Frequent flyer? Here's which European airline has the best rewards programme

22.09.2024 - 22:48 / euronews.com / Saskia ODonoghue

Airline loyalty programmes are famously big business - but how much do you actually understand about how they work? 

It should be a straightforward process - picking a credit card, spending at the right times and being rewarded with points to redeem for a dream trip - but it’s not always that simple. 

Point.me, an airline point concierge service which assists with reward bookings, has attempted to lay bare the world’s best airline rewards programmes. 

It’s released a report, ranking 62 of the world's airlines, drawing on information released by the companies, as well as years of its own data. 

The company considered a number of factors including redemption rates, ease of booking and customer service quality. 

It revealed that the world’s top-ranking rewards programme is Air France and KLM’s joint Flying Blue.

It came in first place thanks to its ease of booking and the relatively low cost of redemptions, as well as the ability to book on the companies’ partner airlines, within the SkyTeam alliance. 

Airline rewards or frequent flyer programmes allow passengers to collect points as they spend which can be redeemed as discounts on travel. 

You might think that the majority of the points travellers earn and spend on flights come from flying - but that’s actually not the case.

While you can collect points based on distance flown by signing up to a specific airline’s programme, many carriers partner with credit card issuers to offer points on a wide range of travel-related spends.

The majority of reward points are earned through such partnerships, meaning that some airlines earn significantly more through credit card deals than they actually do by operating flights. 

It isn’t just airlines who are the winners, though. 

The fact that most of those points are earned through credit card programmes means that  travellers don’t have to be frequent flyers to earn points they can leverage for travel. 

If you spend wisely - and make sure to pay your credit card off in time - the rewards can earn you serious discounts. 

As with everything, though, there are downsides and, for ordinary travellers without specific knowledge, it’s often near-impossible to decipher which programme is right for you. 

To make things a little simpler, Point.me looked at various criteria, including how easy it is to earn points from non-flying methods - think dining and shopping, package holidays, transfer partners and transfer bonuses. 

They also examined the value it’s possible to get for those points, how easy it is to book an award flight and the frequency of award availability.

On a more complex level, there’s flexibility in routing rules to consider - that is if you can book a stopover, for example, as well as change fees and policies - and customer