Airline credit cards can seem very attractive to some people who can benefit from being able to accumulate free airline miles. If you’re a person who needs to take frequent flights for business or personal reasons, then an airline credit card could be beneficial.

Each miles credit card is different in their methods and calculations for accruing airline miles. The most common airline miles calculation used is to award the credit card holder a percentage of each purchase made back in air miles. The amount of the percentage offered will vary between different credit card companies, but on average you should expect between 1% and 1 ½%.

It’s important to read the terms and conditions on your airline miles credit card carefully to be sure you know what you’re getting into before you sign. Airline credit cards typically charge higher interest rates than regular cards, so if you’re the type of person who isn’t likely to repay the full balance each month, you might consider using a card with lower rates. The difference in higher interest costs may not be sufficient to cover the amount of airline miles you receive in return, so be sure you’re not costing yourself money before you apply.

However if you use your card frequently and repay the balance regularly then you won’t pay any interest at all and accruing the airline miles is a great bonus. You could be offsetting the cost of some of your flights by using your card each time you make a new booking, and build your airline miles at the same time. The amount of airline miles you can accumulate can also have a capped limit applied to your account with some airline credit card offers. Once you reach a specified limit you won’t be accruing any more even if you’re still purchasing on your card. This means you could be paying much higher interest than you need to with very little benefit.

Another downside to some airline credit cards is that you may also find that you’re not free to use the airline miles you’ve accumulated on just any trip you choose. You may have to time your flight bookings around blackout periods.
For anyone who needs to books flights on a regular basis, an airline credit card could be a great way to offset some of the cost – but only if you’re sure the downsides won’t affect your account negatively.

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