Our pick for largest airline network: United℠ Explorer Card

40,000-mile
Signup bonus after spending $2,000 in first 3 months
- Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit
- Get 2x miles at restaurants, hotels and on United Airlines
- $0 intro annual fee, then $95
When picking our choices for best airlines rewards program, we focused purely on program features independent of airline coverage or accessibility. The programs that stood above the others in rewards, perks, flexibility or other similar factors earned a spot on our list.
Serving more than 300 cities across five continents, this expansive carrier is your best bet if you want as many travel options available as possible. With the United Airlines MileagePlus program, you’ll earn miles on nearly every trip you make since there are so many partners available through the Star Alliance.
Here are the ways you can earn these miles. For more, check out our full guide to earning United Airlines MileagePlus miles.
Here are your redemption options when it comes to spending your MileagePlus miles. For more information on the best options for spending your miles, check out our full redemption guide.
United’s Premier status offers a solid selection of travel benefits, with accelerated mile earnings standing out as one of the top reasons to gain this status. Other benefits depending on your status level include:
You can currently earn a 50,000 bonus mile welcome offer when you sign up for this card and spend $3,000 within the first 3 months of account opening. This card also provides a host of travel perks, including United Club membership, waived fees for your first and second checked bags, alongside an increased mile bonus when you purchase tickets from United.
The Alaska Mileage Plan rewards program is one of the simplest to understand. One mile flown equals one mile earned to your account, so it’s easy to determine when you have enough miles for award redemption.
Considering some airlines base your earnings on type of fare, destination, availability and peak season, it’s easy to see why Alaska earned our recognition. Alaska also has a fairly small pool of redemption options, with just about all options being worth at least one cent per mile.
There are a variety of ways to earn Mileage Plan miles. Check out our full guide to earning Mileage Plan miles to learn the best ways to earn.
You can redeem your Mileage Plan miles on a number of rewards. Check out our full guide to redeeming Mileage Plan miles to make the most of your miles.
You must have elite status — which is easy to attain — to take advantage of many of Alaska’s travel perks. These perks include:
The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Card offers a signup bonus of 40,000 miles when you make $2,000 in purchases within your first 90 days of account opening. You’ll also gain access to Alaska’s Famous Companion Fare every year on your account anniversary — a perk worth hundreds of dollars in savings.
While other airlines can offer redemption values that outpace Southwest Rapid Rewards in edge cases, few can compare to Southwest’s average overall value. That’s because you can redeem award flights by using points on practically any ticket, on practically any day.
You’ll get great value regardless of your flight since each point is valued above average. You’ll get even greater value if you qualify for elite status or the fabled Rapid Rewards Companion Pass.
Here are all of the ways you can earn Rapid Rewards points. For more in depth information on earning points, check out our full guide to earning Rapid Rewards points.
Here are a few of the rewards you can earn with points. Check out our full Southwest redemption guide for more information.
Earn 2 bonus points for every dollar spent on Southwest and Rapid Rewards and 1 bonus point on other eligible purchases. Also, earn a 50,000-point signup bonus when you spend $2,000 on purchases within your first 3 months of account opening. And an additional 30,000 points after spending $10,000 in the first 9 months.
Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card also features other perks, such as 7,500 points each year on your cardmember anniversary, travel credits, upgraded boarding and points toward qualifying for A-list status.
If you’re looking to take advantage of raw point value, check out the Avianca LifeMiles program. According to our recent guide, the airline offers points valued around 1.7 cents each. It also recently added Amex and Capital One to its credit card transfer partners, offering plentiful ways to earn.
The Delta SkyMiles program is known for its numerous complimentary benefits for Medallion status members. Many of these benefits apply to even the first level of Medallion status and are unlimited, restricted only by availability or priority.
While earning this status can appear confusing at first, the perks are worth it. Few airlines can match the sheer number and generosity of these travel benefits.
Here are the ways you can earn Delta SkyMiles. For a more in depth look, check out our guide to earning Delta SkyMiles.
Here are a few of the redemption options you can earn using your SkyMiles. To find out which are most worth your points, check out our full redemption guide for SkyMiles.
Delta has many travel perks, though they depend on your Medallion status. Here are just a few types of benefits you can expect:
Many airlines offer “traps” in their reward selections. For example, the value you get per point spent on new things like a speaker or coffee pot is typically abysmal.
JetBlue TrueBlue sidesteps this issue by limiting your redemption options but ensuring they all give a solid or even great value for each point spent. That means there are no wrong choices in how you choose to spend these points and no matter where you fly.
Here’s a quick rundown of the ways you can earn TrueBlue points. To learn about your best earning options, check out our full JetBlue points earning guide.
Here are your options for redeeming TrueBlue points. If you want to know which is the best use of your points, check out our full JetBlue points redemption guide.
Earning Mosaic status with TrueBlue will earn you a few travel perks, including:
You’ll earn an impressive 6x additional points on JetBlue Plus Card purchases when you use this card, 2x points at restaurants and grocery stores and 1x points on all other purchases. This alone is a solid earnings bonus, but you can also earn a 50,000 bonus point welcome offer when you sign up and spend $1,000 on purchases within the first 90 days of opening your account and paying your annual fee.
While you can join a frequent-flyer program for free and earn miles to redeem for award flights, this type of rewards program isn’t right for everyone. Joining might not be the best choice if:
Here are some considerations when choosing an airline rewards program for your travel needs.
Cobranded cards aren’t your only option for earning reward points. Several general travel reward cards allow you to earn and transfer points to different airlines. The Chase Ultimate Rewards points are transferable to several airlines at a 1:1 ratio, including JetBlue, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines.
Here are just a few of the cards that can help you earn airline points and miles.
It’s hard to go wrong when selecting an airline rewards program as there are so many great options. Pick from any of the ones we highlighted above for good results or review your own travel and spending preferences to determine which will create the most value for you during your travels. Read on to learn more about how credit card miles work.
Pictures: GettyImages
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