Best Cards For Flights To Asia

We wanted to write up the Platinum cards from American Express separately from the Delta cards from American Express for a couple of different reasons. Delta is a great airline to book for roundtrip flights to Asia because its SkyTeam partners can get you almost anywhere on that side of the world when you book through Delta.com. American Express isn’t accepted everywhere, and they only give you one sign-up bonus per lifetime ... but platinum is platinum for a reason. The “American Express Platinum Personal” and the “American Express Platinum Business” offer some fantastic sign-up bonuses that have a 1:1 transfer rate to Delta airlines. These cards are exceptional because they offer premier airport lounges for you and 2 guests while you’re traveling.

There are a few Delta cards available to improve your SkyMiles balance. You can get the “Platinum Delta SkyMiles Card,” “Blue Delta,” “Delta Reserve,” “Gold Delta SkyMiles,” and the “Gold Delta SkyMiles Business” card. However, if you decide to start building up your Delta miles, remember with these American Express cards you only get one sign-up bonus per lifetime. So wrack up your miles for something real good. Delta partners with China Airlines, China Eastern, Korean Air and Vietnam Airlines, plus others that can get you to some pretty unique places. When one of our writers flew home from Thailand, they used Delta points to book business class on China Eastern. “I never realized how nice 14 hours on a plane can actually be,” she said. Also -- don’t forget to keep an eye on the Delta flash sales that can have round-trip tickets to East Asia from 34,000 SkyMiles.

Here is a fun fact about United Airlines: it’s been in operation since 1926 and has been flying to Asia longer than any American carrier. And today, United can get you to many different Asian regions. Plus, you have a lot more credit card options to get you there. They include “United Explorer,” “United Explorer Business Card,” and “United MileagePlus Club Card.” Each of these cards have some very appealing options while traveling internationally, like free bags and preferred boarding. We like United for Asia because you can grab a “Saver Standard” seat to Asia for between 35,000-40,000 miles one way. That means with just one of these cards, you can at least get yourself there and most of the way back. And if you can get 2 of these cards, you’re looking at a beautiful round-trip ticket.

These Chase cards make our list for your voyage to Asia because they offer really nice Ultimate Rewards that are completely transferable to United. And with the 1:1 immediate transfer rate, it makes getting to Asia super fast and easy. Another option for your jaunt to Asia is booking through the Chase portal with the “Chase Sapphire Reserve” and getting a 150% point redemption, or the “Chase Sapphire Preferred” with a 125% redemption rate. So you can get your flight to Asia right through Chase and book with even more points than what you originally thought you had.

Do you like to get off the beaten path? American Airlines will take you there. When we were flying into Yangon, it wasn’t easy to find an airline with Myanmar on its list of destinations. But guess what? American Airline had it. And Yangon isn’t the only place they surprisingly have routes to. When you open their flight maps, you can see dots all over that part of the map to places like Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Singapore, to name a few. We like the American Airline Citi cards like the “Citi Platinum Select”, “CitiBusiness Platinum Select” & “Executive World Elite” because the sign-up bonuses are big and they aren't Chase cards, so you can apply for them even after you’ve reached your 5/24 Chase limit. Plus, you get a few nice travel perks along with your card, like free checked bag, and some of them offer lounge access and companion tickets. Depending on your travel goals, this is a pretty good option for those that aren’t heading to mainstream destinations.