5 Reasons Why Airlines Offer Bonuses With Credit Cards

Over the past two decades, airline loyalty programs have grown from being relatively small operations, mostly designed to reward a few high-volume business travelers with free flights and other perks. Today, airline loyalty programs are essential elements of an airline’s business model, and they often generate more profits and have higher valuations than the airline itself. United Airlines is often cited as the key case study in this matter, as the airline valued its MileagePlus loyalty program as more valuable than the airline itself back during the pandemic.
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Nonetheless, the same holds true for American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, the two other major legacy carriers, each of which relies heavily on loyalty programs to generate revenue and keep the highest-spending customers from flying with competitors. We at Simple Flying have extensively dug into this issue, examining everything from why airlines spend more on their loyalty programs than almost anything else and why they might choose to offer such a large set of benefits to those who have earned elite status with the carrier.
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Nonetheless, the cornerstone of any airline loyalty program is its cobranded credit card offerings, as these offerings allow passengers to engage with the airline’s loyalty system with every single purchase. Furthermore, it gives them the opportunity to amass miles in a much quicker fashion and also lets them earn elite status or receive other perks. As a result, airlines, via their cobranded credit card schemes, have become an increasingly important part of the consumer credit landscape.
MileagePlus As the loyalty program of one of the world’s biggest airlines, United MileagePlus is also one of the world’s biggest frequent flyer schemes. Today, there are more than 100 million members of the program. Participating Airlines United Airlines Owner United Airlines Region North America Countries United States Established Date May, 1981
To encourage customers to sign up for these cards, airlines will often go a step further than just offering them the chance to earn miles with each of their purchases. Almost every single cobranded credit card in America today comes along with what is known as a welcome offer or signup bonus, which is essentially a large number of miles that are offered to one who opens a new cobranded credit card account. In this article, we will take a deeper look at cobranded credit cards, and we will examine five major reasons why airlines offer signup bonuses.
Airlines use signup bonuses to