Airline Mileage Credit Card - Worth The Limitations?

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

Like the bank issued mileage credit card, the airline mileage credit card gives you more bang for your buck when purchasing airfare. 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 mileage credit card tends to give you greater flexibility over a specific airline mileage credit card. Thus when considering airline cards, it is important to research which airlines fly into your nearby airport.

Generally speaking, the most important attributes for any credit card, including an airline mileage credit 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 an airline mileage credit card that has no annual fee (it can be hard to make up for this via better rewards) and the best opportunity for earning reward miles. Many airline mileage credit 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, an airline mileage credit card can be a worthwhile option for frequent travelers. Generally speaking, a bank issued mileage credit 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 mileage credit cards.