About.com readers have voted AAdvantage from American Airlines the best frequent-flier program. American established one of the first frequent-flier programs in 1981. AAdvantage requires a minimum of 25,000 miles for a free round trip, and provides free booking when completed at least 21 days prior to travel.
One of American's competitors, Delta, announced during the voting period for the 2011 Readers' Choice Awards that it would do away with expiration policies. This is one major feature the AAdvantage program does not offer, and based on some of the comments left on the voting blog, even its most loyal members would appreciate abolition of expiration policies.
But AAdvantage offers many other advantages one would expect from one of the world's largest airlines: 20 airline partnerships through the Oneworld Alliance; opportunities to earn mileage through credit card programs and several subsidiary carriers; and multi-tier programming that rewards loyal customers with priority check-ins, upgrades and other perks.
AAdvantage posted word of its finalist status in emails and social media, and attracted more votes than any of the 15 budget travel finalists in three categories. The lopsided totals prompted lots of comments -- both positive and negative -- about the program.
One reader wrote that "one thing I do not like about the FF program is one cannot fly on the flight of his or her choice. I am flying to Scotland later this year and because I cannot fly on my choice of flight I have to endure a minimum of five extra hours on my journey." But another said "American AAdvantage is absolutely the easiest program to work with on award tickets. We recently worked very hard together to structure a Business Class award to Lisbon."
Although voting is done for this year, you may continue to discuss AAdvantage and all other frequent-flier programs right here. Click on the link below and leave your comments.
