Which Airline Pilots Have Trading Cards?

The internet is a strange, strange place – and the trading card community is even stranger. Whether you’re interested in Tomb Raider, murder mysteries, or anime, there’ll be something for you to collect and play with.

How about planes, though?

A recent trend that popped up on TikTok introduced a new player into the world of collectible trading cards. Turns out, several airlines have their pilots carrying collectible trading cards.

If you’re interested in getting your hands on some aviation-themed cards and you’re planning on going abroad sometime soon, here’s everything you need to know about the aviation trading cards – including which particular airlines have them and how to get your hands on one for free.

Which Airlines Have Trading Cards?

It’s important to note that not every airline has a trading card campaign. It’s a somewhat rare marketing strategy (although it’s possible we’ll see more of them in the future as they’ve gone viral) so don’t expect to be able to get one every time you take a flight. 

Currently, the main airlines that have been confirmed as having pilot trading cards include Delta and Frontier Airlines. 

Delta’s trading cards feature planes (unsurprisingly) and some iterations feature different facts about the specific plane models. They’ve been around for 20 years, with 6 total collections and a new one coming out every 5 years. The pilot group were given the chance to vote on how the current set looks.

The Frontier Airlines trading cards take a different approach. As originally shown by Business Insider, the Frontier Airlines cards feature different animals and have facts about the animals written on them. 

Some other airlines have experimented with having trading cards in the past – including JetBlue –  but there aren’t that many others to note. There are some airlines which offer different kinds of collectibles, like United with their collectible coins. 

It’ll be interesting to see whether more airlines opt to offer trading cards in the future. Some airlines, like Spirit Airlines, have experimented with a trading card format on their social media but have never made physical cards.

Unfortunately, the Spirit Airlines cards shown above are not available for collectors to purchase or pick up during a flight.

How Do You Get Airline Pilot Cards?

To get Delta or Frontier trading cards, all you need to do is ask the pilot or cabin crew for one of them when you get on a flight. They appear to be popular with both children and adults, and there don’t seem to be any specific rules about who can be given them.

That’s a lot easier said than done if you’re not planning to go on a flight any time soon, though, or if you’re flying with a different airline. 

Luckily, a lot of airline trading card sets appear to be selling fairly regularly on sites like eBay right now. It’s not just the current day sets, either – when we searched on eBay while writing this article, we found Delta trading cards which dated back to the release of their first set.

It’s also worth having a look for limited edition releases like the United Collectible Cards (which came from a giveaway that happened earlier this year) or the JetBlue trading cards that initially came out back in 2011. 

Are They Valuable For Collectors?

Based on our research, there could potentially be some value in these airline trading cards – the Delta ones specifically. They seem to sell for a decent amount of money online after a few years, so it’s worth hanging onto them if you’ve got them on previous flights or picking them up on your next holiday. 

If you’re an investor looking to make some money off of pilot cards right now, be mindful that prices will be skyrocketing thanks to how trendy TikTok has made them. The prices you see on your favorite reselling platforms may not be completely accurate at the time of writing.

Regardless of price, it’s always exciting to see trading cards in any form featured in popular trends or viral pieces of content. If you have any airline trading cards, make sure to send us a picture over on our Instagram – we’d love to see and repost them.