Free travel always trumps cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, and cheap vacation packages. Many credit cards offer tens of thousands of frequent flier miles just for signing up or meeting a minimum initial spending target. Even when you take into account annual fees that are common, travelers can still do very well if they are careful in selecting which credit cards to use.
Airline specific cards are offered primarily through American Express, MasterCard, and Visa. Every dollar spent usually earns one mile.
With the American Express card, in additional to an initial mileage bonus of between 20 to 25,000 miles, there are no seat restrictions or blackout dates on Delta or Northwest when using their Pay with Miles feature. The first years annual fee is free, and $95 thereafter.
US Airways Premier World MasterCard comes with early boarding privileges, and an initial mileage bonus of between 12,500 and 25,000 miles depending on the amount spent in the first 90 days. Its annual card fee is $89 and a $25 fee is charged to book free tickets.
Uniteds Mileage Plus Visa awards card holders earn 30,000 miles after $250 is spent with the card, enough for a round trip economy ticket in the continental US. Its annual fee is $60 and charges $25 per ticket to issue free tickets.
Depending on which airline you typically fly on the most, there are a number of other airline specific credit cards that may be more suited towards taking advantage of your flying habits.
Prospective credit card holders should also look closely at non-affiliated credit cards that allow customers to purchase airline tickets from any airline with no blackout periods. Certain credit card companies, including CitiBank, offer multi miles (as high as 5 miles per dollar spent) on specific categories of merchandise such as gas, groceries, and pharmacy purchases.
Given that the industry standard allows customers to purchase airline tickets based on valuing miles at one penny, any program allowing customers to earn multiple miles for each dollar spent are particularly attractive.
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