10 Best Frequent Flyer Programs August 5, 2014 3:45 pm by Tim Winship Smarter Traveler Whats the best travel loyalty program? Thats a question I am asked often. My response, which doesnt satisfy everyone, is unvarying: There is no single best program; theres only the program that works best for you, given your travel and consumption patterns. Some programs are better on the earning side, featuring more and more generous opportunities to accumulate points. Other programs are better on the redemption side, making more awards available at better prices. Still other programs excel in their elite programs, offering more and better perks for their best customers. And so on. If there were a categorically best program, everyone would be a member of it. And thats hardly the case . Nevertheless, its become a standard editorial ploy in the publishing world to devise a series of metrics for evaluating loyalty programs, and use those filters to generate rankings of the programs, including a best of award, much the way Consumer Reports rates and ranks refrigerators and compact cars. The latest attempt to separate the best from the rest comes from U.S. News & World Report, the former news weekly whose annual Best Colleges rankings have become its best-known product. In its just-released Best Airline Rewards Programs ratings, U.S. News employed a scoring algorithm based on six factors, weighted as follows : • 30% - Ease of earning a free round-trip flight • 20% - Number and variety of free flight options • 20% - Airline Quality Rating • 10% - Geographic coverage of the airlines network • 10% - Number of daily flights • 10% - Additional benefits Using the above rating scheme, airlines were assigned scores between 1 and 5, and ranked from best to worst: 1. JetBlue TrueBlue (4.34) 2. Southwest Rapid Rewards (3.92) 3. Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan (3.81) 4. United MileagePlus (3.74) 5. American AAdvantage (3.71) 6. Virgin America Elevate (3.57) 7. Delta SkyMiles (3.46) 8. Hawaiian Air HawaiianMiles (2.81) 9. Frontier EarlyReturns (2.23) 10. Spirit Free Spirit (1.44) The problem with this (and most any) scheme designed to identify the best program overall is immediately apparent in the results. JetBlue is a fine airline that does many things well. But the earning and redemption sides of TrueBlue are hobbled by the airlines limited route network, and by the lack of a robust partner roster. If you live in Los Angeles or Boston, and are interested primarily in earning and redeeming points for flights between those two cities, JetBlues program may be just the ticket. But there are many, many other scenarios in which TrueBlue is a non-starter. There is at least one of the rankings that will easily withstand scrutiny. Spirits program is unarguably the worst of the lot.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 16:58:15 +0000
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