Why Booking Flights with Your Credit Card is the Best Way to Go

2nd May 2011

Credit cards sure come in handy for buying big ticket items or everyday purchases such as groceries and petrol. But aside from offering a quick way to acquiring these mentioned items, credit cards can perhaps be considered the single most favorable way to book flights. Here's why:

Using Your Credit Card Invariably Provides You with Protection

These dire economic situations, unfortunately, have not spared even large firms involved in tour operations. In fact, right as the recession hit, some tour operators, notably the XL Leisure Group, had to cease operations because of financial difficulties. And while the UK government has undertaken a handful of measures to address the problems with the economy, the rest of the airline industry is still in the red.

Now, say you have purchased a plane ticket. But for reasons you are not readily informed of, the airline from which you bought the ticket from suddenly stops all of its services. If you got the reservations via your credit card, then you can rest easy knowing that all the money you paid will be given back to you, so long as the amounts are within £100 to £30,000, all thanks to the Consumer Credit Act.

But it is entirely a different case if you purchased using cold cash. You might be able to pursue a case against the airline to recoup the cost you paid them. But if the shutdown of operations is due to the airline's financial difficulties, and the management has duly sought out legal protection from collectors, then the hopes of getting your money back may totally be dashed.

Of course, this is such an extreme example. But bear in mind that the recession hasn't let up yet. So protect yourself from unnecessary monetary losses with all means possible and book only flights using your credit card.

Unnecessary Costs are Conveniently Slashed for You

Thanks to the emergence of the Internet, more and more products and services can now be readily had with just a few clicks of the mouse. Of course, airline reservations are one of these. Back then, you had to go through a phone operator. This person will run by you the various flight schedules while you're at the other end of the line frantically taking note of everything. As if this isn't difficult enough, you also had to perform the job of comparing airline schedules and respective costs to ensure you get the best deals.

But all these have been eliminated now with online self-booking tools. And the best part is the lower cost! Since you choose your own reservations and guarantee these using your credit card, then unnecessary fees are removed since you will no longer need to pay for the travel agent's or phone operator's fees.

You Get to Take Full Advantage of Targeted Rewards Schemes

We all know how hard marketers work to get their respective credit cards in our wallets. And this should be good for us money savvy folks as we get to benefit from a handful of credit card rewards programs.

For one, there's the cashback rewards scheme. Every single time you book flights using your credit card, you could get to earn anywhere from 1% to 5% tax-free cashback. Of course, you need to make sure that you pay the amount in full every single month if you are to use a cashback credit card so as to fully maximize its earning potentials.

Secondly, air miles promotions forwarded by credit card companies are available as well. The scheme is rather simple really. Use your credit card as often as you can and certain points per purchase accumulate towards your air miles. As soon as you come up with the required number of points, then you can buy the air ticket for that long desired trip. Air miles promos are also called frequent flyer miles. And much like its name suggests, these promotions are targeted for folks who frequently travel by plane.

If these reasons aren't enough for you, then consider convenience. Booking flights with your credit card is by far the quickest way there is. And since you won't be giving out your credit card information to someone over the phone, then you get to have that peace of mind knowing that you won't be the next unwitting victim of identity theft.