The content in this article is no longer updated. See the updated page on frequent flyer programs here.
If you book your vacations through a travel engine(I prefer Priceline), you may be in the situation where you don’t always fly with one airline. This is simply one of the consequences of always choosing the lowest fare through a travel engine.
By doing so, it may be difficult to rack up enough frequent flyer miles towards the end goal of free travel. In the beginning, I used to not bother signing up with every single airline mileage program.
I’ve definitely changed my ways, and so should you. Because, really, why not? All of the airline loyalty programs are free to join anyway. So, you may as well start that google/excel spreadsheet and organize all your usernames and passwords after signing up with all the free programs below. 🙂
And if you don’t think you’ll ever accrue enough miles to be worth anything, don’t forget about how Points.com can help you out. It’s free to join Points.com, and the site is basically the middle man that allows you to buy, sell, and exchange your loyalty program points/miles. Check out Points.com here (my article on Points.com).
*See hotel promotions from Priceline
The Best Airline Loyalty Programs You Must Sign Up For
Here are the major airlines with great frequent flyer programs you should start with:
- American Airlines
- Delta Airlines
- United
- British Airways
- Southwest
Other Top Frequent Flyer Programs To Sign Up For
Once you muster up more energy in your fingers, open up these free loyalty accounts:
- Aeroplan / Air Canada
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue
- Airtran (transferred over to Southwest Airlines 11/2014)
- Alaska
- Alitalia
- All Nippon Airways
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Emirates
- Frontier
- Iberia
- JetBlue
- Korean
- Lan
- Qantas
- Qatar
- Singapore
- Virgin America
- Virgin Atlantic
Transfers Between Loyalty Programs
Also, you may want to keep in mind which airline loyalty programs can transfer miles over to the following popular partners: American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest. Knowing this will give you more options with your accrued miles.
Airlines that can transfer miles between these programs:
- American Express Membership Rewards
- Chase Ultimate Rewards
- Starwood Preferred Guest
- Aeromexico
- Aeroplan / Air Canada
- Air Berlin
- Air China Companion
- Air New Zealand
- Alaska
- Alitalia
- All Nippon Airways
- American
- Asia Miles
- Asiana
- British Airways
- China Eastern
- China Southern
- Delta
- Emirates
- Etihad
- Air France / KLM Flying Blue
- Gol Smiles
- Hainan
- Hawaiian
- Japan Airlines
- LAN
- Miles and More Lufthansa
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabian
- Singapore
- Thai Airways
- US Airways
- United Mileage Plus
- Virgin Atlantic
- Virgin Australia
