Worth hundreds of dollars, this is the prized
benefit of airline cards, since it allows a friend or family member to travel with you at no cost.
One nice
perk of this airline card is that you're not required to use it when making your booking to be eligible for free checked bags and priority boarding.
However, by the time consumers place into the highest spending tier, they will likely be earning all available credit card bonuses and perks, which makes the value
of those airline cards significantly higher.
Airline industry woes have made it tougher to hand out generous travel rewards, but at the same time, these challenging times have stimulated creativity in the
marketing of airline cards.
You're often stuck with one airline, so comparison - shopping for flights — either to find a better price, a more convenient route or specific destination — is largely limited to the brand on the
face of your airline card.
In today's world where cross country travel often costs less than $ 400, and award seats are scarce, it may make sense for reward card holders to start weighing the benefits
of airline cards against those of reward cards that offer cash back or a generous statement credit.
Challenges of airline cards Deborah Goldberg, 39, of Charlotte, North Carolina, says she used to have two cards — a Discover it card that offers 5 percent back on rotating categories each quarter and 1 percent everywhere else; and a Bank of America Cash Rewards Visa that offers 3 percent back on gas, 2 percent on groceries and 1 percent on everything else.
With an industry - leading rewards rate and generous points value, the Virgin America Visa Signature card ranks high on our
list of airline cards.
Even though the annual fee — $ 0 for the first year, then $ 99 — is about typical for this
type of airline card, you'll want to be sure it makes sense for you.
35 %
of all airline cards had worse maximum rewards rates than our benchmark cash back cards, which meant that more than one third of the airline - affiliated credit cards had maximum rewards values less than 2 %.
Each of the airline cards presented here has its pros and cons.
Both of the airline cards give you a free checked bag and priority boarding, plus bonus earning for purchases made with the carrier.
Bank of America helped trigger this week's rate increase by hiking the APR on one
of its airline cards.