By Ted Thornhill
Copyright independent
The 59 best — and worst — airline rewards programs for 2025 have been named in an annual ranking.
While “Flying Blue” by Air France/KLM holds the No.1 spot for the second year, the top 10 is dominated by American carriers.
In the table, compiled by rewards travel search platform Point.me, American Airlines’ AAdvantage rose from No.6 in 2024 to No.2, and Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan rose from No.7 to No.3.
The rest of the top 10 comprised Virgin Atlantic Flying Club (No.4), United MileagePlus (fifth), The British Airways Club (sixth), Air Canada Aeroplan (seventh), JetBlue TrueBlue (eighth), Emirates Skywards (ninth), and Qatar Airways Privilege Club (10th).
Tied in last place (58th) was Egyptair Plus and Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club, with Aeromexico just above in 57th.
Frequent flyer programs allow members to convert air travel into currency, usually in points or miles, and earn rewards, which might include airport lounge access and seat upgrades.
To determine the very best reward programs, Point.me drilled into data from 500 million searches and rated the 59 loyalty programs out of four across eight categories — ease of earning miles; redemption rates; partner opportunities; redemption experience; award availability on native airline; award holds; customer service quality; and change fees/policies.
Flying Blue garnered four stars out of four across five categories, including ease of earning miles and redemption experience.
AAdvantage was rated four stars for categories including redemption rates, redemption experience, and award availability on native airline.
Hailing Flying Blue’s win, Point.me said: “Flying Blue is on its way to becoming a household name among American travelers, with increased visibility and popularity driven by the program’s focus on securing transfer partners and growing its coverage of key routes with a robust partner network.
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“Its extensive partnerships make it almost effortless to earn miles without ever boarding an Air France or KLM flight, as consumers can transfer points from all of the major credit card points currencies to Flying Blue, and it has its own co-branded card available to U.S. consumers.”
The AAdvantage program was praised, meanwhile, for “consistently great redemption rates across airlines on popular routes”.
Adam Morvitz, Founder and CEO of Point.me, commented: “Getting real value from airline loyalty points is often significantly harder for passengers than it needs to be.
“These rankings draw on our team’s collective travel expertise and deep data-led insight from our reward search engine. This data-driven approach empowers travelers to make strategic decisions about where to invest their loyalty, ensuring they’re not just collecting points, but actually maximizing their travel wealth.”
Gilbert Ott, Founder of travel site godsavethepoints.com, told The Independent: “Great airline rewards programs aren’t just about frequent flyers anymore and are now an essential way for all travelers to save on flights or enjoy better experiences.
“Flying Blue has been one of the best at simplifying the way people can engage and earn points and have kept the points prices for great flights really reasonable.
“The same could be said for American Airlines, where 55,000 points can still unlock a business class seat across the Atlantic. American’s Loyalty Points update also made it easier for people to earn tons of points just from every day shopping, a true win for all travelers looking to get more from every purchase they make — not just travel purchases.”
