Point.me, the service that helps you find frequent flyer award seats (and walks you through the process of setting up accounts, transferring points, and making the booking) has a lot of award search data. People are looking for available awards all day, every day.
They already know which programs offer availability the most that their members are looking for, and which programs offer those seats at the best prices.
So it’s not a surprise, really, that they’ve come out with a new report on the world’s best airline frequent flyer programs.
Here are their rankings:
- Air France KLM Flying Blue
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- United Airlines MileagePlus
- British Airways Executive Club
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- American Airlines AAdvantage
- Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Avianca LifeMiles
KLM Business Class
It’s not as simple as just looking at awards people have searched for and doing a data dive into the results.
- They look at only part of the program. Nearly all loyalty programs are really two separate components: recognition and reward. There’s an elite program for the company’s best customers, and a points redemption component. These ratings are about earning and redeeming points.
- They’re evaluating more than just availability and price. They break things down as follows: Ease of earning miles (25%); Redemption rates (20%); Availability on partner airlines (15%); Ease of booking (12.5%); Expanded availability on own airline (7.5%); Routing rules (5%); Ability to hold awards (5%); Customer service quality (5%); Change fees/policies (5%)
We can quibble with their weightings, but if they’re looking for ‘who does the best job when you want to go use points’ I think it’s reasonable to honor Flying Blue and Aeroplan.
- Air France KLM Flying Blue has done a great deal to make reasonably-priced and frequently available awards possible in premium cabins across the Atlantic, and they partner for points transfers with all of the major currencies. The program has simply gotten better over the past few years. It is unquestionably the best program in SkyTeam.
- Air Canada Aeroplan eliminated fuel surcharges with its relaunch during the pandemic. They have generous award rules, although a few pesky fees. They have more airline partners than any other program, all of which can be combined and are priced based on a transparent award chart (or, because of Emirates redemptions, charts). They partner with most transferable currencies. Although beyond the scope of this inquiry, they have an excellent elite program as well including one of the best top tiers.
It seems odd to list United’s MileagePlus ends up just beneath these two, though. They have a lot of airline partners by virtue of Star Alliance membership, but their pricing frequently isn’t as good. There’s been tremendous decline in value since eliminating award charts. They are a Chase transfer partner but not a partner of the other bank currencies (Chase’s card deal gives them category exclusivity).
Now, there are also some things I have bigger disagreements with (that’s part of what’s fun about these kinds of lists). I give them real kudos for making not just results available but all of their underlying rankings, too. So when I try to figure out how Virgin Atlantic Flying Club ranks so high, I see that the analysis has Virgin offering better availability on partner airlines than United and American have. This just doesn’t make sense to me. United has access across Star Alliance.
I’d also take a somewhat different approach, separating ease of earning (e.g. ‘is a transfer partner of every credit card program’) from value of the miles once earned. It’s harder to come by Asiana’s miles and Aegean’s, but those points go a really long way. Admittedly, some of the rules of each program are challenging.
What I’d really rather do is unpack value from ease. That’s because just signing up to transfer points from every credit card program boosts Virgin, and makes it look like a better program worth transferring to. That feels circular to me, even though ease of earning is certainly part of how lucrative a program is.
By the way, the worst program they identify is Air India Flying Returns, just edged out by Middle East Airlines, Air China, and South African Airways.
It seems right that Delta comes out behind Southwest, which doesn’t even have airline partners to redeem with (and therefore their points cannot take you to Europe, Asia or South America), and ahead in North America of only Allegiant and Spirit to round out the top 10.
Disclosure my award booking service now works with Point.me and I have tremendous respect for co-founders Tiffany Funk (whom I got to know through her running the operations behind One Mile at a Time) and Adam Morvitz (Point Me To The Plane).
My list for the Worst FF programs.
1) Delta Sky Pesos
2) Everyone else.
Delta does get a great deal of criticism but their flash sale ending today has a lot of great values.
@mike
Flash sales aren’t really good for much. Like not even worth paying attention to. Also not interested in domestic economy awards, even if reasonable value.
The link didn’t work correctly but I was able to slice and dice to get to the proper place. I was ok with EVA’s plan because I had opportunities to use miles accumulated to take dollars off of the cost of a ticket.
@ Gary — Gee, you don’t think this study may be biased? What a joke.
Right now the three programs which I am maximizing like crazy for redemptions are AF/KL’s program, Virgin Atlantic’s program and AlaskaAir’s program. The latter is hard to run up too much because it’s not as easy to quickly run up big point balances from non-flight activity.
I agreed with Gary. I don’t see how United was ranked #3. MileagePlus program is now exactly as bad as Delta Skymiles. Good luck finding award spot on partners. If one is lucky to find one, it would be hundred of thousands miles required. Maybe the person received something from United to give MileagePlus such a high ranking.
This ranking is highly focused on crossings over N.Atlantic and biased for Anglo- speakers. Where are the Asian carriers, or the other T-Pacific routes that are redeemed? It’s just very narrow minded for a selective global audience.
Ed continues to do his part keeping SkyMiles in the Bottom 10 by limiting award space to CDG and blocking his DOPO (Delta One Plus One) business class seat for the rest of the year…
United is number three because it’s a great program affiliated to the best airline in North American, affiliated to the best bank in the world. Yes, I live near O’Hare and pretty much exclusively fly United, and I do bank at Chase. Why do you ask?
@Nick – I agree most DL awards are way too expensive but flash sales are not only domestic. One right now includes the Caribbean and Mexico. A couple of weeks ago I jumped on 2 Delta One award tickets from Seattle to Taipei for 83,000 miles (normal is 340,000). I had previously booked Premium Economy (whatever DL calls it) for 66,000 miles and they wanted $2500 each to upgrade. By taking advantage of this offer I got it for only 17,000 more Skymiles (around $170-$180 value) which was incredible.
There are offers – just have to find them and be in a position to take advantage of them.
@ T — The only reason United’s program is better than Delta’s is the availablity of awards on some good * A partners without fees.
Ahh man. No Tim Dunn to defend Delta
@Mike
That’s absurd. Like most things DL? The rare “flash sale” nonsense doesn’t make up for how absurdly high their redemption thresholds are on virtually everything in the matrix.
Free WiFi and 2000 SkyPesos never makes up for the 200,000 passengers The Tragedy of Atlanta regularly strands at ATL when things turn bad.
How the heck do BA and VS rank so highly? Availability for VS is difficult unless you grab it when the calendar opens.
VS’s surcharges are so high it’s like buying a J ticket for $4k if you value transferable miles at 1.5 cpp.
The VS partner ANA awards are basically dead too now that they can’t ticket J within T-14.
Not the dream the points bloggers are selling!
AAdvantage isn’t getting enough credit for NOT rigging the game against the player.
DL’s massively devalued; UAL’s uniformly de-valued.
Yet? I can usually find domestic legs on AA for their tasty 7500 mile level redemption.
DL’s often 10X that much. And, you run the risk of getting stranded in ATL again.
BA award tickets are hard to get, the chances of them canceling their flights or downgrading you are very high. And when they do cancel flights good luck getting your points back or the required EU penalty. Not worth it.
In a decade of trying I have never been able to score Aeroplan award tickets. Then again I don’t book crazy itineraries which maybe where they excel.
Once I saw American Airlines I knew the list was bullshit.
It would be more useful to grade according to what really happens not what the airline says happens.
I’ve never ever seen this blogger have anything but scorn for any survey or study, with posts full of criticism, none of which constructive, and nothing to offer as an alternative.
I clicked to be amused to see what misguided criticism he would come up with, and was shocked to see none.
And then I saw that he’s getting paid by these guys. Ah yeah, makes sense: The self-appointed “expert” is a shill.
I guess I have a slightly different take. While it *is* true that I am an FF member in multiple programs, they are more for access rather than earning. I focus on earnings only with one airline, and with transferable points. The airline is, by default, AS. (I was a VX top tier elite until AS took over and I’ve just maintained my status.) When AS joined oneworld, I now have status with all member carriers as a oneworld sapphire, and all miles earned get credited to AS.
When I fly AF to Paris in Business, it’s on points transferred into the Flying Blue program from Amex, Chase or Citi. Iberia to Madrid? If it’s not AS points, it’s Amex or Chase. The same with JAL, etc., etc. So which FF program is the best is, to a certain extent, irrelevant — I just transfer the necessary number of points, and off I go…
While Delta deserves the poor ranking based on their typically very expensive economy award costs and astronomical Delta One costs,they do intermittentlly have very low award costs. If you are flexibe it is often possible to get a great deal. I’m flying PDX-DUB for 28K miles round trip through Boston in a few weeks. The segment from BOS to DUB was 70K by itself so its hard to figure out what they are doing.
Like Skytrax, the accolades can be bought. There is no way in hell that UA can be ranked third or even be on this list. What a joke!
DOT is now actively investigating US-based FFPs.
Delta’s blatant “in your face” Skypesos awards in the multiple hundreds of thousands of miles are going to invite scrutiny, As Delta has stated, they do not use the Skypeso problem to engage with customers, and they could care less what people think.
Invite the Devil DOT and see what happens DL!
One must commend Delta for their reach. They can even reach into Tim Dunn’s mother’s basement to indoctrinate him into believing that 550K biz class rewards are a great deal.
@Gary
Many people think the flash sales are worth paying attention to. Check out Flyertalk.
I certainly think <20K points + $135 to fly from Chicago to the Dominican Republic in Main, not Basic Economy is a pretty darn good deal. That is over 2cpp. If you are not interested, fine, but lots of people are.
@Burt Convoy
I am not saying SkyMiles is the best program out there, just that for the savvy shopper they have some great deals now and then.
The deals to Mexico and the Caribbean that end today are at over 2cpp in Main.
That is pretty solid. There is no denying that.
lately when i try to find Business class tickets on AF/KLM i see point requirements in 700,000.
What is going on?
I think it’s right to honor Flying Blue, who really does have a good program. Yeah the taxes are a little high, but their J availability is excellent and AF/KLM metal is perfectly respectable.
Aeroplan is pretty decent though Lifemiles (who is too low on this list) usually has better prices. Aeroplan has better customer service and cancel fees though.
AA is criminally underrated here and Alaska should be a bit higher too. United and Virgin? Gimme a break. Those are at the bottom of the top 10.
ANA, even post deval, is still a sleeper pick as well.
@ O’Hare Is My Second Home
That’s the same Chase that’s been indicted 5 times?
I’ve been sitting on 340k BA Avios for about a decade. Have never been able to find availability on American, and all BA LHR awards always seem to cost $1k in.fees for the few awards that are available.
@Mike
I don’t doubt that “on the right day” and “on the right city pair” and “under the right moon phase” that people do once in awhile find a SkyPeso redemption that’s not completely insulting.
OTOH, I almost never use miles to fly long-haul, since my LAX and SFO markets are so competitive. GF and I are shopping trips back and forth to Italy, UK and Portugal multiple times between now and January. I have many Coach options starting at under $450. There’s no way I’m blowing 250K-300K miles on DL to do that. Ain’t gonna happen.
I, however, do regularly shop one-way Coach-hops to my domestic business locations that are usually one-offs and last-minute. And, every single time, I scan the DL, AA, UA and AS options. I even have a couple hundred thousand SWA points. So, I look at the matrix for flights out of four local airports and up to three destination airports on the other end.
With AA I can often find a 7500 mile redemption, UA’s now always worse== but usually no more than 12,500-15,000. Worse but not stooopid worse. AS is terrible to destinations in the SW, so usually a no-go. SWA does work but is usually even higher than UAL, so I rarely use SWA.
Then there’s DL…. that same AA 7500 mile trip will be 40,000-60,000 miles! “Whoa. Why? Those seats are going to fly empty– are you guys in Atlanta nuts?”
I’m sitting (banking?) about 350,000 DL Skypesos I can NEVER locate suitable inventory to use. It’s nutty. So, I’ve burned a lot of AA miles because the redemptions are available. And, AA aren’t raving lunatics about how they treat self-employed business flyers.
@Burt Convoy:
Could you please show us a couple of real world examples of AA 7500 mile redemptions versus the same itinerary for 60K from Delta?
Thanks.
Completely agree with placing the United program near the top. In fact, I would have placed it ahead of Aeroplan. Sure, there have been devaluations, as with most other programs. But MileagePlus is easy to use, has access to the biggest alliance, no surcharges, no expiration, and no redeposit fees.
AA is the worst , flying to London with the high landing fee makes them the worst
@steven – aa doesn’t charge surcharges to London. I’m flying there economy for 19k + $5.60 (which is a steal – business on the same flight was 90k but I didn’t have enough miles). Virgin and BA charge high surcharges to London and AA will charge a high surcharge on BA metal but not on their own metal.