Best Travel Rewards Programs of 2025 - NerdWallet

Your shortcut to the best travel rewards programs for you

Our Nerds researched 16 travel rewards programs, narrowing down to just one winner per category.

Find a top travel rewards program — fast

Click the categories you’re interested in to see the winners.

BEST HOTEL REWARDS PROGRAM 2025

Top features

An award chart makes redemptions easier to plan

Fewer points required than other programs to book award stays

Resort fees waived on award stays

WHY OUR NERDS LOVE IT

World of Hyatt has low-priced redemptions and great elite status perks at its highest tier.

Read our methodology ❯

Best Airline Rewards Program 2025

Top features

Alaska Mileage Plan members earn miles based on distance flown rather than ticket price

Simple rewards structure to earn miles when flying with Alaska Airlines' partners

Lower costs to earn elite status than other programs

WHY OUR NERDS LOVE IT

Alaska Airlines offers customer-friendly policies including easy-to-earn and high-value miles, valuable elite status rewards and low add-on fees.

Read our methodology ❯

BEST HOTEL CHAIN 2025

Top features

High rewards rates (at least 1,000 points per stay) when you stay at Wyndham hotels

Low parking and resort fees compared to the room rate

WHY OUR NERDS LOVE IT

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts' guests enjoy low resort and parking fees and earn rewards with higher-than-average value.

Read our methodology ❯

BEST HOTEL CHAIN 2025

Top features

Customer-friendly policies for rebooking, reimbursements and refunds for flight delays and cancellations

No seat selection fees for Main Cabin fares

WHY OUR NERDS LOVE IT

The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan gives top-tier elite status benefits, useful award miles and the most rewards per dollar spent.

Read our methodology ❯

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Frequently asked questions

NerdWallet's award winners are chosen through a rigorous evaluation process involving 44 writers and editors. NerdWallet's ratings formulas for credit cards, for example, consider the type of card being reviewed (such as cash back, travel, or balance transfer) and the card's rates, fees, rewards, and other features. For mortgages, we evaluate loan average rates and fees, loan types and products, online rate information, ease of application and other factors. For more info, see our methodologies.

Our team of nerdy experts is composed of writers and editors — based all across the country — who have a combined 546 years of journalistic experience reviewing and writing about personal finance products for consumers.

Yes. Writers and editors use comprehensive scoring formulas that assess each financial product’s key features, weighting them according to their importance to consumers.

Nope. Editorial team members are solely responsible for creating all product reviews and ratings, and these assessments reflect their opinions alone. Only products that meet the editorial team’s standards appear in our Best-Of Awards lists, meaning no company can “buy” an award.

Our Best-Of Awards are given annually to the top financial products on the market. Our other “best” articles may:

• be longer than our Best-Of Awards list
• offer additional consumer choices
• get updated as products change or are discontinued and as new products emerge

This year's Best-Of-Awards list winners were chosen in mid-October 2024.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. Writers and editors use comprehensive scoring formulas that assess each financial product’s key features, weighting them according to their importance to consumers.