The best airline loyalty programs in Europe

One way to make the business travel experience a little more enjoyable is to collect loyalty points and redeem miles from airlines.

If you’re already a frequent flyer, it takes minimal effort to sign up for a loyalty program, earning you access to nicer lounges, better seats at no cost, and sometimes even a free flight that you can put towards an upcoming vacation. What’s not to love? 

Every company’s travel policy has different guidelines around collecting and using loyalty points, so make sure to check with your travel manager or office manager first. 

A common rule of thumb is that it’s okay to choose your preferred carrier, so long as the cost is not more than 10% greater than an alternative, but some companies request that you choose the lower-priced carrier every time – no matter what.

Perk allows travelers to save their loyalty program numbers so that they get used whenever possible. The more loyalty programs, the merrier!

Below, you’ll find information on all of the best frequent flyer programs in Europe, including partner airlines, destinations, and rewards.

But how do you choose the right one? The only way to get great benefits is to fly often, so choose the program whose airlines you’ll frequently fly with.

Most airlines are part of alliances, and their loyalty program partners overlap. We’ve done the heavy lifting for you by selecting the best of the best programs.

Flying Blue

Flying Blue is the Air France and KLM frequent flyer program. A standout feature of Flying Blue is that they allow you to collect points when flying with one of their 18 different partner airlines. The program allows you to earn air miles for every euro spent – miles that can be used for class upgrades and new trips!

Certain tiers of Flying Blue also give you access to airport lounges and offer steep discounts on seat options. If Paris and Amsterdam are business travel hotspots for you, then there’s no reason not to sign up. 

Another bonus—you can link your American Express credit card to Flying Blue, helping you rack up additional miles with normal household expenses. 

Partner Airlines:

Tiers & Benefits

Check out the different levels of this program and how to move up the ladder of benefits.

Experience (XP) can be earned in many ways. E.g. you can get 5 XP on an economy flight under 2,000 miles and 36 XP on a business class flight over 5,000 miles. View all the ways to collect XP here.

Other awesome benefits from Flying Blue include free transfers for Gold and Platinum members from Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Discover the full list of benefits here.

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Flying Club

Brought to you by Virgin Atlantic, Flying Club also allows you to rack up flights for Delta Airlines, Air France or Hawaiian Airlines. Unfortunately, tea with Sir Richard Branson is not part of the perks, but there are plenty of other cool rewards, such as exit row seats and premium check-in. 

Always wanted to chillax in the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse instead of your usual madhouse terminal at Heathrow? Now’s your chance. The swanky clubhouse isn’t just for first class flyers, it’s open to Gold Tier members of the Flying Club as well. 

So if British and Asian destinations are part of your regular routes with Virgin Atlantic, consider signing up. Even better, you’ll get free seat selection every time you fly.

Partner Airlines:

Tiers & Benefits

Learn about the benefits of each tier and how to qualify.

Little extras like bonus birthday miles and cabin upgrades (when you earn 2,000 Tier Points within a membership year) make this loyalty program particularly enticing. Another special feature is the Flying Club’s Points Booster, enabling you to score extra points for cheap using bonus promotions.

Even better, Virgin Atlantic is now a member of the SkyTeam alliance, helping you reap even more rewards when you book with one of the sixteen member airlines. 

Learn more and get started by signing up for the Red Tier of the Flying Club.

Miles & More by Lufthansa

One of the largest frequent flyer programs in Europe, Lufthansa’s Miles and More is particularly attractive for those in the DACH area.

In addition to airlines such as Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and SWISS, you can reap your rewards with Air China, Air New Zealand, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines and South African Airways. 

With so many Star Alliance partners, it’d be almost silly not to sign up and start racking up points. The standout benefits of this program are the cabin upgrades and priority check-in. Better yet, you can redeem mileage points at over 300,000 hotels worldwide.

In any airline rewards program comparison, this one will rank towards the top, simply because there are so many big airlines in this partnership—and hotels including the international Marriott chain.

Partner Airlines:

Tiers & Benefits

One last standout feature? The most unique reward of the Miles and More program is the Round the World ticket: in exchange for 180,000 miles, you can cross the Pacific or Atlantic oceans in up to ten flight segments. Learn more about the program and sign up here.

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Executive Club by British Airways

With a recently-announced shakeup to its Executive Club loyalty scheme, British Airways is switching all Executive Club members over to a fixed membership from 2025. 

The update plans to remove the program’s complexities by aligning the collection year for tier points (gold, silver or bronze) into a universal status-earning year for its members. Here’s the system as it currently stands: 

Partner Airlines:

Tiers & Benefits

Avios can be spent on holidays, hotels, car hire and more. The fact that you can pool Avios together with a household of six makes this program a no-brainer for anyone who regularly travels with kids, in addition to the usual business travel grind.

TrueBlue

Want to get points for taking surveys? You can! Surveys aren’t very fun, but when you can earn points for them… they might be tolerable. The other way to earn points with TrueBlue is to fly JetBlue, so if that’s a regular carrier for you, then go ahead and sign up for free today. 

Get ready to rack up points quickly, and spend them on anything from flights to activities such as sightseeing, jet skis, you name it. 

Partner Airlines:

Tiers & Benefits

Collect 3 points for every dollar spent. You can spend points on JetBlue Vacation packages, magazine subscriptions, and flights to Hawaii with Hawaiian Airlines (a great carrier to a great destination, by the way). 

You can also get bonus points for special things, such as receiving 7,000 points when you’ve booked 7 round-trip flights in a year.

Aeroflot Bonus

The Aeroflot Bonus program includes a range of  great partner airlines including AirEuropa and Czech Airlines. You can also redeem your points with partners including banks, restaurants, hotels and car rental services:

Aeroflot Bonus points can be used towards hotel bookings and shopping sprees. Get to the top tier of the program, and you’ll receive 3 class upgrade vouchers! You can also spend your miles on a donation to a charity of your choice.

Partner Airlines:

Tiers & Benefits

Learn more about Aeroflot Bonus and sign up here.

AAdvantage by American Airlines

American Airlines’ AAdvantage offers frequent flyers elite status when traveling. It differs to mileage earning, which can be done through oneworld airlines when traveling with American, but allows you to build loyalty points based on flying, credit card spending or other activities. 

You’ll earn miles when you fly on American or one of the 1000 partner airlines. 

The largest airline membership program in the world, with over 100 million members—and it’s free to join! You can spend your points on a huge variety of perks, from discounted holidays to car rentals, hotel stays, and products from retail partners, mainly based in the US. 

Partner Airlines:

Tiers & Benefits:

Make the most out of flights with these airline loyalty programs in Europe!

Do you fly frequently for business travel to European cities? Do you wish you could book your own flights instead of dialing a travel agent or sending an email to your office manager? Perk makes it easy for business travelers—flying in America, Asia, or anywhere in the world—to book their own flights within policy. And even better, we allow you to save your loyalty program information, so you can easily add it on to every booking and get those points sky-high too!

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