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Do you travel often? Whether it's for business or pleasure, are you enjoying your trips as much as you could be? What about the price tag? Are you missing out on deals and discounts that could save money or get you more for your buck? Airline credit cards to the rescue!
By Brendan Harkness
By Brendan Harkness
Do you travel by plane every year? Are you planning a big trip?
If so, chances are good that you could save some money and access valuable travel perks with an airline credit card. You’re already planning on spending the money, so why not take advantage of a great card offer?
An airline card, if it’s right for you, should fit neatly into your current or projected spending habits. As long as you use it responsibly, and pay the statement balance in full each month, you can get a variety of benefits without paying a dime of interest.
Many big airlines provide co-branded credit cards, and you can probably find one to suit your needs. They come with perks like free checked bags, priority boarding, discounts on in-flight purchases, and access to airport lounges. You may be able to transfer miles to other loyalty programs.
The more you travel, the more value you’ll get out of an airline card.
In many cases there are no blackout dates when redeeming the frequent flyer miles you earn. This isn’t always true for general travel credit cards.
Ask yourself some questions to help figure out which airline card (or cards) you should apply for:
If you don’t fly with a specific airline somewhat regularly, a co-branded card probably won’t be very valuable for you. Instead, look into a general travel rewards card like those above, which you can use with any airline.
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The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Credit Card is one of the more popular airline cards thanks to the yearly Companion Fare, which can completely offset the annual fee and make this card basically free to use.
In fact, as long as you avoid interest and other fees, you’re effectively getting paid to use this card as long as you always take advantage of the Companion Fare.
This is also one of the best credit cards for earning airline miles, offering 3X miles for flight purchases when most airline cards only provide 2X, along with extra miles at some restaurants.
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The Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (Review) is the premier card for flying American Airlines, with a hefty price tag of $450 per year. But if you’re already spending a lot of money and time with the airline, this card’s benefits, particularly the Admirals Club airport lounge membership, could make your life quite a bit more comfortable.
Authorized users of this card have no cost and actually get Admirals Club access as well, a rare feature on premium travel cards like this. Up to ten authorized users can be added.
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Citi is a Credit Card Insider advertiser.
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The Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card (Review) is expensive, but it comes with quite a few valuable benefits. You get complimentary Delta Sky Club access and two free one-time Sky Club guest passes (guests are $39 after that), plus complimentary access to Centurion Lounges (where guests will cost $50).
Other perks include an annual Companion Certificate and a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application fee statement credit.
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The Frontier Airlines World Mastercard (Review) is one of the less expensive cards on this list, but it offers miles at a relatively high rate and has a good signup bonus, too. Frontier miles usually aren’t valued very highly, however, typically coming in around 1 cent each.
Take note that your Frontier miles will expire unless there is some activity in your Frontier Miles account at least once every six months. Any purchase will qualify as account activity, so you can just buy a pack of gum to keep your miles active.
This is quite a bit more strict than other airline programs, which either give you a longer period or have miles that don’t expire. We recommend setting alerts or notifications of some kind so you don’t forget.
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The Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite Mastercard® (Review) is your only consumer card option for flying Hawaiian Airlines.
The spending rewards are about average for an airline card, but it has a valuable annual companion discount that can completely offset the $99 annual fee.
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The JetBlue Plus Card is one of three rewards cards available through JetBlue. It offers more points than your average airline card, along with an excellent discount rate on in-flight purchases.
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The Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card (Review) is the newest entry in Southwest’s line of credit cards, offering an annual flight credit to help offset the annual fee.
Read more about how you can fly for free with Southwest Airlines credit cards.
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Compared to the other United co-branded credit cards available, the United Club℠ Infinite Card (Review) is expensive ($0 intro annual fee, then $525), but it comes with several perks to help make your time spent at airports and hotels more enjoyable.
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Maybe you don’t have a favorite airline, or you tend to take whatever flight will work best for you. If that’s the case, a general travel rewards card will probably be more useful than a co-branded airline card.
General travel cards can be used to earn points anywhere, no matter which airline you’re taking. And they provide points for other travel purchases as well, like hotels, car rentals, and taxis.
The Platinum Card® from American Express (Review) is a great example, with a 5X point category for airlines and some great transfer partners.
Airline and hotel transfer partners give you a way to move your points to your favorite loyalty programs, where they’ll often be worth more. So, if you’re planning a trip and you’ve got a bunch of points ready and waiting, you can transfer them to the airline you’re booking and look for a great redemption value.
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Best for | Card & Rewards | Annual Fee |
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Allegiant Air | Allegiant World Mastercard®
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$59 |
Asiana Airlines | Asiana Airlines Visa® Signature Credit Card
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$99 |
British Airways | British Airways Visa Signature® Card (Review)
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$95 |
Cathay Pacific | Cathay Pacific Visa Signature Card
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$95 |
Korean Air | SKYPASS Visa Signature Credit Card
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$95 |
LATAM Airlines | LATAM Visa Signature® Card
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$75, $0 first year |
Lufthansa | Miles & More® World Elite Mastercard® (Review)
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$89 (waived for Senator and HON Circle Members) |
Spirit Airlines | Spirit Airlines World Mastercard®
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$59, $0 first year |
Airline credit cards provide miles or points for the purchases you make. You can usually book flights with those rewards, shopping around until you find a good deal.
Some cards are designed to be used with various airlines — they provide rewards no matter what airline you’re booking. And you can typically transfer those rewards to a selection of airline partners, where you can use them as you see fit.
Other cards are co-branded with specific airlines. You’ll find cards dedicated to flying United, Southwest, American Airlines, Delta, and more.
There are a handful of top-notch airline cards. The right one for you will depend on your favorite airline:
The value of airline miles will vary depending on how you use them.
Say you have 10,000 miles, and you use them to book a flight worth $200 — that would mean your miles are worth 2 cents each. $200 divided by 10,000 miles equals $0.02 per mile.
Different airlines, routes, and fare classes may all lead to different values for miles. The same is true for certain times of year, and how far in advance you book.
Whether you’re flying with United, Southwest, Delta, or any other airline, it can pay to look for a good deal. It’s often wise to wait until you can get a high value per mile; until then, pay with your air miles credit card and keep stacking those rewards.
So, did you find the right airline card for you? If not, check out some general travel rewards credit cards that might be more your style. Or consider hotel credit cards, which are co-branded with specific hotels and tend to be quite valuable.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of The Platinum Card® from American Express, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, please click here.
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The information related to Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard®, CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Mastercard®, Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card, Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card, Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card, Citi Prestige® Card, Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express have been collected by Credit Card Insider and have not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of these products.