These are the world’s best airline rewards programs, according to Point.me :- Having a hard time figuring out how to use the complicated and often annoying world of flight loyalty programs?
This could be useful: Point.me, a website that helps people find points and travel awards, ranked 62 global airline rewards programs based on nine factors.
The most important ones were how easy it was to earn miles, how much they were worth, how many partner airlines they were available on, and how easy it was to book.
The results say that Flying Blue, an airline loyalty program run by Air France and KLM, is the best airline rewards program in the world. Aeroplan from Air Canada comes in at No. 2, and United Mileage Plus is ranked No. 3 on the list.
Point.me, a platform that helps customers get the most out of their points, is making a list every year, and this year’s scores are the first one.
“We want people to feel confident and clear about earning and using points. We don’t want them to feel like they don’t know how to use points because it’s like the Wild West.”
They have no idea what good shows there are. “We want to make that clear,” the company’s president and co-founder, Tiffany Funk, said on a call before the results.
Flying Blue beat its closest rival by more than 15 points, getting a score of 93.06 on a scale of 100.I said that the program’s best features were that it was “easy to earn points through its many partnerships and great redemption values.”
A lot of people liked Air Canada’s Aeroplan because it “reward seat availability on partner airlines with the most extensive network globally and generous routing.”
Funk agreed that United Airlines has gotten some bad press lately because it has reevaluated the experience of its most frequent flyers. “But they’re actually very competitive in many metrics and they are excellent for those less frequent flyers,” he said.
The top 5 airlines in the world were all British. Virgin Atlantic and British Airways tied for fifth place. Three US airlines, American (No. 6), Alaska (No. 7), and JetBlue (No. 9), also made the top 10 list for the whole world.
Delta Air Lines wasn’t in the top 10 in the world. Delta was ranked No. 8 among North American airlines on the platform, which also ranked airlines by area. Funk said that Delta may have lowered the importance of SkyMiles on purpose over the past few years, focusing on things like operations, airport lounges, and crew to reward regular customers.
The top program in North America was Air Canada’s. In Latin America, Avianca LifeMiles was the best, Qatar Airways Privilege Club was the best in the Middle East and Africa, and in the Asia-Pacific region.
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, and ANA Mileage Club were all in a tie for first place.
Many frequent flyers say that their flight points aren’t worth as much as they used to be because the world is getting more complicated. The US Department of Transportation said last week that it would be looking into US airlines’ loyalty schemes to protect consumers.
“Our goal with this inquiry is to make sure that customer rewards are safe from any actions that would lower their worth, ease of use, or accessibility,” the DOT wrote to the CEOs of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines.
Funk said that this kind of study should help in general. “I think it does show how confused and stressed out people are about loyalty programs because they don’t know if they’re getting a good deal.”
Travelers should follow this rule: “If people aren’t getting at least a penny a point when they use their miles, they would probably be better off using a cash back card,” Funk said. This means that people should not try to earn points through an airline’s reward program directly.
“The best way to get into all of these programs and the great opportunities out there is to switch to a credit card that gives you flexible or transferable points,” she said.
