Airfare, Europe
Best Cards For Airfare Within Europe
Updated on Wed, 28 Jan 2026
Intra-Europe flights can be booked cheaply with either points or cash. Short routes can be better with low-cost carriers, but baggage and seat fees can quickly cancel out those savings. Award redemptions often make more sense for longer flights or high-demand routes. Because taxes vary widely by country and airport, flexibility matters more than chasing the lowest mileage price. The cards below give you the best options for flying within Europe efficiently.
Our Rankings
1 | Amex Platinum
The Amex Platinum is one of the best cards to have when flying within Europe because of the breadth of its transfer partners. Amex partners directly with Virgin Atlantic and Flying Blue, two of the most useful programs for intra-Europe award flights. Avios is also one of the most flexible currencies for getting around Europe, and Amex transfers to several Avios-earning airlines, including British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia. While it’s easy to find very low mileage redemptions with Avios, taxes and fees vary widely by departure city. A cheap points redemption can lose its appeal when departing from high-tax airports, while routes originating in cities like Dublin, Madrid, or Barcelona typically come with much lower fees than departures from London, Paris, or Frankfurt.
2 | Capital One Venture X
Capital One also has a strong mix of transfer partners for intra-European flights. Like Amex, you can transfer directly to Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic, along with Avios-earning airlines such as British Airways, Finnair, and Qatar. Once you transfer points to any Avios airline, you can freely move those Avios between the other participating programs, which adds even more flexibility. These options make it easier to find competitive award pricing in both economy and business class, especially when departing from lower-tax countries and airports. The Venture X also offers a $300 annual travel credit that can be used through the Capital One portal, and you can erase eligible travel purchases with points at a 1:1 rate. That makes it easy to book a low-cost carrier with cash and then offset the cost using points when it makes more sense than an award booking.
Honorable Mentions
3 | Chase Sapphire Reserve
As usual, a Chase card shows up in these rankings, since you can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to many of the same airlines already discussed, including Virgin Atlantic, Flying Blue, and Avios-earning airlines like Aer Lingus, Iberia, and British Airways. You can also transfer to United, which has some surprisingly strong award redemption options for intra-European flights on its Star Alliance partners. Taxes will vary with United redemptions, but there are definite sweet spots to be found. Since you won’t typically get outsized value on short intra-Europe award flights, it’s also worth checking the Chase Travel portal to see if any Points Boost redemptions appear for your itinerary. The Chase Sapphire Reserve includes a $300 annual travel credit that applies to any travel purchase, making it easy to book directly with a low-cost carrier when paying cash makes more sense.
4 | British Airways
The British Airways credit card offers a solid welcome offer for such a low annual fee, and those bonus Avios can be used for award redemptions within Europe. We’ve already outlined the flexibility of Avios, but this card adds a unique perk that helps offset one of the biggest downsides of intra-European award flights: taxes and fees. Cardholders receive statement credits of $100 per booking on economy or premium economy award tickets, or $200 on business or first class awards, up to three times per year, when the taxes, fees, and surcharges are paid with the card. That means you could book multiple intra-European flights and use those credits to significantly reduce out-of-pocket costs, making Avios redemptions much more practical within Europe.
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