Opinion
The member relationship plays out between one flight and the next.
Some members fly every week and some fly once a year. They look like opposite customers, but they have something in common: most of their relationship with the airline happens off the plane.
The airline already has the frequent flyer, but it doesn’t always make them feel recognized and doesn’t always retain them: between 57% and 68% of people with a preferred airline booked with another one in the past year. For the occasional flyer, the program promises a ticket that takes a long time to arrive, and in the meantime they forget they’re a member. For both, the question is the same: how to stay present between one flight and the next.
To answer it with data, at Qurable we reviewed the programs of the 20 largest publicly traded airlines by revenue and three large ones that aren’t publicly traded (Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Turkish Airlines), using public sources as of October 15, 2026. Here’s what stood out to me most.
A mile is worth more than a grocery store point
An airline program sells something few brands can: a trip. A vacation, a visit to family, an upgrade to business class. That’s why a mile carries more weight in a member’s mind than a discount at the register.
And the promise is kept. Delta issued close to 35 million award tickets in 2025, 12% of its revenue passenger miles (Delta, 2025 10-K). That same year, 2.8 million passengers flew on LifeMiles miles (TravelDailyNews).
That aspirational component is what sustains the business. A bank buys miles because its customers choose the card that gets them closest to a ticket. A merchant buys them because rewarding with a trip moves the needle more than rewarding with cash. The airline gets paid up front and delivers months or years later with a seat.
The data point that sums it up best comes from Brazil: 93% of points are issued outside of flying, through banks and merchants, but 76% are redeemed for flights (ABEMF, Q1 2026). Members engage with the program every day. They see the plane as the reward.
The bank pays for the mile, and it also owns the moment
The 2025 numbers show who funds the model:
| Program | Who pays and how much |
|---|---|
| Delta SkyMiles | American Express paid USD 8.2 billion in 2025 (+11%); Delta is targeting ~USD 10 billion a year |
| American AAdvantage | USD 6.2 billion in cash from its co-branded card and partners |
| Air France-KLM Flying Blue | EUR 595 million of EUR 886 million in revenue comes from third parties |
| IAG Avios | Selling Avios to banks yields almost twice the margin of selling them to the group’s airlines |
That’s why the market started valuing programs separately. Air Canada sold 25% of Aeroplan for CAD 2.5 billion in August 2026, at an implied valuation above the airline’s own market capitalization. Qantas Loyalty earned AUD 625 million in EBIT in its last fiscal year.
My take: the card worked because it was the only way to be part of the member’s everyday life. But the bank controls the moment, the data, and the relationship, and the airline gets paid for miles that someone else hands out. That model has three cracks:
- Payments are moving to rails that don’t generate miles. In Brazil, Pix accounted for 54.7% of payment transactions in the second half of 2025.
- Regulation is targeting the fees that fund each mile. In the U.S., the Credit Card Competition Act is back, and Mexico is consulting on a 0.6% cap on the credit interchange fee.
- Banks compete with their own currency. In the U.S., 34% pick card programs as the most rewarding, compared with 21% who pick airline programs (Skift Research).
We’ve already seen it in Latin America: Santander Chile cut LATAM Pass mile earning to 0.3–1.5 per dollar starting in January 2026. A third party’s decision changed the program’s value proposition overnight.
The card worked because it was the only way to be part of the member’s everyday life. Today, it’s no longer the only one.
Five moves by the large programs
When you put the 23 programs side by side, the patterns emerge on their own.
- Status is earned by spending. Delta measures status in qualifying dollars, American in Loyalty Points, Air Canada switched to spend in January 2026, and Iberia Club awards Elite Points per euro spent. A caveat: British Airways had to go back to counting flights for its entry tiers.
- The program moves into everyday life. Qantas adds supermarkets, energy, and Uber, with more than a million members earning points on car rides. Singapore Airlines counts spending on its Kris+ payments app toward status, and Air China built an ecosystem with more than 100 brands.
- Redemption becomes dynamic, and more expensive. Lufthansa ties the price in miles to the fare, and Emirates raised redemption prices by about 15% in May 2026. At Southwest, redemptions fell from 10.9 million in 2023 to 9.1 million in 2025.
- Fewer, bigger currencies. Avios is now used at seven airlines, Miles & More absorbed ITA, and Alaska and Hawaiian merged their programs into Atmos. Value concentrates where there’s partner scale.
- Without a currency, subscriptions don’t retain. Ryanair shut down Prime after eight months, with EUR 4.4 million in fees against EUR 6 million in discounts. Qatar Airways, by contrast, sells Avios through a monthly subscription.
Of all of them, the model I watch most closely for the region is Iberia Club: more than 6.5 million members, more than 100 partners, spend-based status, a currency shared with six other airlines and, since February 2026, a family account that pools the Avios of up to seven people so the balance reaches a redemption sooner. LATAM Pass also added it to its 2026 partnerships.
Three frictions that repeat in every region
We compared one reference program per region: Delta in the United States, Iberia in Europe, LATAM in Latin America, and Singapore Airlines and Qantas in Asia-Pacific. In all four, miles are already earned through everyday spending. What changes is whether they can also be spent there.
| Region | What it solves | What it’s missing |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Scale: the card and a few mass-market partners bring miles to millions of purchases | Miles always go back to the plane |
| Europe | Shared currency: Avios works at seven airlines and in mobility and retail | Redemption is still in flights and hotels |
| Latin America | The bank and fuel entry points | Depends on third parties; redemption outside of flying is a catalog with shipping |
| Asia-Pacific | With Kris+, miles are earned and spent at the same register | It’s the exception, not the rule |
Behind that table, I see three common frictions:
- Every partner is a different agreement, with its own rules and its own integration.
- The benefit arrives late. Cabify credits Avios in seven days and Repsol in up to two months. By the time they arrive, the member has forgotten why.
- The currency comes in from everyday life but doesn’t go back out to it. Except in Singapore, miles pile up waiting for a full ticket, and the liability grows with them. American’s went from USD 10,564 million to USD 11,586 million between December 2025 and March 2026. This hits occasional flyers hardest.
And there’s a fourth, less technical and more worrying, that hits frequent flyers: only 1 in 5 travelers who spend everything with one airline feels recognized (Deloitte, August 2026). Among Gen Z members, 65% spend less than half of their air travel budget with their preferred airline. For them, the program has to be worth something between flights, or it isn’t worth anything.
A benefit that arrives two months later doesn’t reward anything: by then, the member has forgotten why they earned it.
What a mid-sized airline can take
A mid-sized airline doesn’t need the size of Delta or IAG to use their levers. It needs a layer on top of the program and the reservation system it already has. Here’s how each lever translates:
| What the large programs do | What your airline can take | How we solve it at Qurable |
|---|---|---|
| Sell miles to banks and merchants (IAG, American, Qantas) | More partners that buy, give, and redeem miles | Partners connected through a single integration; every transaction is recorded and ready to reconcile with each partner |
| Miles plus cash at payment (Singapore, Korean, Emirates) | Members use their balance on the ticket, baggage, or seat | Miles that are authorized, captured, and reversed at checkout on the website or app, with the decision in ~150 ms |
| The program in everyday life (Qantas, Air China, ANA) | Member activity between flights | Missions, games, and milestone rewards with partners; a new game launches in less than a week |
| Personalization per member | A different benefit for each member, at every touchpoint | The benefit is chosen based on flights, purchases, and redemptions; a copilot drafts the campaign and nothing goes out without your team’s approval |
| An auditable program (Aeroplan, IAG Loyalty) | Finance sees the liability without waiting for the close | Every mile with its origin, owner, and expiration; expiration forecasts at 30, 60, and 90 days |
| Branded card (Delta, Aeroméxico) | Your own card without being an issuer | A wallet with the member’s miles and a card with the airline’s brand |
For me, the key row is the second one, given what we saw with the bank: if more and more payments don’t go through a card, the program has to be in the payment, not just in the bank. It’s what Singapore Airlines already does with Kris+, and it’s what an airline in the region can do without waiting to reach that scale. For occasional flyers, it lets them use their miles before saving up for a full ticket. For frequent flyers, personalization gives them a benefit designed for them at every touchpoint.
There’s one more layer that will matter more and more: AI agents. 53% of U.S. consumers would switch brands if an AI showed them something better (Skift). A program that an agent can’t query (balance, benefits, redemption) is left out of that purchase. We’ve already learned that. At Qurable, we expose the engine through an MCP server, so an authorized agent can check balances and benefits within the airline’s rules.
Where to start: three stages
You don’t need to migrate the program to get started. Each stage goes into production and is measured before the next one.
- Checkout and missions. Miles plus cash when paying for the ticket and ancillaries, and missions to activate members between flights.
- Partner ecosystem. Banks, hotels, car rentals, and merchants connected through a single integration to give, redeem, and exchange miles. Co-funded promotions are recorded with what each party contributed: the airline, the bank, and the merchant.
- Wallet and your own card. The program’s currency present in every member payment.
All three rest on the same foundation: every mile recorded as money, with its origin, owner, and expiration. A redemption is authorized, captured when the ticket is issued, and reversed if the flight is canceled. For finance, that means seeing the liability in real time, which is what banks that buy miles and investors that buy stakes in programs are asking for today.
The SKY Plus case. SKY Airline runs its SKY Plus program on Qurable, with real-time, two-way integration with Sabre. Today it has more than 1.7 million active members, processes 210,000 flights a month, and has more than 70 partnerships, with points, missions, and three tiers on a single platform. It’s proof that a mid-sized airline can have the levers of the large programs without replacing its core.
My takeaway
The next advantage for an airline program won’t come from the size of its currency. It will come from being with the member between flights and at the moment of payment, whether they fly every week or once a year. For frequent flyers, so they feel recognized at every touchpoint. For occasional flyers, so the program is useful long before their next ticket.
The member relationship plays out between one flight and the next.
The large programs are already moving in that direction. A mid-sized airline in the region can add that layer today, without migrating its program, and get there before many of them.
Frequently asked questions
Because they sell miles up front to banks, hotels, and merchants, and deliver on them later with seats. It’s recurring, high-margin revenue that is less exposed to demand cycles. That’s why Air Canada was able to sell 25% of Aeroplan at an implied valuation of CAD 10 billion.
Yes, but each one needs something different. Frequent flyers need recognition: status based on total spend and personalized benefits so they don’t split their trips across airlines. Occasional flyers need ways to use their balance without waiting for a full ticket, like paying with miles plus cash or pooling miles in a family account, as Iberia Club does.
Not entirely. In the U.S., the interchange fee is around 1.7%; in Europe, it’s capped at around 0.3% (McKinsey). Where the bank earns less per transaction, it also pays less for each mile. In the region, the program needs more partners and a presence at the point of payment.
That the tier rewards the whole customer, not just the passenger. Delta, American, Air Canada, British Airways, Iberia, LATAM, and Qantas already count the member’s total spend, even off the plane.
No. The improvements come as a layer on top of the program and the reservation system you already have. SKY Airline does it with Sabre, without changing its core.
First, deciding which benefit to give each member at each touchpoint: it’s the use case with the most immediate return. Then, buying on the member’s behalf. Today only 2% of U.S. consumers would let an agent buy on its own, but a program that an agent can’t query will be left out.
