The World’s Best Airline Rewards Programs—2025 Report

What’s the best way to make the most of your airline miles and points in 2025? Point.me—an award travel search platform—has the answers in its second annual rankings of the world’s best airline rewards programs.

The 2025 report evaluates 59 airline loyalty programs across eight categories, including redemption rates, award availability, customer service, cancellation policies and more. These results follow other major rankings shaping how travelers evaluate airlines, including my look at the best airlines in 2025 (based on a leading travel ratings report) and the safest airlines in the world in 2025.

In order to keep the emphasis on programs that are competing globally for market share, Point.me’s ranking only considers airline loyalty programs that are accessible to the U.S. consumer, no matter where they are in the world. Virgin Australia’s Velocity program, for example, doesn’t allow people outside its home market to join, so it wasn’t eligible.

Drawing on 22 million annual searches and more than half a billion results, the report offers a data-driven look at how airline rewards programs perform in practice and why some programs consistently come out ahead. “At the highest level, these rankings provide an overview of the global rewards landscape—showing which programs are offering robust rewards even to non-frequent flyers, and which ones are aggressively improving in an increasingly competitive market,” Tiffany Funk, cofounder and president of Point.me, told me in an interview.

With so many outlets producing loyalty rankings, how does Point.me’s stand out? “We are a true consumer product and tool that has deep, industry-leading access to traveler behavior data and insights, along with real-time access to award availability and pricing across 150+ airlines,” says Funk. “That data set allows for a level of unbiased, analytical rigor that no one else can match.”

Rather than looking at a handful of sample flights, Point.me can evaluate hundreds of millions of data points to calculate the true purchasing power of a mile. “That means travelers see how programs stack up not just in theory but in practice,” says Funk.

The World’s Best Airline Rewards Program

For the second year in a row, Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue takes the top global spot as the best airline rewards program in the world. Flying Blue’s strengths include a wide network of transfer partners, competitive redemption rates (particularly for transatlantic flights) and a growing U.S. presence.

Funk also credits the program’s leadership. “Flying Blue leadership has a deep understanding of consumer loyalty and has been unafraid to experiment,” says Funk. “They’ve unlocked a balance between incentivizing profitable customer behavior while simultaneously providing real, tangible value to those customers in a way that drives engagement and loyalty.”

As a result, Flying Blue has become a go-to program not just for European flyers but also for Americans looking for competitive redemptions across the Atlantic.

The American Airlines Surprise

The biggest shake-up: American Airlines AAdvantage, which jumps from sixth place in 2024 to second place. Funk credits the fact that American AAdvantage recently joined forces with Citi ThankYou Rewards, allowing consumers to transfer points from several of the most rewarding credit cards into the AAdvantage program.

As transferable points become more important, even celebrities are getting involved in this space. Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding, for instance, recently shared his favorite travel tips and his new role promoting a travel rewards credit card.

“This makes it easy for people to earn at least 2x points for every dollar they spend, meaning they can earn AAdvantage miles on everyday purchases more quickly than ever before,” says Funk. “Previously, AAdvantage was the only major program without a transferable points partner, so this is hugely impactful for the less-frequent traveler.”

For everyday consumers, this change dramatically expands the ways to earn and redeem AAdvantage miles—not just by flying, but by tapping into credit card spending.

Other Top-Ranking Loyalty Programs

Coming in third on the list is Alaska Airlines, which has exceptional redemption value in award availability, according to Funk. “Their international award crisis is especially strong and they have done a great job of leveraging their partnerships to have an impact on their wrap network,” says Funk. “Alaska is a partner program of OneWorld, but they also have lots of extra partners that has really insulated them from some of the availability challenges that OneWorld has had in that region, which is really great.”

Fourth on the list is Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. “I know they received some negative attention earlier in the year because of changes in their move to dynamic pricing,” says Funk. But she says they are still “hands down the least expensive program for transatlantic economy awards.”

The Best Airline Miles Programs, Regionally

To help travelers navigate based on their personal location, Point.me also breaks out the best reward programs by region.

In North America, American AAdvantage comes out on top, thanks to its new transfer partnerships and ease of earning. Alaska Airlines takes second place, cementing its reputation as a program with valuable partner awards and strong availability. United MileagePlus and Air Canada Aeroplan follow closely, while JetBlue TrueBlue landed in fifth place.

Funk says that JetBlue is especially worth watching. “I will note that JetBlue TrueBlue is doing very interesting things with their partners and also with points pooling and allowing people to combine points with their friends and family and making it much easier to achieve that first redemption and engage with the program,” she says.

Elsewhere, Flying Blue leads in Europe. Avianca LifeMiles is still the strongest option in Latin America despite slipping slightly due to pricing changes. Emirates—which has steadily expanded its partner network and availability—wins in the Middle East and Africa. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer tie for number one in Asia/Oceania.

Key Takeaways

Taken together, the rankings reveal some important lessons about how airline loyalty is evolving in 2025. The biggest shift is in earning. Most miles no longer come from flying but from credit card spending and partnerships, which means accessibility is key.

“Ease of earning is paramount,” says Funk. “This is really the anchor for a program. Given the way people are in points right now, being a road warrior, being a super frequent flyer, you still earn points that way, but every consumer every day is engaging with loyalty programs in every transaction they make.”

She points to American’s new partnership with Citi ThankYou Rewards as an example of how a single change can transform a program’s relevance for everyday travelers.

Flexibility has also become a defining factor. Programs that allow no-penalty cancellations, simple changes and the option to hold awards are increasingly separating themselves from the competition.

Flexibility has also become a defining factor. “Most of the U.S. carriers have moved to a no fault situation where you can cancel and redeem your award flights really up until departure for no penalty,” says Funk, who points out that change fees can get really expensive.

“If you’re a family of four and you get in a car accident on the way to the airport or something comes up and it costs you $500 to change, cancel your tickets or you can’t get the miles back, now you’re out a hundred thousand miles,” says Funk. “That’s really high impact.”

Fees are another critical factor that can make or break the value of miles. As Funk explains, “When you go to redeem your miles and points, there are fees associated with it. There’s always a cash component—and some of the programs have very high costs. They used to call them fuel surcharges and then consumers got wise to the fact that planes need fuel regardless, but that’s sort of the origination of them.”

She notes that Virgin Atlantic’s program illustrates the trade-off: economy redemptions can be excellent, but premium cabin awards often come with “very hefty” surcharges that can add $900 or more to a one-way ticket.

Finally, partnerships are proving to be the winning component. Airlines that expand their networks—whether through alliances, independent carriers or credit card issuers—give members more reasons to stay loyal.

“The best programs on our list are the ones that are consistently leveraging their partner networks to provide global redemption opportunities in the markets where their customers want to travel,” says Funk.

Read on for the lists of the best airline miles programs, globally, and the best airline rewards programs in North America.