This recent rating considered greater than 60 individual frequent flyer programmes worldwide – and European airlines performed well across the board.
ADVERTISEMENTAirline loyalty programmes are famously big business – but how much do you really understand about how they work?
It ought to be an easy process – picking a bank card, spending at the best times and being rewarded with points to redeem for a dream trip – however it’s not at all times that straightforward.
Point.me, an airline point concierge service which assists with reward bookings, has attempted to put bare the world’s best airline rewards programmes.
It’s released a report, rating 62 of the world’s airlines, drawing on information released by the businesses, in addition to years of its own data.
The corporate considered quite a few aspects including redemption rates, ease of booking and customer support quality.
It revealed that the world’s top-ranking rewards programme is Air France and KLM’s joint Flying Blue.
It got here in first place due to its ease of booking and the relatively low price of redemptions, in addition to the power to book on the businesses’ partner airlines, inside the SkyTeam alliance.
How do airline reward schemes work?
Airline rewards or frequent flyer programmes allow passengers to gather points as they spend which could be redeemed as discounts on travel.
You would possibly think that nearly all of the points travellers earn and spend on flights come from flying – but that’s actually not the case.
While you’ll be able to collect points based on distance flown by signing as much as a selected airline’s programme, many carriers partner with bank card issuers to supply points on a big selection of travel-related spends.
The vast majority of reward points are earned through such partnerships, meaning that some airlines earn significantly more through bank card deals than they really do by operating flights.
It isn’t just airlines who’re the winners, though.
The proven fact that most of those points are earned through bank card programmes implies that travellers don’t should be frequent flyers to earn points they will leverage for travel.
How were the perfect rewards programmes chosen?
Should you spend correctly – and make certain to pay your bank card off in time – the rewards can earn you serious discounts.
As with all the pieces, though, there are downsides and, for extraordinary travellers without specific knowledge, it’s often near-impossible to decipher which programme is correct for you.
ADVERTISEMENTTo make things a bit of simpler, Point.me checked out various criteria, including how easy it’s to earn points from non-flying methods – think dining and shopping, package holidays, transfer partners and transfer bonuses.
Additionally they examined the worth it’s possible to get for those points, how easy it’s to book an award flight and the frequency of award availability.
On a more complex level, there’s flexibility in routing rules to think about – that’s should you can book a stopover, for instance, in addition to change fees and policies – and customer support quality with regards to booking.
Here’s what they came upon.
ADVERTISEMENTWhich airlines have the perfect rewards programmes?
Flying Blue, the loyalty programme for Air France and the Dutch flag-carrier KLM, proved that Europe knows what it’s doing with regards to rewarding customers.
Point.me says the programme has exceptional performance across the board, receiving top marks in nearly every category.
Recently, Flying Blue has made significant adjustments to its loyalty strategy, which has led to good redemption rates and extensive partnerships that make it easy to earn miles – even without ever boarding an Air France or KLM flight – in addition to flexible routing rules that make it easy to succeed in destinations worldwide.
Fairly unusually, customers are capable of transfer points from all of the foremost bank card points currencies to Flying Blue, which makes it relatively easy to amass enough points for a flight even in case your spending is spread across loyalty programmes.
ADVERTISEMENTFollowing Flying Blue is Air Canada’s Aeroplan programme.
Revamped in 2020, the Canadian company offers solid availability on partner airlines in addition to generous routing rules which make it easier for travellers living in non-hub cities to make use of its miles.
Points from most of the foremost bank card programmes may also be transferred to Aeroplan.
Point.me did find that there have been quite a few challenges with booking some flights online, including long hold times, and barely less impressive customer support than other programmes.
ADVERTISEMENTUnited MileagePlus, the US-based programme, could have received some negative attention recently for changes that make it less lucrative for very frequent flyers to be loyal to the airline. But Point.me found that the general structure also makes MileagePlus probably the greatest for non-loyal or less-frequent travellers.
Points could be transferred from quite a few other loyalty programmes and it was found that MileagePlus miles are easy to earn through a number of partner and co-branded bank cards.
Point.me also added that the corporate has implemented dynamic award pricing in a way that may actually be useful to casual travellers – particularly those tied to highschool schedules and national holidays.
Two more European programmes made the highest five
Back in Europe, two UK firms got here in joint fourth place – British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
ADVERTISEMENTBritish Airways was praised for the extensive changes to its Executive Club programme prior to now yr. The expansion of its ‘Reward Flight Saver’ concept to long-haul flights, which allows travellers to redeem points at attractive rates with vastly reduced fees in comparison with prior versions of the programme, was hailed by Point.me.
In addition to offering the power to transfer points from other programmes, the Executive Club charges individually for every ‘segment’ on an itinerary – with pricing based on the gap of every flight.
Simply put, meaning it’s possible to search out solid options to and from hub cities. It does fall down, nevertheless, on connecting itineraries, especially when combined with hefty carrier-driven surcharges on non-Reward Flight Saver trips.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has similar pros and cons.
ADVERTISEMENTIt was found to have a few of the perfect economy redemption rates of all programmes Point.me evaluated, in addition to a commitment to creating seats available for award redemptions on every flight.
While the Club also partners with a big selection of bank card reward programmes, carrier-imposed fuel surcharges are extremely high in premium cabins, which is a black mark against Virgin.
Also, Point.me found that some partner bookings must be remodeled the phone – and the Flying Club website doesn’t at all times make it clear when that is the case.
It was praised, though, for its keenness to supply space on flights that travellers are inclined to be most considering – think economy flights from Recent York to London and back for under 9,000 points per person each way, with availability for entire families or larger groups, versus individual seats only.
ADVERTISEMENTWhich other European airlines offer the perfect loyalty programmes?
While Point.me tended to concentrate on the advantages of the programmes for Americans, it also focussed on a greater variety of firms’ reward schemes inside Europe.
In addition to the aforementioned Air France / KLM’s Flying Blue, British Airways Executive Club and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Aer Lingus’ AerClub and Finnair Plus rounded up the highest five best programmes in Europe.
Up next was Aegean Miles+Bonus, which was praised for offering expanded availability by itself airline.
Scandinavian SAS Eurobonus was found to supply availability on its partner airlines, while Miles & More, by Lufthansa Group, was discovered to have impressive ease of booking.
ADVERTISEMENTIberia Plus and Tap Miles&Go each make it straightforward to redeem points on a flight booking, rounding out the highest 10 in Europe.
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles and Air Europa Suma each scored fairly averagely on the worldwide scale but, in Europe, got here in eleventh and twelfth place respectively – meaning they provide quite a few perks other firms can’t.
