USA Today polled its readers for their choice of the best frequent flyer program, Avianca LifeMiles came out on top among other surprises on the list.
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The USA Today Reader’s Poll
The national newspaper, USA Today, runs a reader’s poll for the ten best frequent flyer programs.
“So, we asked miles-and-points experts to nominate the nation’s most worthwhile programs — those with plenty of ways to earn and redeem miles, great coverage, and an abundance of flight options when it comes time to book that free trip. Then, readers voted for their favorites to help crown the winners.” – USA Today
While the criteria do not implore readers to explain their choices, there was a sprawling list with plenty of surprises. USA Today listed from 10 to 1, but I will go through the list in the opposite fashion.
- Avianca Lifemiles
- Allegiant All Ways Rewards
- Delta SkyMiles
- Southwest Rapid Rewards
- American Advantage
- United Mileage Plus
- Cathay Pacific Marco Polo Club
- Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue
Why Was LifeMiles Chosen?
While it doesn’t state reasoning as to why certain programs were chosen there are a few reasons why I used LifeMiles for my own trip home from Paris last December.
Bank Transfers + Bonuses
LifeMiles partners with American Express Membership Rewards, Citi Thank You Points, and Capital One Venture Rewards. This is particularly helpful if you have points in multiple programs. For example, I have a very small balance of Capital One Venture Rewards but I can combine that with points I have in other programs to create an award while still getting the remaining value from that otherwise small and insignificant balance.
LifeMiles frequently runs transfer bonus promotions from these bank programs to move them into LifeMiles. That helps to maximize the value of those points especially with good redemption rates.
Buy And Transfer Miles Promotions
LifeMiles is famous for its Buy Miles promotions which typically awards a bonus of 140-160% of miles purchased. For example, an award that costs 55,000 points could be purchased outright for about $726 (22,000 miles purchased during a 160% bonus offer at $33/1,000 LifeMiles.)
Transfer bonuses are my favorite. The last such transfer bonus gave the person you were transferring your LifeMiles to a 115% bonus. For example, transfer 20,000 LifeMiles to your spouse, they would receive 43,000 LifeMiles at a cost of $15/1,000 LifeMiles ($300 in this example.) And if your spouse then transferred them back to you, you’d have 92,450 in your account for a cost of $645. For a total of $945 you’d have nearly enough LifeMiles for a roundtrip business class trip from North American to Europe.
Good Award Pricing For Star Alliance Flights
I have mentioned the trans-Atlantic market a few times because when compared to United Mileage Plus, for example, LifeMiles awards are 25% cheaper in business class. The program charges just 78,000 LifeMiles from any North American region (including the west coast) to the Middle East in business class, cheaper than United charges for Newark to London.
LifeMiles does not impose fuel surcharges either which can save travelers a lot especially over other programs on this list.
Surprises On The List
I was surprised to see Allegiant ranked so highly. For one, the program is only two years old (last week, in fact.) I also don’t find that program nearly as rewarding as Spirit in the same ULCC category.
Southwest has great affinity from its members, finding them behind Delta was a shock. American, United, and Delta are also much larger than the rest of the airlines on the list so it would make sense if they were ranked higher purely from the size and breadth of their programs.
Cathay Pacific has been a good value for some of our clients, but with great exposure from Alaska – especially in the Pacific Northwest and throughout Hawaii, Cathay was a shocker at 7th place.
Conclusion
LifeMiles won the top spot on a surprising list of reader’s choice awards for frequent flyer programs. While we don’t know their precise reasoning for voting LifeMiles the top spot, lower prices and great bonuses are probably part of the reason.
What do you think?
I don’t know who USA Today’s “readers” are in 2023, but if they still exist I don’t think they’ve thought this through too well. Avianca isn’t awful, except that when its website inexplicably goes down for two weeks at a time – as it did earlier this month – leaving your miles stranded, while Aeroplan has better access to basically the same inventory – plus access to inventory totally unavailable to Lifemiles – for basically the same redemption rates and fees but with a much better interface and better ways to earn miles without flying.
Additionally the idea that CX’s program is good has to be based upon pre-Covid notions of a time when you could actually redeem a seat on Cathay flights – but those times have passed making their program one of the best for stranding miles that will expire.
Lastly, the idea that DL which commonly charges quadruple the miles for the same routes than say, AAdvantage, belongs only on the list of most shameful ripoffs (see also UA which is trending quickly in that direction).
Avianca is great except when the website doesn’t work and you can cannot use miles.
/s POS program
I’m actually most surprised to see Delta ranked above AA and UA, given how high the redemption rates typically are.
I’ve gotten some good value out of LifeMiles by using a combination of 1) purchase bonuses, 2) transfer bonuses, and 3) the “LifeMiles + Money” option, which often lets you buy the extra miles you need at between 1.3 and 1.5 cents/mile. That makes it a useful program in my book, but the cost is the p*ss poor service if you have to call in for something, and the technical glitches that randomly plague the website. So personally I wouldn’t rank it number 1.
As for those wondering why SkyPesos ranks so high, you have to remember most people who use these programs aren’t trying to redeem for TPAC or TATL awards in J. They’re using their miles for domestic seats, largely in coach, and DL does offer some consistently reasonable rates for these trips. Add in all the people out there minting MR points on their Amex cards can easily be transferred to SkyPesos, and I can understand why the average user likes the program. They simply don’t care that about the absurd 450k you need to fly to Europe in J, because they’re not using the program that way.
Confused – yes LifeMiles have good pricing and the miles are cheap to buy.
BUT they are very hard to use.
Listing Allegiant at #2 indicates this list has no credibility.
Funny to see SkyPesos so high on that list. Maybe they rate it high only because it’s tied to DL, which is perceived to be the best of the big 3
Or… as already mentioned above, there are other things aside TATL D1 redemptions… imagine that.
Funny to see SkyPesos so high on that list. Maybe they rate it high only because it’s tied to DL, which is perceived to be the best of the big 3
Or… as already mentioned above, there are other things aside TATL D1 redemptions… imagine that.
Same credibility as the Skytrax awards. Garbage. But the funniest thing is that your readers still think these were the selections of genuine USA Today readers when AI is flooding the internet with bogus votes, fake reviews and earnest but fabricated blog posts.