Best frequent flyer programs

  Airfare Booking Strategies, Earn Miles for Every Flight (In as Few Accounts as Possible)

For every flight, you can usually choose to earn miles with one of several different frequent flyer programs. If you are flying with an airline that belongs to one of the big three alliances, you can choose any of the airlines in the alliance (and usually some additional partner programs as well). Even when you fly with an airline that doesn't belong to an alliance, you can usually choose to earn your miles with your choice of several different partners.

Most people should choose to consolidate their miles in a single frequent flyer program for each alliance. In some cases, it is better to choose a foreign airline’s program rather than the US airline that belongs to the alliance (American, Delta, United).

Jump to

• Your favorite airline
• Programs that make it easier to earn mid-level status
• Best programs for earning and awards

Your favorite airline

If you fly enough to have a good chance of qualifying for elite status within an alliance, you should usually choose to earn miles with the airline you fly the most.

This is especially true for people who can qualify for higher-level status such as United Premier Platinum, Delta Platinum, American Platinum Pro, or Alaska 75K. Many of the benefits of elite status, such as the possibility of a premium cabin upgrade and fee waivers, are only available to the airline's own elite flyers.

There are a couple of potential exceptions:

• If you are likely to be able earn mid-level status on American / Alaska or United, you need to choose between moderate upgrade benefits OR free airport lounge access on domestic flights. If you earn status with a foreign airline, you’ll get free lounge access whenever you fly on American / Alaska or United within the United States, which is a benefit that is NOT available to mid-level elites in the US airline’s own programs. On the other hand, if you choose American / Alaska or United, you’ll have a small chance of getting a premium cabin upgrade. Furthermore, United elites get access to preferred economy seats and will frequently get access to enhanced-legroom seating (when flying United), while elites with other Star Alliance programs won't (with Oneworld, all elites get access to American's and Alaska's preferred and enhanced economy seats).
 

With United, we much rather have routine access to better economy class seats than lounge access, especially because we are already have at least some lounge access through Priority Pass and the Amex Platinum Card. Even with American / Alaska, we'd still rather have the occasional first class upgrade. But everyone’s choice is going to be different.

With SkyTeam, the lounge access benefit is limited to international flights, so you might as well just choose Delta.

• If you don't fly enough for a US airline's mid-level status, you might be able to qualify with a foreign airline's frequent flyer program. Each airline has different status qualification rules and some programs are easier than others. If is often better to get mid-level status with another airline in the alliances than low-level status directly with the airline you fly the most, especially if you value the airport lounge access benefit. The easiest programs to qualify for mid-level status are listed below.

Easier Access to Elite status with Credit Cards

If you spend a lot of money with credit cards, it can be easier to earn elite status on American, Delta, and United.

It is possible to reduce the elite status requirements, by using the airline’s co-branded credit cards.

• American Airlines. Starting in 2022, dollars spent on AA credit cards count as loyalty points towards earning elite status. In addition, you can earn bonus loyalty points with $25,000 or $50,000 of spending with the Aviator Silver Card or $40,000 of spending on the AA Executive Card. If you spend $50,000 on the Aviator Silver Card or $25,000 on the Aviator Business Card (issued by Barclays), you can reduce the spending requirement (EQD) by $3,000. For example, you’d only need to spend $3,000 to reach mid-level status, instead of $6,000. In addition, the Aviator Silver card will give you 5,000 EQMs after spending $25,000, and another 5,000 EQMs with another $25,000 in spending (and a companion certificate when you spend $30,000).  The Aviator Business's annual fee is $95 and the Silver’s is $195. 

The $450 annual fee AAdvantage Executive Card earns 10,000 EQMs with $40,000 in spending during the year.

• Delta. If you spend at least $25,000 (combined) on your Gold, Platinum, or Reserve Delta credit cards, Delta will waive the spending requirement (MQD) for all status levels, except Delta Diamond. The $195 annual fee Delta Platinum Card and the $550 annual fee Delta Reserve Card often offer extra MQMs as part of their signup bonus. In addition, you can earn MQMs through spending. The Platinum Card earns 10,000 MQMs with every $25,000 you spend (up to 20,000 MQMs per year). The Reserve Card gives you 15,000 MQMs for every $30,000 (up to 60,000 MQMs). During 2021, each of these mileage boosts will give you 25% extra MQMs.

You can combine MQM bonuses from both the personal and business versions of both cards. So, it is possible to earn massive quantities of MQMs by spending massive amounts of money on your Delta credit cards. You can also transfer MQMs from the Delta Reserve Card to another member. For example, both adults in a household can contribute their qualifying miles towards one person's higher-level status.

• United. The United cards earn 500 qualifying dollars (PQPs) for every $12,000 in card spend (up to a total of 1,000 PQPs).

There is a large opportunity cost of putting this amount of spending on these cards, instead of your credit cards that have better reward rates, so make sure that you actually need the reduction in status requirements and highly value the difference in status.

Programs that make it easier to earn mid-level status

Mid-level status with any Star Alliance, SkyTeam, or Oneworld frequent flyer program gives you lounge access, at least some access to preferred economy-class seats, free bags, and priority check-in, security, and boarding. In one respect, earning mid-level status with a foreign airline’s frequent flyer program is even better than earning it with American or United. You’ll get lounge access even on domestic flights. Benefits of Elite Frequent Flyer Status.

While most frequent flyer programs require 50,000 miles per year to qualify for mid-level status, some programs have easier qualification requirements. If you aren’t going to fly enough to earn mid-level status on your first choice of frequent flyer programs, you might still be able to qualify with one of these easier programs.  

Star Alliance (United)

• Egyptair. For most people, Egyptair is the easiest program to earn and keep Star Alliance Gold status. You’ll need to acquire 30,000 QMs to get to Silver Status, but you can spread this out over any length of time. Once you’ve reached Silver status, you only need to earn an additional 30,000 QMs over TWO years to get to Gold. Then once you’re Gold, you only need 30,000 QMs every TWO years to keep your status. That's 30,000 QMs every two years, versus the normal 50,000 QMs every year.

In addition, (as described below) Egyptair is the only program that lets you earn qualifying miles from your family member’s flights. A couple only needs to average 7,500 QMs per year to earn Gold status for one of them.

• Asiana Airlines (Korea). If you aren’t planning to share your elite status qualifying miles with others, Asiana airlines is a good option. You need 40,000 QMs every TWO years to qualify for a two-year period. Then you only need 30,000 QMs over those TWO years to re-qualify. That's a little harder than Egyptair, but Asiana is a better program for using your miles and has its own US branded credit card.
• Turkish Airlines. Like Asiana, Turkish Airlines operates on a two-year cycle. While you only have one year to earn the 40,000 QMs to initially qualify, status will last two years, and you only need 37,500 QMs over those TWO years to re-qualify.

But if you have status with another airline / alliance and are planning to fly Turkish, you may be able to take advantage of their status match to make it easier. Once you match, you'll have status for 4 months. If you take one international flight with Turkish, it will be extended to a full year. If you then earn 15,000 QMs on Turkish international flights during that year, you'll get an extra year.

• Aegean Airlines (Greece). If you can fly on Aegean, they are another easier-than-normal option. Earning 12,000 QMs in 12 months (including 2 Aegean-operated segments) gets you to Silver status. Once there, earning another 24,000 QMs in the following 12 months (including 4 Aegean segments) gets you Gold. Then you only need 12,000 QMs (including two Aegean segments) or 24,000 QMs (without the Aegean flights) to re-qualify.

SkyTeam (Delta)

• Air Europa. Air Europa is the easiest program for earning SkyTeam Elite Plus status. It requires 12,000 QMs to reach Silver level. Once there, you'll have a year to earn 32,000 additional miles to reach and maintain Gold. Air Europa has a distance-based award chart, which can represent either very good or very bad award prices, depending on the length of the route. They are best for very short or very long flights. One downside is that Air Europa doesn’t partner with any credit card programs, so you can’t easily combine your miles with credit card points, to book tickets.
• Flying Blue. Air France and KLM’s Flying Blue program uses "Experience Points" rather than qualifying miles. The number of XPs you receive is based on the class of service and distance buckets. It normally isn't particularly easy to earn the 280 XP you need to qualify for mid-level status. However, you may be able to take advantage of some quirks to qualify much more easily. On even the shortest international segments, Flying Blue gives you 10 XP in Premium Economy, 15 XP in Business, and 25 XP in First. If you have the opportunity to take very short inexpensive international flights, you'll quickly earn enough points without flying a lot of miles or spending a lot of money.

Oneworld (American)

• British Airways. British Airways bases their status level on “tier points” rather than qualifying miles. The flight miles to tier points conversion rate is not fixed but is typically around 60:1. Thus, you only need to earn the equivalent of about 36,000 QMs per year to get the 600 tier points for gold status. Unfortunately. you’ll also need to make sure that at least four of those flights are on British Airways. So British Airways is a good choice for some people, but unworkable for others.
• Iberia (Spain). Like British Airways, Iberia bases their status on “elite points” not qualifying miles. If you book full economy, business, or first-class tickets, you can earn status with far less than the normal amount of flying. But if you buy discounted economy tickets, it will take far more than the normal amount of flying.
• Japan Airlines. For some travelers, JAL can be an unbelievable way to maintain Oneworld mid-level status (Sapphire).  Once you qualify for JAL’s Sapphire tier, you’ll have an opportunity to join their “JAL Global Club” for two years. As a member, you’ll automatically have Oneworld mid-level status. To keep your membership, you’ll only need to earn 25,000 QMs per year. And if that isn’t good enough, you also have the option of simply paying 5,000 redeemable miles for the renewal fee.

The catch is that, to reach JNB Sapphire status in the first place, you’ll need to earn the normal 50,000 miles in a year, half of which needs to be on flights operated by JAL. So, to get started, you’ll need to wait until you have the opportunity to earn at least 25,000 miles on JAL flights.  

Pooling your Status Qualifying miles with Egyptair

One program deserves special mention.

If you frequently travel as a family, the easiest path towards Star Alliance elite status is with Egyptair’s frequent flyer program.

This is the only frequent flyer program where you can earn qualifying miles on flights taken by multiple family members. For example, if a family of four each earned 9,000 miles for a round trip to Europe, all 36,000 miles can be credited to the same frequent flyer account and contribute to one account's Star Alliance status. (The AwardWallet Blog brought this to our attention.)

It takes 30,000 miles to reach low-level status (Silver), but there is no time limit. Once you qualify, you only need a total of 15,000 miles every two years to keep your Silver status alive. Once you reach Silver, if you accrue 30,000 miles over a two-year period, you’ll get mid-level status (Gold). Then you only need 30,000 miles every two years to keep your Gold status.

Flying a combined total of 30,000 miles as a family, every two years, is an achievable goal for many people, even if they don’t fly very often. Of course, since lounge access is limited to only one guest, it would be better to try to qualify separately for every two people—7,500 miles per person per year.

The only problem with this strategy is that you’ll wind up with a bunch of miles with Egyptair instead of with another Star Alliance program. Their award chart is somewhat more expensive than most and you can’t combine miles with your credit card points (even Marriott).

However, even if you assume that Egyptair miles are worth .25 cents per point less, because you need more of them to earn an award, you’ll only be giving up $75 in value, every two years, to earn Star Alliance Gold.

Best programs for earning and awards

If you don't fly enough with an alliance to earn elite status, you should choose to earn your miles with whichever program has the best earning and award options.

Each frequent flyer program has different mileage earning rates, its own award chart and rules, a separate set of non-alliance partners, and different credit card earning options. You can use miles from any airline in the alliance for award tickets on any of the alliance's airlines. For example, you can choose to earn British Airways miles even if you only ever plan to fly on American.

• You might want to earn your miles with a program you can transfer your credit card points to. Assuming you are collecting transferable points, it is much easier to be able to use your points if you can combine them with points you earn from your credit spending.
• On the other hand, if you are collecting signup bonuses, you'll also be able to build up large point balances with all the US airlines, especially Delta. The only foreign airlines with a great signup bonus are the Avios airlines (British, Iberia, and Aer Lingus) and sometimes Virgin Atlantic, but smaller signup bonuses are available for a number of other programs. Airline Credit Cards.
• If you typically fly on inexpensive long-distance flights within an alliance, you will likely earn more miles by choosing a foreign program. American, Delta, and United base the number of miles you'll receive on the price of a ticket. Alaska and most foreign airline's frequent flyer programs base it on the number of miles you fly multiplied by a percentage which is determined by the price of your ticket.

For example, if you pay $350 to fly coast-to-coast, you’ll receive 1,750 miles from a US airline. Because the ticket was bought with a more discounted fare, a different program might give you 25% to 75% of the 5,000 miles flown, or 1,250 - 3,750 miles. If you pay $700 to fly from the East Coast to Paris, you’d earn 3,500 miles from the US airline and probably around 3,750 miles from a foreign airline.

But if you fly short distances or on more expensive tickets, you’ll usually earn more miles with the US airline. A discounted $250 fare between Boston and Chicago will earn 1,250 miles from the US airline and probably around 850 miles with a foreign airline. A $4,000 business class ticket to Europe will earn 20,000 miles with a US airline. With a foreign airline, you’ll receive 100% to 200% of the mileage flown, around 8,000 to 16,000 miles.

Star Alliance (United)

	United.  United never passes through fuel surcharges, making it a great choice for travel to Europe, Asia, and Africa. However, it requires a much higher-than-normal number of miles to fly in business or first class (on those airlines). So it is a good program for economy award tickets, but less useful for premium seats. United participates in the Ultimate Rewards program, so you can easily combine your points and miles to book an award ticket.
	Air Canada (Aeroplan) is the probably the best alternative choice for Star Alliance. Ignoring United's elite status benefits, they are a better program. Like United, they don't pass through fuel surcharges and have a potentially valuable stopover benefit, but they have generally lower award costs. Mileage accrues based on distance, rather than cost, so you'll do better with longer cheaper flights and worse with shorter more-expensive flights (within the same class of service). They offer family pooling, will soon have a US credit card, and have some other innovative program features. You can transfer points from Membership Rewards, Ultimate Rewards (soon), and Capital One to top off your account.
	Singapore. Singapore airlines has a well-priced award chart, with many flights requiring fewer miles than United, especially in business and first-class. They are partners with every credit card program, making it easy to combine your miles and credit card points. If you aren't focusing on the Ultimate Rewards program, it can be a better choice than United. The biggest downside is that they will pass through fuel surcharges when you book award tickets. If you expect to redeem your miles for tickets to Europe, Asia, or Africa on an airline other than United, you’ll pay a lot of money in fees by using Singapore.  Another downside is you have just three years to use your miles.

SkyTeam (Delta)

Delta. Delta doesn’t pass through fuel surcharges for most SkyTeam flights. This can be a big advantage when travelling to Europe, Africa, and Asia. If you plan to redeem on Delta itself, Delta often has extra space available at slightly higher-than-normal prices. This award space would not be available via other frequent flyer programs.  One drawback of Delta is that you can’t use your miles to book first-class award tickets on any of their partners. If this is important to you, you will need to choose another frequent flyer program to concentrate on. It should be comparatively easy to get extra Delta miles from credit cards, either by converting Membership Rewards points or by collecting Delta signup bonuses.

Korean. Korean has some amazing award values, especially for business class travel to Europe and any travel to Hawaii and Mexico. They do limit you to round trip awards, but you can get a free stopover. On the earning side, they offer good award multiples for economy flights, but less than the normal number of miles for business and first-class flights. So, if you frequently buy premium cabin tickets, you are probably better off with another program. The big downside is that they aren't partners with any of the big three credit card programs and don't have a way to earn lots of miles via signup bonuses. Korean is partners with Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines (among others). This expands your opportunity for using Korean miles and also opens the possibility of crediting your Alaska miles to the same program you use for Delta / SkyTeam.

Oneworld (American)

British Airways. Many people should choose to earn miles for their Oneworld flights with British Airways.  They have a distance-based award chart that offers excellent value for short flights, such as flights from the West Coast to Hawaii and flights from the East Coast to the Caribbean. They are members of both the Membership Rewards and Ultimate Rewards program, so you can easily combine your points with miles. You have the flexibility of transferring your points to Iberia when the Iberia award chart offers better value. And they allow family members to pool together their points. The big downsides are they are very expensive for longer-haul premium-cabin award tickets and they also are the only airline that will add fuel surcharges on American Airlines flights to Europe.

American Airlines. American Airlines has a well-priced award chart for many different regions, especially if you can take advantage of off-peak awards. They are also the only Oneworld airline that doesn’t pass through fuel surcharges (except for British Airways and Iberia flights), making them a great choice for flights to Asia and Africa and some flights to Europe. American Airlines also offers some useful non-alliance partnerships to get from the US to the South Pacific. A big downside is that they don't participate with any of three big credit card points programs. However, there are two different families of American Airline credit cards that you can use to augment your account balance.

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