Compare our best air miles credit cards

An air miles credit card is a type of rewards card. Air miles cards give you travel points and perks in return for your spending. The more you spend, the more points you get.

You can swap your points for discounted plane tickets, seat upgrades, hotel stays or experiences. That’s why they’re often referred to as air miles credit cards.

There are different points schemes, such as Avios, Virgin Atlantic and Amex (American Express).

Sainsbury's also lets you swap your Nectar points for Avios and vice versa. You can turn your Tesco Clubcard vouchers into Virgin Points too.

You can use Avios and other points for more than just flying. Redeem them on holidays and hotel stays, or use them on gig tickets or car hire.

Some cards charge you an annual fee, though the card provider might waive it for the first year.

Travel cards aim to give you the best deals on spending abroad. Plus, you’ll have the added protection of using a credit card.

You could save a lot of money on your overseas trips by using both an air miles card and a travel card.

Some airlines, like British Airways, also provide credit cards. These are sometimes called rewards cards or airline credit cards.

Airline cards give customers points and rewards based on every pound they spend with that airline. You can also get points for other spending on the card.

Plus, you can earn points if you book holidays and arrange car hire through the airline.

When you use your air miles card to make purchases, you build up points.

Extra Avios points can also be collected via stores such as Sainsbury's by converting your Nectar points, The Wine Flyer and The Bicester Collection.

There are five different Avios schemes, and these all let you accumulate Avios points:

• British Airways Executive Club

• Aer Lingus AerClub

• Vueling Club

• Iberia Plus

• Qatar Airways Privilege Club

You can join all five schemes and shift your points between them. You can also add to your Avios points by converting your Nectar points.

You then ‘spend’ your points on flights and travel, in the same way as you’d spend money.

If you don’t have enough points for a return flight, you could use your points to go one way. You’d then need to pay by cash or card for the return journey.

Remember, you still have to pay the taxes and charges, so your points flight won’t be completely free.

You can often upgrade your flight using your points, so you could pay for an economy flight but use your points to fly business class. For frequent flyers, this is a decent perk.

There are lots of different schemes and reward plans from air miles credit cards. You can compare deals using our comparison service.

The best air miles credit card is the one that fits your spending and lifestyle. Some air miles credit cards give you:

• Air miles or points to use on airline travel and packages

• Cheaper flights and holidays

• Discounts on gig tickets, theme parks and other days out

So, ask yourself if you want to use your points for gigs and day trips as well as flying. Or are you a frequent flyer who’d get the most benefit from the perks of an airline credit card?

Remember, when you do book a flight with your points, availability is likely to be more limited than if you were paying normally as not all seats will be bookable in this way and you will be limited to the airlines your points work on. You also still have to pay taxes.

Think about when and how you would use your points. If you don’t think you’ll use them much on flights or holidays, you might be better off opting for a cashback or other reward card instead.

When you fly or spend money on your air miles card, you accumulate loyalty points. You can then combine these to put towards a flight, hotel or something else.

Some credit cards give you different points that you can exchange or convert to air miles.

For example, the Sainsbury's Nectar scheme lets you exchange your Nectar points for Avios. There’s even an automatic setting so you don’t have to manually convert the points. 

Every 400 Nectar points is worth 250 Avios, while every 300 Avios is worth 400 Nectar points. 

If you’re a member of the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club loyalty scheme, you can swap your Tesco Clubcard points for Virgin Points. You can turn every Clubcard point into two Virgin Points, so £1.50 of Clubcard vouchers is equivalent to 300 Virgin Points. 

For £5 in Tesco vouchers you can get £10 to spend via Hotels.com, while American Express Membership Rewards points can be swapped for Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points on a 1:1 basis.