This new ranking considered more than 60 individual frequent flyer programmes worldwide - and European airlines performed well across the board. Airline loyalty programmes are famously big business - but how much do you actually understand about how they work? It should be a straightforward process - picking a credit card, spending at the right times and being rewarded with points to redeem for a dream trip - but it’s not always that simple. Point.

me, an airline point concierge service which assists with reward bookings, has attempted to lay bare the world’s best airline rewards programmes. It’s released a report, ranking 62 of the world's airlines, drawing on information released by the companies, as well as years of its own data. The company considered a number of factors including redemption rates, ease of booking and customer service quality.

It revealed that the world’s top-ranking rewards programme is Air France and KLM’s joint Flying Blue. It came in first place thanks to its ease of booking and the relatively low cost of redemptions, as well as the ability to book on the companies’ partner airlines, within the SkyTeam alliance. Airline rewards or frequent flyer programmes allow passengers to collect points as they spend which can be redeemed as discounts on travel.

You might think that the majority of the points travellers earn and spend on flights come from flying - but that’s actually not the case. While you can collect points based on distance flown b.