Most adults these days have a credit card, if not a few. There is such a variety of options available that make it hard to choose just one. Each has its own set of perks, including hefty introductory bonuses and anniversary gifts, so it’s difficult to stay with just one card. This is especially true if you have a set of companies from which you often make purchases. Nearly every major business that offers a product or service to consumers has its over credit card. Target, Old Navy, and Costco are among some of the most popular. Within this large pool of branded credit cards, there’s a major subset — airline cards. With these, consumers earn “miles” or “points” to apply towards free flights or other travel rewards. Considering how mobile society is today, it’s no surprise that airline credit cards are some of the most popular cards out there.
So then, how do you choose one? For some people, the choice is easy if they have a certain airline they religiously fly. In that case, it makes sense to get the card associated with the favorite airline, since you’ll generally earn extra points on airline purchases when it’s through the brand’s credit card. You’ll earn points on purchases you’re going to make anyway. If you aren’t loyal to a specific airline, then it makes sense to get one simply based on what will give you the most value for your dollar spent.
A new study on airline credit cards aims to provide that information to potential card holders. The analysts looked at the credit cards of all the major players in the airline industry, then broke down each one’s reward earning to find out what it takes to earn a free flight. It may be surprising to find out that the low-cost budget airlines don’t necessarily provide their credit card holders with the best bang for their buck in this regard.
When looking at the amount needed to spend on the card in order to earn enough points or miles for a free flight, Spirit Airlines outranked it’s competition in the worst way. You’d need to spend $37,500 on Spirit’s World Mastercard in order to earn the 75,000 points typically needed for a cross-country Spirit Airlines flight. Ouch.
Alternatively, JetBlue landed in first for requiring the least amount needed to spend: $17,714.29 is required to earn the 24,800 points typically needed for a cross-country JetBlue flight. The other major airlines — Hawaiian, Delta, Frontier, United, Southwest, Alaska, and American — rank somewhere in between JetBlue and Spirit, though all of these require someone to spend at least $8,900 less than Spirit does.
What these numbers tell us is that it actually takes quite a bit of money to earn a free flight, no matter which airline credit card you use. Still, if it’s money you’re going to spend anyway, you might as well start racking up points towards a reward.
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