Air mile credit cards

There are two types of air mile credit cards, those that are tied to a certain airline and those that offer air miles off a wide range of airlines.  Different cards can suit different types of travellers, so careful consideration should be paid to what type of card is best.

The perfect type of card depends on whether a person is likely to be a loyal flyer, willing to stick with one airline or whether they are a bargain hunter, simply looking for the best flight.  Loyal travellers will tend to have one or two routes that they use constantly.  Alternatively they may live near to an airport that acts as a “hub” for a large airline and so will offer a wide choice of flights for that airline.  There may also be a policy of using a certain airline when travelling for the job.

If they do choose an airline tied card they should be aware that they cannot use the miles on another airline.  This is compensated for by the fact that the miles that can be redeemed are usually far more than is available on a generic air miles card, and they also tend to be tied in to a rewards program.

Generic air miles cards tend to be more flexible in that the air miles can be redeemed with a large number of airlines.  This tends to have the disadvantage that the rewards that they do tend to get offered are lower and they are not tied into any airlines frequent flyer programs.

However the advantage of these cards is that the discount can be used against a number of airlines.  This means that someone can take advantage of discounts and cheap airlines to get far further with the rewards.  However this does take a good deal of work to both find out which is the cheapest flight and whether these are eligible for the rewards points.   This does mean that the rewards can stretch further.  It also gets around the danger that a tied frequent flyer card has of the airline not flying to the destination or flying at a time that is not convenient.

Although generic air mile cards tend to have higher fees and interest rates and less competitive terms and conditions, this can be offset for the frequent traveller through much cheaper flights.  However it is a good idea not to use the airline card as the main card if the intention is to carry over any balance.