If you recently tried to book a flight with frequent flyer points or miles, you may have noticed that it's not just cash prices that have increased significantly.
The “how much do you want for that flight?” The data confirms this feeling: IdeaWorksCompany, a consulting firm that analyzes airline revenues, calculated that The average price of an airline ticket purchased with miles increased 28% between 2019 and 2024, or 7% more than the 21% inflation of the U.S. Consumer Price Index during the same period.
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“Mileage/points prices have increased 28% overall since the last survey five years ago,” the study's authors write. “(…) The main reason is the increased flow of miles/points from the accumulation of co-branded credit cards, which created more demand and led airlines to increase rewards prices.”
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These are the miles you need for a domestic flight on different airlines
While the southwest (LUV) is the airline that saw the biggest jump in the cost of redeeming a flight (from 7,367 miles in 2019 to 14,484 miles for a domestic economy flight in 2024), it still has the lowest barrier to entry for purchasing a flight with points. The average cost of a domestic flight is 22,388 miles on JetBlue Airways (BLUE) 26,780 miles on Delta Air Lines (give it) and 30,460 miles on United Airlines (UAL) . The latter has the highest refund rate of all the country's major and low-cost airlines.
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“Consumers can more quickly enjoy the benefits of reward travel on Southwest,” IdeaWorksCompany said in a statement about the results. “The airline has an inherent advantage because it focuses on short- and medium-haul routes and frequent flights. Reward prices tend to be lower for shorter flights and demand is more easily met with more flights.”
american airlines (AAL) , for its part, is the only airline where the average cost has decreased from 23,700 miles in 2019 to 17,820 miles now. Since each airline has a different ratio of points per dollar, the calculation estimates how many miles it would generally take to fly with the airline to accumulate enough points for a round-trip flight to somewhere in the US, although you can also accumulate points. through credit card spending.
'The minority (of miles) is generated by flying the airline'
According to IdeaWorksCompany, the main reason for the sharp increases has to do with the fact that an increase in different credit card spending programs has allowed some travelers to accumulate points much faster than if they flew only with the airline; seeing this trickle down into their profits and raising the threshold of points to redeem in order to keep up even though they have also benefited financially from partnering with banks for these types of co-branded credit cards.
“When frequent flyer programs emerged in the 1980s, purchasing a ticket on an airline was the only way to earn miles,” the report's authors write. “The industry's adoption of co-branded credit cards has changed this outcome. The majority of mileage accumulation now originates from transactions with partners and the minority is generated by flying with the airline. The financial disclosures made by American, Delta and United during 2020 reveal this change.”
