How NerdWallet Rates Airline Rewards Programs
NerdWallet’s overall ratings for airline reward programs are weighted averages of ratings in the following categories:
Effective rewards rate (20%).
Basic economy fares (20%).
Elite rewards rate (20%).
Fees (20%).
Onboard entertainment and Wi-Fi (10%).
Pet friendliness (10%).
How we picked the programs to evaluate
Data collection and review process
Information updates
The review team
In addition to appearing on NerdWallet, the work of our team members has been published by The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Nasdaq, MSN, MarketWatch, Yahoo Finance and other national and regional media outlets. The travel team’s writers and editors combined have more than 40 years of experience in travel, travel rewards and credit cards.
Methodology, broken down by category
Effective rewards rate
We collect the dollar value of each program’s rewards miles and the earnings rate of those miles (the number of points you earn per dollar spent) to arrive at an effective rewards rate.To determine this rate, we multiply the value of each mile (based on real-world flights) by the earnings rate, then multiply that total by 100. As a formula, that’s: (Value x Earnings Rate) x 100 = Effective Rewards Rate.
For example, if an airline’s rewards miles are worth $0.01 apiece and 10 miles are earned per dollar spent, its program would have a 10% effective rewards rate. Here’s that math: ($0.01 x 10) x 100 = 10%