When you travel frequently, for work or for pleasure it is a good idea to have frequent flyer miles credit cards. These can save you money over time as you continue to your destinations.
If you have excellent credit you probably get offers for these types of cards several times a week. If this is the case, here are some tips that you need to pick the right offers:
- Look for the sign up bonus — most frequent flyer credit cards will give you a sign up bonus that gets you either halfway or a quarter of the way towards a free ticket. If you can find one that gives you enough signup points to get a free ticket right way it is a better deal.
- Check the routes that the miles will take you to — you want to make sure that the routes you get to take will actually be ones that you will use. You might think that the card with the highest rate is the best card, but this may not be true. Check the fine print to be certain. Some airlines may not accommodate the routes you want to go or they may not serve your areas.
- Look for the partner airlines — many frequent flyer cards have partnerships with other airlines and you may use the partner airlines for your trip as well. This means that you have more choices for bookings and for destinations. Bonus miles will always be used with the carrier that gave you the miles so make sure you know their routes.
- Miles earned on purchases — many times you can earn frequent flyer miles for different types of purchases so you will need to check the offers to see what kinds they use. You will want to check the amount of miles you can receive and the fees that you will have to pay. As an example, some cards will give you more miles for each dollar you spend and others will match dollar for dollar. It is a good idea to check this to get the best deal.
- Limit on miles or open miles– there are many cards where you have a limit to the amount of miles that you can earn in any given year. Some people find that they use their card a lot and they actually go over the limit. If this is you, it might be a better idea to choose a different card that is better for your needs.
The best bet when choosing these cards is to check all your options. If you are not going to use frequent flyer miles a lot you might want to check with an Airline Mile Cards because they are more flexible than some of the other frequent flyer cards.
The final issue you will want to check before you decide on a frequent flyer credit card is whether your miles expire. Most cards will want you to use the card over a period of time or they will cancel it.