It’s a reliably engaging parlor game for frequent travelers: deciding which airline loyalty program is “the best.”
Some programs boast more earning opportunities; others are more robust on the rewards side. Some programs stand out for their award-seat availability, others for their liberal award-travel policies. Some programs offer easy access to elite status; other programs stand out for the generosity of their elite benefits. In the end, the choice of a travel-rewards program comes down to what’s important to you, and which program best dovetails with your needs and your day-to-day behavior as a traveler and a consumer.
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There is no single best program. If there were, everyone would join it, leaving the other programs member-less and floundering.
Nevertheless, the idea of a categorically best program is a compelling one, fueling regular articles in the mainstream and not-so-mainstream press that promise to definitively answer the question. The latest is from U.S. News & World Report, the former weekly news magazine now known chiefly for its annual rankings of U.S. colleges and universities.
Best Airline Program
To evaluate and rank the nine U.S. airline programs, U.S. News used a scoring system weighted as follows:
- Ease of earning a free roundtrip flight – 45%
- “Additional benefits” – 25%
- Network coverage – 10%
- Award flight availability – 10%
- Number of daily flights – 5%
- Airline quality rating – 5%
Based on those factors, the nine airline programs included in the study ranked as follows, on a scale of 1 – 5:
- Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan – 4.49
- Delta SkyMiles – 4.19
- JetBlue TrueBlue – 4.12
- Southwest Rapid Rewards – 3.96
- United MileagePlus – 3.87
- American Airlines AAdvantage – 3.84
- HawaiianMiles – 3.40
- Frontier EarlyReturns – 3.05
- FREE Spirit – 1.76
Alaska’s Mileage Plan is a fine program, no doubt. In fact, it was recently picked as the best airline program in SmarterTraveler’s Editors’ Choice awards, not least because it has bucked the trend toward revenue-based mileage earning, which has devalued many of the largest programs for average travelers. And certainly if you live in Seattle, Alaska’s hub airport city, it’s likely to be the best program for you. But if you live in Houston, or Detroit, or Tampa, or Richmond, or hundreds of other cities, it’s a non-starter. The Alaska Airlines route network simply doesn’t feature enough flights from those cities to make the airline a clear first choice for air travel.
And at the other end of the spectrum, there might even be scenarios in which Spirit’s program best meets your needs, although that’s a stretch.
When it comes to choosing the best travel-rewards program, your mileage may vary.
Reader Reality Check
Which programs work best for you?
After 20 years working in the travel industry, and almost that long writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.
This article first appeared on SmarterTravel.com, where Tim is Editor-at-Large.
Award flight availability should be about 50% of the weighting. What good are the miles if you can never find the saver flight?
Amen Byron…otherwise no one,would register or jump through all the hoops applying for credit cards, etc, I’m very surprised Delta isnt near the bottom. They have a very unfair system, won’t even publish their mileage requirements for trips, and make it a royal hassle to get anything. I once told a supervisor that if Delta thought Skymiles was a program of rewarding loyal clients and/or creating good will, it most assuredly WASNT WORKING!
@Tim —-> ” . . . certainly if you live in Seattle, Alaska’s hub airport city, it’s likely to be the best program for you. But if you live in Houston, or Detroit, or Tampa, or Richmond, or hundreds of other cities, it’s a non-starter. The Alaska Airlines route network simply doesn’t feature enough flights from those cities to make the airline a clear first choice for air travel.”
In the FWIW Dept., I do *not* live in Seattle, but — far from being a “non-starter” — I have found great value in the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program. Of course, just as you can with any airline, you can earn miles in several different ways: flights on Alaska; flights on Virgin America (while they’re still around); flights on partner airlines; credit card spend; etc. And certainly if you *do* live in “Houston, or Detroit, or Tampa, or Richmond, or hundreds of other cities,” taking an actual flight on an Alaska flight can be somewhat problematic, but there are also dozens and dozens (if not hundreds) of cities that aren’t served by AA, DL, UA, WN or *any* airline whatsoever. This is not meant to negate your point re: the size of the AS route network — it *is* smaller — but simply to acknowledge this is true regardless of where one lives: not every airline serves every destination. Period.
But, for me, the REAL strength in the AS Mileage Plan FF program is that you aren’t limited to flying where AS flies for your award flights. Using AS MP points, you can fly on Air France, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Condor, Emirates, Fiji Airways, Hainan, Icelandair, Japan Air Lines, KLM, Korean Air, LAN, and Qantas — as well as Alaska and Virgin America, obviously, and PennAir and Ravn Alaska. These 18 airlines include carriers in all three major alliances as well as independents, and will get you ANYWHERE in the world you want to go!
Absolutely agree that AS’s partner roster is among the industry’s most robust: wherever you want to go with your earned miles, there’s a MP partner airline that will take you there.
But that’s after you’ve earned the miles. And for the average traveler, that’s the challenge. And assuming a significant portion of the miles will be earned for flights, the host airline’s route network is all-important.
MP is a great program, arguably the best. But it’s not best for everyone.