Smart decisions start with our list of top travel rewards programs
Our Nerds pored over point systems, perks, fees, and more to bring you the best travel rewards programs of 2024. While some winners may be partners, this didn't influence our decisions.
Smart decisions start with our list of top travel rewards programs
Our Nerds pored over point systems, perks, fees, and more to bring you the best travel rewards programs of 2024. While some winners may be partners, this didn't influence our decisions.
Flexible and affordable option for passengers traveling with pets
Fees
No fees for seat selection or carry-on luggage
Operations
Reliable operations record with a high percentage of on-time flights and few cancellations
Why our Nerds love it
Alaska Airlines offers customer-friendly policies including easy-to-earn and high-value miles, valuable elite status rewards, operational excellence and low add-on fees.
NerdWallet's award winners are chosen through a rigorous evaluation process involving 39 writers and editors. NerdWallet's ratings formulas for credit cards, for example, consider the type of card being reviewed (such as cash back, travel, or balance transfer) and the card's rates, fees, rewards, and other features. For mortgages, we evaluate loan average rates and fees, loan types and products, online rate information, ease of application and other factors. For more info, see our methodologies.
Our team of nerdy experts is composed of writers and editors — based all across the country — who have a combined 493 years of journalistic experience reviewing and writing about personal finance products for consumers.
Yes. Writers and editors use comprehensive scoring formulas that assess each financial product’s key features, weighting them according to their importance to consumers.
Nope. Editorial team members are solely responsible for creating all product reviews and ratings, and these assessments reflect their opinions alone. Only products that meet the editorial team’s standards appear in our Best-Of Awards lists, meaning no company can “buy” an award.
Our Best-Of Awards are given annually to the top financial products on the market. Our other “best” articles may:
• be longer than our Best-Of Awards list
• offer additional consumer choices
• get updated as products change or are discontinued and as new products emerge
This year's Best-Of-Awards list winners were chosen in mid-October 2023, with the exception of Best Airline Rewards Program, which was chosen in early November 2023. Student loan winners were chosen in early April 2024.
Our 2023 Best-Of Award winners are still live. If you’d like to see who won last year, feel free to take a look and compare with this year’s winners.