Travel Hacking in Switzerland 2026: Are Miles Credit Cards Worth It?

Updated: October 20, 2026

What is Travel Hacking?

Travel hacking is a term for strategies that allow you to travel more comfortably - and save money in the process. You use bonus programs from airlines and hotels to your advantage. They reward loyalty by giving you points for your travels. You can then redeem these points for flights and hotel stays. On award flights, you still pay taxes, fees and surcharges. Unless you travel frequently for business and fly business class, you are unlikely to accumulate a significant number of points. So how can you, as someone who only travels occasionally, benefit from these advantages? This is where travel credit cards come in.

What are Travel Credit Cards?

The term travel credit cards may be somewhat misleading. These are not credit cards that are best suited for expenses while traveling. There are other cards for that. Read my post on the best credit cards for foreign use for more information. Travel credit cards allow you to collect miles and points without having to earn them through travel. You can earn points for every franc spent. Additionally, there is often a sign-up bonus. In addition to points, travel credit cards have other benefits. These may include free access to airport lounges, insurance packages, or status with a hotel chain. The downside is that all these benefits are not free. An American Express Platinum, the most glamorous Swiss travel credit card, has an annual fee of a whopping CHF 900.

Miles & More credit cards in Switzerland: Swisscard and Cornercard

Two companies issue Miles & More credit cards to private customers in Switzerland: Swisscard and Cornercard. Both sell a pair of cards in Classic, Gold and Platinum. With Swisscard, it’s an American Express plus a Visa or Mastercard. With Cornercard, it’s a Visa plus a Diners Club. You earn the most miles on the American Express or the Diners Club.

Miles per CHF 1 spent in Switzerland, standard annual fee for the pair of cards.

Card	Annual fee	American Express / Diners Club	Visa / Mastercard
Swisscard Classic	CHF 120	0.75 miles	0.30 miles
Swisscard Gold	CHF 220	1 mile	0.40 miles
Swisscard Platinum	CHF 700	1.20 miles	0.50 miles
Cornercard Classic	CHF 140	1 mile	0.40 miles, 0.50 in foreign currency
Cornercard Gold	CHF 220	1 mile	0.50 miles, 0.60 in foreign currency
Cornercard Platinum	CHF 750	1.20 miles	0.60 miles, 0.75 in foreign currency

With Swisscard, you earn the same number of miles in Switzerland and abroad. The fees are listed in Swisscard’s overview of services. Not every payment earns miles: cash withdrawals, fees, transfers, topping up other payment methods, securities and gambling don’t count.

With these credit cards, your miles don’t expire. The protection only applies if you use the card for a mileage-eligible purchase every month (conditions). With Swisscard, you also need to have held the card for at least one month, with Cornercard for at least three months.

Swisscard Miles and More Credit Cards

Miles and More is the frequent flyer program of the Lufthansa Group. Swiss is also part of it. It is the most popular program in the German-speaking world, thanks to the countless direct flights from Zurich and Frankfurt. Swisscard offers credit cards for collecting miles. In three editions: Classic, Gold, and Platinum. The Classic and Gold editions are the most interesting.

The Swiss Miles and More Classic credit card offer:

Annual fee of CHF 120
1.5 miles per CHF 2 (when paying with American Express)
Travel accident, search and rescue, and travel inconvenience insurance, but no cancellation or foreign medical insurance
2000 welcome miles
Stops miles from expiring if you make a purchase with it every month

The Swiss Miles and More Gold credit card offer:

Annual fee of CHF 220
2 miles per CHF 2 (when paying with American Express)
The same travel insurance as the Classic, plus purchase protection
5000 welcome miles
Stops miles from expiring if you make a purchase with it every month

There are often promotions where you receive more welcome miles and the first annual fee is reduced. It’s worth keeping an eye out for these. For a CHF 100 higher annual fee, you get a better collection rate. Where the fixed Miles & More award chart applies, an economy return flight within Europe costs 28,000 miles. On SWISS, Lufthansa and Austrian, the price in miles is calculated dynamically and you only see it when booking. In addition to this, you pay fees, which vary depending on the flight, between CHF 10 and over 100. In high season and with low fees, booking with miles can definitely be worthwhile.

The Swisscard Miles and More credit cards are not worthwhile for spending abroad. The foreign currency fee is 2.5%, and cash withdrawals cost 4%, at least CHF 10.

Cornercard Miles and More Classic Combo

The Cornercard credit card combo is very similar to the Swisscard Miles and More credit cards. Both collect miles from Miles and More of the Lufthansa Group.

CHF 140 annual fee, CHF 70 in the first year for new customers who apply by 29 November 2026
2 miles per CHF 2 turnover (when paying with Diners Club)
5000 welcome miles, or 20,000 for new customers who apply by 29 November 2026
Annual bonus on the Diners Club: 1,000 miles from CHF 10,000 turnover, 3,000 from CHF 20,000 and 5,000 from CHF 30,000
Diners Club insurance package, which according to the application form also covers the Visa
5 free lounge entries with an annual turnover of at least CHF 7,500

The promotion has conditions: according to the terms, the bonus miles can be reversed if the card is cancelled within 12 months of being issued or you spend less than CHF 3,000 with it in that period.

The advantage of the Cornercard offer compared to the Swisscard is the lower annual fee of CHF 140 instead of 220 with the same collection rate. Additionally, with an annual turnover of CHF 7,500, you receive five free lounge entries. The biggest disadvantage is the lower acceptance of Diners Club compared to American Express. However, even a Diners Club credit card can be used at many places in Switzerland. For those for whom this is not a problem, the Cornercard is the better choice.

American Express Cards - The All-rounders

This globally popular card is issued in Switzerland by Swisscard. With it, you can collect American Express Membership Rewards points. The main advantage of this is that, unlike the Miles and More cards, you are not limited to one loyalty program. Instead, you can transfer Membership Rewards points to various partners. Here is an overview of the transfer partners:

Air France/KLM Flying Blue - 2 MR points = 1 mile
The British Airways Club - 3 MR points = 2 Avios
Delta SkyMiles - 2 MR points = 1 mile
Miles & More - 2 MR points = 1 mile
Marriott Bonvoy - 3 MR points = 2 points
Hilton Honors - 5 MR points = 4 points

Swisscard offers three cards: Green, Gold, and Platinum.

American Express Green

CHF 140 annual fee, free in the first year
1 point per CHF 2 turnover
Travel accident, search and rescue, travel inconvenience and purchase protection insurance

This card is good for those who want to enter the Membership Rewards program as cheaply as possible. Although the collection rate is only half as good as the big brothers, with enough spending, a good number of points can be accumulated here too.

American Express Gold

CHF 350 annual fee, 175 in the first year
1 point per CHF 1 turnover
2 free lounge visits per year via Priority Pass, after registration and for the principal cardholder only
Insurance package with travel accident, foreign medical, travel inconvenience and purchase protection insurance

Those who want a better exchange rate, lounge access, and an insurance package are well served with the Gold card. However, the annual fee is significantly higher.

American Express Platinum

Annual fee of CHF 900, 450 in the first year
1 point per CHF 1 turnover
Unlimited free access to Priority Pass lounges after registration
Status with hotel chains and car rental companies after registration, for example Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold Elite, SIXT Platinum and Avis President’s Club
Comprehensive insurance package, including cancellation and foreign medical insurance
CHF 100 SWISS flight voucher per year
Up to CHF 160 GaultMillau credit per year: CHF 40 per quarter when you pay at least CHF 250 with the Platinum at a participating Swiss restaurant (valid until 31 December 2026)

This is the luxury card in the American Express segment. The point collection rate is identical to that of the American Express Gold. So you pay a whopping CHF 550 more. In my opinion, this is hardly justified.

Are Travel Credit Cards Worth It in Switzerland?

All travel credit cards have an annual fee. Their competition is free credit cards, as we looked at in this article. So are Swiss travel credit cards worth their price? This depends on your consumption and travel behavior. And whether you can benefit from the insurance packages.

Let’s do a practical example: Let’s say you spend CHF 30,000 annually on your credit cards. With the American Express Gold or the American Express of the Swisscard Miles & More Gold, you collect 30,000 points or miles; with the Swisscard Miles & More Classic, 22,500 miles. These have approximately the following value:

Hilton Honors: CHF 100–150
Miles and More: CHF 500–1,500
Membership Rewards: CHF 250–750

If you instead use the free American Express Cashback Card from Swisscard with 1% cashback, you will receive CHF 300 back. With the Hilton Honors credit card, you even lose money by collecting points compared to the potential cashback. Especially for Swiss people, this Euro card is hardly worthwhile for expenses. Nevertheless, I believe that the 48 euro fee is justified for the Hilton Gold status alone.

The Miles and More cards can be worthwhile. Especially the offer from Cornercard. Even if you take into account the annual fee of CHF 140, the value of the miles is higher than the CHF 300 cashback with the free credit card. However, it is only worthwhile if you can achieve a significant turnover per year. At least CHF 15,000 annually. CHF 140 annual fee for CHF 5000 turnover (resulting in 5000 miles) is hardly worthwhile.

The American Express cards are worthwhile if you value good insurance packages. The Membership Rewards points are only worth about half as much as Miles and More miles - which can also be seen in the exchange rate from MR to Miles and More miles. One advantage is the high flexibility. You can exchange the points for various partner programs. So you are not limited to the offers of the Lufthansa Group. However, due to the high annual fee, the American Express cards are hardly worthwhile for most people.

Worked example: miles or cashback on CHF 30,000 spending

How much does a mile need to be worth to beat CHF 300 cashback? Assumptions: CHF 30,000 spending per year in Switzerland, all of it paid with the American Express or Diners Club, the bill always paid in full, no welcome bonus, standard annual fee from the second year. The Swisscard Cashback Card gives 1% on the American Express and 0.25% on the Visa or Mastercard.

Card	Reward per year	Annual fee	Value per mile needed
Swisscard Cashback (American Express)	CHF 300	None	–
Swisscard Miles & More Gold (American Express)	30,000 miles	CHF 220	1.73 centimes
Cornercard Miles & More Classic (Diners Club)	35,000 miles including annual bonus	CHF 140	1.26 centimes
American Express Gold, points transferred to Miles & More	15,000 miles	CHF 350	4.33 centimes

The formula is (cashback forgone + annual fee) ÷ miles. With the Cornercard, a 28,000-mile award flight only pays off if the same ticket costs over CHF 352 more in cash than the taxes and surcharges you pay on the award flight. If you pay part of your spending with the Visa or Mastercard, you earn fewer miles and the threshold goes up.

Conclusion

Whether travel credit cards are worth it in Switzerland varies for each individual. This depends entirely on your consumption and travel behavior. Those who spend no more than CHF 15,000 annually and go on a package holiday in the summer will not benefit from such credit cards. Those who spend a lot of money annually on credit cards can definitely benefit from the points. Especially from CHF 30,000 upwards, it becomes interesting. Such a number of points enables award tickets or upgrades for flights in business class. When bought regularly, these quickly have a value of thousands of Swiss francs. This way, you get a value that is significantly higher than the 1% cashback on free credit cards.