United Starts off Year with Yet Another Loyalty Program Award

If it’s early January, that must mean United will win another Global Traveler Award for Best Overall Frequent Flyer Program in the world.

For the 13th straight year, readers of Global Traveler, a monthly publication written exclusively for frequent business and luxury travelers, voted United’s MileagePlus loyalty program the Best Overall Frequent Flyer Program in the world for 2016. United has been recognized with this award every year since the inception of the GT Tested Reader Survey in 2004.

Global Traveler’s awards are awarded annually according to data gathered from its GT Tested Reader Survey. Top vote-getters in the travel and hospitality industry are recognized across more than 60 categories. In addition to honoring airlines, Global Traveler also determines winners in categories such as Best Hotel Airport, Best Airport Dining, and Best Hotel Rewards Program.

Based on a survey completed by frequent business and luxury travelers, United’s MileagePlus program further solidified its standing as the airline industry’s leading loyalty program with an additional win for Best Frequent-Flyer Bonus Program.

The United MileagePlus Club Card from Chase was awarded as Best Credit Card and Best Credit Card Rewards Program and the United MileagePlus Explorer Card as Best Frequent-Flyer Affinity Credit Card Redemptions.

“The accolades given to United’s MileagePlus program validate our continued commitment to providing our loyal customers with an industry-leading experience,” said Praveen Sharma, Vice President, Loyalty at United.

What’s more, United was named Best Trans-Pacific Airline for the third straight year.

United officials listened to customers and simplified the awards program.

Back in early October, United rolled out several changes, including enhancements to booking complex multi-city MileagePlus award travel.

Under the new program, awards will be priced on a one-way basis; two or more one-way awards can be combined to form round-trip or multi-city itineraries. The airline also introduced the Excursionist Perk: Members who book an itinerary with three or more one-way awards will be eligible to receive one of those awards free, if it meets certain conditions.

These changes eliminate Round the World award travel and the stopover policy, which many customers found confusing. In many cases, the total number of miles required to create a customized itinerary will be fewer than the Round the World awards were, without requiring customers to follow the stringent routing rules that came with Round the World awards.

MileagePlus is United’s industry-leading loyalty program. With a wide network of partners through which members may earn and redeem miles, MileagePlus offers the most “Saver” award-seat availability among the largest U.S. global airlines, according to the sixth annual Switchfly Reward Seat Availability Survey published by IdeaWorksCompany in May 2016. MileagePlus members earn award miles by flying United, United Express, Star Alliance airlines or other airline partners, and by purchasing products or services from partners around the globe. Members enjoy a host of options for using those award miles, including to pay for travel, hotel stays, car rentals and merchandise.

Recent Content

Membership and Pricing

Videos and podcasts

Membership and Pricing