Best Airline Credit Card for a newbie.

Bluebird_1987

Hi all, I am looking to go and visit family over in Australia towards the end of next year.

Obviously the price of flights are quite high. I am looking into the idea of applying for an Airline Credit card, use the points earnt on daily spending to help contribute towards the cost of the flights.

It is my wife and daughter who will be travelling with me.

Are there any recommendations for the best card to go for which has minimal fees but the best return on points vs money spent.

I haven't nailed down the airline of which to fly with yet but if there is a card that covers multiple airlines, that would be extremely helpful.

Any advice around this would be greatly appreciated.

CliveOfIndia

Take a look at this MSE article, hopefully it should point you in the right direction:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/airline-credit-cards/

lr1277

Have a look at the site Headforpoints (HfP). They have a section reviewing credit and debit cards and their associated mileage programs. As well as articles on the various airline loyalty schemes.

One program that might be overlooked is the Marriott Bonvoy rewards. Not an expert but apparently the Marriott Bonvoy rewards programs allows you to transfer points to many more airlines than just the Avios or Virgin programs, ie. you get the avios and virgin schemes plus many other airlines as transfer partners. In fact in the UK the Marriott program might be the only way of earning points to transfer to some airlines.

In terms of cards, there is the Amex Marriott card and Currensea Marriott debit card or cards.I forget if there are one or two debit cards.

If you choose an airline associated with avios or an airline associated with Virgin (or Virgin themselves) then choose a card specific to that airline or the related program.

One more thing to remember, there are credit and debit cards that earn airline points. However if memory serves, the debit cards are provided by Currensea and reduced fee fx transactions are their focus, so some rewards on their cards are dependent on spending in a foreign currency which may or may not incude spending in Euros. You need to investigate further.

One final consideration which will be detailed in a relevant HfP article is that for certain schemes (both card and airline), their points have a (hard) expiry date. So if you have a choice be careful as to when you move points over from your card to your chosen airline program.

Nasqueron

Use the Head for Points site for all the offers

Do note that points → airmiles isn't always that great and you are sometimes limited to when you can use them

HillStreetBlues

Personally I would be looking at a purchase credit card and earn interest from the capital.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6668269/best-airline-credit-card-for-a-newbie

It depends… do you have a preferred airline? Do the places you shop in accept AmEx?

To get real value from points you need to not travel in Economy, if you arent a very big spender then the chances of getting the points/vouchers within the timeframe that you will be wanting to book your flight in is probably slim so if you weren't planning to go Business anyway and dont want one member in Business and the rest in Economy you could just use the points as cash off the fare but you typically get under 0.5p per point so need to run the numbers of if any signup bonus makes it worth while or if you are better off with a cashback card that can be over 0.5p/£1

lr1277

One more thing to remember is that for popular destinations like Australia in the winter months, the reward seats go awfully quickly, sometimes they are all gone on the day they are released.

I don't remember the exact figures between BA and Virgin but they release their reward seats something like 355 or 333 days before the day of the flight. So you need to have the points accrued by the time you book. There will be more details on Headforpoints.

As you will find out from HfP, you have to call at either midnight or 1am (depending on GMT or BST) on the day the tickets are released. I don't know how many are travelling in your party but sometimes there won't be as many reward seats released as there are in your party. Then you have decisions to make.

I hope these pitfalls don't put you off.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81998939#Comment_81998939

As you say, exact matters change depending on the airline but generally you can book reward seats online and never heard of telephone getting priority over web bookers.

Secondly the number of reward seats arent static and it can be the case that if a flight is selling poorly more reward seats will be added later.

Your airline status can also impact availability certainly with BA Gold members can be offered reward seats that arent available to lower tier members.

Looking at Australia for later 2026/early 2027 there are still relatively good availability for Economy other than around Xmas itself. Very few PE seats left other than early December and no Businesss outbound. The return leg is slightly better looking with a few business seats in Jan.

It certainly helps if you can be very flexible with your dates and similarly smaller travelling parties are much easier to accommodate