Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan ranking has held the number one position in the United States for an 11th consecutive year, according to U.S. News & World Report‘s 2025–2026 airline loyalty programme rankings, with United MileagePlus and American AAdvantage filling out the top three.
The result places Alaska ahead of carriers with considerably larger route networks and seat capacities. United MileagePlus moved up to second, while American AAdvantage held third. Delta SkyMiles, once a close challenger, dropped to fourth place.
How the Alaska Mileage Plan Ranking Is Scored
U.S. News & World Report weights its methodology across six criteria. Ease of earning a free round-trip flight carries the heaviest weighting at 40%, calculated by analysing average earning potential and redemption requirements across 25 high-traffic routes. Additional benefits account for 25% and cover elite perks, points flexibility, and credit card options. Network coverage, number of daily flights, and award flight availability each carry 10%, with airline quality (drawing on 2024 data for on-time arrivals, baggage mishandling, and complaints) contributing the remaining 5%.
The methodology was further refined for the 2025–2026 cycle to better reflect the consumer experience, incorporating data from the US Department of Transportation alongside updated scoring of benefits. The intent, as U.S. News frames it, is to measure value for money and overall traveller experience rather than simply rewarding scale.
The full top nine, as ranked, runs: Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, United MileagePlus, American AAdvantage, Delta SkyMiles, JetBlue TrueBlue, Southwest Rapid Rewards, Spirit Free Spirit, Frontier Miles, and Allegiant Air Allways Rewards.
What Keeps the Alaska Mileage Plan Ranking Ahead of Rivals
The programme’s structure is a key differentiator in the current loyalty landscape. Unlike most major US carriers, Mileage Plan awards miles based on distance flown rather than ticket price, meaning members accumulate miles on discounted fares at the same rate as revenue passengers on full-fare tickets. Award flights on short-haul routes can be redeemed for as few as 5,000 to 7,500 miles, with no blackout dates applied.
Entry-level MVP status includes free checked bags, complimentary upgrades where available, confirmed same-day flight changes, priority check-in and boarding, and a 25% mileage bonus on flights. Those are benefits many programmes reserve for mid-tier elite tiers, which gives the programme a wider base of genuinely engaged members rather than a narrow top tier.
According to Alaska Airlines News, Mileage Plan earned top marks in the U.S. News assessment for its access to over 30 global airline partners, a figure that reflects the programme’s oneworld Alliance membership as well as bilateral agreements outside the alliance. That partner network allows members to earn and redeem on international itineraries without being limited to Alaska’s own metal.
The merger with Hawaiian Airlines is also reshaping what the programme covers. Alaska Airlines News reports that Alaska and Hawaiian are reimagining Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles, with the expectation that combined partner access and route coverage will broaden the programme’s earning and redemption footprint across the Pacific.
Separately, Alaska Airlines News has confirmed that Mileage Plan members will gain access to all-new, more frequent perks alongside expanded ways to earn elite status in 2025, including the ability to earn elite-qualifying miles on award travel, a feature that remains rare among competing programmes and that directly supports the programme’s distance-based earning philosophy.
Status matching is also available, and members can earn elite-qualifying miles on award flights, two structural features that competing programmes have largely pulled back from as they have shifted to revenue-based models.
Delta SkyMiles, which once sat closest to Alaska in the rankings, has drawn consistent criticism for opaque redemption rates and limited value at entry-level membership, contributing to its slide to fourth. American AAdvantage’s global reach through oneworld keeps it in third, but its revenue-based earning structure and elite thresholds make it a harder sell for members who do not concentrate spend heavily on the airline’s own fares.
The rankings arrive against a backdrop of programmes across the industry having shifted toward high-spend models, with several carriers tightening elite thresholds and reducing the value of miles for economy travellers. Alaska’s distance-based structure, combined with the programme’s expanded 2025 benefit set and the ongoing integration of Hawaiian Airlines’ loyalty assets, means the Mileage Plan enters its 12th ranking cycle with more structural breadth than it carried into its 11th.
