{"id":4871,"date":"2013-07-18T12:35:19","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T16:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/?p=4871"},"modified":"2013-07-18T12:35:19","modified_gmt":"2013-07-18T16:35:19","slug":"us-news-world-reports-announces-best-travel-reward-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2013\/07\/18\/us-news-world-reports-announces-best-travel-reward-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"US News &#038; World Reports Announces Best Travel Reward Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON,\u00a0July 18, 2013\u00a0\/PRNewswire\/ &#8212;\u00a0U.S. News &amp; World Report today released its inaugural rankings of the\u00a0<b>Best Travel Rewards Programs<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>The new rankings include the Best Airline Rewards and Best Hotel Rewards programs and provide quality, unbiased information to travelers looking to join a new program or consolidate existing rewards. Information about the programs, their membership tiers and their rewards can be viewed\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/travel.usnews.com\/Rankings\/Travel-Rewards\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ten frequent flyer programs were evaluated for the 2013 Best Airline Rewards rankings. Frequent flyer programs were ranked based on a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/travel.usnews.com\/methodology\/\" target=\"_blank\">scoring algorithm<\/a>\u00a0that takes into account five components: the number of daily flights, geographic coverage, additional benefits, free flight options and the ease of earning a free round-trip flight. To be ranked, a program had to be offered by a U.S.-based airline.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<b>Best Airline Rewards<\/b>\u00a0program is:<\/p>\n<p>#1\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/travel.usnews.com\/rankings\/travel-rewards\/airline-rewards\/southwest-rapid-rewards\/\" target=\"_blank\">Southwest Rapid Rewards<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/files\/2013\/07\/Southwest_Rapid_Rewards.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4872 alignnone\" alt=\"Southwest_Rapid_Rewards\" src=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/files\/2013\/07\/Southwest_Rapid_Rewards.jpg\" width=\"170\" height=\"170\" srcset=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/\/sites\/2\/2013\/07\/Southwest_Rapid_Rewards.jpg 170w, http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/\/sites\/2\/2013\/07\/Southwest_Rapid_Rewards-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/\/sites\/2\/2013\/07\/Southwest_Rapid_Rewards-100x100.jpg 100w, http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/\/sites\/2\/2013\/07\/Southwest_Rapid_Rewards-47x47.jpg 47w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 170px) 100vw, 170px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"main\">\n<p>The full list of the Best Airline Rewards programs is available\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/travel.usnews.com\/rankings\/travel-rewards\/airline-rewards\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sixteen hotel loyalty programs were evaluated for the 2013 Best Hotel Rewards rankings. Hotel loyalty programs were ranked based on a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/travel.usnews.com\/methodology\/\" target=\"_blank\">scoring methodology<\/a>\u00a0composed of five criteria: the number of participating hotels, brand diversity, geographic coverage, additional benefits and ease of earning free nights. To be ranked, the program must have properties located in\u00a0the United States\u00a0and must allow members to earn rewards and privileges when they stay at an affiliated hotel.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<b>Best Hotel Rewards<\/b>\u00a0program is:<\/p>\n<p>#1<i>\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/travel.usnews.com\/rankings\/travel-rewards\/hotel-rewards\/marriott-rewards\/\" target=\"_blank\">Marriott Rewards<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/files\/2013\/07\/Marriott_Rewards.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4873 alignnone\" alt=\"Marriott_Rewards\" src=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/files\/2013\/07\/Marriott_Rewards.jpg\" width=\"170\" height=\"170\" srcset=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/\/sites\/2\/2013\/07\/Marriott_Rewards.jpg 170w, http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/\/sites\/2\/2013\/07\/Marriott_Rewards-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/\/sites\/2\/2013\/07\/Marriott_Rewards-100x100.jpg 100w, http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/\/sites\/2\/2013\/07\/Marriott_Rewards-47x47.jpg 47w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 170px) 100vw, 170px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The full list of the Best Hotel Rewards programs is available\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/travel.usnews.com\/Rankings\/Travel-Rewards\/hotel-rewards\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>\u00a0<i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>About U.S. News &amp; World Report<\/b><\/p>\n<p>U.S. News &amp; World Report is a multi-platform publisher of news and analysis, which includes the digital-only U.S. News Weekly<i>\u00a0<\/i>magazine,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/us.lrd.yahoo.com\/SIG=10r4tnemq\/**http%3A\/www.usnews.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.usnews.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/us.lrd.yahoo.com\/SIG=117rgt7th\/**http%3A\/www.rankingsandreviews.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.rankingsandreviews.com<\/a>. Focusing on Health, Personal Finance, Education, Travel, Cars and Public Service\/Opinion, U.S. News has earned a reputation as the leading provider of service news and information that improves the quality of life of its readers. U.S. News &amp; World Report&#8217;s signature franchise includes its News You Can Use\u00ae brand of journalism and its annual &#8220;Best&#8221; series of consumer Web guides and publications that include rankings of colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, mutual funds, health plans and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON,\u00a0July 18, 2013\u00a0\/PRNewswire\/ &#8212;\u00a0U.S. News &amp; World Report today released its inaugural rankings of the\u00a0Best Travel Rewards Programs. The new rankings include the Best Airline Rewards and Best Hotel Rewards programs and provide quality, unbiased information to travelers looking to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10,91,742],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US News &amp; World Reports Announces Best Travel Reward Programs - VeryGoodPoints<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"US News &amp; 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