Airline Cards: Are they worth it?

Airline cards, these branded cards signal a partnership between a card issuer and some of your favorite travel loyalty programs and today we are going to tackle the principle of these types of cards and if it is in your best interest to apply for one or not. The first thing you need to look at is if you're interested in travel, because if you aren't then obviously you don't even need to look at these options. the second thing you need to look at is if you're loyal enough to a single airline to warrant getting one of these cards, you also have to take in consideration where is it that you want to travel or where is it that you mostly travel to, if you're looking to travel abroad your best bet would be to look at what airline goes to the places that you most want to travel to, if you're looking to travel to Europe then my suggestion would be to pick a card belonging to a airline like Iberia or British Airways, if you're someone that travels a lot domestically be it for work or vacationing in the states or its territories I would suggest looking at cards like the Delta Skymiles, United Mileage, American AAdvantage or JetBlue TrueBlue cards. Now, you may be asking why you would get one of these loyalty cards since a premium travel card gives you more flexibility as to transferring points to your favorite airlines without having to stick to just one of these programs, well the truth is that you could do that and you would probably get more bang for your buck depending on what airline it is that you want to transfer your points to but there is also the matter of perks/benefits and the rewards that you get from these cards. So, these airline cards give you a certain amount of miles per dollar, most of them give you more rewards points than what you would get from premium travel cards like the Amex Green card or Chase Sapphire cards all the while giving you checked free bags, priority boarding and even access to the airlines private airport lounges, which, most of them are quite worth the annual fee you pay for these cards.

Now, like I had said earlier, these cards aren't for everybody, if you don't have a favorite airline or aren't loyal to one specific airline or prefer to just transfer points to the airline that you'll be using for your next trip because you're like me and just look for the best deal possible for foreign flights, then I don't recommend that you get one of these, these cards are for people that travel a lot with one specific airline and are looking for luxury travel, if you're looking to fly business or first class to a foreign country or domestic then I suggest you look into a card in the Delta Skymiles, United Mileage or American AAdvantage families. These cards will get you great rewards on flights and flight related purchases, access to some of the best airport lounges for those long layovers that let you enjoy free food and drink while you wait for takeoff and the best perk of all which is checked free bags because I don't know about you but if you're the type of person that travels with more than one bag you will be saving a lot of money with this little perk and not to mention that some of these cards can get you complimentary upgrades to business or first class. Keep in mind that most of these cards carry an annual fee, some are higher than others and the difference could be the lounge access, the rewards rates and/or the upgrade features. now, after reading all of this we can say that these cards have very specific purchase categories that aren't for everybody, so I repeat and I can't stress this enough, evaluate your expenses and your ties to these different airlines, if you feel like you travel enough with a specific airline to warrant getting one of these cards, then by all means go ahead and if not then don't bother applying for one because you won't get good value from having it.