With the cost of just about everything rising at the moment it comes as no surprise that air travel is becoming more expensive.
Rising fuel costs have forced airlines to pass their increased costs onto customers. Most have opted to add on costs rather than up the price of the initial fare by adding charges for paying by credit card, charges to check luggage in and charges for not checking in online.
However, there are ways around the increased cost of foreign travel and one of them is, believe it or not, using your credit card more often.
When everyone is looking to reign in their spending, many credit card companies are offering products with which you can earn heavily reduced or free flights.
According to James Daley at the Independent, Lloyds TSB's Airmiles Duo credit card is one of the best products out there for earning free flights as you spend.
The Lloyds TSB's Airmiles Duo credit card gives you an American Express card and Mastercard linked to the same account and on top of that you receive 1,500 air miles just for signing up. That's enough for a return flight to some of the best destinations in Europe such as Prague or Rome.
After the initial air miles bonus you receive one mile for every ten pounds you spend on the American Express card and one mile for every £50 spent on your Mastercard.
BMI baby do an offer in conjunction with Mastercard where you receive a free flight to anywhere in the BMI baby network just for signing up and an additional free flight if you spend over £3,000 on you credit card in the first year.
Some of the cheapest flight companies in the business are also getting in on the air miles scheme, with Easyjet and Ryanair both offering cards that have free flight rewards. With these cards you have to spend a certain amount within the first few months of opening your account to receive the free flights and thereafter earn discounts as you spend.
The one snag with most of these cards is that they do not offer the best rates at all. To really benefit from offers such as these you have to make sure that you are paying you balance off each month in order to avoid hefty charges which would pretty much defeat the point of saving money on flights.
It is important to check as well what each card really means by its air miles. Air miles earned on one card cannot necessarily be compared with air miles earned on another card.
For example, some air miles do not include taxes and fares which will mean that you end up paying a lot more when you claim the 'free' flights. Others allocate you large numbers of air miles which are in actual fact not worth very much.
The Lloyds TSB Duo card is one of the best for earning air miles as it does include taxes and fees and the miles are earned within the formal air miles scheme.
|