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U.S. News & World Report recently announced the winners of the 2024-2025 Best Travel Rewards Programs. Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan became the top airline rewards program, while Wyndham Rewards was named the best hotel travel rewards program. These rankings are a bit surprising.

Here are the winners and the selection process used by U.S. News & World Report.

Airline Rewards Program Awards

U.S. News ranked and evaluated 10 U.S. airline travel rewards programs. Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan came in first, followed by American Airlines AAdvantage and Southwest Rapid Rewards. The full rankings are as follows:

  1. AS Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
  2. AA American Airlines AAdvantage
  3. Southwest Southwest Rapid Rewards
  4. UA United MileagePlus
  5. Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles
  6. Delta Air Lines SkyMiles
  7. Frontier FrontierMiles
  8. Spirit Free Spirit
  9. JetBlue TrueBlue
  10. Allegiant Allways Rewards

For rankings like this, transparent methodology is essential for credibility. So U.S. News has published how these programs were evaluated. Airline program evaluation is as follows:

  1. Ease of earning and redeeming free round-trip tickets (40%) . U.S. News considered both earning and redemption convenience, assigning 50% weight to each. In addition, U.S. News evaluated 20 high-traffic routes across four distance buckets: short-haul, short to medium, medium to long, and long-haul.
  2. Other extra benefits (25%) . Programs were scored from 1 to 5 based on the range and availability of perks. These perks include free checked bags, mileage expiration policies, maximizing value with a co-branded card, and more.
  3. Route coverage (10%) . Scored based on airline coverage in key regions and a passenger-weighted average.
  4. Number of daily flights (10%) . Scored based on the number of domestic flights operated per day. Airlines flying more than 2,000 flights per day scored 5, while those flying 1–499 scored 1.
  5. Airline performance rating (5%) . Punctuality scores from 2023 were used to rate airlines from 1 to 5.

I think this evaluation framework is pretty solid. For most people, the most important thing is being able to redeem earned miles for free tickets. Advanced elite-tier benefits, on the other hand, are harder to attain if you don't fly often.

Hotel Rewards Programs

U.S. News ranked and evaluated 14 hotel rewards programs. Wyndham Rewards came in first, followed by Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt. Here is the full hotel program ranking:

  1. Wyndham Rewards
  2. Marriott Bonvoy
  3. World of Hyatt
  4. Choice Hotels
  5. IHG One Rewards
  6. Sonesta Travel Pass
  7. Best Western Rewards
  8. Leaders Club
  9. INVITED
  10. I Prefer Hotel Rewards
  11. Hilton Honors
  12. Accor Live Limitless
  13. Omni Select Guest
  14. Stash Hotel Rewards

U.S. News ranked hotel programs using the following criteria:

  1. Ease of earning free stays (45%) . Scores were based on how easy it is to earn free nights at 20 destinations selected under the geographic coverage scoring criteria.
  2. Other extra benefits (25%) . Programs were scored from 1 to 5 based on the scope of benefits offered, including point expiration, additional redemption options, room upgrades, late checkout, free breakfast, and more.
  3. Geographic coverage (15%) . Scores were based on the number of hotels within 15 miles of 20 major leisure and business destinations in the U.S. and abroad.
  4. Hotel network size (10%) . Programs with over 8,000 hotels scored 5, while those with fewer than 100 scored 1.
  5. Hotel type diversity (5%) . Scored based on the mix of hotel types in the program, including location (beach, city, mountain) and price range.

Conclusion

It is not surprising that Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan was selected as the top airline program. Alaska has high-mile value, a relatively generous stopover policy, and redemption became easier after it joined Oneworld. That said, the Alaska Mileage Plan has undergone several negative changes and devaluations in recent years. I’m not sure how it will perform in next year’s rankings, but compared with other U.S. programs from UA, Delta, and AA, it still appears to be far better.

As for Delta’s drop, that is not surprising either, since Delta significantly devalued its SkyMiles program at the end of 2023.

As for Wyndham Rewards, it may be more popular with everyday Americans, since budget hotels can offer very good value. But competition among hotel programs is intense. We’ll be watching to see whether it can keep the top spot for three years in a row.