The Best Credit Cards for
Airline Mileage Bonuses
Updated: March 23, 2012
A curated list of current opportunities.
The Very Best Offers
Chase Sapphire—A new card receiving great reviews from travelers of all kinds. Get 40,000 points that can transfer to United or Hyatt (and others), no annual fee for the first year, and no foreign transaction fees. Read more | Apply here
Starwood Preferred Guest—The longstanding go-to card for personal spending awards points that can be transferred to almost any airline on a 1:1 basis with a 20% bonus. (Every 20,000 points transferred = 25,000 miles.) Read more | Apply here
Delta Gold AmEx—Earn 30,000 miles with a low minimum spend of $500 in three months. Read more | Apply here
AmEx Platinum—This card has a pricey annual fee, but you get almost half of it back in annual airline credit, and you also get free access at hundreds of airline lounges. Worth it for the active traveler. Read more | Apply here
Citi Platinum Select / AAdvantage World MasterCard—Reliable bonuses of 30,000 per card that can be used on American Airlines and all OneWorld partner airlines. You can usually apply for two cards at the same time to double your bonus. Read more | Apply here
Business Cards
Chase Ink Bold—[This card is currently on hold.]. Read more | Apply here
Starwood Preferred Guest, Business Version—If you have a business, you can get an additional 25,000 points for the business version of the SPG personal card. Read more | Apply here
Other Great Cards
United MileagePlus Explorer—A good card for United Airlines lovers offering bonuses up to 40,000 miles and frequent traveler benefits including free checked bags, priority club passes, and more. Read more | Apply here
Marriott—One of the better hotel credit cards, this Visa product gets you 30,000 Marriott points and two free nights immediately upon first use. Read more | Apply here
Southwest Airlines—If you like to fly Southwest, this card will get you an instant free flight. Read more | Apply here
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Disclosure: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express.
Some of these links provide referral bonuses to us. We only recommend cards we use personally, and in the event an offer without a referral bonus is available, we’ll list the better card. Always use credit responsibility by paying the full balance every month. Do it right, and you can take advantage of luxury travel at budget prices for many years to come.