Fly To Your Dreams For Free With An Airline Mile Credit Card

What is an Airline Mile Credit Card?

If you received a credit card airline miles offers you may wonder how it differs from a traditional credit card. Airline credit cards are just like regular credit cards that you use every day but they’re linked to a specific airline. So when you make a purchase with your airline credit card, instead of getting 1% cash back or points deposited into your account you get airline miles deposited into your frequent flyer account. Normally, you provide your frequent flyer number when you apply for credit card airline miles offersand that’s how the two are linked.

Airline cards are sometimes referred to as co-branded cards since the card is usually sponsored by a credit card issuer. One example would be the Citi AAdvantage (American Airlines) card which gets you 1 AA Mile for every dollar you spend. So if you spend $10 on your Citi AAdvantage card, you’ll earn 10 frequent flyer miles with American Airlines.

Benefits of an Airline Credit Card?

One of the cool parts about an airline mile credit card is that even though you earn miles through your credit card, the points are actually deposited into your frequent flyer account. So if you ever decide to cancel your card, you’ll still retain the points in your frequent flyer account.

Since your card is also linked to your frequent flyer account, every time you make a purchase the new miles will reset the expiration date of your miles. Most airline miles expire after 1 year of inactivity and the only way to reset your clock is to fly and get miles deposited or spend money on an airline credit card.

Things to Watch Out For With Airline Cards

Some of the best airline cards will offer certain fringe benefits in addition to a large sign-up bonus. One of my favorite cards is the United Explorer Card since it comes with free first checked bag, priority boarding, no international transaction fees and 2 United Club Passes every year.

What Are Your Favorite Perks of Having an Airline Credit Card

How to Rack Up Miles Quickly

There are a few ways you can rack up miles with an airline mile credit card but if you want to fly business class for free like I do you’re going to need a lot of points. The best strategies for racking up miles involve spending money on your card, flying often for work or personal travel and enrolling in lucrative sign up bonus offers.

1. Spending Money on Your Card

This is probably the easiest way to rack up miles since we all spend money every day. I keep at least one airline card in my wallet at all times so that I can pay for pretty much everything with my card.

Most airline cards offer 1 mile per dollar spent but make sure that you also sign up with your airline’s dining program. All you have to do is link your card once and then you’ll get bonus miles every time you eat or drink at your favorite restaurants and bars.

Another cool way to earn points for purchases you already make is when you do online shopping. Instead of buying directly from a retailer’s site, use an online mileage mall and you will automatically get bonus miles for every dollar you spend. Those miles can add up quickly!

2. Fly With Your Favorite Airline

One of the perks of business travel is that even though your employer pays for your ticket you still get to rack up the frequent flyer miles. These miles are actually more lucrative than regular miles from credit card spend because they will help you attain elite status faster. Elite status can get you free upgrades, early boarding, free checked baggage and more.

What’s In a Mile

If you’re not a business traveler though, you can still earn a lot of miles for personal travel. When you book a flight with your co-branded airline card on that same airline you’ll often receive a 2-3x miles bonus for the credit card purchase and you’ll get miles added for the actual miles flown.

Booking Travel With Your Airline Credit Card

3. Sign Up for Lucrative Credit Card Offers

I don’t fly much for work and I don’t like to pay for airline tickets so this is my preferred method of racking up airline miles. Airlines know that travelers have a lot of options when it comes to flying and one method of enticement that they like to use is large sign-up bonuses. All this competition is a great thing because in just the last few years alone, we’ve seen sign-up bonuses top 100,000 miles several times with the average offer hovering around 25,000 – 50,000 miles.

Perhaps best of all, some people worry that credit card airline miles are taxable, but they are not. In fact, so many people had this worry that the IRS actually specifically wrote an announcement in 2002 to say that airline miles are not something you get taxed on. So go ahead and rack up those miles!!

Find Out How to Land a 100,000 Mile Offer

How to Land a 100,000 Point Airline Card Bonus Offer