The 10 Best Frequent Flyer Programs
Intro
A recent report by point.me has shown insight into their rankings of the 10 best frequent flyer programs at the moment. Honestly, I'm a little bit shocked by some of the rankings, and I think some of the best might be a little biased. Nonetheless, let's check out the list here:
1. Flying Blue
2. Air Canada Aeroplan
3. United MileagePlus
4. British Airways Executive Club (tie)
4. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club (tie)
6. American Airlines AAdvantage
7. Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
8. Qatar Airways Privilege Club
9. JetBlue True Blue
10. Avianca LifeMiles
My Thoughts
Surprisingly, I am not an advocate of these points websites, just like point.me. In my opinion, searching the old-fashioned way makes it more exciting and is beginning to oversaturate the mileage market. Finding that unicorn availability without using a website is one of the best feelings in the world.
However, this list, seriously? Flyingblue, I consider to be one of the better programs, but I certainly wouldn't put it number one for most of the population. The primary benefit of flying over other airlines is the ability to book First Class Awards with a certain status or Garuda Indonesia for anyone. Along with that, there are also plenty of ways to accrue miles with transfer partners coming from multiple different credit cards.
Flying Blue is a program that can get you from the US to Europe for 50K miles in Business, but so can many other airlines that release more availability. VS sometimes dumps Delta Awards to Europe for 50K in batches that are far larger (when they do release) than Flying Blue. Consistently, business class awards will raise upwards of 200K.
In regards to the rest of the list, I like Aeroplan due to the number of partners that customers are available to redeem on. United MileagePlus is still a decent program, although I would put it a bit lower. American Airlines has a fantastic program, but the problem is the accrual rate on the program, as there are no direct 1:1 transfer partners.
If I had a list, this is what it would be.
1. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
2. Turkish Miles And Smiles
3. Air Canada Aeroplan
4. Qatar Airways Privilege Club
5. Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
6. British Airways Executive Club
7. JetBlue True Blue
8. United MileagePlus
9. American Airlines AAdvantage
10. Flying Blue
11. Delta SkyMiles (Great rewards around Asia on partners)
Final Thoughts
Point.me has released its list of the top 10 frequent flyer programs around the world. In my opinion, the list is a bunch of baloney and probably offers some sort of compensation. In no world would Flying Blue ever make it to number one... Once again though, these are just my thoughts🙂.
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