Best Airline Credit Cards: Soar Smarter in 2025
For the frequent flyer and the occasional traveler alike, the right airline credit card can transform your travel experience from a mere commute to a journey filled with perks and potential savings. In 2025, the landscape of airline credit cards is more diverse than ever, offering a plethora of benefits designed to cater to a wide spectrum of travel habits and brand loyalties. Choosing the ideal one requires careful consideration of your preferred airlines, typical spending, and the value you place on various travel benefits.
Table of Contents
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Best for Flexible redemption + big bonus
With this card, you can earn rewards — known as Ultimate Rewards® points — in a variety of ways and redeem them strategically for travel. Options include using your points to book travel directly through Chase, or transferring them to more than a dozen loyalty programs, including heavy hitters such as United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Marriott and Hyatt. And it works hand-in-hand with other Chase cards that also earn Ultimate Rewards® points.
The New United℠ Explorer Card
Best for United Airlines + best domestic airline card
This card's valuable benefits — including useful ones that other airline cards don’t offer — set it apart, making it worth the annual fee, even if you fly United only occasionally.
Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card
Best for Alaska Airlines
It offers the annual Companion Fare to cardholders, allowing a travel companion to fly with you on a paid Alaska Airlines ticket for just the cost of taxes and fees, providing a significant potential saving on one round-trip flight each year.
Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card
Best for Premium airline card
Complimentary access to the Delta Sky Club® and select partner lounges, providing a premium and comfortable airport experience, along with other elite-like benefits such as a higher MQD boost to accelerate the path to Delta Medallion status.
Aeroplan® Credit Card
Best for International airline card
This card provides cardholders with benefits within the expansive Air Canada Aeroplan loyalty program, including Air Canada elite status qualification boosts, free first checked bag on Air Canada flights, and potential for better award flight availability within the Star Alliance network, catering specifically to international travelers and those within the Aeroplan ecosystem.
Wells Fargo Autograph Journey℠ Card
Best for Booking with any airline
It features some of the highest reward rates on travel expenses, plus flexible redemption and an annual credit that can defray its fee. You get transfer partners, too.
JetBlue Plus Card
Best for JetBlue Airways
The uniquely valuable feature of this card is the annual statement credit it provides after spending a certain amount each year, combined with a free checked bag and discount on in-flight purchases, directly enhancing the travel experience and providing cost savings for frequent JetBlue flyers.
Browse all deals
