If you’re considering an airline credit card, you may feel overwhelmed by the choices available. Forbes Advisor has created a list of the best airline rewards credit cards that can be a good place to start. However, what works for some might not work for you. Here is a list of prompts to help you determine which airline credit card or cards will best fit your lifestyle.
Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card
Up to 2x Reward Rate
Earn 2X points on Southwest® purchases, on Rapid Rewards® hotel and car partners, on local transit and commuting, including rideshare.Read More
Welcome Bonus
Earn 50,000 points.
Annual Fee
$69
Regular APR
21.49%-28.49% variable
Credit Score
Good, Excellent (700 - 749)
If you only fly Southwest occasionally, you may appreciate this entry level co-branded card and its low annual fee.
- 3,000 points every year on your Cardmember anniversary
- No seat restrictions or blackout dates
- No change fee or booking fees
- Very high balance transfer fee
- Foreign transaction fee
- Very high cash advance APR and fee
- Mostly US domestic routes
- Earn 50,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- 3,000 anniversary points each year.
- Earn 2X points on Southwest® purchases.
- Earn 2X points on local transit and commuting, including rideshare.
- Earn 2X points on internet, cable, and phone services; select streaming.
- 2 EarlyBird Check-In® each year.
- Earn 1 point for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
- Member FDIC
Where Are You Going?
If you have a specific trip in mind and hope to pay for it with airline miles, it’s a good idea to make sure the rewards programs you’re considering serve the locations for the trip you’re planning. For instance, if you want to visit Europe, getting a Southwest Airlines credit card isn’t going to help you. On the other hand, if Orlando with your family is the goal, a Southwest card that lets you earn points toward a Companion Pass could be a great idea.
What Are Airline Alliances?
Finding an airline credit card is not exactly clear-cut. All three legacy carriers (American, Delta, and United) cover the globe. Additionally, each airline has partnerships that both stretch your options when redeeming miles and make deciding on an airline credit card more difficult.
Once you’ve settled on where you want your miles to take you and found which airline you want to take you there, you might think you’re done. Not so fast. Each airline participates in an alliance, and an alliance partner’s credit card might be a better choice than a card from the airline itself.
Say you want to fly American Airlines from the West Coast to Hawaii. You might consider the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®* which offers a welcome bonus with the opportunity to earn 50,000 AAdvantage bonus miles after spending $2,500 in purchases in the first 3 months of account opening and charges an annual fee of $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $99. However, you will likely do better with a British Airways Visa Signature® Card.
The reason? American Airlines charges 40,000 AAdvantage miles round-trip at the Saver level (off-peak pricing) while British Airways charges around 32,000 Avios for the exact same flights. One welcome bonus on the British Airways Visa could be enough for two round-trip tickets on this route, while the AAdvantage Card welcome bonus barely covers one ticket.
What Are the Bonuses and Perks?
If you are looking to jumpstart your travels, it’s a good idea to take a look at which card will help you do so most quickly. Welcome bonuses vary widely depending on the card and choosing the wrong one can derail your vacation goals.
Welcome bonuses aren’t the only enticements to consider. If you know you want to check a bag, it may be better to get a card that comes with a free checked baggage benefit. For example, the American Airlines AAdvantage Platinum Select card offers a free checked bag for you and up to four of your companions traveling on the same domestic reservation.
Are You Airline Loyal?
Airline cards offer the most earnings and give the most benefits for flights on that specific airline and sometimes the airlines’ partners. However, not every person has either the desire or ability to fly one alliance of airlines.
If your flights are all over the board, you might do better with a flexible-currency card such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card*. The Chase Sapphire Preferred lets you book flights using Chase Ultimate Rewards® points through the Chase Travel℠ portal where points are worth 1.25 cents each. Unlike hotels, which penalize you for a third-party booking, flights booked via this method will still earn miles and still allow you to use your elite benefits (such as free checked baggage).
On the flip side, if you know you will fly often with a specific airline (if you live in a hub city, for example), it might make more sense to not only select a card with that airline but to also select the premium version of the airline card.
Most airline cards come in three or more variations: a no annual fee version, one (or more) mid-range versions that offer checked bags and discounts on in-flight purchases, and a premium version that offers airline club access when flying that airline. All three legacy airlines’ premium cards have annual fees that cost less than an airline club membership would cost. If you are already planning to join an airline club, the premium card is a no-brainer.
How Much Will You Spend on the Card?
Just as some airline credit cards come with in-flight perks and welcome bonus points, some also offer shortcuts to elite status, a companion ticket if you spend large amounts on the card and other perks. If you’re a loyalist, having that coveted status could make a huge difference in the quality of your flights.
The king of the high-spend airline card rewards has to be the Southwest Airlines’ Companion Pass. If you earn 135,000 Rapid Rewards points in a year (which you can do via welcome bonuses, points for flying, portal points and credit card spending) you can bring someone with you on every single Southwest flight you take, only needed to pay taxes and fees ($5.60 on most flights within the U.S.).
How Much (or Little) Hassle Are You Willing to Tolerate?
Airline miles are wonderful to earn, but can take so much work to redeem that a cottage industry of award-booking services exists just to help people effectively use their miles. If you want a straightforward program, look no further than Southwest Airlines and JetBlue. Both programs operate on a fixed-value model and offer awards with no blackout dates. If a seat exists on a flight, you can buy it with points. You will pay more to fly on peak dates, but it may be worth every penny because you aren’t looking for the award needle in a haystack.
But if you’re willing to put in the time and effort, you can get significantly more return out of more traditional programs with zone- and distance-based programs and flexible point currencies. These types of points can unlock the world of luxury hotels and flying first class on a much smaller budget.
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Bottom Line
Airline credit cards can provide tremendous value, both in terms of the miles you can earn and the perks you can enjoy when you fly. However, if you don’t choose a card that works with your travel goals and lifestyle, you may find yourself with a pile of miles and no way to use them. Be sure to evaluate your options before pressing “apply.” Once you’re confident the card you’ve chosen makes sense, you’ll be much further along in your journey.
