Credit Card Offers: Airline Credit Cards
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Airline credit cards allow you to earn rewards for travel. If you are a frequent airline traveler, these credit cards can be a good way to save money on your flights. Good airline credit cards offer unrestricted travel without blackout dates or seating restrictions. As with all credit cards, you want to look for a low interest rate and a lack of fees.
This airline credit card post is part of our ongoing Saturday series through which we help you find the best credit cards for you. If you’re not looking for the top airline credit cards, then you might want to look at our other posts, which include the best Chase credit cards, Citibank credit cards and Discover credit cards.
The best airline credit cards are:
- TOP PICK. Chase Sapphire Preferred. This airline credit card makes it easy for you to earn points towards flights. In addition to traditional points, you can earn 50,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months – that’s worth $625 toward airfare or hotel accommodations. You also earn points on your points, getting a 7% dividend annually on the points that you earned throughout the year.
- TOP PICK. Chase Sapphire. People who don’t qualify for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card may want to get the regular Chase Sapphire card, which has traditional airline travel points along with 25,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months – that’s $250 toward a round trip flight or any other reward. There are no limits or expiration dates on your airline rewards.
- American Express Gold Card. Earn double points on this rewards card when you book flights through the site’s online travel tool. Spend $1,000 in the first three months and get 10,000 bonus points.
- Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. The travel rewards that you earn on this credit card can be applied to free hotel stays at Starwood hotels–or you can use the points to get free flights. Earn 10,000 bonus points after your first purchase and another 15,000 bonus points if you spend $5,000 in the first 6 months.
- Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN. This is the business travel version of the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. Additional perks on this card include accelerated earnings and the ability to take guests with you into airport lounges.
- PenFed Premium Travel Rewards American Express. The points on this airline card add up quickly since you earn 5x points on airfare purchases on this credit card, plus you earn 2x points on dining, hotels and car rentals. You get 20,000 bonus points if you spend $650 in the first three months; that’s enough for a free flight.
- Blue Sky from American Express(SM). This airline credit card offers unrestricted travel that can be redeemed with points as low as 7,500. It offers a flexible payment plan and 0% intro APR on purchases for 12 months.
- Simmons First Visa Platinum Travel Rewards. This airline credit card offers unrestricted air travel with a one-point-per-dollar reward system. It also comes with travel insurance.
Note: Offers change frequently; please be sure to check the offer website to ensure that all details and information are correct.
Published on June 12th, 2010 - 4 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards, Reviews
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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4 Responses to “Credit Card Offers: Airline Credit Cards”
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Top Cards by Category
Earn $200 Bonus Cash Back after you make $500 in purchases in your first 3 months. 5% Cash Back on up to $1,500 spent in bonus categories each quarter.
Earn 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gas and groceries, and 1X points on everything else.
Earn up to 20,000 bonus miles with your first purchase 10,000 of which count as Medallion(R) Qualification Miles. Earn up to 5,000 bonus miles when you add two additional cards to your account with initial application.
Earn up to 5% cash back* in categories that change and enjoy a 0% introductory rate for 15 months on Balance Transfers and 15 months on Purchases.
Enjoy no balance transfer fee for a limited time. 0% introductory rate on Balance Transfers and Purchases. Earn up to 5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*
Enjoy no balance transfer fee for a limited time. 0% introductory rate on Balance Transfers and Purchases. Earn up to 5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*
Enjoy amenities for you and your business, like: complimentary airport club access, including American Airlines Admirals Club(R) lounges.
5% Cashback Bonus in categories that change like gas, restaurants, department stores and more. Limitations apply*. Up to 1% unlimited Cashback Bonus on everything else. No annual fee
Earn 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gas and groceries, and 1X points on everything else.
Reports to 3 major credit bureaus monthly and acceptance at millions of locations worldwide, including website purchases and reservations.
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June 13th, 2010 at 11:43 am
The Amex SPG is my preferred choice. The ability to transfer SPG points to an airline frequent flyer mile program at 25% bonus is the selling factor for me. Its like spending $1 gets you 1.25 points on an airline frequent flyer mile program. You don’t see many credit cards offering $1 for 1.25 points.
June 13th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
This ongoing series has to be a sign that this site is in decline. The whole post is a big ad for your site sponsors, and no new information at that. Sad…
June 13th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Dan: Sorry you feel that way. If you hadn’t noticed, these Saturday posts are being run in addition to all of our weekday regular content, not in place of it.
June 17th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Nowadays, a lot of credit cards exchange points for $ for air ticket purchases. For example, capital one no hussle card’s 25,000 points can be used for $250 on air fare. I don’t really like this. AAdvantage’s credit card allows $25,000 points for a round trip… I think that would be a better deal. You can’t really get many round trip tickets for $250.
Also, another cool card I use – Citi Premier. It gives 1 points for 1 mile you fly on the tickets you purchase. If you choose to purchase via their agents, you can get a free companion every time. If you do fly a lot, these will be a pretty good option.