Airline miles
A mile is only worth what the program that issued it will let you do with it. That is why the same number of miles can be worth twice as much in one program as another.
Why miles are not a fixed currency
Airlines decide what an award seat costs, and increasingly they decide it dynamically - pricing the award against the cash fare rather than from a published chart. When that happens, a mile stops having a stable value and starts behaving like a discount coupon whose size the airline sets on the day.
You can see the effect in the reference values below. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club sits at 3.47 cents per mile while JetBlue TrueBlue sits at 1.24 - a gap of roughly 2.8× between the two, for units that both get called “miles”.
This is also why comparing balances across programs is misleading. 100,000 miles in a program that prices awards dynamically against cheap domestic fares is a very different asset from 100,000 miles in a program with a generous partner award chart.
The programs we cover
| Program | Reference value | Snapshot | Official page |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines AAdvantage oneworld | 2.56¢ per mile | Verified Aug 2026 | Official |
| Delta SkyMiles SkyTeam | 1.35¢ per mile | Verified Aug 2026 | Official |
| United MileagePlus Star Alliance | 2.04¢ per mile | Verified Aug 2026 | Official |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | 1.52¢ per mile | Verified Aug 2026 | Official |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | 1.24¢ per mile | Verified Aug 2026 | Official |
| Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards oneworld | Not yet published | — | Official |
| Air Canada Aeroplan Star Alliance | 1.86¢ per mile | Verified Aug 2026 | Official |
| Air France/KLM Flying Blue SkyTeam | 2.24¢ per mile | Verified Aug 2026 | Official |
| British Airways Club oneworld | 2.55¢ per mile | Verified Aug 2026 | Official |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 3.47¢ per mile | Verified Aug 2026 | Official |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Star Alliance | 2.54¢ per mile | Verified Aug 2026 | Official |
Alliances, and what they actually get you
Most of these airlines belong to one of three global alliances. Membership means the airlines will generally honour each other's awards - so miles in one program can often book seats on another program's flights.
Star Alliance
United MileagePlus, Air Canada Aeroplan, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer.
oneworld
American Airlines AAdvantage, Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards, British Airways Club.
SkyTeam
Delta SkyMiles, Air France/KLM Flying Blue.
Outside the three alliances
Southwest Rapid Rewards, JetBlue TrueBlue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. These run their own partnerships instead, which can be generous but have to be checked program by program.
An alliance badge is not a booking Two airlines sharing an alliance does not mean your points can reach either of them, and it does not mean a seat is available. Airlines release a smaller, more restricted set of award seats to partners than they sell their own members. Check whether a path actually exists.