Best Airline Credit Cards

Earn miles on frequent flyer programs from major airlines by using their Airline Miles Credit Cards. Accumulate miles towards free flights or upgrades with every purchase. Choose the credit card with airline miles for an airline that has frequent departures from your local airport, or find out if they allow miles to be used at their airline partners.

Continental Airlines OnePass® Plus Card

Get $50 back after your first purchase.
Plus: Earn 25,000 bonus miles. That's enough for a round-trip reward ticket.
Earn an additional 5,000 bonus miles by adding an authorized user to your account.
First Checked Bag Free - That can save a family of four up to $200 per round trip.
Pay No Annual Fee for the first year. That's a savings of $85.
Earn 2 miles for every $1 spent when you purchase tickets from Continental Airlines on your Card.
Earn 1 mile for every $1 in purchases charged on your Card.
Lounge Access - get 2 annual complimentary passes to the Continental Presidents Club®.

Introrate (purchases)

N/A *

APR (purchases, variable*)

14.24% *

Annual fee

$85.00(First year free)*

Delta Airlines - Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card

Earn 30,000 bonus miles toward Award Travel when you spend $500 on the Card in the first three months from account opening.
$0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95.
Check your first bag Free - for up to 9 people on your reservation - on every Delta flight.
Receive double miles on Delta purchases and 1 mile for all other eligible dollars spent.
Priority Boarding and 20% In-Flight Savings.

Introrate (purchases)

N/A *

APR (purchases, variable*)

15.24% - 19.24% *

Annual fee

See Terms *

Earn More Miles

There are two ways to earn miles by using a credit card. You can either choose a card from a major airline or a more general travel rewards card. Choosing a specific airline used to require loyalty, but that is no longer necessary. Most airlines allow you to earn and redeem miles on any partner airline. Continental and United are members of the Star Alliance, which includes a total of 26 members worldwide. The frequent flyer programs are also beginning to expand the redemption options to other items. Using miles for car rental, hotel or even news paper subscriptions is now a possibility.

The alternative is a miles card sponsored by the credit card issuer. You would be able to choose any airline and usually with no blackout dates or restrictions. The perks and benefits are probably not going to be as good and the signup bonus may be lower as well. For example the first checked bag is free with most airline credit cards. That can save a couple up to $100 on a roundtrip flight, which more than makes up for the annual fee.

Frequent flyers can accumulate a lot of miles through their purchases. There is always a minimum of 1 mile earned on everyday spending, but you also receive 2 or 3 miles for every dollar spent on airline tickets. An additional plus is that you are not at risk of losing your miles due to inactivity. Every month you make a credit card purchase there will be miles credited to your account, which will reset any expiration date.

You should always make sure you receive some bonus miles after your first purchase. Redeeming an award ticket starts around 25,000 miles, so if you start at 0 that award ticket seems far away. Fortunately it is not uncommon to see a 25,000 bonus offer, so you can often get a free domestic ticket the first day you use the new card.

* Please see the online credit card application for details about terms and conditions. Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. However all credit card information is presented without warranty. When you click on the "Apply Now" button, you can review the terms and conditions on the credit card issuer´s official website.