How to Use Credit Cards to Maximise Air Miles

Business Oct 1, 2024 0 52 Add to Reading List

You can maximise your travel benefits depending on credit card offers on air tickets, hotel booking discounts, airport lounge check-in and more. Credit cards have reward programs in terms of cashback, air miles, and reward points.

You can redeem them to pay bills, do grocery shopping, pay for fuel and others. If you’re a frequent traveller, earning rewards in the form of air miles can maximise your travel benefits. As these offers vary across banks, choose a credit card accordingly to ensure you make the best out of these perks.

What is an Air Mile Program?

Among other credit card perks such as cashback or reward points, an air mile is designed specifically for travellers. You can earn air miles through purchases you make and redeem them in:

Booking flight tickets, covering the entire cost at times
Seat upgradation
Premium lounge access

Simply put, this is related to an airline’s frequent flyer program. Whenever you book a ticket with a specific airline, you earn air miles or points that can be redeemed when booking your next flight ticket.

This not only helps you decrease the trip cost but you may also be eligible to get a free air ticket.

What are the Types of Credit Cards with Air Miles?

Depending on the reward programs and redemption system, credit cards can be classified in the following ways:

Regular credit cards offer benefits in the form of air miles. You can redeem them according to your travel requirements.
Credit card issuers collaborate with airlines and come up with co-branded credit cards. You can use this credit card if you have an airline preference. The perks include free flight tickets, accelerated points, memberships and more.
Many credit card issuers collaborate with travel portals. It gives an opportunity to enjoy perks with collaborated brands. That’s not all. You can also enjoy general benefits on other purchases.
Premium credit cards give you travel benefits and significant rewards on other purchases, which include fuel surcharges on credit cards, retail purchases, bill payments and more.

Strategies to Maximise Air Miles for Free Flights

There are a lot of ways to earn air miles through credit cards. Depending on the type of credit card, you can earn miles on every purchase. The air mile conversion rate may differ depending on the credit card issuer.

Here are a few points to consider if you are looking to earn miles through your credit card.

Most basic credit cards don’t come with air miles as rewards. Credit card issuers offer free miles as a welcome bonus to make up for the joining fee and annual fee. Conversely, some credit cards come with lucrative air mile offers, such as 10,000 miles as a sign-up bonus.

Credit card issuers offer bonuses on spending threshold amounts, known as milestone bonuses. You can look for credit cards offering air miles as their milestone bonus. For example, if you are spending ₹70,000 in your first 90 days of purchase, you can enjoy 3,000 air miles.

Some credit cards come with a flexible reward system. You can enjoy the generic reward programs or convert to air miles of selected airlines. These cards are adjustable for earning and redeeming the reward points.

You can earn more miles by strategising the use of your credit card. Some credit card issuers allow you to earn accelerated miles if you’re booking from the bank’s affiliated platform.

Many rewards credit cards in India offer increased earning rates for specific spending categories. For example:

Dining and travel purchases may help you earn 3X points
Fuel expenditures could help you accrue 4X points
Airline ticket purchases directly from carriers may yield 5X points
Utilising a dining-focused card for restaurant expenses while employing a different card for travel bookings can significantly increase the number of miles

How to Redeem Air Miles

There are two types of redemption systems depending on the type of credit card you opt for.

Co-branded Credit Card

Regular Credit Card

This card offers membership to their frequent flyers.

If you don’t have the offer, you can register for it.

It is a preferred option if you travel through a specific airline.

You can accumulate the points/miles and transfer them to the airline of your convenience.

You can enjoy the reward points on regular purchases, convert them to miles, and use them across multiple airlines.

You can strategise your spending habits to gain more value through the credit card with air miles. If you want to maximise your rewards with zero redemption fee, get the One Credit Card.

Redeem accumulated rewards and explore international travel destinations within your budget.

In addition, you can earn up to 5X rewards on the top two spending categories, such as groceries or fuel. With the One Credit Card’s smooth and sleek mobile app, you can access an in-build forex calculator to compute the forex fees on international transactions. Apply now and enjoy the perks at your fingertips.