Top Airline Reward Programs – 2022 Update

The much awaited annual survey by IdeaWorks has been released, which ranks reward programs of various airlines based on how easy it is to redeem airline miles for reward travel. Previously it was really difficult for frequent flyers to book reward seats by using airline miles. Since then airlines have upgraded their reward programs, and IdeaWorks has taken upon itself to determine the value of an airline reward program. Want to know which airline made the cut this year? Well, keep on reading because you might stumble upon a piece of information that will help you in booking you your first reward seat.

In order to conduct a well-rounded, comprehensive survey over 7,000 fare queries and bookings of twenty-five airlines were tested to see how often a minimum of two reward seats was available for a return trip itinerary.

1. The Airlines That Have The Best Reward Program For Frequent Flyers

This may be surprising to some because a big carrier wasn’t hailed as the winner in this category. The winner of the best reward program for 2018 is Southwest Airlines because it is the one airline that returned 100 percent availability of reward seats. According to IdeaWorks, every time they tried to book or search for a reward seat, the search resulted in reward seats below the one-way domestic reward travel which requires only 12,500 airline miles. Southwest flew into the top spot last year as well.

The airlines that are cruising closely near Southwest are Air Canada, JetBlue, Lufthansa, and Turkish Airways. Sell My Miles caters to miles from all these top contenders, making it easy for frequent flyers to sell or buy their airline miles from their reward programs.

Read: How To Get The Most Out Of Your Travel Reward Credit Card Points

Important Tools For Managing Your Points & Reward Miles

2. High-Value Reward Programs Which Have Low Costs

Usually, budget airlines have an edge over their more expensive counterparts because they tend to have a better return result. In the last few years, the survey highlighted evidence that frequent flyers were served better by the reward programs at low budget carriers. The low cost, budget carriers such as AirAsia, GOL, JetBlue, Southwest, Norwegian and WestJet all had a return of up to 78%, while on the other hand, the more traditional airlines in the survey registered at a measly 72%.

On a more positive note for the big carriers, American Airlines and Turkish Airways showed massive improvement with a 27% increase over last year’s ratings.

Read: Everything You Need To Know About Paying Taxes For Credit Card Reward Points

3. What About Long Haul Flights?

IdeaWorks focuses on long haul, international flights in a separate survey. Frequent flyers have had a love-hate relationship with long-haul reward program travel. This is because travelers have had to go above and beyond to find available reward seats on flights to Hawaii, Europe, and other international, high fare destinations.

Turkish Airways took the crown for this category with an impressive 99% availability from last year. The airline actually took an impressive 31% jump from last year. Other great airlines with impressive percentages include Canada and Norwegian. If you’re a member of any of these reward programs and are not really into traveling you can easily sell miles on Sell My Miles and make some extra cash instead.