The winner of this award is the program that received the best average ranking among programs that were ranked by fewer than 10 percent of the voters. Air Canada has worked extremely hard since November 8, 2020, when they began the transformation of Aeroplan and this ranking proves that effort. But they aren’t alone in ranking among those “dark horses”, look at how close Spirit Free Sprint ranked.
Just as close counts in hand grenades and horse shoes, so does it seem to count in this years Best Elite program. Revamped and hard charging Aeroplan couldn’t get the extra thousandths of a percent in value rating to overcome AAdvantage’s tenth consecutive win in this category. AAdvantage has a spectacular run at ruling this important category which is considered the most challenging to win because elite status matters (most). What’s intriguing here is the float downward of the Alaska Airlines elite program which almost traditionally is in the mix (and has won) this particular Freddie Award category. Just as intriguing is the #topfive finish of the Spirit Airlines program—two low cost airlines, Southwest and Spirit in the top five… interesting. What is troubling is the full half of a percentage point that Delta trails American for elite rankings among the legacy carriers. United is a full two points below the value rating of American.
Just as Rapid Rewards has for the past five years, they best the best of others to take home their sixth consecutive POTY award, much to the chagrin of AAdvantage was the program that last took this award home other than Southwest (AAdvantage won POTY in years 2012-2015). What’s interesting is the strength that Avianca has in holding down the #3 spot. Often viewed by opportunists for their lucrative mileage bonus offers, there’s more to them than that as this ranking indicates. And regardless of what the M&A folks would have you believe, Spirit Airlines Free Spirit programs rank well ahead of that of potential acquirer Frontier Airlines (but let’s be fair, Frontier Early Returns did win POTY back in 2007) and JetBlue neither of which ranked in the top ten for their value to members. Of the proverbial #topthree legacy airlines, it is always somewhat puzzling how United Mileage Plus owns near the bottom of the top ten rankings this year—they last won POTY in the years 1995-1997.
