For the last 30 years, I have traveled more than 300 days a year and am often asked, ‘what is the best Air Line Loyalty Program.’
Though it is not an easy question, I do have some ideas.
For full disclosure I am an active member with several airlines including Cathay Pacific (One World), SAS (Star Alliance), KLM (Sky Team) and Emirates (Skywards).
First off, loyalty programs have been around for hundreds of years as a way of rewarding loyal customers and creating a currency for repeat purchases.
In ancient Egypt, bread and beer tokens were given as a way to reward repeat customers. In 1921, Betty Crocker created coupons for those that bought products, and in the 1970s and 80’s airlines created miles to purchase free tickets for loyal travelers.
Houston-based Texas International Airlines is widely known to have the first official and formal frequent flyer program, established in 1979. TIA was absorbed into other airlines and no longer has the mileage program they invented, so the questions is, “which airline has the best loyalty program today?”
The answer depends on what you are looking for.
First thing to know, is one of the best ways to earn miles is through partnering credit cards. Currently, I have a credit card that I use to pay bills, buy groceries, charge travel expenses, etc. Every dollar I spend is translated into airline miles and in my opinion, there is no better program than with Emirates.
The number one reason why Emirates is better than any other airline is ease of use. Booking tickets online with Emirates using miles is easy.
For this reason, I would not recommend Cathay Pacific. Though Cathay is a great airline, using their mileage program to book tickets is highly problematic.
However, Emirates is not my recommended mileage program.
Though Emirates is amazing, there is one airline that I think beats all others because they are with the best alliance (Star Alliance), they have great service, link to many credit card companies, and most of all – have the most destinations of any airline in areas where most missionaries want to be – Turkish Airlines.
In addition, the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Program is relatively easy to earn status. It takes just 25,000 miles to earn Classic Plus status, equivalent to Star Alliance Silver. There’s no revenue requirement, making earning status from cheaper flights possible.
Best of all, Turkish often runs status match promotions, so elite members from other programs can leverage existing status for a leg up.
So if you are a missionary, looking to squeeze out the last ounce of value from your support, Turkish Airlines is hard to beat.
