Before you apply for a Continental Airlines credit card, you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. Our review reveals what they probably don’t want you to know about their World MasterCard.

In August 2001, Chase and Continental partnered up to offer their World MasterCard series. These include the Presidential Plus, TravelBank, and business versions of these cards. However, a closer look into these will reveal they rarely will benefit the consumer. Here’s why:

Sky High Annual Fees
The annual fees start at $85 and go up from there and unfortunately, it sounds like they never waive these fees. They only give you 1 mile for every $1 in purchase. That means you will have to be spending around $30,000 to $60,000 just to earn one round-trip domestic ticket. Add in the annual fee, and that means you are only earning around 0.5 to 0.8% in rewards… what’s the point of paying for a card that gives you less than 1% on your purchases?

To get the best rewards, you will be shelling out a whopping $375 for the annual fee on the Presidential Plus World MasterCard. And while this card may give you a few small travel perks, it still only gives you one mile for every dollar spent.

Ad: No Annual Fee & 12,000 Mile Signup Bonus with Discover Miles card

The Bait & Switch
If you apply for a credit card from Continental, that’s what you will receive, right? Not always! If you do not qualify, the fine print says they may automatically give you a different card from Chase instead… one with different benefits and fees. This appears to not be optional – they will issue and send you this alternative without even notifying you according to the CSR I spoke to.

Of course after you receive it, you can cancel the card, but this looks bad on your credit record. Why? Because a significant part of the score is the average amount of time you’ve had lines of credit open. So having an account opened and closed immediately will drag down that average time. And then if you keep the card open, you will be subject to any annual fees on the card… so it’s a lose-lose situation for you.

Beware of Possible Bankruptcy
As you are well aware, the airlines are notorious for going bankrupt multiple times. Did you know that Continental Airlines has already gone bankrupt twice? With higher oil prices and a depressed economy, we have also seen repeated bankruptcies recently from the other legacy carriers like United, Northwest, Delta, and others.

At the time of writing this, the company is losing $641 million per year, and with billions in debt, how long do you think this can continue before they must file for bankruptcy a third time? Unfortunately, if you’re one of their cardholders, this is a major problem. The accrued miles on the Continental Airlines credit cards could be in jeopardy if that happened. Imagine spending $30k, $50k, $100k or more and raking up those rewards, only to have them be wiped out in a bankruptcy filing? Unfortunately in today’s economy, this concern is now greater than ever.

The Bottom Line
Unless you are spending hundreds or thousands per year and traveling exclusively on this airline, it probably will not make financial sense to have one of their credit cards. Simply put, there’s no point in paying an annual fee for mediocre rewards.

Their are other options on the market which offer better rewards, and on top of that, you can use them on the airline of your choice. Our favorite is from Discover. To be completely transparent, we do participate in their advertising program, but we also do with nearly every other major credit card company. The reason we choose to advertise this one over the others is because it truly offers the best value.

Why? For starters, it give a 12,000 miles signup bonus (using our special affiliate advertising link) and there is never an annual fee on the card. It gives you 1 mile for every $1 spent plus a wide array of other benefits. Interested? Then check out our Discover Miles card review