If you could only ever redeem miles through a limited number of frequent flyer programs again, which would they be? I’ll share my picks, and then I’m curious to hear how my choices compare to those of others.
In this post:
What makes a frequent flyer program useful?
Admittedly this question is entirely theoretical. For those of us in the United States with access to credit cards, the reality is that you never really have to commit to just several frequent flyer programs, as the major transferable points currencies give you access to dozens of partners. That kind of flexibility is invaluable. Furthermore, lots of loyalty programs sell miles at a discount, in a way where it can make sense to outright purchase miles and then immediately redeem.
But still, if you had to commit yourself to only redeeming points through a limited number of airline frequent flyer programs, how would you go about picking them? Essentially I’d try to find the programs that offer the best balance between good redemption rates, a lot of airlines and routes you can potentially redeem on, access to as much award availability as possible, and an easy booking process.
Furthermore, I’d want to consider which routes I frequently fly and want to redeem on, rather than just the general value of a program. However, I wouldn’t base my choice on whether a program has a particular sweet spot, but rather would base it on the overall value and flexibility offered.
Admittedly a major issue with making a choice is acknowledging that programs change over time. I’m not sure I’d want to be locked into any program for a lifetime, so I’m basing my choices on the current realities of redemption options.
The frequent flyer programs I find to be most valuable
With the above out of the way, let me share what I’d currently consider to be the most valuable programs for award redemption opportunities. If I could only redeem through these eight programs again, I actually wouldn’t feel like I’m losing out that much (at least based on current conditions).
With that in mind, below are my picks, roughly in order, starting with my favorite. If you wanted to make this a list of the top five programs for redeeming miles (as I see it), then just ignore the last three programs on the list. Separately, also consider airline points expiration policies, and award ticket change and cancelation fees.
Air Canada Aeroplan
I consider Air Canada Aeroplan to be one of the most useful frequent flyer programs. Aeroplan has reasonable redemption rates, an amazing array of airline partners, and allows stopovers for 5,000 points. Simply put, I think Aeroplan leaves one best positioned for aspirational redemptions. On top of that, there are no fuel surcharges through Aeroplan.
I book a ton of awards through Aeroplan, ranging from a “simple” Lufthansa first class award across the Atlantic, to a complicated round the world journey with stopovers.
Air France-KLM Flying Blue
Air France-KLM Flying Blue is the most useful SkyTeam frequent flyer program, in my opinion. A lot of us like to fly across the Atlantic, and Flying Blue has access to more Air France and KLM business class award space than partner programs.
I’d say that Air France and KLM are probably the two best airlines at releasing transatlantic premium award space regularly, and I frequently redeem this way for travel to Europe. While there are carrier imposed surcharges through Flying Blue, they’re quite mild. Flying Blue transatlantic business class awards start at just 50,000 miles one-way, and you can even have a free stopover on a one-way award.
Furthermore, in many cases Flying Blue has fair transpacific award redemption rates, including for China Airlines business class. The program even offers some partner first class awards.
American AAdvantage
While I’d consider Delta SkyMiles and United MileagePlus to both be pretty uncompetitive when it comes to redemption value, American AAdvantage is a different story, among the “big three” US carriers.
The reality is that AAdvantage has excellent partner redemption rates, especially on Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways. These are among the most useful for traveling to the Middle East, India, Africa, Central Asia, etc., and AAdvantage miles leave you best positioned for those redemptions. While many of those awards are now restricted on routes to and from the United States, availability is still quite good between other regions.
I also find that AAdvantage often has good redemption rates on its own metal, including for first and business class travel on long haul flights, which can be practical, though not particularly aspirational. I also love how AAdvantage has no change and cancelation fees, so you can speculatively lock in itineraries that work best for you.
Emirates Skywards
Ironically, Emirates Skywards isn’t a useful program in terms of partner redemptions, as Skywards has no efficient partner redemption opportunities. However, there’s no denying that Emirates is a global force to be reckoned with, and being able to redeem miles for Emirates first class is awesome.
I typically redeem on Emirates multiple times a year, whether I’m just taking the fifth freedom flight between New York and Milan, or am traveling to the Middle East and beyond via Dubai. It takes some work, but it’s worth it for those inflight showers. 😉
British Airways Executive Club
British Airways Executive Club has a unique distance based award chart, which is valuable in many markets where other points currencies aren’t. Personally I don’t use Executive Club quite as often as others do, but there’s no denying that the program is very useful for short haul awards, especially between regions.
Perhaps what’s most valuable is that you can transfer Avios between all the programs that use Avios as their rewards currency, including Aer Lingus AerClub, Finnair Plus, Iberia Plus, and Qatar Airways Privilege Club. This unlocks so many opportunities, whether you want to take advantage of the award seat guarantee on Finnair, unlock extra award space on Qatar Airways, or redeem for JetBlue Mint.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
While Air France-KLM Flying Blue is my top SkyTeam frequent flyer program, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club offers some great redemptions as well. The program has extremely attractive redemption rates on Virgin Atlantic (thanks to the new dynamic award pricing), a lucrative distance based award chart on SkyTeam, and some niche redemption partners that represent a good value.
So whether you’re looking to redeem on Aeromexico, All Nippon Airways, or Air New Zealand, the program offers quite a few valuable opportunities.
Alaska Mileage Plan
The Alaska Mileage Plan program has evolved a lot over the years, both for better and worse. Nowadays Mileage Plan has a zone and distance based award chart, which is particularly lucrative for short haul awards.
I redeem a ton of Mileage Plan miles for domestic flights on American, like being able to fly from Miami to Chicago or New York for 15,000 miles in first class. You can also redeem Mileage Plan miles across oneworld airlines, plus on some other unique partners, like Starlux.
Mileage Plan will get even more intriguing as of 2025, when the program will start awarding elite qualifying miles for award travel, including on partner airlines, which sure gives whole new meaning to “mileage running.” We’re also going to finally see the program allow multiple partner airlines on a single award, which is an exciting development.
Avianca Lifemiles
I’m going to include two Star Alliance programs on this list, since I use the programs in different ways. While I love Aeroplan for the ability to build complex awards with stopovers, I love avianca lifemiles for the ability to book simple Star Alliance first and business class awards.
The reality is that lifemiles did devalue some redemptions several months ago, so not all values are as good as they used to be. However, some transatlantic business class awards start at just 45,000 miles, so there’s huge value to be had.
What also makes lifemiles unique is how frequently we see transfer bonuses to the program (unlike with Aeroplan). So I acquire most of my miles with the program with a 20-25% bonus through a transferable points currency, getting me even more value.
Bottom line
Everyone has different frequent flyer programs that they value most based on their own redemption patterns. Personally the eight programs I redeem through most are Air Canada Aeroplan, American AAdvantage, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Emirates Skywards, British Airways Executive Club, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Alaska Mileage Plan, and avianca lifemiles. Between those programs, I’d say most kind of awards are pretty well covered, and certainly a vast majority of my redemptions are accounted for.
Fortunately most of us don’t have to limit ourselves to a limited number of programs, given the flexibility afforded by transferable points currencies.
I’m curious — what frequent flyer programs do you value most and/or redeem through most?
Surprised that ANA doesn't make the list at all.
I use Aeroplan almost exclusively, but I find their dynamic pricing makes it very hard to get flights on Air Canada for international routes for reasonable redemption rates. I end up waiting/ hoping for seats on partner airlines, which don't seem to be subject to dynamic pricing.
I like American Airlines, too, at least for North American routes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/28/business/airline-loyalty-programs-rethinking.html
Ben, ex-Lucky, read the writing on the wall.
From an Australian perspective AAdvantage has the best partner award inventory, at, on the surface, good redemption rates. However the $ exchange rates makes any $US based programs uncompetitive to put it politely.
Aeroplan is therefore my 'go to' preference as it had good partner award inventory (Etihad being the glaring anomaly these days) with a much friendlier $CAD to use.
As we don't have the ability to get a stack of credit...
From an Australian perspective AAdvantage has the best partner award inventory, at, on the surface, good redemption rates. However the $ exchange rates makes any $US based programs uncompetitive to put it politely.
Aeroplan is therefore my 'go to' preference as it had good partner award inventory (Etihad being the glaring anomaly these days) with a much friendlier $CAD to use.
As we don't have the ability to get a stack of credit cards with signup bonuses ( tighter financial regulatory system) the focus is on buying outright miles. Miles/points sales are closely followed!
I have had great luck using Cathay Asia Miles for awards on JAL including business class, which you can book one-way, unlike ANA.
Ben, three factors I feel that you have overlooked are "location, location, location..." If your "home airport" is MIA, I would think you'd be looking more towards AA and other Oneworld carriers, but I don't think this would be the case if you were based in SLC or IAH.
As I've stated on these pages before, I went from Virgin America to Alaska with the takeover, and had great "success" burning miles for international Business...
Ben, three factors I feel that you have overlooked are "location, location, location..." If your "home airport" is MIA, I would think you'd be looking more towards AA and other Oneworld carriers, but I don't think this would be the case if you were based in SLC or IAH.
As I've stated on these pages before, I went from Virgin America to Alaska with the takeover, and had great "success" burning miles for international Business class travel. When Alaska joined Oneworld, I feared I would see a decline in the usefulness of my AS miles, but honestly this hasn't been the case so far. (And we have enough Amex, Chase, and Citi points to handle any travel on SkyTeam or Star Alliance carriers.)
Avianca Lifemiles offers great redemption opportunities when there is availability (a real caveat). Since one can often buy Avianca Lifemiles at ~ $.012-$.013 (maybe less) per mile, it doesn’t make much sense to transfer from transferable credit card currencies as there are usually better values for transferring credit card points elsewhere.
@ND: except maybe when there is a 20-25% transfer bonus like Citi does every few months.
Even with transfer bonuses through Citi or Amex, let's say a 25% bonus, on a purchase price value of $.012 per mile, the bonus would bring the value to $.015. There are still better values to be had elsewhere for international business or first class tickets elsewhere from other airline FF program transfer partners. For economy tickets YMMV on price, but award availability will likely be better from other FF programs on flights other than on Avianca.
Feel like AA has gotten worse hiking prices up on their metal and then making it harder to redeem on QR. Still better than Delta and probably United though.
Good post. Sadly for me the utility of LifeMiles is slowly fading due to the inconsistent Lufthansa award availability.
Lucky, what do you think would be best to achieve mid-tier status for *A? Aeroplan or Lifemiles? I need to leave UA as MileagePlus is quite horrible gone the way of SkyPesos and see not much value with these anymore. I don't like AC or AV requirements for flying their metal though AV could be achievable with one flight in J and a combination of UA/AC flights in economy.
In the past few years, I feel like Flying Blue is the only program that provides a substantial number of TATL business class award seats at a reasonable rate.
A few musings…
Like a few of the others, I haven’t had much luck with Aeroplan, and the idea of transferring in YYZ makes me cringe.
Similarly, while AAdvantage has attractive rates, they mean relatively little, especially if flying to Europe, where you’re at the whims of AAs dynamic pricing (aka zero value), or transferring in LHR (aka surcharges more expensive than just paying cash). Flying to Abu Dhabi so I can get to...
A few musings…
Like a few of the others, I haven’t had much luck with Aeroplan, and the idea of transferring in YYZ makes me cringe.
Similarly, while AAdvantage has attractive rates, they mean relatively little, especially if flying to Europe, where you’re at the whims of AAs dynamic pricing (aka zero value), or transferring in LHR (aka surcharges more expensive than just paying cash). Flying to Abu Dhabi so I can get to someplace in Europe, or being subjected to Royal Air Maroc so I can get decent value isn’t exactly the definition of useful.
I do agree with Flying Blue and Virgin Flying Club being useful. In the latter case, it remains to be seen how long the attractive rates will last with their dynamic award pricing.
It’s interesting that Korean Skypass isn’t on the list since everyone raved about them up until they yanked themselves out of Chase Ultimate Rewards. I don’t recall any major devaluations there, though maybe I missed something.
The most salient point in the article is that the most useful program is the one that will get you where you most often need or want to go, at the price you are willing to pay. The programs on this are great if you have the time and patience to look thru schedules and rearrange your schedule to fit the program’s pricing. Most of us don’t have that luxury. And while AAdvantage (or any other program) may be the best value on numbers, they mean nothing to me if I’m trying to someplace where OneWorld or AAdvantage’s partners don’t fly, or if I have to pay for a positioning flight to take advantage of the best rate.
Last point…I’d be very, very curious (as I’m sure many of your readers are as well), about which programs you find most useful for coach redemptions. Would definitely drive a lot of interest from those in the community who don’t have the points and miles for aspirational awards but are active nonetheless.
As far as routes, I find United as strong, better than American.
BA is terrible with fuel surcharge, ruining their's and American's ff progʻram.
I used to think Alaska’s was strong. Redeemed countless times for J/F on airlines like Emirates, Qatar etc. Now I can’t find almost any premium availability and when I do it’s at such a high rate it seems pointless. Used to be booking 330 days out or within two weeks had lots of options. Not so much today.
THIS! All of this!
This has NOT been my experience with AS at all. My wife and I use our Alaska miles to fly internationally. Last year, using AS miles my wife and I flew domestic first SFO-JFK on Alaska; FCO-JFK in Business on American, and JFK-SFO on Alaska. (The flight to Europe was in Business using Flying Blue miles.). The year before that, we used AS miles to fly OPO-LHR-SFO in Business on BA. And later this year,...
This has NOT been my experience with AS at all. My wife and I use our Alaska miles to fly internationally. Last year, using AS miles my wife and I flew domestic first SFO-JFK on Alaska; FCO-JFK in Business on American, and JFK-SFO on Alaska. (The flight to Europe was in Business using Flying Blue miles.). The year before that, we used AS miles to fly OPO-LHR-SFO in Business on BA. And later this year, using AS miles, we're flying to KIX on JAL in Business. Never had any problems finding tickets.
Now, I will grant you I have NEVER tried to redeem on Emirates or Qatar, so I cannot speak directly to availability on those carriers, and perhaps availability is next to zero on them.
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The rest...
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The rest is the substance of my comment.
For accuracy, I need to correct the info above on the SIN-TPE BIZ-class ticket that I ended up booking. The flight was on Eva air (BR) metal and SQ, which makes Aeroplan look even worse:
Original:
SIN-TPE on SQ, nonstop, total trip duration: 4h:35min, cost: 45K KrisFlyer miles
Correction:
SIN-TPE on BR, nonstop, total trip duration: 4h:35min, cost: 45K KrisFlyer miles
Aeroplan failed where another *A carrier got me a much better flight (shorter by at least 8 hours)!
I'd take out Emirates from this list. It's just a niche program, as you pointed out. Just like Singapore's KrisFlyer, it doesn't belong in this group.
You do realise that some people in the world live in countries that aren't America
It's so painful being locked up in SAS EuroBonus in Scandinavia, where the only credit cards you can have are SAS or Norwegian (lol) branded. Cannot imagine how nice it is to use a credit card and then choose where to redeem the miles.
I mostly agree with our take. The BA program is, ironically, usually more useful for non-BA awards than for BA ones, since the latter attract significant fuel surcharges.
To add to the irony, you can make the BA programme even more useful by transferring your BA Avios into QR and booking partner awards (e.g. CX, JL..) for even lower fuel surcharges.