As airlines continue to add a variety of fees to compensate for keeping fare prices low to complete with each other, the overall cost to fly is increasing. Adding to the base cost of a flight are fees like fuel surcharges, checked baggage fees, and in-flight fees for food, drinks, headphones and pillows. Some airlines are now even charging for carry-on luggage. Some of the best airline miles credit cards allow customers to waive a few of these excessive fees and are accompanied by a quality rewards program. These features help customers save money on fees as well as apply discounts to fares.
These are the best airline miles credit cards available to consumers today, updated as of February 2012. If you fly frequently on any of the below airlines, you could save thousands of dollars in airfare every year, but even less frequent travelers will still be able to save money. If you own a card not found on this list and consider the card to be valuable, please leave a comment with the card information and I will add it to the list.
Editor’s choice
Continental Airlines OnePass® Plus Card. The Continental Airlines OnePass® Plus Card is perfect for anyone that flies Continental often. I fly Continental a few times each year, so I own this card personally. The first checked bag is always free with this credit card and after you sign up and make a purchase, you receive 25,000 bonus miles, good enough for a round trip ticket anywhere in the continental United States. Once an additional authorized card holder is added to the account, the card provides another 5,000 miles, bringing the initial bonus to 30,000 miles. If you’re a big spender, you will earn 10,000 bonus miles each year by spending $25,000 on the card annually. So for the first year of card ownership you could potentially rack up 40,000 bonus miles.
The rewards program on the Continental Airlines OnePass® Plus Card is simple; two reward miles earned for every dollar spent on Continental or United flights and one reward mile per dollar spent on everything else. As an added bonus, two Presidential Club passes are included annually and cardmembers receive priority boarding. The annual fee of $95 is waived for all first year cardholders. I own this card and currently use it for my everyday spending, because Continental flies frequently out of my closest airport, and I fly frequently to visit family. The annual fee is less than the cost of checking my bags each year, so it is financially worthwhile for me.
United MileagePlus® Explorer Card. Cardholders receive a few bonuses with the United MileagePlus® Explorer Card. First, you will earn 25,000 points after making your first purchase with the opportunity to earn 5,000 additional bonus miles by adding an authorized cardholder and another 10,000 bonus points every year you spend $25,000. Next, the card offers all fliers to check their first United or Continental bag for free (a $50 value round-trip). Finally, everyone who is approved for this card will have priority boarding privileges. All cardholders will earn double miles for dollars spent on United and Continental flights and one mile for each dollar spent on all other purchases. The United MileagePlus® Explorer Card does have a $95 annual fee, waived for all first year cardmembers.
Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express. The Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express offers 30,000 bonus miles after making $500 in purchases in the first three months. You will also receive double miles on Delta purchases and one mile per dollar for all other purchases. You and up to nine passengers will always have your first bag checked for free when flying Delta, up to $50 savings per person roundtrip. The annual fee for the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express is $95, but the card is free for the first year.
Citi® Platinum Select® / AAdvantage® World MasterCard®. The only Citi branded card to make our list, the Citi® Platinum Select® / AAdvantage® World MasterCard® provides cardholders a free round-trip ticket, in the form of 30,000 bonus miles. This benefit is available after the cardholder spends $750 during the first four months of cardmembership. You can tack on an additional 10,000 AAdvantage bonus miles after $5,000 in purchases during the first six months of cardmembership. And a one-time $100 statement credit for the first eligible American Airlines purchase made within the first twelve months of card ownership.
Another perk within the first twelve months of cardmembership spenders earn two AAdvantage® miles for every dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases and one AAdvantage® mile for every dollar spent on other purchases. After that, you will continue to earn one AAdvantage® mile for every dollar you spend on purchases. The amount of miles you can earn each year is capped at 100,000 which does not include any promotional or bonus miles. The rewards are valid for travel with no blackout dates or travel restrictions for award travel on American Airlines, American Eagle or the AmericanConnection® carrier. The Citi® Platinum Select® / AAdvantage® World MasterCard® has an $85 fee each year, but this fee is waived for the first year.
JetBlue Card from American Express. The JetBlue Card from American Express takes a similar approach to the other cards by offering a free flight. When you sign up for this card, you’ll receive 10,000 points with your first purchase, good enough for a round-trip seat; one way tickets start at just 5,000 points. Cardholders will earn up to eight reward points on every dollar spent at jetblue.com. All other purchases earn one reward point for every dollar spent. A $40 annual fee accompanies the JetBlue Card from American Express.
With the fees on some of the above cards, becoming a member may not be worthwhile unless you pay your bill in full every month and fly frequently for the points to be more worthwhile than a cash back card. Many of these cards have fees, so consider whether you will use the card enough to take advantage of discounts and fee waivers exceeding the amount of those annual fees. Using an airline miles card also ties you into using a specific airline. If you fly the same route frequently, you may already have that level of loyalty.
Leave a comment if you are a fan of other airline miles credit cards.
Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.
Updated February 3, 2012 and originally published February 4, 2011. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
Rank: Platinum
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Since the merger of United and continental, you can double down by getting both cards and receive the rewards from each card.
You should consider listing American Express Starwood Preferred Guest card. You can transfer miles from the hotel program to 20+ airline programs, and you get bonus miles for transfers over 20,000 points. So you can earn 1 point per $1 spent, and get 1.25 miles after transfer. Just someting to consider, to list here.
Best,
PedroNY
I own the SPG Amex and I am about to switch. Some of the airline mile transfers (Continental/United for example) are transferred at a 2:1 ratio, so when I tranferred 80,000 Starpoints I only received 40,000 miles. To top it off, the transfer can take up to 4-6 weeks. I’m praying that the flight I want to redeem them for is still available by then. Things they fail to tell you make light of when joining this card…
I second the SPG card. Your analysis of the Jet Blue card is misleading–10,000 points does not automatically get you a round trip ticket, unless you want to go to Rochester or want to fly at odd times. Most flights require 10,000+ points for a one-way ticket.
That’s the case with all mileage awards across all cards — while 5,000 will qualify you for a one-way ticket and 10,000 will get you a round-trip fare, the minimum amounts are usually not where you want to go. The article above is still accurate.
I didn’t say it was inaccurate–I said it was misleading. Which it is. Actually, just including that one sentence you just wrote would have improved this article greatly.
Your analysis of the AAdvantage card is also incorrect. It carries an $85 annual fee that is waived the first year. Also, there are 75K bonuses that are available out there.
Free intercontinental trips start at 25K for the MileSaver trips (limited schedules and you need to book WAY in advance).
Are you looking at the Gold or the Platinum. The Gold card has a $50 fee (waived for the first year) as the article states. The Platinum has the $85 fee you’re mentioning. There is a 75,000 mile bonus expiring at the end of the month for AAdvantage Platinum, AAdvantage Select, and AAdvantage AmEx, but not the Gold Card, requiring purchases of $4,000 in the first six months. That sounds like it’s worth checking out.
Flexo: Yes, the platinum…which is the pic of the card that you have in the article. Hence my confusion! The 75000 promo is great! They often do waive the fee on the platinum card too. AND, if you apply for the Visa & Amex on the same day you can often get both (computer glitch) and get 150,000 miles!
Also another thing to note…even if there is an annual fee, if you call and threaten to cancel at the end of the year they’ll usually waive the fee and give you some more miles.
OK, silly me…you have the MC in the pic…which looks identical to the Visa and Amex (platinum). Clearly, I need to go back to bed.
The miles that you earn with the Amex Delta Platinum card are not MQM miles. They’re just regular miles, but you can earn bundles of MQM miles when you hit spending tiers – 10k MQM for $25k in annual spending, and another 10k MQM when you hit $50k in annual spending.
Thanks for the information, everyone. I will update the article shortly.
SW Visa just underwent a major change to their rewards system. Not sure if I like it or not but they’re still my preferred airline.
Just signed up for the Jet Blue Amex card, since they were running a special: 10,000 points for signing up, and 10,000 points when you spend $500 in 3 months. I was planning on just paying my car insurance bill with the card, getting the points, and then canceling. Does anyone know if bills count as ‘eligible purchases’?
Have any of your readers had a problem with their JetBlue AMEX card accounts regarding the 10K miles for signing up and 10K miles when you spend $500 in the first three months? I signed up for this promo and received the first 10K miles two months in but still have yet to receive the second 10K miles and its been 5 months since activation and I fulfilled the requirements. I contacted AMEX and they say they don’t have any record of such a promotion. I went on a discussion forum on JetBlue and it seems many people have had the same issue where AMEX refuses to give them the miles they are entitled. What have your readers done to get what is rightfully theirs? I spoke with customer service at both AMEX and JetBlue and was told no one could help me. Its quite frustrating.