Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards 2025: Airline Card Programs

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Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards Categories

By Sean Jackson

published 27 May 2025

Contributions from
Lisa Gerstner

in Features

About the Kiplinger Readers’ Choice Awards 2025
The Kiplinger Readers’ Choice Awards aim to recognize and celebrate the best products and services in the personal finance arena. We asked you, our Kiplinger community, to help us name the products and services you think have delivered excellent value in the past year.

The survey results, which we’re sharing here in our second annual Readers’ Choice Awards, offer valuable insight into which providers shine when it comes to your everyday interactions and experiences with them. Our Awards recognize excellence in everything from credit cards, banks and brokers to insurers, tax software and financial apps. For each category, we’ve listed an overall winner that earned the highest score. We’ve also highlighted other products and services that earned above-average scores for various criteria we asked readers to assess.

By voting, our community has helped us form our guide to the very best financial products. These are the products and companies that you think stand out from the crowd.

Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards: Airline Card Rewards Programs

Airline credit cards reward brand loyalty. You’ll get miles or points for every flight you book with the airline, and with some programs, you can earn free airline tickets, access to airport lounges and other travel perks.

We surveyed readers in three areas: strength of customer service, whether they would recommend the credit card program to others and overall satisfaction.

OVERALL WINNER: Southwest Airlines Cards

Outstanding for:

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Customer service
Most recommended
Overall satisfaction

Southwest offers a trio of consumer credit cards tied to its Rapid Rewards loyalty program. And now that Southwest is charging fees for checked luggage, cardholders get a new perk: one free checked bag for you and up to eight passengers.

The credit cards, issued by Chase, come with varying annual fees and rewards, including a heap of bonus points on each yearly cardmember anniversary: 3,000 points with the Rapid Rewards Plus card ($69 annual fee), 6,000 points with Premier ($99) and 7,500 points with Priority ($149).

The Priority card also comes with four upgraded boardings per year (when available) and a $75 Southwest travel credit, among other benefits. One reader says, “The points bonus for signing up was incredibly high.” (Recently, all three cards offered a 50,000-point bonus if you spend $1,000 in the first three months.) “Plus, getting a free upgrade to Business Select was nice.”

Delta Air Lines Cards

Outstanding for:

Customer service
Most recommended
Overall satisfaction

The Delta SkyMiles program features four credit cards issued by American Express: Delta SkyMiles® Blue, Delta SkyMiles® Gold , Delta SkyMiles® Platinum and Delta SkyMiles® Reserve.

One reader praises the program for offering “lots of features and benefits” that go beyond the miles you earn on purchases.

Benefits vary by card, with the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve card providing the most perks in exchange for the high annual fee ($650). Perks include a companion certificate (which allows an additional passenger to fly with you once per year on a round-trip flight within the U.S. and to Mexico, the Caribbean, or Central America, taxes and fees apply), access to Amex’s Centurion airport lounges and 15 visits to Delta Sky Club lounges each year. Rates and fees apply.

JetBlue Cards

Outstanding for:

Overall satisfaction

JetBlue offers a few consumer credit cards, issued by Barclays: the JetBlue Card, JetBlue Plus ($99) and JetBlue Premier ($499). All the cards provide a 50% discount on in-flight refreshments, and the Plus and Premier cards offer a 5,000-point bonus on your yearly cardmember anniversary and one free checked bag for you and up to three other passengers.

With all JetBlue cards, you can pool points you earn with friends and family to get more travel perks.

Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards Categories

Sean is a veteran personal finance writer, with over 10 years of experience. He's written finance guides on insurance, savings, travel and more for CNET, Bankrate and GOBankingRates.

With contributions from