Airline reward programme members enjoy certain perks that include cabin upgrades, priority boarding and even discounts on tour packages. — Pixabay
Flying Blue, the joint loyalty programme of Air France and KLM, soared to the top of Point.me’s 2025 global airline rewards rankings for the second year in a row.
Point.me, a subscription-based flight search platform that helps travellers find and book airline award flights using points and miles, evaluated 59 programmes worldwide through Aug 1.
Using qualitative and quantitative data from more than 22 million searches and more than 500 million search results, Flying Blue retained the top spot, followed by American Airlines’ AAdvantage programme and Alaska Air’s Mileage Plan; both airlines are from the United States.
“Looking at the industry as a whole, these are the most rewarding programmes, most globally competitive programmes and the programmes that are investing in loyalty and want your business,” says Tiffany Funk, president and co-founder of Point.me.
Flying Blue achieved a score of 92.38 out of 100, excelling in five of the eight categories weighted by their impact on the average traveller, including ease of earning miles, partner opportunities and redemption experience. While the programme is based in Europe, Flying Blue is growing voraciously in the US market, focusing on expanding their transfer partners.
“They’ve made some really conscientious and interesting decisions around how they’re balancing award inventory versus pricing,” Funk says.
Of loyalty programmes in general, she continues, “... we hear a lot of frustration. Our aim with this is to be able to break it down again very quantitatively.”
“Offering an attractive programme allows Flying Blue to broaden its reach, captivating travellers and fostering loyalty, even among those who have yet to experience our airlines first hand,” said Benjamin Lipsey, president of the programme for Air France-KLM, in a statement.
Some airline reward programmes allow you to convert your credit card points into mileage points.
In June, Air France-KLM cut trans-Atlantic fares to boost bookings among cost-conscious coach passengers, and reported in July higher than expected second-quarter earnings.
The concept of frequent flyer programmes dates back to the one run by Texas International Airlines in 1979 followed by American Airlines’ AAdvantage in 1981. Originally designed to influence travellers behaviour and reward repeat business with straightforward paths to free flights, lounge access and cabin upgrades now nets carriers billions of dollars a year.
Both American and Delta Air Lines have seen significant growth in revenue from selling loyalty points to credit card companies and other partners. Delta made US$7.4bil (RM31.15bil) from its American Express partnership, which it expects to grow to US$10bil (RM42.1bil) over the long-term; in some cases airlines make more money selling miles than seats.
But as profitable as they might be, they have become less generous for consumers, as airlines have moved to revenue-based earnings models, demanding more spending for fewer benefits.
Under this model, carriers still have to strategise to keep the customers, the business and the partners in a “win-win-win” situation, according to Funk.
What travellers have decried as “bait and switch” tactics led to the September 2024 inquiry by the US Department of Transportation into United, Delta, American and Southwest Airlines’ rewards programmes. It looked into how their earned points may have been devalued over time and how dynamic pricing makes it harder for customers to predict how far their points will go.
“We know that we’re moving into a period where there are a lot more leisure travellers than there ever have been. We are in a shifting period in terms of consumer purchasing power. And so what we’re very much looking at is how are programmes either responding or being proactive there,” Point.me’s Funk says.
For instance, Alaska’s new airline loyalty programme, Atmos Rewards, is expected to launch in 2026 and offer members the flexibility to select their preferred method for earning award points: distance flown, ticket price or number of flight segments. Members will be able to adjust their earning preference once annually.
Its current mileage plan holds the third spot in Point.me’s list, rising from No.7, based on its redemption value and award availability, and international award pricing to Asia and Oceania business and economy seats.
American Airlines’ partnership with Citigroup elevated them four spots to No.2 given it’s now easier to earn miles.
“They’re also the only programme we evaluated that allows consumers to hold award flights online and then ticket that flight online without having to make a phone call,” Funk says.
Virgin Atlantic Airways’ Flying Club jumped to the fourth spot, supplanting British Airways after their programme came under fire earlier this year after they introduced a dynamic award pricing model for flights.
Rounding out the top five is United Airlines’s MileagePlus programme. – Bloomberg
