Over the past few years, airlines have increased or tacked on fees on everything from checked bags to award booking fees. Thankfully, credit card companies are swooping in to help travelers eliminate these fees with a statement credits that can be applied to baggage fees, award taxes, Wi-Fi, club lounge access, and even travel bookings themselves. Below is a summary of the best credit cards for eliminating airline fees:
Discover It Miles
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Discover it® Miles - Double Miles your first year
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$0 first year
$0 after first year |
Double Miles Double all the Miles you've earned at the end of your first year Read Review » |
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Discover it® Miles - Double Miles your first year |
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The Discover It Miles card has become my go-to card for travel expenses under $100. In many cases, that includes baggage fees and award taxes. The card has no minimum redemption requirements, so it’s great for these types of airline fees. Another great perk this card offers is $25 worth of annual in-flight wifi credits. Considering the card has no annual fee, this is an especially nice benefit to have and a great reason to keep this card long term.
Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard
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Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard®
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$0 first year
$89 after first year |
40,000 bonus miles When you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 90 days Read Review » |
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Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® |
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The Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard is perfect for those international award bookings that set you back more than $100 in taxes and fees. Because you not only meet the minimum $100 redemption requirement, but you’ll get a 5% point rebate. I like to use my Arrival card to eliminate award taxes and fees, as well as to cover paid airfare. It’s really great that Barclay offers cardholders 120 days to redeem their miles. In cases when I don’t have enough miles to cover a fare or taxes for multiple award tickets, this gives me plenty of times to earn them. Of course, there are lots of other great ways to put Arrival Miles to use.
Airline Credit Cards
Co-branded Airline Credit Cards are great for getting free checked bags, discounts on in-flight purchases, and airport lounge access. Every major airline rewards credit card offers a free checked bag benefit that eliminates fees, not just for the cardholders, but several passengers traveling on the same itinerary.
American Express Platinum Cards
Both the Platinum Card from American Express and Business Platinum Card from American Express OPEN are great cards offering $200 worth of annual statement credits that can be applied towards airline fees. There’s a great thread on Flyertalk containing reimbursement reports that you might want to read to learn more about which fees are covered across different airlines. While airport lounge access doesn’t technically fall under “airline fees” it is included with this card and thus worth mentioning for those who regularly pay for access.
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The Platinum Card® from American Express
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$450 first year
$450 after first year |
40,000 points After you spend $3,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 3 months Read Review » |
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The Platinum Card® from American Express |
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Citi Prestige Card
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Citi Prestige® Card
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$450 first year
$450 after first year |
40,000 Points After $4,000 in purchases made with your card in the first 3 months the account is open. Read Review » |
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Citi Prestige® Card |
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Citi is really going after Amex’s customer base with its Citi Prestige Card. In exchange for a $450 annual fee, cardholders receive an annual $250 air travel credit that can be used for airline tickets, baggage fees, in-flight purchases, and more.
Chase Sapphire Reserve
You can’t have a post about travel credits without discussing the new Chase Sapphire Reserve card. One of the most notable features of this card (other than the 100,000 points sign-up bonus) is an annual $300 statement credit that can be applied towards travel purchases like airfare and hotel charges. That makes this card valuable and if you’re someone who regularly maxes out this benefit, it could be worth paying the $450 annual fee.
Which of these credit cards do you like to use to offset airline fees?
[Image via Getty]