Airline credit card or general travel card: which should I get?

The core tradeoff in one table

Airline cards buy you comfort on one carrier. General travel cards buy you freedom across all of them. Everything else is detail.

When the airline card wins

The case for an airline card is physical perks, not miles. If you check a bag on United, the first bag now costs 45 dollars prepaid or 50 dollars at the airport each way, so one couple's round trip can burn 180 dollars or more in bag fees. The United Explorer Card (150 dollar fee, waived year one) gives the cardholder and one companion a free first checked bag, plus priority boarding and two United Club one time passes a year.

Airline cards also carry perks a general card cannot copy: only a United card gives you United Club entry passes, and only Delta's cards hand out an annual companion certificate. If those map to your travel, the choice is easy.

When the general travel card wins

If you book whichever airline is cheapest or most convenient, airline miles are a liability. Flexible points from a card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred (95 dollar fee) can book any airline through Chase Travel or move to a list of airline and hotel partners, including United, so you keep the option of airline miles without being locked in.

Flexible points also protect you from a single program raising its award prices. When one airline devalues, you simply send points somewhere else. Airline mile balances have no such exit.

Earning and redeeming on flights, side by side

On flight purchases themselves, the two card types earn similarly, so earning rate is rarely the deciding factor. The Sapphire Reserve earns 4 points per dollar on flights booked directly with airlines; the United Explorer earns bonus miles on United purchases. The gap shows up at redemption: flexible points can chase the best value across programs, while airline miles wait for that one airline to publish a reasonable award price on a route you want.

For most people the honest ranking on pure flight value is: flexible points first, airline miles second, but airline cards claw the difference back through bags and boarding if you fly that carrier often.

The common answer: hold one of each

Frequent flyers of one airline often end up with both: a flexible points card as the everyday earner, and a cheap airline card kept purely for perks. Example: put daily spending on a Sapphire Preferred, hold a United Explorer for the free bag and boarding, and buy United tickets with whichever card the current benefit terms require for the bag perk to apply.

If you fly a few airlines equally and never check bags, skip the airline card entirely.

Common questions

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