Airline Mileage Credit Card - Worth Your Time? By Dan Rennecker and Mike Porto

An airline mileage credit card is a specific type of card provided by, you guessed it, the airline. Compare this to a bank issued miles card, which has points that can be redeemed for many different airlines. So what are the differences between these two types of frequent flier cards and which is right for you?

Both types of card give you more bang for your buck when purchasing airfare when compared to a conventional credit card. You earn frequent flier miles both from the dollars that you spent on the credit card for the airfare as well as for the miles traveled. Thus, for those who travel often for work or leisure, an airline mileage credit card can be very attractive. As mentioned earlier, the non-airline specific card tend to give you greater flexibility over a specific airline card. Thus when considering airline cards, it is important to research which airlines fly into your nearby airport and make sure that you choose a card accordingly.

Generally speaking, the most important attributes for any card, including an airline card, are those relating to what it costs you. When researching the cards, be sure to record and compare the yearly fees, interest rates, redemption fees/percentages, and other charges. A shrewd shopper will probably opt for one that has no annual fee (it can be hard to make up for a nasty annual fee via better rewards) and the best opportunity for earning reward miles. Many cards will also offer a large amount of initial miles for signing up, although read the fine print as sometimes it takes time to redeem these miles.

In summary, this type of card can be a worthwhile option for frequent travelers. More often than not, a bank issued card will be more versatile than an airline specific card. However, whether one is better than the other will vary based on the specific offers of the airline mileage credit card.

For more information on an airline mileage credit card or any type of credit card, check out our other discussions.