American Express
$794/yr net
Earns 3x on flights, on a flights-heavy profile after fees.
Best for flights
The best airline credit card
Updated July 2026 · Ranked by net annual value (rewards minus the effective fee), not by who pays us.
Search "best airline credit card" and you get a list of co-brands — a United card, a Delta card, a Southwest card. But on the cash math, the card that earns the most on airfare is usually a flexible travel card, not a single-airline co-brand.
We ranked every card against an airfare-heavy wallet by net annual value — rewards minus the effective fee — using the same engine as our calculator. Flexible cards top the list because their points aren't locked to one airline. Here's the ranking, then the honest case for when a co-brand still wins.
Our pick
American Express® Green Card
$794/yr net
Best flights card by net value for this profile, after the effective fee, earning 3x on flights.
The catch most lists skip
A single-airline co-brand card can beat a flexible card — but not on the raw earn rate. It wins on perks the cash ranking deliberately doesn't score: a free checked bag (worth roughly $70 per round trip, often covering the fee by itself if you check bags a couple times a year), priority boarding, and companion or annual-travel benefits. The other side of the trade: co-brand miles are locked to one airline and lose value when that program devalues, while transferable points move to whichever airline has the best award. Rule of thumb — if you fly one airline and check bags, the co-brand's free-bag perk alone can outweigh the cash gap; if you fly whoever's cheapest, a flexible card nets more and keeps your options open.
See the full trade-offTop 5 flights cards by net value
Chase
$658/yr net
Earns 2x on flights, on a flights-heavy profile after fees.
Bank of America
$648/yr net
Earns 3x on flights, on a flights-heavy profile after fees.
Wells Fargo
$636/yr net
Earns 4x on flights, on a flights-heavy profile after fees.
American Express
$625/yr net
Earns 3x on flights, on a flights-heavy profile after fees.
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Your spending isn't this profile.
This ranking is for a flights-heavy wallet. Enter your own monthly numbers and we'll re-rank all 75 cards against exactly how you spend.
Run my own numbersFigures are estimates from our net-value model on a sample flights-weighted profile, with fees counted category-aware (credits count where you'd realize them). See our methodology page. Rates and fees change — verify on the issuer's site before applying.