Traveling was always a necessity, no matter that it involved just going to the store on the other side of town, going to school, going to work, visiting relatives, going in a vacation. Depending on our finances, we could take a walk, ride a bike, drive a car, take the bus or the train or fly by commercial airline we need it to get where we had to. For any of the above transportation methods there is a market and commercial airline in the last years has become more and more financial accessible for a larger percentage of the population. The credit card companies did not missed the opportunity to come up among the many offers that they put on the market with airline miles credit cards offers. The main target of this airline miles credit card offer are the businesses that require their employs to fly to other places on regular bases and of course for tourists. The idea is that no matter the reason why you need to travel by plain for business or pleasure you can take advantage of the great variety of airline miles credit card offers.
The concept for the airline credit card offer is similar to other points based credit card offers; basically the credit cardholder will earn points for using his credit card to make purchases. The base offer is that for every dollar spent the cardholder will receive a bonus point or a mile. After gaining the required amount of points the cardholder can redeem his points or miles in the form of free air travel or upgrade his ticket on a flight from cough to first class.
Before going out to shop for an airline miles credit card we should always try to research the available options and see what best suits our needs. The first issue could be that most of the population does not have a clear understanding of the real value of the points in the particular system that they adopt. That is why it is always smart to try to understand what we are getting ourselves into. The concept is not hard to understand because it is very similar to how the frequent flyer miles are being used on any airline. In order to make a decision on a particular airline miles credit card offer we must be aware of the fact that the airline credit cards have predetermined points levels. So before starting to accumulate points we should be aware of how many points do we actually need in order for us to redeem them in the form of plane ticket that we desire and if in a certain amount of time we can actually do that.
Another important fact about the points based offers are that the points can expire if not used in a certain amount of time, also if the airline miles credit card is not used into a certain amount of time the points will expire.
It will be unwise to use your airline miles credit card and not to accumulate enough points to qualify for a free plane ticket, because maybe you could have been rewarded in a different way for using a different credit card offer that will better suit your needs.
The up side of the airline credit card offers is very clear the cardholder can qualify for a free plane ticket or upgrade his plane ticket from couch to first class but there are some downsides of the airline miles credit cards as well. One of the down sides is the fact that airline credit card offer have an annual fee that most of the credit card holders try to avoid. Another downside of the airline credit card offers is that they come with a higher interest rate and we must decide if at the end of the year we actually received a form of reward by choosing this kind of credit card offer or we end up with paying more in interest and bills.
Now that we are aware of most of the things that could influence our decision on a specific airline miles credit card here is a list of the most popular options available on the credit card market today:
Miles by Discover Card – one point per dollar, no annual fee and six months intro APR period
Escape by Discover Card – two point per dollar, $60 annual fee and six months intro APR period
Citi PremierPass Elite Level Card- two points per dollar, $75 annual fee and no intro APR period
Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express – one point per dollar, $150 annual fee and no intro APR period
Delta Reserve credit Card – one point per dollar, $450 annual fee and no intro APR period
United Airlines – Mileage Plus Platinum Business Card – one point per dollar, $75 annual fee and no intro APR period
Southwest Airlines – Rapid Rewards Visa Signature Business Card – one point per dollar, $59 annual fee and no intro APR period
American Airlines – Citi Gold AAdvantage® World MasterCard – one point per dollar, $40 annual fee and no intro APR period
If we want to cut down on our travel expenses that airline miles credit card are a great way to do that and the great thing about this offers is that we can use them in conjunction with other programs like bonus mileage that is available at certain hotels and airlines. So if you have a good credit and are looking to shop for a airline miles credit card be sure to research and be aware on how the card’s particular reward points system works and if the offer suites your needs be sure to use your airline miles credit card because flying is the safest way to travel.
