Best Card for Flights

Worth more, if

These rates are real, but each needs something done first. They are listed apart from the ranking because a rate you cannot act on at the till is not an answer.

Chase Freedom Flex — up to 10.25¢ per dollar if Quarterly categories you must activate.

Citi Custom Cash — up to 9.5¢ per dollar if Your top eligible category each billing cycle, picked automatically.

Business Gold — up to 8.0¢ per dollar if Your top 2 of 6 eligible categories, picked automatically each cycle.

Citi Strata — up to 5.7¢ per dollar if Your self-select category, changeable once a quarter.

Discover it Cash Back — up to 5.0¢ per dollar if Rotating quarterly categories you must activate.

3 further conditional rates exist on cards not shown here.

The full ranking

Sorted by cents back per dollar. The multiplier column is there so you can see how often the bigger number loses.

20 cards earn a bonus on flights. Cards with no bonus here are left out rather than listed at their base rate, which would be forty rows of noise.

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How this is worked out

Each card's rate comes from the issuer's own page, recorded with the date it was checked. That rate is multiplied by what a point in its programme is worth to get cents back per dollar. The point values are The Points Guy's published valuations — borrowed, and credited. The arithmetic and the ranking are ours.

Where an issuer advertises a combined figure, only the card's own share counts. Cash-back cards are valued at one cent per point, which is why a 6% cash card can rank below a 4x card earning transferable points.