, and it is... Speaker 1 (7:33) 12,000 square feet. The first Blue House Lounge actually opened at JFK late last year. Go over and check out our show's Insta account. It's at Smart Travel Pod. And there's a video there that was made by our colleague Benjamin Din. We'll also post a link in the episode description to an article with some photos for you. Just to give you a little preview, there's a lot of things you might expect at an airport lounge. So there's a bar, there's dining rooms, there's a game room, which is a little bit special. But my favorites are the... Speaker 1 (8:03) very Boston touches. So they actually made a work area that is modeled after the Boston Public Library. And there's also a very large replica of the Green Monster, which is the scoreboard at Fenway Park where the Red Sox play. And it is so detailed. It even has the dents where the baseballs have hit it. So definitely check that out next time you're in Boston, if you have access. That sounds really cool. Did you know that I was a sports reporter once? Oh my gosh, no way! What were you reporting on? Baseball? I was a sports reporter. No, I was reporting on all kinds of sports. I was a national sports reporter and I was based in Boston. And I actually got to do a story from behind the green monster. No way! Yeah, I was with the guys as they were like putting up the... Speaker 1 (8:47) the numbers for the scores and everything. It was amazing. Wow, that is so cool. One of my favorite stories ever. I love sports. So a sports travel collab, I'm all here for it. We should let people know how they can get into this new lounge, though. So this access is granted to people who have elite status with JetBlue, specifically the highest level of elite status. So that's Mosaic 4. Also, if you have a JetBlue Premier credit card or if you're flying Mint Business Class, and there is a little change there. Speaker 1 (9:15) It used to be that you could only access the lounge if you were flying Mint internationally. But now, even if you're flying domestically, you'll still have access to the lounge. So, again, we have a whole article about it if you want to learn more about how to get into Blue Houses. It's funny how other airlines are cutting back on lounge access and this one is adding it. Yeah. Finally, some good news. Increased access. All right. All right. Next airline. Speaker 1 (9:38) Next one is United. They have just announced their largest international expansion ever for 2027. And what's really interesting is that there's kind of a unique list of cities here. Well, would you like to rattle them off for us? Sure, I'll give it my best. There are new flights to Sardinia, specifically the Olbia Airport, Catania, Ibiza, Valencia, Marseille, and also the Azores, which is like an island, I think, from Portugal. You have me at Ibiza. Ah, I didn't know you were a big partier, Tess. I'm learning so much. Oh, you know it. I'm out till three every day. So some of these new routes are going to be on this new airplane. It's the Airbus A330. Speaker 1 (10:21) 321 XLR. Oh my goodness. And that is a single jet airplane, which means, you know, it's kind of a narrower airplane. It's not those big long haul international airplanes that some people might be used to. Yeah. And the XLR's international debut is December 1st from Washington Dulles to Amsterdam and Dublin. And I would very much like to be on it. You know, I know where Tess will be flying. It'll be in those new premium class seats because this Airbus A321 XLR has tons of premium seating. There are new United Polaris suites with privacy doors. In fact, there are 20 of these new suites and there are also 12 premium plus seats. That's like... Speaker 1 (11:04) premium economy. So a lot of people will be very comfortable on these new international routes. If you want to know more about this, of course, we'll have a link in the episode description with all the details. Last one for today, Google announced that they're rolling out new travel features in AI mode, which is kind of this search where you can use natural language and it sort of works like AI models you might be using already. And some of those new features include flight price tracking. hotel booking, and one very exciting one, which is you can now find the prices of certain flights and hotel stays in points and miles. Woohoo! Yeah, so you can ask this AI mode about a flight or a hotel, and it's going to show you the award rate in addition to the cash price. Speaker 1 (11:54) Ooh, okay. And right now, the list of participating hotels and airlines is a little bit small. So this search will work for flights on Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines, American Airlines, or hotel stays at Choice Hotels, Hilton, or Wyndham. And Google says there are a lot more coming in the following weeks, including Accor, Flying Blue, Hyatt, La Tombe, and Lufthansa. Yeah, there's some big names missing here, though. Delta, United, Marriott, and Hyatt, at least at launch. Right. And I will say I did give this a try a couple of days ago, Tess, and I couldn't get any of the points prices to show up no matter what I searched. So it does seem like this might not be the smoothest, you know, search experience quite yet. But I do think this is where... Speaker 1 (12:42) travel booking is heading. And there are lots of other options if Google isn't doing it for you, right? Absolutely. We've talked a lot about some of those other award search tools on this show. If you want to learn more, we'll put some links in the episode description to that as well. All right. Sounds good. Well, shall we get to the food portion of the show? Yes, yes. And Sally will be back from her cruise for that portion. Tess, thanks so much for joining us. Always fun. Speaker 1 (13:13) Today's episode is sponsored by Vinted. Megan, I have to confess something. I have clothes that I just don't wear because maybe they don't fit right or because wearing sundresses in San Francisco is just not something you can ever do when it's foggy 90% of the time. Well, maybe it's time to let go of those sundresses. I love any sort of deal or opportunity to earn and save money, and I will let go of almost anything if I know I'm getting paid for it. Speaker 1 (13:34) You should try Vinted. It's a secondhand marketplace that makes it easy for everyday sellers, people like me and you, to sell pre-loved fashion and actually earn some money doing it. And listing something takes minutes. You snap a photo, write a quick description, set your price, and it's live. And there are no selling fees on Vinted. So whatever you sell something for, you keep. The app is free to download too. If I'm keeping everything I make, it's actually worth the time to list something instead of just letting it sit in my closet. Speaker 1 (13:58) So if you've got a drawer of clothes you're never going to wear, like Sally, like I do, it might be time to open Vinted, take a few photos, and see what it's worth to somebody else. Download Vinted for free and start selling today. Today's episode is sponsored by Fora. Megan, real talk. How many times does a friend text you a quick question and then it's actually 11 questions about their trip? Every single time. Classic gems. Like, can you help me find a cheap flight from my home airport to Europe? Speaker 1 (14:24) going to ask you anyway, you might as well get paid for the answer. That is what Fora is for. Fora is the modern travel agency designed for people who want to turn their passion for travel planning into a real business. Fora's tech, training, and community gives you everything you need to start earning. As a travel advisor with Fora, your subscription unlocks best-in-class training, powerful booking and payments technology, industry-leading AI tools, and a global community of industry insiders. Everything on the platform is built to help you start, grow, and scale your own travel business with confidence. And the perks