Should You Get an Airline Credit Card for Your Summer Vacation?

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Airline cards have a lot of perks — but also big annual fees. See if it’s worth it for you to pick one up this summer. 

As a kid, you spent half the year already ready for summer vacation. As an adult, prepping for a big trip is a significantly more involved process.

Indeed, between planning and packing, your summer vacation to-do list is already long enough. But should you add one more thing? Before you hit the skies this summer, should you pick up an airline credit card?

Bringing bags? Pack your card

Good travel rewards cards, including airline cards, can have a lot of valuable perks. In my opinion, however, one of the main reasons you should consider getting an airline card before your summer trip is because of baggage fees.

The average cost to check a bag is $30 a piece. If you’re flying with multiple family members, you could easily hit $100-$120 in bag fees alone.

That’s where an airline credit card could help. Most of the mid-tier (and higher) airline cards allow you to check one bag for free. Even better, this typically extends to four to six members of your party who are flying on the same itinerary.

So, if your four-person family each gets a free checked bag, you’re saving around $120 — which is more than enough to cover the $95-$99 annual fee on a mid-tier airline card.

All the bonus you can carry

Of course, free checked bags aren’t the only reason to pick up an airline card right now. If you’re still in the booking phase, that airline card could be worth tens of thousands of frequent flyer miles, too.

That’s right, I’m talking about the sign-up bonus. Most credit card sign-up bonuses require you to spend a certain amount of money on your new card within a set period of time (usually three months after opening).

So, if you use your new airline card to pay for your summer vacation, you could get most — if not all — of the way through the spending requirement right away. Even better, you’ll be doing it with purchases you were going to make anyway.

Lounges and discounts, oh my

What if your summer vacation isn’t your only plane travel this year? If you’re going to be flying quite a bit over the next 12 months, you may want more than a mid-tier airline card. It may actually be worth upgrading to a top-tier card. Why? The lounge access.

Pretty much every travel rewards card in the $400+ range comes with some sort of airport lounge access. Usually, it’s some version of Priority Pass. But with co-branded airline cards, you could get access to their branded lounges, which can be even better as they may not be as crowded as lounges that are more easily accessible.

Sure, a $400+ annual fee is a lot to ask. That’s why you need to crunch some numbers to make sure the cost is worth paying. For example, if you’re only going to use the lounges once or twice — definitely not worth $400. If you’re going to hit them half a dozen times or more…well, you can see how that may be worth the cost, especially when paired with the bonus and other perks.

Airline cards aren’t for everyone. If your summer vacation is the only time you fly — or, perhaps, you aren’t even flying at all — then an airline card makes little sense. However, it could be a great way to save a few bucks for some folks, so it’s definitely worth investigating.

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