Many fliers signed up for frequent flier programs. Those signees’ numbers have bee increasing over the years. For instance, a number of AAdvantage members jumped from 300,000 in 1981 (during which American Airlines launched the world’s first frequent flier program) to 70 million in 2014. Despite the growing popularity of the frequent flier program, we often missed the opportunity to fully exploit the benefits provided by that program. Some of those benefits include: seat upgrades, priority boarding, free tickets, and access to the airport’s VIP lounges. One of the common reasons for missing the benefit opportunities is a lack of understanding about the complicated, non-uniform rules which may differ from one airline to another. So, we should be aware of the following rules that can easily confuse some frequent fliers.
- So-called revenue-based loyalty programs begin to award miles according to ticket price instead of pure travel distance. This means that simply racking up miles would not help you earn the elite status.
- Some credit cards such as Citi ThankYou Rewards allow you to accrue miles/points with multiple carriers and thus transfer miles into a variety of frequent flier programs.
- Cross-over reward programs will allow you to enjoy perks (e.g., late check-out, room upgrades, complimentary in-room Internet access) for lodging, when the hotel and the airline have alliances for that program. For example, Starwood hotels and Delta have such alliances.
The Huffington Post’ top five frequent flier programs in 2017 (visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/best-frequent-flyer-programs_us_58813b42e4b096b4a230cf02) are:
- Delta
- Alaska
- Hawaiian
- United
- American
Top ten airline reward programs listed by U.S. News and World Report (visit http://travel.usnews.com/rankings/travel-rewards/airline-rewards/) are:
- Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- JetBlue TrueBlue program
- Southwest Rapid Rewards program
- Delta SkyMiles program
- Virgin America Elevate program
- United MileagePlus program
- American Airlines AAdvantge program
- HawaiianMiles rewards program
- Frontier EarlyReturns program
- Free Spirit frequent program
Also, Holly Johnson of the Simple Dollar (visit http://www.thesimpledollar.com/best-frequent-flyer-programs/) recommended the following four programs that allow you to amass points based on credit card spending.
- Southwest Rapid Rewards – Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card
- Delta SkyMiles – Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express
- British Airways Avios – British Airways Visa Signature® Card
- United – United MileagePlus® Explorer Card
For other highly rated credit cards with the frequent flier reward, visit http://www.cardrates.com/reviews/air-miles/?utm_source=Adwords&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=CR1Exact&utm_content=FlyerMilesCC&adid=169920471769&utm_term=frequent%20flyer%20programs&match=e&referrer=Google&network=g&device=c&query=unknown&gclid=CILq0Lu149ICFR1XDQodiwcOTw .