Frontier Miles found to be most valuable airline reward program

Airline reward applications supply a easy proposition: If you fly with our airline a bunch, you’ll receives a commission again within the type of miles or factors that can be utilized for future journey. Yet understanding what number of miles you’ll earn, and the way a lot these miles are price, might be something however easy.

These reward applications drive an enormous a part of airways’ enterprise. For instance, American Airlines AAdvantage members spent $1,220 on flights on common in 2019 in comparison with $408 for non-members, in keeping with a Securities and Exchange Commission submitting. So airways have a powerful incentive to earn frequent flyers’ loyalty with high-value rewards.

Yet for patrons, parsing the numerous variables that go into this worth proposition isn’t simple. For many it may be downright daunting.

A survey in December 2021 and January 2022 of two,150 U.S. shoppers by Arrivia, a journey expertise firm, discovered that 45% of Americans say they don’t know in the event that they’re getting the perfect worth from their journey rewards.

Thankfully, you don’t need to determine it out for your self. NerdWallet collected tons of of information factors of airline rewards applications to find out which one affords the very best total worth. And in 2023, that loyalty program is: Frontier Miles by Frontier Airlines.

Yes, an airline higher recognized for its low fares and excessive charges beat out a lot larger rivals like American and Delta Air Lines.

So, how did Frontier come to be essentially the most precious airline rewards program this 12 months?

Miles flown, not {dollars} spent

To decide essentially the most precious airline reward program, NerdWallet carried out a deep-dive evaluation of the 2 most necessary variables:

• How many miles you earn with a program.
• How a lot these miles are price.

With these, we decided a “rewards rate” for every airline program, which is roughly much like a cash-back charge.

Basically, for each $100 you spend on airfare, you possibly can anticipate to get about $10.10 again in worth from the highest airline rewards program, Frontier Airlines, and $3.40 again from the underside performer, Spirit Airlines. Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines additionally do properly, whereas the “big three” of American, Delta and United are clustered close to the underside.

You is perhaps questioning, “What’s going on here?” Frontier and Spirit Airlines are each price range carriers that supply no-frills fares and a great deal of add-on charges. Why does one supply greater than double the return on spending as the opposite?

In our evaluation, it didn’t come all the way down to how a lot the miles are price for these applications. We worth Frontier miles at 0.8 cent every. What mattered was how these miles had been earned: both by the gap flown or the price of the fare.

Airlines that award miles primarily based on the gap flown, equivalent to Alaska and Frontier, carried out a lot better than those who award them primarily based on cash spent. Distance-based applications merely dole out extra miles per greenback spent on the airfare.

Is Frontier actually the perfect? Well …

Frontier’s ultra-low fares are a part of its success on this evaluation as a result of it means flyers earn much more miles per greenback spent. If a traveler spends $200 on a 2,000-mile flight with Frontier, they’ll earn 10 miles per greenback. The similar traveler spending $300 on an Alaska flight would earn 6.7 miles per greenback.

And that’s the place issues get a bit of difficult. Frontier costs much more charges than Alaska, on every thing from baggage to seat choice, and these charges don’t earn miles on both of these airways.

So a Frontier flyer is just getting the higher deal in the event that they’re prepared to forgo some fundamental facilities, like a carry-on bag and assigned seat. Any cash spent on charges with these distance-based carriers is actually wasted, by way of incomes miles, reducing the variety of miles earned per greenback spent.

Frontier additionally has a a lot worse elite standing program total than Alaska and most different airways, and different huge drawbacks, equivalent to miles that expire after solely six months of inactivity (yikes — as many don’t expire in any respect).

So sure, on paper, Frontier affords the perfect uncooked return worth in miles on {dollars} spent. But in observe, full-service airways equivalent to Alaska, Hawaiian and JetBlue — positions 2, 3 and 4 in our evaluation — are nonetheless most likely higher bets. This is particularly true for frequent vacationers seeking to profit from elite standing and bank card advantages, or for individuals who will spend cash on ancillary prices when flying Frontier.

What else to think about

It’s clear that distance-based applications beat airfare-based applications by way of the worth of miles earned per greenback spent. But American, Delta and United, which make up an enormous slice of the air journey pie, all have spending-based applications.

What’s a frequent traveler attempting to determine between these airline rewards applications to do?

Just as Costco most likely affords the perfect worth per greenback spent on many gadgets, however isn’t sensible or possible for a lot of meals customers (who wants that a lot cinnamon?), there’s extra to think about than pure worth. Ask your self:

• Which airline affords the perfect routes from my house airport?
• What about operational reliability (ahem, Southwest, ahem)?
• Which has the perfect companion airways for worldwide locations?

The checklist goes on, however the level is that no single variable determines the “best” airline for you. But if all these different components are a toss-up, go together with the one that gives a greater rewards charge primarily based on NerdWallet evaluation.

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