‘Best’ Frequent Flyer Program: Myth and Reality

Frequent flyer program. Dreamstime/TCA

Travel outfits are fond of publishing “best” lists—best airlines, best airports, best hotels, best restaurants. You name it and someone will rate it. But almost all frequent flyer ratings are flawed: They can’t account for the fact that different flyers use their programs in different ways.

Point.me just released its ratings for this year:

1. Air France KLM Flying Blue
2. Air Canada Aeroplan
3. United Airlines MileagePlus
4. British Airways Executive Club
5. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
6. American Airlines AAdvantage
7. Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
8. Qatar Airways Privilege Club
9. JetBlue TrueBlue
10. Avianca LifeMiles

Noticeable for its absence is Delta Skymiles. Apparently frequent flyer is yet another area in which Delta is underperforming.

This release generated a disproportionate amount of pixels in the blogosphere because Points.me has such a great handle on actual program results. It’s a for-fee service that searches for, finds, and arranges award seats for flyers. But that fact raises two caveats:

• Ratings are generally based on use of miles, not earning miles. In my view, that’s OK—finding the awards is always the tough part.
• Ratings tend to reflect the use of awards for premium international flights, not coach trips to Orlando or Vegas. Again, that’s not necessarily a flaw, given that those trips are generally the best use of miles.

But ratings such as these can’t account for the one overriding factor for many flyers: where they live and their home airport. And “where they live” pares the list quickly. The big four, American, Delta, Southwest, and United, and Delta and their regional affiliates, fly most places, but smaller geographical footprints lose the others. Regardless of program merit, you want to go with an airline that serves your home airport. If one airline dominates your home field, it makes your choice a no-brainer.

Beyond geography, the “best” depends partly on how you earn credit. Assume you’re an average traveler, taking three or four flying trips each year, typically buying the least expensive tickets that work for those trips. Airlines these days base earnings mainly on how much you spend, so you will build credit very slowly and you won’t come close to earning any sort of elite status. That means you won’t find a huge difference among your choices.

Your “best” program also depends on where you prefer to use your miles. And this means an airline with service not only from your home airport but also places you like to go. They’re all relatively good if you use miles for domestic travel or visits to nearby beach destinations. but if you’re interested in flying to London, Tokyo, or Rio, some lines don’t work. The big three, of course, can get you anywhere in the world, either on their own flights or with partners. Although Alaska and JetBlue don’t fly worldwide, they have partner lines that do; Southwest is a complete bust—but maybe changing.

If you’re selecting a credit card, your best bet is probably to forget about earning airline miles and instead get a cash return of two cents per dollar charged. In general, when used for economy class travel, airline points are worth less than two cents, so you might as well take the higher cash value and use it toward buying a ticket—a cheap seat is much easier to find than an award seat at the lower mileage values. But mile-earning cards really shine if you accumulate them toward premium-class travel. Your best choices are whatever big-line program is most useful where you, or an American Express or Chase card accumulates points you can transfer into airline points on a 1:1 basis.

Finally, no matter which program you rate as best, join all of them. You get some minor benefits from just belonging—and ignore the extra emails you might get.

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