The World’s Best Airline Points and Miles Programs

Navigating the world of airline loyalty programs is extremely challenging. Understanding mileage programs involves confusing tables and complex mathematics about how flights, status, and other perks are accessed. It becomes even more complicated if your career suddenly changes the way you earn points and redeems or devalues them. As a result, many travelers wonder whether the airline’s loyalty is worth it anymore.

To help businesses speculate on how to provide the best value for travelers, Point.me, Point and Travel Reward Search Platform have released their second annual ranking.

This list is based on eight quantitative and qualitative factors determined by search and data from site airline experts, with the heaviest areas being miles (20%), redemption rates (20%), partner opportunities (20%), redemption experience (10%), and ease of award availability (10%). The company explicitly did not consider the benefits of status. I wanted the ranking to reflect the best programme for casual flyers.

In a press release of the original rankings in 2024, Point.me CEO Adam Morvitz said, “Getting real value from an airline’s loyalty point is often much more difficult for passengers than they need to do.

The 2025 rankings aim to provide “a roadmap for loyalty programs to promote authentic value to current and prospects,” as point.me co-founder and president Tiffany Funk said in a press release announcing the new global list.

The world’s best airline loyalty program

Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’ Flying Blue Program is the second-year top-ranked program. The program is based in Europe, but Flying Blue is on the path to becoming a well-known name among American travelers. “Its extensive partnership allows consumers to transfer points from all major credit card point currencies to Flying Blue, and has their own co-branded cards available to US consumers, making it almost easier to earn miles without having to board an Air France or KLM flight.

We also noted that Points can be easily moved with Flying Blue. “The redemption experience is fantastic, with a well-trained agent and excellent customer service from easy-to-use websites and apps.”

On the 100-point scale on Point.me, Air France – KLM scored 92.38, nearly perfect scores in each category.

American Airlines AADVantage is the highest-ranked US airline loyalty program, starting from 6th in 2024, and was praised for its “Global Reach, its powerful One World Alliance, easy booking experience, reliable award availability and an industry-leading cancellation policy.” American Airlines’ loyalty program scored 87.63 points, with experts highlighting AADVantage’s fair and consistent pricing, but docking the program because it offers few credit card transfer partners.

The top 10 other US airlines were Alaska Airlines mileage plans (now merged with Hawaiian Airlines, called ATMOS Rewards, and was too late to become part of the investigation) and 82.38 points. United’s Mileage Plus, 79.88 points. JetBlue’s TrueBlue program, 69.88 points.

Point.me also shared a ranking of the best points programs by region. See the complete list below.