Another outstanding rating by Miles&Go on their way to a sweep in this region for 2022. In both the Americas and Middle East Asia/Oceania, the margins between #1 and #2 were a quarter to a half-point, this margin is a full one and a quarter-point in ratings. What promotion could rank this high? the Miles&Go Black Friday which offered “Between 26 November until 1 December TAP Miles&Go Club offered a total of 144,000 bonus miles and 8,000 status miles with a 12-month mileage purchase subscription.” Uhhhhh, 144,000 bonus miles and additional status miles will do it almost any time. As mentioned, Flying Blue was #2 with this: “Gain Double XP >>> Members automatically gained double elite qualifying points to maintain their current status and reach the next one faster on all Air France and KLM-marketed flights taken between July 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021.” Lufthansa has a top-three finish with this: “Earn Additional Status Miles in 2021 >>> From 1st January to 31th of December 2021 members earned double status miles for flights, double HON Circle miles with flights in First and Business Class and Frequent Travellers & Senators were also able to earn status miles when using their Miles & More Credit Card.” But we’re still thinking about those 144,000 bonus miles from Miles&Go.
Some might likely say that this is the category that matters the most and based upon personal interviews—we agree. Miles&Go added to their sweep of the 2022 Freddies with a clean #1 rating, but there is interesting jockeying in the following places. While Miles & More (Lufthansa) was a clear #2 in POTY, in this elite category they switched places and Air France KLM Flying Blue finished a strong #2. British Airways Executive Club maintained their #4 position finish but Virgin Atlantic Flying Club dropped two places to finish in seventh place while Turkish and Aegean each rose a place to take up where Virgin dropped. We’ve always been puzzled here because Virgin has such a reputation with their product which doesn’t seem to transfer into respecting their finest members. Of course, Turkish and Aegean have both been darlings of status matches and alliance benefits so their places are certainly deserved. Higher ranking by both would likely come about from more for their own members than for members of other programs.
During the pandemic period of loyalty programs, some stood still awaiting the return to travel while others used the change in travel sentiment to change themselves. Miles&Go just might be that trendsetter having moved up the ladder of loyalty in a big way. A 210 Award winner in the 2020 Freddie Awards, they swept aside both Norwegian and Aeroflot on their way to sweeping all major categories in the airline category in 2022. And they did it in a convincing fashion with a rating exceeding 9 (of 10) in every category they won. Following in the distance were the European powerhouses of Lufthansa Miles & More (second), Air France KLM Flying Blue in third, and British Airways Executive Club in fourth place. And when we say, convincing fashion, here’s why: they were 1.5 points ahead of Lufthansa in second place, whereas in the Americas and the Asia Pacific, the race for second place was much, much closer—approximately 3/10th of a point in both other regions. Norwegian Reward which captured this honor in 2020 fell back a full three points to land in ninth place. It wasn’t even close.
