Singapore has risen to the top of a ranking of the world’s strongest passports, knocking Spain off the top spot.

Despite that blow for the country, European nations – including Spain, now relegated to second place – make up the rest of the top five.

VisaGuide.World’s ranking is seen as one of the most reliable within the travel industry, along with the Henley Passport Index.

The company evaluates 199 countries and territories globally and bases its results on factors including visa-free access, eVisas, and global mobility.

It then uses its own Destination Significance Score (DSS) to assign a unique value to each passport, although the DSS is not revealed in the ranking.

With this system, VisaGuide.World has found that the Singaporean passport is officially the strongest passport in the entire world – with a score of 91.27 out of a possible 100 as of September 2024.

Spain in second place, with a score of 90.60 is closely followed by France, whose score is 90.53.

Next up are the Italian and Hungarian passports, which come in with scores of 90.31 and 90.28 respectively.

It’s good news for Europe overall, with only one other country not on the continent, Japan, in the top 20. Japan takes 15th place, the same position as last year.

Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria round out the top 10 ranking.

How does VisaGuide.World rank passports?

Released four times a year, VisaGuide.World’s passport ranking examines the number of destinations passport holders can access without a visa. Henley, usually thought of as the authority, takes a similar approach but has yet to release its ranking for this quarter.

VisaGuide.World takes other factors into consideration, creating its DSS for each travel destination.

That score factors in the type of entry policy each country enforces on an individual passport. That encompasses visa-free entry, Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), visa on arrival, e-Visas embassy approved visas, passport-free travel or banned entry.

This means the next ranking could look very different as Schengen countries introduce the Entry/Exit System (ETS) and ETIAS visa waiver for some non-EU countries and the UK rolls out its ETA.

The DSS also assigns points for the country’s GDP, global power and tourism development.

Not all of its criteria are considered equal, though. Visa-free access to a country with a high DSS earns a passport more points in the index than entry to a country with a low score.

The fact that VisaGuide.World does not specify the DSS of each country means that other factors may also affect the outcome of the index.

Why did Spain fall to second place in the ranking?

In VisaGuide.World’s last ranking, Spanish passport holders could travel visa-free to 160 countries and territories. In September’s results, that number has fallen to just 107.

It appears to be a drop across the board, though. Singaporean passport holders could previously visit 164 places without a visa but today, that only applies to 160.

While the ranking doesn’t explicitly say why this is the case, it is a regularly-changing figure due to shifting diplomatic ties, mutual visa policies, and the political and economic stability of countries and territories globally.

Spain, though, and all the European countries in the top 20 do have a benefit that Singapore doesn’t. Passport holders of these nations can travel to more than 30 countries without using their passports at all, thanks to the existence of the European Union and the Schengen zone.

For these citizens, travelling with just an ID card is possible, making freedom of movement simple.

With that in mind, perhaps the drop from top spot in this ranking won’t make too many Spanish citizens unhappy after all.

Japan Airlines is offering some international travellers free domestic flights to explore more of the country.

The airline’s domestic network includes services to 64 airports on 133 routes. It hopes the free flights will encourage passengers to delve deeper into regions of Japan they wouldn’t normally explore.

That includes experiences like visiting Kyoto’s 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites or getting away from the big city in the magical landscapes of Hokkaido in the north of the country. Or in Kagoshima, known as the gateway to Japan’s southern islands, you could experience some of the country’s top outdoor adventures.

Japan Airlines says the promotion is designed to provide a “seamless travel experience” across the archipelago.

It could also help to ease overtourism in some of the country’s most popular destinations – such as Mount Fuji, which has had to introduce entry fees and daily visitor caps to reduce crowding.

Earlier this year, surveys from more than 21 million passengers in 100 countries flying with more than 350 airlines named Japan Airlines as one of the best in the world.

How to get free domestic flights with Japan Airlines

The offer means you can get complimentary domestic flights if you book an international flight into the country with the airline. To qualify, both a Japan Airlines international flight and a matching domestic flight must be booked in the same reservation.

A stopover fee applies for passengers from the US, Canada, Mexico and China if they plan to stay in their first destination for more than 24 hours before travelling on.

Currently, the offer is only open to travellers from the US, Canada, Mexico and Thailand. It will open up for visitors from Singapore on 18 September, Australia and New Zealand on 19 September, Vietnam and the Philippines on 25 September and Indonesia, India, China and Taiwan on 27 September.

Japan Airlines also says it plans to expand the list of eligible countries later in September.

The offer also has a generous baggage allowance. If you purchase a Japan Airlines domestic flight fare from outside of Japan, economy class passengers can check in up to two pieces of luggage weighing up to 23 kg.

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.

How do airline reward schemes work?

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 by signing up to a specific airline’s programme, many carriers partner with credit card issuers to offer points on a wide range of travel-related spends.

The majority of reward points are earned through such partnerships, meaning that some airlines earn significantly more through credit card deals than they actually do by operating flights.

It isn’t just airlines who are the winners, though.

The fact that most of those points are earned through credit card programmes means that  travellers don’t have to be frequent flyers to earn points they can leverage for travel.

How were the best rewards programmes selected?

If you spend wisely – and make sure to pay your credit card off in time – the rewards can earn you serious discounts.

As with everything, though, there are downsides and, for ordinary travellers without specific knowledge, it’s often near-impossible to decipher which programme is right for you.

To make things a little simpler, Point.me looked at various criteria, including how easy it is to earn points from non-flying methods – think dining and shopping, package holidays, transfer partners and transfer bonuses.

They also examined the value it’s possible to get for those points, how easy it is to book an award flight and the frequency of award availability.

On a more complex level, there’s flexibility in routing rules to consider – that is if you can book a stopover, for example, as well as change fees and policies – and customer service quality when it comes to booking.

Here’s what they found out.

Which airlines have the best rewards programmes?

Flying Blue, the loyalty programme for Air France and the Dutch flag-carrier KLM, proved that Europe knows what it’s doing when it comes to rewarding customers.

Point.me says the programme has exceptional performance across the board, receiving top marks in nearly every category.

Recently, Flying Blue has made significant adjustments to its loyalty strategy, which has led to good redemption rates and extensive partnerships that make it easy to earn miles – even without ever boarding an Air France or KLM flight – as well as flexible routing rules that make it easy to reach destinations worldwide.

Fairly unusually, customers are able to transfer points from all of the major credit card points currencies to Flying Blue, which makes it relatively easy to amass enough points for a flight even if your spending is spread across loyalty programmes.

Following Flying Blue is Air Canada’s Aeroplan programme.

Revamped in 2020, the Canadian company offers solid availability on partner airlines as well as generous routing rules which make it easier for travellers living in non-hub cities to use its miles.

Points from most of the major credit card programmes can also be transferred to Aeroplan.

Point.me did find that there were a number of challenges with booking some flights online, including long hold times, and slightly less impressive customer service than other programmes.

United MileagePlus, the US-based programme, may have received some negative attention recently for changes that make it less lucrative for very frequent flyers to be loyal to the airline. But Point.me found that the overall structure also makes MileagePlus one of the best for non-loyal or less-frequent travellers.

Points can be transferred from a number of other loyalty programmes and it was found that MileagePlus miles are easy to earn through a host of partner and co-branded credit cards.

Point.me also added that the company has implemented dynamic award pricing in a way that can actually be beneficial to casual travellers – particularly those tied to school schedules and national holidays.

Two more European programmes made the top five

Back in Europe, two UK companies came in joint fourth place – British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

British Airways was praised for the extensive changes to its Executive Club programme in the past year. The expansion of its ‘Reward Flight Saver’ concept to long-haul flights, which allows travellers to redeem points at attractive rates with vastly reduced fees compared to prior versions of the programme, was hailed by Point.me.

As well as offering the ability to transfer points from other programmes, the Executive Club charges separately for each ‘segment’ on an itinerary – with pricing based on the distance of each flight.

Simply put, that means it’s possible to find solid options to and from hub cities. It does fall down, however, on connecting itineraries, especially when combined with hefty carrier-driven surcharges on non-Reward Flight Saver trips.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has similar pros and cons.

It was found to have some of the best economy redemption rates of all programmes Point.me evaluated, as well as a commitment to making seats available for award redemptions on every flight.

While the Club also partners with a wide range of credit card reward programmes, carrier-imposed fuel surcharges are extremely high in premium cabins, which is a black mark against Virgin.

Also, Point.me found that some partner bookings need to be made over the phone – and the Flying Club website doesn’t always make it clear when this is the case.

It was praised, though, for its keenness to offer space on flights that travellers tend to be most interested in – think economy flights from New York to London and back for under 9,000 points per person each way, with availability for entire families or larger groups, as opposed to individual seats only.

Which other European airlines offer the best loyalty programmes?

While Point.me tended to focus on the benefits of the programmes for Americans, it also focussed on a wider variety of companies’ reward schemes within Europe.

As well as the aforementioned Air France / KLM’s Flying Blue, British Airways Executive Club and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Aer Lingus’ AerClub and Finnair Plus rounded up the top five best programmes in Europe.

Up next was Aegean Miles+Bonus, which was praised for offering expanded availability on its own airline.

Scandinavian SAS Eurobonus was found to offer availability on its partner airlines, while Miles & More, by Lufthansa Group, was discovered to have impressive ease of booking.

Iberia Plus and Tap Miles&Go both make it straightforward to redeem points on a flight booking, rounding out the top 10 in Europe.

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles and Air Europa Suma both scored fairly averagely on the global scale but, in Europe, came in 11th and 12th place respectively – meaning they offer a number of perks other companies can’t.