Frequent Miler on the Air - Book airfare through credit card portal or direct? | Question of the Week Ep6 | 6-21-26

Episode Date: June 21, 2026

Book airfare through credit card portal or direct? Frequent Miler reader Mike wrote in with this question:American Express Platinum cards give you 5x points for direct bookings to airline flights. However, most airlines give you 3x to 5x for using their own co-branded cards for those same flights. Direct bookings give you more options if things go sideways (e.g., flight cancelations that require a rebooking). Or would prefer 8x Chase Sapphire Ultimate Rewards multiplier? If you use Amex or Chase, you have to deal with an online travel agency to re-book replacement flights. Do you prefer Amex Platinum, Chase Sapphire Reserve, over direct bookings versus that airline’s own co-branded card, and why?We’ve been answering a reader or listener question at the end of each Frequent Miler on the Air podcast episode. Now, we’ve turned the question of the week into its own weekly episode. Tune in every Sunday at 5pm for our Question of the Week podcast. And if you have your own question you’d like to submit, you can send it to [e-mail] in this episode:Check out all of our other travel podcasts from around the worldThis podcast is part of Voyascape, a podcast network that brings together the world's best travel podcasts. You can find all of our podcasts from around the world at Voyascape.com. If you are interested in advertising or sponsored content on any of our shows you can find out more at the link below.Voyascape Podcast Network

This is a Voyescape podcast. You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world atvoyescape.com. This week's question of the week, book airfare through credit card portal or direct. Reader Mike writes in and says, American Express Platinum cards give you five points per dollar for direct bookings on airlines. However, most airlines give three to five acts for using their own co-brands. credit cards for the same flights. Direct bookings give you more options if things go sideways, like if there are flight cancellations that require rebooking. So which do you choose? Or would you prefer ADEX using the Chase Sapphire Reserve and booking through Chase travel? Or if you'd use

Amex or Chase, well, I guess if you use Amex or Chase, you have to deal with an online travel agency potentially to rebook your flights if you're booking through MX travel or through Chase travel. So what do you prefer. Amix Platinum, Chase Sapphire Reserve, direct bookings versus the airline's own co-branded credit card. How do you book your paid airfare? Yeah, booking, if you have the Sapphire Reserve card, booking through the Chase Travel Portal is really tempting because then you earn eight points per dollar with your Chase card, as well as, of course, even when you book through a portal, you still earn airline miles when you actually take the flight. So it seems like a great way to do. it, but I've been burned a couple times where dealing with having to cancel the flight or whatever

is more difficult or dealing with, you know, flight changes is more difficult when you've booked through a portal than booking direct with the airline. So a vast majority of the time, I will give up those extra points. And I'll just book directly with the airline. But then there's still a question of which card do I use to pay. So yes, I have a American Express Platinum card that will give me five points per dollar on direct airfare purchases like this, but the travel protections aren't as good as my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. So I will often use my Saffir Reserve card to get four points per dollar. So I'm giving up the eight points per dollar. I'm giving up the eight points per I could get with going through the Chase portal.

I'm giving up five points per dollar that I could get using the Amex Platinum. And I'm going with four points per dollar with the Sapphire Reserve by booking direct with airline so that I can keep the better travel protections and the better experience if things change of going directly, booking directly with the airline. Yeah. I mean, I think that that's a really sound strategy. So what if you had an airline card? I don't know.

Is there an airline card that offers better than 4x on flights? I mean, I know that Mike's question said three to five X. I can't think of one that offers. I can't think of any that offer more than three or four. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't think you're sacrificing anything. And of course, earning transferable points.

You might think, oh, well, I have a United card. I should use my United card to book that United flight. Or, oh, I have a Delta card. I should use that to book Delta flights. But that's not necessarily true, particularly if you have a Sapphire Reserve card, because you're earning transferable. that you can transfer to a bunch of different airline programs if you want and probably getting better travel protections than you would with a direct airline card. So I think that makes a lot of sense.

I personally don't book a lot of cash fares when I do. I'm oftentimes using airline credits of some sort. I have a bunch of United Travel Bank credit built up from the last couple of years and I have a bunch of Southwest credit. And so I tend to be using those if I'm not booking with a credit card. So it's not so common. I don't book a ton of paid airfare. If I did, I would be pretty tempted by the ADEX through Chase Travel. Now, Greg's had some bad experiences booking through, we call them travel portals. So essentially, like the online travel agency experience through your credit card company. So like through Chase Travel, I have, for the most part, most of my flights go off the way I intended.

I don't run into irregular operations very often. That's why they call them irregular. So I haven't had a lot of those bad experience. says. So I'm not as disincentivized as Greg is by the idea of booking through the credit card portal, though if I can reduce friction or potential friction without giving up much, I would probably choose that. So if it were equal, if I could earn 8x booking directly through the airline or 8x booking through Chase Travel, I'd absolutely be booking directly through the airline. There's no reason to add any friction. If it were 6x versus 8x, I'd still probably choose booking directly

through the airline, even though I don't often run into problems, I would probably sacrifice the two points per dollar to reduce the friction. Would I go all the way down to four if all I wanted to do was reduce the potential friction if my flight gets canceled or whatever? I don't know if I'd give up the extra four points per dollar, but I do value having the travel protections also the card. Now, of course, I would have those travel protections if I booked through Chase travel. So I think it's a tight, I don't know, I think it's a tight comparison for me. I think in my own experience, I have generally done the same as Greg and chosen to use the Sapphire Reserve to book those flights directly, earn the four points per dollar. So I'm giving up four points per dollar to,

in order to reduce the friction and have travel protection. I certainly am choosing for Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar over five MX points per dollar because of the better travel protections. Now, I might only use those travel protections once every so many years, but that one time will probably more than pay for whatever I would have earned at 5x on my flights. On the other hand, if I were booking thousands of dollars in flights every single month, maybe that extra point per dollar would add up over time. So I think it makes sense to consider your own situation in terms of how many extra points you're giving up.

In my case, it's not really that many overall because I'm not booking that many paid flights. So sacrificing the one point per dollar to use my Sapphire Reserve over Miami's platinum feels like a no-brainer to me. sacrificing the four points per dollar to book direct over booking through chase travel. I think that's a little bit more questionable, to be honest. But I still, I don't book that much. And I'm happy to reduce the friction. So I have chosen to give up those four points per dollar. I don't know that the way that I do it is necessarily what I'd recommend to somebody else. Now, I say all that. And just recently, I had a friend who contacted me about how they can go about

canceling a flight and changing plans that they had booked through Chase travel. and the advice I gave them was don't cancel it. Just take that flight. Even though they wanted to take a different flight, I said, trust me, it's not going to be worth the headache. Yeah, okay, you could leave a couple hours earlier and get home a couple hours earlier, maybe. But the amount of headache to deal with that if you cancel through Chase,

it's not going to be worth it. Fly the flight I book through Chase. Right. Now, real quick, even if you have a reserve card that earns 4x or a platinum card that earns 5x, you may want to use an airline card, because there's cases like United, for example, if you want free check bag that your airline card offers, you have to pay with that card. That's not true with most airline cards, but it is true with United cards.

And there's also other special circumstances like when I'm using my companion certificate with Delta, I have to pay with an American Express card. I don't have to pay with a Delta American Express card, but I have to pay with American Express card. So that's where I'll use my platinum card to get 5x rather than my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Yes, that's a great point. There are those outlier situations, but I think it's equally important to really highlight the fact that most airlines don't require that you use their card to get card related benefits like the free checked bag. So it is relatively unique in that regard. So even though I'm a Southwest credit card holder and I enjoy my Southwest credit card benefits like my free check bag and my ability to pick actually. extra legroom seating 48 hours prior to departure, I can book with my Sapphire Reserve and still get those

things because it's my airline frequent flyer number that identifies me as a card holder. I don't actually have to use the card. And that's also true with most other airline cards. It'll be tied to your loyalty program number rather than to the payment method used by your flight. Right. This episode was produced and edited by Carrie Yoder, music by Annie Yoder. If you've enjoyed what you've heard today and you'd like get more of this in your email inbox each day or each week, go to frequentmiler.com slash subscribe to join our email list. Follow us on all the various social media. Join our frequent miler insider's Facebook group.

And wherever you're watching or listening, don't forget to like this or give it a thumbs up. If you have a question that you'd like to be considered for a future question of the week or a piece of feedback that you'd like to be considered for our giant mailbag, you can send that to mailbag at frequentmiler.com. Hi, I'm Mike Siegel, comedian. and since 2011 host of the Travel Tales podcast. When I'm not traveling the world telling jokes for money,

I'm traveling for fun out of curiosity and love of new places. And I love talking about travel with other people who share my passion. Whether they're travel experts, influencers, expats, or I'm just catching up with a fun friend. The subject is always my favorite one, travel. So if you love travel and want to listen to other people who love travel, and maybe even laugh or learn a thing or two, check out the Travel Tales podcast with me, your host, Mike Siegel,

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