Which frequent-flyer program is best for you?
About 100 million consumers belong to one or more airline frequent-flyer programs. If you're one of them, you know how many hoops you need to jump through to get where you want to go.
Consumer Reports suggests you judge the various programs based on the following:
• How good is the airline? Don't let award-seat availability wag the dog. Look for an airline highly rated by Consumer Reports. Among the five biggest carriers, JetBlue and Southwest had the best overall score for such factors as cabin service, seating comfort and overall satisfaction. That's according to over 16,000 subscribers who assessed more than 31,732 domestic round-trip flights taken from 2012 to 2013.
• What's the value of your points? The miles or points you earn are a currency. But unlike euros or dollars, not all miles are created equal. Their value varies by airline and is usually based on the number of points charged for a particular flight, travel dates and advance purchase.
What you don't know about the value of points can hurt you. For example, in fiscal 2014, about 12,200 American AAdvantage members each redeemed 12,500 to 30,000 miles to fly each way between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the No. 3 award route. But because the cheapest average airfare for that short-hop route was $104 each way, they obtained a value of only 0.3 to 0.8 cent per redeemed mile. You should get more for your miles than that, but the frequent flier pay-with-miles pricing schemes can make it difficult to know whether you're getting a good deal.
Consumer Reports solved that problem for you by figuring out the dollar value of the points you pay for each trip. With mileage reward credit cards, the most common method by which infrequent fliers earn miles, you usually earn one mile or point for each dollar you spend. The value equals 1 cent per mile. Consumer Reports used the lowest average airfare of an airline serving each route — that was Southwest's or JetBlue's, usually — as the bottom-dollar benchmark of worth. It then divided the benchmark price for each route by the average number of miles needed for an award to get the cents per redeemed mile value. With 1 cent per mile the break-even point of value, it recommends that you try to come out ahead of that by using your miles on trips worth 1 cent per mile or greater. Of course, the fewer miles needed for a saver award, the greater the per-mile value. But airlines also tightly limit the number of saver awards, so that better value is actually more difficult to get.
There was good news and bad: JetBlue awards provided a good value on all of the routes it serves, but it operates only on 10 of the 25 top routes. Southwest gave customers a good deal on 88 percent of its routes; United did so on 60 percent. Delta and American, on the other hand, provided good award value on 38 and 36 percent of their routes.
• Breadth of service. The more destinations served by your airline, the more award options you have. American, Delta and United take the title here, with their huge networks of U.S. and international service traveling to 326-373 destinations worldwide, plus international partner airlines. JetBlue and Southwest are puny by comparison, with service to fewer than 100 mostly U.S. cities and some Caribbean and Mexican destinations; international award options are significantly limited.
• Extra fees. United ladled on the most, with charges for making reservations by phone, booking last-minute, changing plans, canceling a trip and redepositing points after you cancel — a whopping $475 if you had to pay for all of them. Southwest charged no fees, and the others racked up a couple of hundred dollars' worth.