Modern air travel often isn’t very fun. Few people enjoy waiting in long security lines, getting patted down, and then cramming themselves into a tiny seat next to people who are coughing and sneezing. But there is one very small way to make flying more enjoyable. Some airlines have entire sets of awesome trading cards for their fleet of aircraft. All you have to do is just ask, and now you have a new thing to collect. Even America’s least favorite airlines do this!
Early this month, I flew out to Los Angeles to drive The Autopian‘s Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet 4,050 miles across America. In typical Autopian fashion, we tried to run that trip as cheaply as possible, which meant that we scored me a dirt-cheap flight aboard a Frontier Airlines flight. Admittedly, Frontier is never an airline that I would fly on my own dime. Maybe it’s just me, but most of the flying-based misery I’ve experienced happened after I attempted to save money by nabbing a flight on Frontier.
This time around was a little different. As I waited for the day that I’d jet out to California, I decided to look into Frontier’s history. I do stuff like this from time to time because I love reading about how companies came to be, just like how I love reading about car history. But then, I remembered something that I hadn’t thought about in a while. Frontier Airlines has really awesome trading cards!
The animal-themed Airbus aircraft of Frontier aren’t the only ones lucky enough to be immortalized in trading cards, as other airlines have their own trading cards, too. The most famous of which is Delta Air Lines.
America’s Secret Plane Trading Cards
Back in the early 1990s, Northwest Airlines printed trading cards with aircraft on them and handed those cards to pilots. A neat twist about Northwest’s cards was that they had a space for the pilots to sign them, adding a brilliant personal touch.
United Airlines was next to create a trading card program. United Captain Denny Flanagan printed trading cards for the Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 in 2002. These were the aircraft that he flew, and he believed that the cards were a great way to engage with passengers. Soon enough, other United pilots begged Denny for cards for United’s whole fleet. Denny pitched the idea to United brass on Thanksgiving weekend 2003, and 1.8 million cards were put into circulation.
Denny’s work was so beloved that, even when United fell into bankruptcy that December and couldn’t pay Denny for the cards, other pilots stepped up to the plate. As Cleveland.com news writes, Denny was also a bit of an icon at United. He bought dinner for waiting passengers, paid for unaccompanied minors to call home, and took photos of pets to show families that their little friends were fine. Denny even inspired young avgeeks to follow their dreams and become pilots.
Since then, United Airlines crews have been happy to hand out trading cards to passengers who ask.
While Northwest and United might have cooked up a trading card idea over a decade before Delta, it was Delta Air Lines that popularized the practice in the modern day.
The King Of Cards
According to Delta, its trading cards sort of started as a secret. Back in 2003, a group of Delta flight operations employees created trading cards to celebrate the equipment that the airline’s pilots spent their days flying. These cards were held exclusively by Delta pilots, and Delta says that its very first trading card celebrated the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 trijet, as the airline was retiring that type in 2004.
For roughly two decades, Delta would quietly expand its trading cards to cover its entire fleet. Through all of that time, Delta never really openly advertised its trading cards. Yet, if an aviation enthusiast talked with a pilot after their flight, there was a pretty good chance that the pilot would hand them a trading card featuring the plane they just flew on. Delta issues new sets of cards every five years, and the pilots vote on the cards’ new designs. The pilots even get a say about the text on the cards, since they get to fly those aircraft for thousands of hours.
As Fortune reports, pilots would have stacks of cards, but since the trading card program was a secret, few, if any, people ever asked their pilots for a card. That all changed in 2023. A creator on TikTok posted a video about Delta’s trading cards, and the video went viral, scoring over 30 million views. But it wasn’t just TikTok, either, as people on all kinds of social network platforms were talking about chatting with flight attendants or pilots and walking away with cards.
Suddenly, the secret was out, and demand was high. Fortune reported that, after the TikTok video, pilots mentioned a massive uptick in people asking for cards. Since then, Delta has openly embraced its trading cards, advertising them on the airline’s news site. Reportedly, Delta pilots handed out 1.5 million cards in 2023 and then handed out another three million cards in 2024. Delta printed over five million cards this year alone.
Delta and United aren’t the only airlines that sling trading cards. Other airlines that have handed out trading cards include WestJet, Alaska, Hawaiian, Southwest, Frontier, and JetBlue. Some airports have their own trading cards! I was not able to get a trading card on my recent flight with American, but it does appear that WestJet and Alaska still hand them out. Spirit Airlines also technically has trading cards, but in typical cheap Spirit fashion, the cards aren’t physical. Instead, they’re just images on Spirit’s social media.
How To Get A Free Trading Card
Getting these cards will be super easy, barely an inconvenience for many people. All you have to do is kindly ask your aircraft’s flight crew. This could be at the gate before boarding, during the flight itself, or while you’re boarding. Lots of pilots carry these cards in their pockets, so they could quickly whip one out and give it to you without even disrupting anyone’s day. Or, if you do find some extra time, maybe the flight’s crew will be happy to talk about the joys of flying. Who knows what can happen! All you have to do is ask. You won’t even be charged for the cards.
The other cool thing is that most airline trading cards are basically worthless. You can pick these things up on eBay for very little money. That way, you can enjoy these cards even if you don’t fly certain airlines or don’t fly often.
Somehow, despite being a lifelong aviation fan, I only discovered airline trading cards recently. Yes, I missed all of the TikTok videos and the Reddit posts. I don’t really cruise those sites, so I had no idea. So, in a sort of celebration of my grand road trip, I decided to buy a bunch of Frontier Airlines cards. Amusingly, I actually missed my Frontier flight to Los Angeles, so I didn’t even get to ask a Frontier pilot for one.
The cards that you get are actually pretty great. Frontier’s cards are made out of some nice card stock, and each one is unique. The aircraft featured on Frontier’s cards won’t be that exciting; the airline exclusively flies Airbus A320 variants, but each plane is named after an animal. Each card has a little story about the animal and a picture of the plane.
I like my first set enough that I framed it. Admittedly, now I even have a “holy grail” to search for. The first time I flew in a plane of any kind was in 2016 aboard Frontier Airbus A321 ‘Fallon The Falcon.’ Now, I have to find Fallon’s card!
Frontier’s cards are cool, but United and Delta go above and beyond with holographic cards and limited edition cards. So, the next time that you’re on a flight, it’s always worth asking the crew if they have a fun card for you. Who knows, maybe you’ll strike up a fun conversation about flying. Something I like to do is thank flight crews for their hard work, too.
Forget about collecting points, the real airline game is collecting cards! I’m sorry for creating a new thing for you to collect, but now I won’t be alone.
Top graphic image: Hawaiian Airlines
I got one of the UA A320 cards on an ORD > BDL leg in 2003.
Airlines used to hand out playing cards with the airline logo on the back. I have some older ones from Piedmont and Eastern and original frontier and Continental
Alaska’s cards are kinda boring- oh great, another 737!
Airliners themselves are boring now. No more trijets, quadjets or twinjets with the engines on the fuselage instead of under the wing. While functionally different, the only way to tell the difference between an Airbus A320 and a Boeing 737 from the outside is the A320 has a blunter nose cone.
Hopefully the new e-prop, propfan and BWB (blended-wing body) designs reach production and shake things up again.
Ah, Pete, “Gotta catch ’em all” was right there!
The problem with a Southwest Airlines card will be that all they have to pass out are 737 cards. 😉
I thought I had my opponent beat when I played my 737 Max against his lowly DC-9. Then he used Curse of MCAS against my 737 and tapped The Ground, the clever bastard.
(I barely remember how to play Magic: The Gathering)
Shoot, I wish I had known this at the beginning of November. I think I would have been able to snag cards for three different aircraft (maybe just two–I forget what the first plane was, but I think it was different from the last one). This is really cool!