Articles tagged “credit cards”

Care to buy a plane ticket without needing a credit card? Soon a few airlines will test enabling air travelers to pay for their tickets by taking payments directly from consumer accounts. Three cheers for testing innovations.

It makes sense for Uber to enter the credit card and loyalty arena. This card could be a solid alternative for frequent travelers who don't want to shell out a large annual fee.

Yes, a lot of people have ditched their airline-branded credit cards. But even people who have snazzy new cards, including the Chase Sapphire Reserve, like to redeem points for free travel on United and other airlines. For that reason, United MileagePlus miles are still valuable to Chase.

An airport lounge needs a lot of logistical heavy-lifting and finesse to get it right. But Amex has had some success executing on this mission, and is expanding internationally to Hong Kong.

Bank of America has a new premium loyalty credit card for the travel industry, but its uses may be limited. Still, for the right kind of traveler the new card can end up being very lucrative.

Yes, airline frequent flyer programs probably were more lucrative a decade ago. But savvy travelers can still get a lot of value out of the programs and their affiliated credit cards.

Yes, this seems like a potential invasion of privacy, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. The chances of airlines adopting this technology are low.

Travel rewards points redemptions in the U.S. are up sharply this year as several brands focus on rewarding and retaining their elite customers. Hotel loyalty program redemptions in particular have shown bold increases as these programs add millions of new members per year.

Allegiant Air knows less about its most loyal customers than it would like. Its new co-branded credit card could help change that. But will anyone apply for it?

Despite the radical changes to airline loyalty programs, the branded credit card remains one of the industry's most profitable and productive marketing programs.