April 08--Southwest Airlines has the best frequent-flier program by a mile, at least according to a poll released Tuesday.
In a poll containing 10 U.S. airlines, Southwest's Rapid Rewards program garnered nearly a third of all votes, 32 percent, according to a survey of more than 1,500 fliers by Airfarewatchdog.com.
Generally, large airlines did best.
Southwest was followed by programs from Delta Air Lines, 17 percent, and American Airlines, 14 percent. Chicago-based United Airlines took 11 percent of votes, as did Alaska Airlines.
Polling in the single-digits were frequent-flier programs by JetBlue, 8 percent; Hawaiian, 4 percent; and 1 percent each for Allegiant, Frontier and Spirit.
A trend among frequent-flier programs is to grant rewards based on money spent, rather than miles flown. A notable exception is American Airlines, which is in the process of combining with US Airways and hasn't yet switched to that model for racking up rewards.
gkarp@chicagotribune.com
