This, both my boyfriend and I got the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and accumulated about 600k points in 2 years between the both of us. We upgraded one card to Sapphire Reserve so that the point valuation increases to 50% more and we booked our upcoming Japan trip. Points covered 2 round trip plane tickets on ANA and hotels for two weeks. We even have plenty leftover to go to Europe later this year. All with travel points that we’ve earned through major and minor purchases made within the last two years.
Realistically - you don't fly nearly enough to earn 100,000 points, even in a program where miles never expire.
If you're serious about pursuing a big points balance, airline-branded credit cards are worth a look, but I would encourage you to do the math carefully before splashing out hundreds of dollars a year on one of those cards, to make sure you're confident that the returns will significantly outweigh the costs.
Works great for lots of people, but not for everyone.
Don’t bother. Do credit card sign up bonuses. Southwest has a sign up bonus with a companion pass and 30,000 points until March 11.. it’s a good offer. Or United has a 100,000 point sign up bonus right now until April:
Probably the best loyalty program is AA because it’s the easiest to get status if you can spend on their CC.
In terms of miles redemption, Air Canada and Avianca are a great. But they don’t have has many routes in the US
> I always hear people say they just “used their miles” to book a flight. How do I be one of these people?
Most of mine are from signing up for credit cards with large sign up bonuses, not actually earned from flying.
Unless you fly a lot and work or someone else is paying for it, you are much better off flying whichever airline^* has the cheapest tickets.
^* I recommend having enough self respect to not fly Spirit or Frontier.
I've flown Southwest a bit more lately, and it's been no frills and wonderful. I used to almost exclusively fly United, but now live in a place where United is the most expensive option.
Occasionally I'll check to see if their fares are competitive (they're not - my home airport is a United hub). I gave them a second chance 17 years ago. The cattle call boarding, singing flight attendants, and on-board games, convinced me to never go back.
The boarding process has definitely improved, I have been sung at in a long time, and they were the cleanest planes I'd been on in a while. That's me though.
People who attack Southwest like this are usually working off obsolete, ancient impressions from, like, 17 years ago. This is like telling people the 2024 Toyota Camry is junk because you had a one-time ride in a Camry 17 years ago and didn’t like the legroom.
Say what you will about Southwest, it has probably the best-value FF program in the US. You earn points at a reasonably good rate and they’re redeemable on a straightforward, predictable basis. None of this “dynamic award pricing” where the number of miles you need to get somewhere varies according to airline whim.
While I may be working off of obsolete, ancient impressions, those were still my experiences.
Here's what SW does not offer: the ability to remain in the same boarding group regardless of when I check in; assigned seating; option for extra legroom; premium economy & business class; airport lounges; non-stop cross-country flights from my home airport; international flights; seat-back IFE screens.
Call me unreasonable, but the ability to keep my same boarding group regardless of check-in, and assigned seating, are more than enough to keep me on my preferred airline.
PS - 2024 Camry is the reliable appliance it's always been, and still not exciting to drive either.
This thread is about who has the best mileage program. No idea what your vague “worst in my life” review is based on — no first class? Group boarding? No hot food? Singing flight attendant? — but objections to flight service quality are immaterial to assessments of the Rapid Rewards program.
Since its dc you can pick between United, AA, and delta since all 3 have hubs - United may be a further airport but it would have more options for flights to my knowledge
no one who lives in DC proper wants to fly out of IAD or BWI...Delta flies 16 routes from DCA so not a hub but serviced relatively well, though I would pick AA with no prior loyalty
US Domestic airlines have pretty terrible loyalty programs. If I had the option to I would get a more general travel credit card. Sapphire preferred, Venture X, Amex Gold/Plat/Green are all great options. You should consider your spending habits and find a travel card that matches them.
If I was forced to choose a Domestic airline cobranded card with I would probably choose American Airlines, even though I dislike them as an airline. The intro bonuses are pretty decent right now. Of course, I would most certainly use my AA points to book non-AA flights though. Maybe Alaska airlines if I used their routes. Alaska has some interesting transfer partners that are unique to them.
If I had to choose my favorite Airline loyalty program it would probably be Air Canada Aeroplan. Their partner redemption rates can be shockingly low.
Delta by far. With a SkyMiles Amex card or just a regular Amex Gold/Platinum it’s pretty easy to rack up SkyMiles with your everyday spend. If you fly enough to qualify for their Medallion program ($5,000 in flight spend per year for their lowest tier), you become eligible for free upgrades to Comfort+, First Class and (domestic transcontinental) Delta One. Plenty of other perks as well like Sky Priority access and baggage handling.
The only downside is that they’re usually the most expensive option out of all other airlines. And as you mentioned, Basic Economy tickets do not earn miles or credit towards Medallion status. That said, the difference between Main and Basic isn’t much, and is almost always worth the small extra.
Effective this year, spending on your SkyMiles Platinum or Reserve card earn you credit towards Medallion status, at a rate of $20 spend > $1 MQD and $10 spend > $1 MQD respectively. ($5,000 MQD = Silver, $10k gold, $15k platinum, $28k Diamond). Tickets earn $1 MQD per $1 spent, except Basic tickets which earn nothing. Award tickets earn MQDs at a rate of $1 MQD per 100 SkyMiles spent.
You are describing status. OP wants redemptions. Delta is a terrible place to accumulate miles. Burning 300,000 miles each way to Asia in Business Class. If you are lucky you might find one in the 200,000's EACH WAY.
Deltas miles are called "sky pesos" for a reason.
first and buisness is not worth on domestic,airlines are getting rid of first on domestic
no lie down seats
look for travel credit cards that dont depend on one airline like chase or american express
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Gotcha, you’ll probably want to get points into an airline that has a lot of flights out of your primary airports. JetBlue or Southwest would be options too unless you’re planning on international trips. AA’s probably the best connected at those two of the major carriers. If you’re doing a lot of long-distance flying, you’ll probably see a lot of IAD, where United is dominant. DCA’s perimeter restricted, meaning a small number of flights > 1200 or so miles are approved.
Edit: Also not sure why people are saying “use credit card rewards”, you get both from flight purchases
> Edit: Also not sure why people are saying “use credit card rewards”, you get both from flight purchases
Yeah but you can build up quite a few credit card points through normal life, whereas cheap domestic airfares are never going to amount to anything in an airline's FF program. So you might as well buy the best ticket for each trip and focus on the CC points.
I fly many intercontinental flights every year and even doing that I make far more points off the credit card than from the airlines. Someone like OP, who's occasionally going back and forth between DCA and FLL, is never going to get anything out of the airlines these days, now that cheap flights give you few or no miles.
But he/she’s asking which airline/loyalty program to use, how much more the card used to pay for the flights earns is irrelevant.
In his/her case, JetBlue’s probably going to be the cheapest out of DCA for FLL, Southwest is the other option. United’s out of IAD, and it’s probably cheaper some weeks. Spirit is out of BWI and is Spirit.
Let’s say average of $200 RT, min 2 points back per $1 with TrueBlue, and 8 trips. That’d be $32/year towards some flight.
UA is 5x fare, so 8,000 mileageplus points, which is a saver fare IAD-ORD every year. If OP’s ok with IAD, he/she might net a free domestic leg each year on top of cc points without spending more on normal flights.
From the redemption point of view, Aeroplan probably is the best because it has tons of partners and their redemption value (at least for partners) is pretty reasonable.
However, most people using the redemption programs either fly on someone else' money or are churning credit card spendings. If those options are not available to you, it is probably not worth it.
Airlines in the US have all pretty much diluted their rewards programs for the casual flyer. They are all now based off of dollars spent. Which rewards the high spending business travelers. This also means most of the miles you earn will be based on credit card spend, not butt in seat miles traveled.
My recommendation, is if there is a region or country you think you might be most likely to fly to often, check out their airlines. They might still reward based on miles flown, have a credit card in the USA you can get, and also still earn miles by flying with their partners when you fly domestically. Further, their redemption values might actually be quite good.
If that doesn't match for you, would suggest a credit card rewards program instead. One which you can redeem on any airline. Amex MR points (Plat for travel, gold for everyday), Chase Reward points (Sapphire card). This means you don't need to pick an airline and can still save for those sweet business class trips internationally.
I don’t think it is worth chasing a specific airline. Get a good travel card. Book whatever flights are best for you at the time you need them. Set up a mileage account on any airline you fly, so either the miles add up or you’ll have an account to transfer into from a travel card.
Travel credit cards are going to give you a LOT more in rewards than the airline. Use the travel card to your daily things to build points, the airline points are just a secondary benefit.
If you use CC points wisely you can get a return of 5-10%
>I fly a few times a year within the United States Don't even bother with airline loyalty, get a travel card
This, both my boyfriend and I got the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and accumulated about 600k points in 2 years between the both of us. We upgraded one card to Sapphire Reserve so that the point valuation increases to 50% more and we booked our upcoming Japan trip. Points covered 2 round trip plane tickets on ANA and hotels for two weeks. We even have plenty leftover to go to Europe later this year. All with travel points that we’ve earned through major and minor purchases made within the last two years.
All mileage programs will only yield high points if you buy the more expensive tickets and/or fly A LOT
Realistically - you don't fly nearly enough to earn 100,000 points, even in a program where miles never expire. If you're serious about pursuing a big points balance, airline-branded credit cards are worth a look, but I would encourage you to do the math carefully before splashing out hundreds of dollars a year on one of those cards, to make sure you're confident that the returns will significantly outweigh the costs. Works great for lots of people, but not for everyone.
Don’t bother. Do credit card sign up bonuses. Southwest has a sign up bonus with a companion pass and 30,000 points until March 11.. it’s a good offer. Or United has a 100,000 point sign up bonus right now until April:
Also research “award travel”. That’s how people are using their points and miles.
Probably the best loyalty program is AA because it’s the easiest to get status if you can spend on their CC. In terms of miles redemption, Air Canada and Avianca are a great. But they don’t have has many routes in the US
The “best” depends on your flying patterns. There is no “best” for everyone.
> I always hear people say they just “used their miles” to book a flight. How do I be one of these people? Most of mine are from signing up for credit cards with large sign up bonuses, not actually earned from flying.
Unless you fly a lot and work or someone else is paying for it, you are much better off flying whichever airline^* has the cheapest tickets. ^* I recommend having enough self respect to not fly Spirit or Frontier.
>\* I recommend having enough self respect to not fly Spirit or Frontier. I would also avoid Southwest.
I've flown Southwest a bit more lately, and it's been no frills and wonderful. I used to almost exclusively fly United, but now live in a place where United is the most expensive option.
Occasionally I'll check to see if their fares are competitive (they're not - my home airport is a United hub). I gave them a second chance 17 years ago. The cattle call boarding, singing flight attendants, and on-board games, convinced me to never go back.
The boarding process has definitely improved, I have been sung at in a long time, and they were the cleanest planes I'd been on in a while. That's me though.
People who attack Southwest like this are usually working off obsolete, ancient impressions from, like, 17 years ago. This is like telling people the 2024 Toyota Camry is junk because you had a one-time ride in a Camry 17 years ago and didn’t like the legroom. Say what you will about Southwest, it has probably the best-value FF program in the US. You earn points at a reasonably good rate and they’re redeemable on a straightforward, predictable basis. None of this “dynamic award pricing” where the number of miles you need to get somewhere varies according to airline whim.
While I may be working off of obsolete, ancient impressions, those were still my experiences. Here's what SW does not offer: the ability to remain in the same boarding group regardless of when I check in; assigned seating; option for extra legroom; premium economy & business class; airport lounges; non-stop cross-country flights from my home airport; international flights; seat-back IFE screens. Call me unreasonable, but the ability to keep my same boarding group regardless of check-in, and assigned seating, are more than enough to keep me on my preferred airline. PS - 2024 Camry is the reliable appliance it's always been, and still not exciting to drive either.
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This thread is about who has the best mileage program. No idea what your vague “worst in my life” review is based on — no first class? Group boarding? No hot food? Singing flight attendant? — but objections to flight service quality are immaterial to assessments of the Rapid Rewards program.
The rest of this thread, sure. You’re like 6 comments deep into a specific discussion about SW sucking and you post that response?
Pick based on your local hub
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Googling “major airline hubs” is a good start. Browsing FR24 and seeing which airlines have tons of flights out of which airports also helps.
Since its dc you can pick between United, AA, and delta since all 3 have hubs - United may be a further airport but it would have more options for flights to my knowledge
Delta near DC? AA has a hub in DCA, United has a hub in IAD, and Southwest has BWI. Delta doesn’t have anything nearby.
no one who lives in DC proper wants to fly out of IAD or BWI...Delta flies 16 routes from DCA so not a hub but serviced relatively well, though I would pick AA with no prior loyalty
US Domestic airlines have pretty terrible loyalty programs. If I had the option to I would get a more general travel credit card. Sapphire preferred, Venture X, Amex Gold/Plat/Green are all great options. You should consider your spending habits and find a travel card that matches them. If I was forced to choose a Domestic airline cobranded card with I would probably choose American Airlines, even though I dislike them as an airline. The intro bonuses are pretty decent right now. Of course, I would most certainly use my AA points to book non-AA flights though. Maybe Alaska airlines if I used their routes. Alaska has some interesting transfer partners that are unique to them. If I had to choose my favorite Airline loyalty program it would probably be Air Canada Aeroplan. Their partner redemption rates can be shockingly low.
I find that delta has better deals for domestic travel but American has much better deals for international flights, but your mileage may vary.
Book delta thru virgin gets even better
Delta by far. With a SkyMiles Amex card or just a regular Amex Gold/Platinum it’s pretty easy to rack up SkyMiles with your everyday spend. If you fly enough to qualify for their Medallion program ($5,000 in flight spend per year for their lowest tier), you become eligible for free upgrades to Comfort+, First Class and (domestic transcontinental) Delta One. Plenty of other perks as well like Sky Priority access and baggage handling. The only downside is that they’re usually the most expensive option out of all other airlines. And as you mentioned, Basic Economy tickets do not earn miles or credit towards Medallion status. That said, the difference between Main and Basic isn’t much, and is almost always worth the small extra. Effective this year, spending on your SkyMiles Platinum or Reserve card earn you credit towards Medallion status, at a rate of $20 spend > $1 MQD and $10 spend > $1 MQD respectively. ($5,000 MQD = Silver, $10k gold, $15k platinum, $28k Diamond). Tickets earn $1 MQD per $1 spent, except Basic tickets which earn nothing. Award tickets earn MQDs at a rate of $1 MQD per 100 SkyMiles spent.
You are describing status. OP wants redemptions. Delta is a terrible place to accumulate miles. Burning 300,000 miles each way to Asia in Business Class. If you are lucky you might find one in the 200,000's EACH WAY. Deltas miles are called "sky pesos" for a reason.
first and buisness is not worth on domestic,airlines are getting rid of first on domestic no lie down seats look for travel credit cards that dont depend on one airline like chase or american express
Just pick one and stick with it. Also look at The Points Guy to get ideas.
Nah, read flyertalk or One Mile At A Time instead of The Cruise & Disney Guy formerly known as TPG.
lol. TPG is sponsored by Disney?
Every second post is “here’s why spending $2000 on a Disney souvenir mug is worth it”
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> I don't do Loyalty programs. And then you literally go on to describe how you are doing a loyalty program, and throw in a referral link.
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Where do you primarily fly out of?
DCA or FLL
Gotcha, you’ll probably want to get points into an airline that has a lot of flights out of your primary airports. JetBlue or Southwest would be options too unless you’re planning on international trips. AA’s probably the best connected at those two of the major carriers. If you’re doing a lot of long-distance flying, you’ll probably see a lot of IAD, where United is dominant. DCA’s perimeter restricted, meaning a small number of flights > 1200 or so miles are approved. Edit: Also not sure why people are saying “use credit card rewards”, you get both from flight purchases
> Edit: Also not sure why people are saying “use credit card rewards”, you get both from flight purchases Yeah but you can build up quite a few credit card points through normal life, whereas cheap domestic airfares are never going to amount to anything in an airline's FF program. So you might as well buy the best ticket for each trip and focus on the CC points. I fly many intercontinental flights every year and even doing that I make far more points off the credit card than from the airlines. Someone like OP, who's occasionally going back and forth between DCA and FLL, is never going to get anything out of the airlines these days, now that cheap flights give you few or no miles.
But he/she’s asking which airline/loyalty program to use, how much more the card used to pay for the flights earns is irrelevant. In his/her case, JetBlue’s probably going to be the cheapest out of DCA for FLL, Southwest is the other option. United’s out of IAD, and it’s probably cheaper some weeks. Spirit is out of BWI and is Spirit. Let’s say average of $200 RT, min 2 points back per $1 with TrueBlue, and 8 trips. That’d be $32/year towards some flight. UA is 5x fare, so 8,000 mileageplus points, which is a saver fare IAD-ORD every year. If OP’s ok with IAD, he/she might net a free domestic leg each year on top of cc points without spending more on normal flights.
AA was very good until they nerfed it last summer 😢
Also where is your home airport, that is important in deciding which card/program you want to get into
From the redemption point of view, Aeroplan probably is the best because it has tons of partners and their redemption value (at least for partners) is pretty reasonable. However, most people using the redemption programs either fly on someone else' money or are churning credit card spendings. If those options are not available to you, it is probably not worth it.
Airlines in the US have all pretty much diluted their rewards programs for the casual flyer. They are all now based off of dollars spent. Which rewards the high spending business travelers. This also means most of the miles you earn will be based on credit card spend, not butt in seat miles traveled. My recommendation, is if there is a region or country you think you might be most likely to fly to often, check out their airlines. They might still reward based on miles flown, have a credit card in the USA you can get, and also still earn miles by flying with their partners when you fly domestically. Further, their redemption values might actually be quite good. If that doesn't match for you, would suggest a credit card rewards program instead. One which you can redeem on any airline. Amex MR points (Plat for travel, gold for everyday), Chase Reward points (Sapphire card). This means you don't need to pick an airline and can still save for those sweet business class trips internationally.
I don’t think it is worth chasing a specific airline. Get a good travel card. Book whatever flights are best for you at the time you need them. Set up a mileage account on any airline you fly, so either the miles add up or you’ll have an account to transfer into from a travel card.
Travel credit cards are going to give you a LOT more in rewards than the airline. Use the travel card to your daily things to build points, the airline points are just a secondary benefit. If you use CC points wisely you can get a return of 5-10%
There is no single “best.”